Hi, I'm Elizabeth Castro, (though everyone calls me Liz). Welcome to my Web site. I write computer books that start at the beginning without treating you like an idiot. My books use step-by-step instructions and clear, beautiful examples—with lots of pictures of Barcelona—to clearly illustrate how to achieve concrete results, whether it be creating a Web page, formatting that page with CSS, or tweaking the CSS for your Blogger blog. My books are published by Peachpit Press, the leading publisher of web and design books, based in Berkeley, California.
My most popular book is the Sixth Edition of my bestselling guide to creating Web pages. HTML, XHTML, and CSS, Sixth Edition: Visual QuickStart Guide continues the tradition that helped earlier editions sell more than a million copies:
- clear, concise step-by-step instructions,
- a complete treatment of HTML, XHTML, and CSS,
- a modern approach that espouses standards without getting religious,
- information and techniques for cross-platform, cross-browser compatibility,
- and a thorough index that makes the book the most complete and useful reference on the subject that you will find anywhere.
I can hear you saying, “The specs haven't changed. What could be different in this book?" Well, it's true that the specifications for HTML, XHTML, and CSS haven't changed much, but the way people use those specifications has changed. A lot. And the browsers that interpret those specs have also evolved. I have revamped the examples throughout the book to reflect new and updated browsers, the growing emphasis on standards, CSS layout, and also the push toward multimedia and syndication. There are brand new chapters on using CSS for Handhelds and on Syndication and Podcasting as well as added individual sections throughout the book. And it's all in color!
I have just posted the updated table of contents, and will be adding more information about the new Sixth Edition in the coming days and weeks. If you like, you can order the book from Amazon at a 34% discount. I look forward to any comments you may have.
In May, 2005, my guide to using Apple's iPhoto 5 software to organize digital photos and create stunning professionally printed and bound photo books and gorgeous slideshows was published. It's called Creating a Photo Book and Slideshow with iPhoto 5: Visual QuickProject Guide. For a quick peek, you can see an excerpt online.
Earlier in 2005, I published a guide to writing blogs, or online journals. It's called Publishing a Blog with Blogger: Visual QuickProject Guide. It follows in the footsteps of Creating a Web Page with HTML: Visual QuickProject Guide, published in 2004, the lush, four-color, project-oriented beginner's guide to writing standards-based Web pages with XHTML and CSS, which has been garnering rave reviews.
The second edition of my bestselling Perl and CGI for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide, is the perfect guide for folks who want to make their Web pages interactive but who have no previous programming experience.
Perhaps my most challenging book, XML for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide, is a succinct and understandable guide to XML.
If the photos in Liz's books inspire you to travel to Barcelona, you can now rent Liz's apartment there! It's fully furnished with a copy of HTML for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide... (The apartment's web site was an experiment in using Apple's iWeb software, which is graphically appealing, but slow and oblivious to standards.)