The author’s earlier book, The scholar’s personal computing handbook: a practical guide [1], provided a great deal of useful information. That led me to expect the same of this book, and my expectations were met.

The book opens with a brief introduction to the Internet. It rapidly moves on to discussing hypertext, then the World Wide Web. The author is not mesmerized by the Web, and discusses the pros and cons of using it to convey or collect information.

The nuts and bolts of constructing an HTML document are thoroughly described and illustrated. Multimedia aspects are covered, including audio and video. Adobe Acrobat warrants an entire chapter.

The book concludes with a discussion of three important issues: security, copyright, and standardization. The few quibbles I have involve occasional jumping ahead (as is typical in hypertext) without providing the relevant background, and providing inconsistent information (such as recommending avoiding H1 headings, but then telling the reader not to use heading codes that are not preceded by a higher code).

Quibbles aside, this is a useful and informative book. It includes a CD-ROM holding clip art, sound files, and a variety of Web-related software. The best of the group is HotDog, an HTML editor.