Sample chapter: “HTML Building Blocks,” from HTML, XHTML, and CSS, 6th ed., by Elizabeth Castro (August 2006). Discusses writing HTML, HTML tags, attributes, values, quotation marks, upper- and lower-case letters, nesting tags, spacing, tags with automatic line breaks, special symbols, file names and extensions.

Sample chapter: “Semantic Structure, Dirty Pretty Presentation,” from Web Standards Creativity: Innovations in Web Design with XHTML, CSS and DOM Scripting, by Andy Budd, Andy Clarke, Ian Lloyd, Cameron Adams, Rob Weychert, Ethan Marcotte, Dan Rubin, Jeff Croft, Mark Boulton, Simon Collison, and Derek Featherstone (March 2007). Discusses semantic structure.

Sample chapter: “HTML and XHTML Basics,” from HTML and XHTML Step by Step, by Faithe Wempen (February 2006). Discusses how HTML works, XHTML, how cascading style sheets work, and selecting a tool for creating web pages.

Sample chapter: “What’s It All About?” from Sams Teach Yourself HTML in 10 Minutes, 4th ed., by Deidre Hayes. Discusses what the Internet is, what HTML is, what XHTML is, how HTML and XHTML work, using web browsers, and getting connected.

Sample chapter: “Introduction to HTML and XHTML,” from HTML and XHTML: The Complete Reference, by Thomas Powell (August 2003). Discusses a first look at HTML, empty elements, unclosed tags, attributes, basic rules for HTML tags, and common elements found in HTML documents.