XHTML is a flexible XML-based markup language for designing Web sites. In January 2000, the W3C announced that it was supporting the development of XHTML as a replacement to HTML. HTML will continue to be around for a while, but if you want to develop Web sites for the future you need to switch to XHTML. Designers who make the change find that they can develop faster, better sites using XHTML.

Most Web sites are interactive, responding to the viewer. To do this you need to use a scripting language - JavaScript is the most popular scripting language and interfaces easily with XHTML. To develop powerful interactive Web sites you need to understand these technologies and how they work together.

Essential XHTML fast gives you everything you need to develop great Web sites in XHTML, including an introduction to scripting with JavaScript so that you can create dynamic interactive Web pages. There are many step-by-step examples, which you can download from the series Web site.

It covers key aspects such as:
- The relationship between XML and XHTML
- Cascading Style sheets for formatting layout
- Using text, images and image maps as links
- Creating and using tables
- The new standard for frames
- Interactive XHTML forms
- The JavaScript language
- Incorporating JavaScript into XHTML pages
- Handling events in JavaScript

The source code for the examples in this book is available at the Essential series web site http://www.essential-series.com