First, you need to understand that these are the books on my personal bookshelf, the bookmarks on my "virtual" bookshelf and the software that I use. There is nothing objective about these recommendations - they are my preferrences. Always get a second opinion!!
Prices for books are list but you should be able to get them for less almost anywhere these days. Prices for software are education prices (for teachers and students) that are available from many different vendors (I use Journey Education and Academic Superstore). As to the bookmarks, this site is full of links but these are the sites on web publishing that I read regularly.
Books
The Non-Designer's Web Book, John Tollett and Robin Williams, Peachpit Press, $35
Without a doubt the best book for the beginning web site designer with great suggestions and examples. The emphasis here is squarely on design, not on technology, although the authors do give some excellent background and advice. Robin Williams, not the actor, also did the Little Mac Book and other excellent publications.
Web Design Workshop, David Rohr, John Tollet and Robin Williams, Peachpit Press, $40
An outstanding follow up to the Non-Designer's Web Book. Full of great examples and excellent ideas.
Don't Make Me Think, Steve Krug, Circle.com/Que Publishing, $35
Everyone who wants to publish on the web should read this book! The subtitle of the book is "A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability" but if this is so common, why are there so many sites that are difficult to use?
Real World GoLive 6, Jeff Carlson and Glenn Fleishman, Peachpit Press, $45
If you've looked around this site a little, you know that I use GoLive and really like the program. This book is much better than the manual since the are not afraid to tell you about the little quirks of the software and how to work around them. Sample chapters, updates and supplementary materials can be found on the companion web site.
But no matter what design program you choose, get a guide not written by the company that published the program.
Start With a Scan, Janet Ashford and John Odam, Peachpit Press, $35
The first part of this book deals with the basics of scanning images and that would make an excellent book by itself. But the rest of the book tells you how to scan all sorts of media and then what to do with the scan after that. That makes this an outstanding way to learn the art of image editing for your site.
And avoid any book for "Dummies" or "Complete Idiots"!
Software
GoLive CS (Adobe, $89)
An excellent program that works like a page layout program for the web. If you don't want to build tables, just pull a grid into the page and drop your graphics and text anywhere you like. Almost better than the design features, however, are the site management tools and error checking abilities. You have to really work to produce a broken link in this program!
Dreamweaver MX 2004 (Macromedia, $99)
If I was just starting out with a site development program, I would take a good look at Dreamweaver as well as GoLive. Some web designers I know swear by it and the feature set is very close to GoLive. It is excellent software and in this arena, at least there is competition that keeps both programs at a high level and low cost. Bottom line, however, I still think GoLive has the edge.
Choose one of these design program but DO NOT use FrontPage! That program produces seriously flawed HTML and very often the use of extensions produces a page that is only usable in Microsoft's browser (and sometimes only in version 5 or later). Plus design in Front Page is largely template driven and I believe in building your own templates. Let's hear it for open standards on the web!
While I'm ranting... DO NOT use any print editing program to do your web editing. Not Word, PageMaker, Publisher - none of them produce good layout and code, especially Word. If you're serious about web publishing, get some seriously good tools.
Photoshop Elements 3 (Adobe, $59)
Elements offers the user 80% of the power of the full version of Photoshop at 10% of the price. For
Fireworks MX 2004 (Macromedia, $99)
This program falls in a relatively new category of graphic editors designed specifically for the web. Fireworks allows you to design your page graphically (complete with roll overs and other Java script tricks) and then slice it up for export to HTML.
The full version of Photoshop comes with a similar program called ImageReady. I'm not sure it's better than Fireworks but if you already use Photoshop, it certainly isn't worth paying for and learning another piece of software.
Bookmarks
Web Page Design for Designers
A monthly magazine about the design of building web sites. Get on the mailing list and the site owner will let you know when the new issue is ready.
Creative Pro
While this site is directed at the design professional, the articles, reviews and tutorials here are mostly very accessable for us amateurs. Sign up for their weekly email newsletter for information about new articles.
WebMonkey
This is one of the oldest sites devoted to web design and the people who do it. Even the oldest articles are still useful and relevant.
