The World Wide Web,
Complete Reference

If you’re new to the Internet and the World Wide Web, this book will take you by the hand and get you started from the beginning. If you’re an old pro with the Internet and want to learn about creating your own Web site, this book will teach you how to do it.

 Rick Stout, the author is a CPA and an experienced writer of the Internet. He co-authored Osbornes’s best-selling, Internet Yellow Pages and The Internet Complete Reference’ He's written several books, including The Peter Norton Introduction To Computers.

 Its Osborne’s trademark to carry a skill Level Guide on the right corner of the back cover. This book is rated for every user. It’s a formal book written in an informal manner that intrigues the reader and encourages learning. It is well laid out with an excellent index and large print which I like. It contains 593 pages of text in 19 chapters broken into three parts including a catalog (A Guide of Businesses on the Web).

Part 1, (chapters 1-5), Getting Started with the Web, begins with an explanation of what the Internet is, where it came from, and what you need to get connected. It covers turnkey commercial software packages and the on-line services of America OnLine, CompuServe, Prodigy and talks about the build-in dial-up networking capabilities in Windows 95. It also contains coverage of two Web Browsers, Mosaic and Netscape. It instructs us how to install and configure a browser. General concepts are emphasized rather than specific ones.

 Part 2, (chapters 6-13), Creating Web Pages, starts by stating, ’It isn’t often that a new idea takes off like a wildfire in a dry wheat field. But that is exactly what has happened with the Web.’ No question about that and anticipate the majority of us will be on the Internet by the end of next year. This section focuses on creating Web pages and theories and philosophies that will guide us in creating good pages. It discusses the phenomenon of home pages which allows us visibility to all types of information at different sites in a high-speed manner, and the commercial advantages for businesses using the Web. There is extensive coverage including HTML( the Web language), linking to Internet mail system, local pages, FTP, Gopher, Usenet News Servers, etc, color, pictures & sound, hypertext and much more. This part is loaded with very useful information in a detailed manner.

Part 3, (chapters 14-19), Advanced Web Topics explains tools for authoring HTML pages, finding a Home for your pages, networking with the Internet, high-speed connecting to the Internet, Web servers, and doing business on the Web. There is a eparate catalog of over 450 businesses on the Web.

 Part 4, includes Appendix A, Nine tables of HTML codes and Appendix B which provides over 125 Internet addresses where you can obtain free Web software and information. The information applies to varies platforms such as DOS, UNIX, MAC, WINDOWS, VMS, ETC.

 This book is written in a free flowing style and provides in-depth material. It is very easy to track subjects by referring to it’s page of contents or index. My only criticism is that I would have liked them to address the Netscape Browser in more detail. After all it’s being used by over 80% of the Web users and growing. I recommend the purchase this book to all computer users, because as a Web newbie I can see the value it is to us as well as experienced users. This is a must-have reference book for Internet users.