Back in March of 2003, Nick Finck and I stunned the Web design world at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin. How? Well, despite a late night spent chowing down fish tacos and swilling Shiner bock, we actually managed to show up early Sunday morning to deliver our presentation.

Special Edition Using HTML & XHTML is a comprehensive Web publishing reference, providing practical solutions to real-world Web development problems. Author Molly Holzschlag starts by explaining how XHTML differs from HTML and why it's necessary, but quickly moves beyond a mere comparison of the differences. The reader learns which tools are best, how to code HTML & XHTML, and the basic principles of Web publishing and graphic design. The book also shows how to integrate graphics, stylesheets, frames and multimedia into XHTML Web pages. Later chapters cover XHTML's relationship to XML and creating content for alternative devices including pagers, cell phones, and hand held devices.

The other day at the local library, I was standing next to a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary, as I am wont to do, sneaking drags off unfiltered Gitanes and trying simultaneously to look pained, intriguing, and authoritative. Another presumed lover of language, also standing next to the dictionary, suddenly turned and asked me to define a word for him. The word itself is not important. Puzzled and flustered — nay, incredulous — I replied, "Why don't you look it up? You're standing right next to a dictionary!"

XML looks to be a big advancement over HTML. As St. Laurent writes, "Using XML requires a different focus, demanding that designers examine the way that their documents are built rather than the way they are formatted." Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 already offers some support for XML, and Netscape 5.0 will support XML. This book is geared to the HTML developer who wants to move to the next level of web design and not wait for Microsoft or Netscape to develop the tags and style support they need. A primer rather than a complete guide to XML, this is a great starting point.