有时，使复杂主题易于(subject easy)理解的最佳方法是使用漫画书格式（任何看过拉里·戈尼克（ Larry Gonick）令人惊叹的“卡通历史(cartoon history)”系列的人都可以证明这一点）。当艺术家将它们以文字形式呈现在纸上时，它们看起来非常枯燥和混乱，而当艺术家将它们放入图片中时，它们看起来会更具吸引力。由于我还没有掌握编写HTML 代码，所以我对(HTML code)Build Your Own Website: A Comic Guide to HTML, CSS and WordPress寄予厚望。我(Did)得到了我所希望的吗？请仔细阅读，找出答案。
漫画可以教你编码吗？
建立你自己的网站：HTML、CSS 和 WordPress 漫画指南(Build Your Own Website: A Comic Guide to HTML, CSS and WordPress)并不是它的标题所承诺的。漫画书部分作为对部分的介绍，这些部分以简单的文本(straightforward text)解释相同的事情，与其他“学习创建网页”说明指南没有太大区别。
漫画书部分是……(part is…)好吧，如果你是漫画书和图画小说的长期读者(time reader)（就像我一样），你会发现插图画得相当粗糙。这里没有超级英雄，只有Kim(Kim)、她的狗Tofu和其他试图向(Tofu)Kim展示编码的来龙去脉的各种角色的冒险经历。
Kim的故事始于她尝试编写HTML 代码(HTML code)，以及她发现如果编写不正确可能会发生的许多事情。
一旦插图故事让Kim完成了整理她的第一页、创建索引文件(index file)、正确链接所有图像、检查她的工作并再次杀死 404 龙的学习过程，这本书切换到 11 页的解释（在相当小的类型）她所做的事情。印刷版的解释详细介绍了该过程，我认为对于大多数人来说，这是他们可以找到最有用信息的地方。那么，漫画可以教你编码吗？并不真地。但对于那些通过图像更好地学习事物的人来说，这可能是一个有用的网页创建介绍。(page creation)
在样式表上
下一节将讨论CSS或级联样式表的创建，介绍一个新的大师并开始类似于绿野仙踪(Wizard)的模仿(Oz parody)。
CSS创作(CSS creation)是一个复杂的话题，不管它是如何解释的，所以漫画书的解释更长，并且在(topic regardless)HTML guru和CSS guru之间存在持续的争吵，我想这是为了展示两者是如何联系起来的，但似乎在很短的时间后从说明中腾出空间。
当然，漫画书后面的纯文本解释也更长，更详细，信息也很密集。
这本书鼓励创建一个测试HTML 文档(HTML document)来练习使用它所教的内容，并且最重要的是向新手展示事情是如何工作的，它们是如何出错的以及如何修复它们。尤其是使用CSS时，按照说明的方式处理(CSS)测试文档(test document)，按照文本进行操作非常重要。印刷版的解释比漫画书部分更详细，应该使测试文档(test document)更容易处理。
WordPress的向导
绿野仙踪(Wizard)的模仿继续在专门介绍 WordPress 的部分(Oz parody)中(WordPress)。Kim发现，在使用WordPress时，她在前几节中花费大量时间学习的所有HTML 和 CSS(HTML and CSS)技能根本不需要。（可怜的金(Poor Kim)。）🙂
Kim 和 Tofu(Kim and Tofu)在WordPress City中工作，学习如何创建WordPress 网站(WordPress site)。这本书对WordPress(WordPress)的热情是可以理解的，因为它使页面创建变得容易，并且不需要特殊的编码技能。然而，直到漫画部分完成并且文本部分(text section)开始，我们才发现作者希望读者拥有一个自托管的WordPress 域(WordPress domain)（也就是他们自己的网站），因为wordpress.com 网站(wordpress.com site)只使用了一小部分完整的WordPress。这可能是一个粗鲁的惊喜。（但请继续关注，最后一节中包含帮助。）
但是，如果读者拥有或可以设置个人网站(web site)，那么解释WordPress的(WordPress)文本部分(text section)组织得很好，并且充满了有用的插图，这将使创建WordPress页面变得非常容易。（近年来， WordPress的创建者提供了很多帮助，与域名托管服务商合作提供一键式安装，而不是过去几年使用的“自己下载、解包和 ftp”过程。）
在下一个漫画书部分(comic-book section)，Kim将学习如何使用仪表板中的外观页面(Appearance page)、插件和WordPress主题来个性化她的WordPress 网站。(WordPress site)有很多可用的选项，漫画书部分(comic-book section)将引导Kim浏览它们，甚至还有一个惊喜的结局，因为她发现WordPress City比她被告知的要多。再一次，文本部分(text section)详细介绍了定制过程(customization process)，因此大多数人都可以轻松理解它是如何工作的。
金和豆腐放在一起
如果读者还没有自己的网站怎么办？最后一部分，The Big Launch ，提供了很多关于选择网络主机(web host)的好建议（漫画书和文字(comic-book and text)） （包括期望为主机服务付费，而不是仅仅选择你看到的第一个免费服务，这是很好的建议）。它还解释了使用 ftp 为任何类型的网站(web site)上传必要文件的过程，包括对FileZilla的推荐，这是一个出色的免费ftp 客户端(ftp client)。
在构建您自己的网站：HTML、CSS 和 WordPress 漫画指南(Build Your Own Website: A Comic Guide to HTML, CSS and WordPress)结束时，读者手头应该有大量有用的信息，可用作创建几乎任何类型网站(web site)的指南。
最后的想法
我发现这本书读起来很容易，而且组织得很好，经过深思熟虑。但是，希望它是 100% 漫画书格式的人会感到失望（并不是说这是一件坏事，我赶紧补充一下，因为纯文本部分中的信息更加详细且易于阅读以供将来参考）。
尽管标题如此，Kim穿越代码之(Code)地(Land)的旅程确实将她带到了WordPress 城(WordPress City)，在那里她花费大量时间学习的代码是(time learning)WordPress 软件包(WordPress package)复杂的页面创建过程(page creation process)的次要内容。由于WordPress的创建者一直在添加新功能并改进当前的阵容，插图可能与当前版本的WordPress外观不符，但创建WordPress网站的基础知识保持不变。
判决
每个人都以不同的方式学得最好，所以我不能对建立自己的网站：HTML、CSS 和 WordPress 的漫画指南一概(Build Your Own Website: A Comic Guide to HTML, CSS and WordPress)推荐(blanket recommendation)。我可以说作者在这本指南中付出了很多思考和努力，所以如果你的学习风格(learning style)适合他们教授这些复杂学科的方式，这本书将是你参考图书馆(reference library)的宝贵补充。从有良好退货政策(return policy)的书商那里购买，然后试一试！
Book Review: Build Your Own Website: A Comic Guide To HTML, CSS And Wordpress
Sometіmes the best way to make a complex subject easy to understand іѕ to uѕe a comic-bоok format (as anyone who's ever sеen one of Larry Gonick's amazing "cartoon history" series can testify). Things that look awfully dry and confυsing when they're put forth as words on paper can look much more appealing when an artist has put them into pictυres. Ѕinсe I still haven't mastered writing HTML code, I had hіgh hopes for Build Your Own Website: A Comic Guide to HTML, CSS and WordPress. Did I get what I hoped for? Read on to find out.
Can A Comic Teach You Code?
Build Your Own Website: A Comic Guide to HTML, CSS and WordPress isn't quite what its title promises. The comic-book sections serve as an introduction to sections that explain the same things in straightforward text that isn't much different from other "learn to create web pages" instruction guides.
The comic-book part is… well, if you're a long time reader of comic books and graphic novels (as I am) you'll find the illustrations rather crudely drawn. No superheroes here, just the adventures of Kim, her dog Tofu, and assorted other characters who try to show Kim the ins and outs of coding.
Kim's story starts out with her attempts to write HTML code, and her discovery of the many things that can happen if you don't write it correctly.
Once the illustrated story takes Kim through the learning process of putting together her first page, creating its index file, linking all the images properly, checking her work and slaying the 404 dragon yet again, the book switches to an 11-page explanation (in fairly small type) of what it was that she did. The printed explanation goes into a lot more detail about the process, and I think for most people, this is where they'll find the most useful information. So, can a comic teach you code? Not really. But it could be a helpful introduction to web page creation for people who learn things better with images.
On To The Style Sheets
The next section tackles the creation of CSS, or cascading style sheets, introducing a new guru and heading off into something resembling a Wizard of Oz parody.
CSS creation is a complex topic regardless of how it's explained, so the comic-book explanation is longer and features an ongoing quarrel between the HTML guru and the CSS guru, which I guess was intended to show how the two are linked, but it seemed to take space away from the instructions after a very short time.
And of course the plain-text explanation that follows the comic book is also longer and more detailed and very dense with information.
The book encourages the creation of a test HTML document to practice using what it's teaching, and that more than anything will show newcomers how things work, how they go wrong and how they can be fixed. Especially with CSS, it's important to follow along in the text by working on the test document the way it's explained. The printed explanation lays things out in a lot more detail than the comic-book section did, and should make the test document easier to work on.
The Wizard Of WordPress
The Wizard of Oz parody continues in the section devoted to WordPress. Kim finds out that all the HTML and CSS skills she's spent so much time learning in the previous sections aren't necessary at all when she uses WordPress. (Poor Kim.) 🙂
Kim and Tofu work their way through WordPress City, learning how to create a WordPress site. The book is understandably enthusiastic about WordPress, because it makes page creation easy and no special coding skills are required. However, it's not till the comic section is finished and the text section begins that we find out that the authors expect the readers to have a self-hosted WordPress domain (aka their own website) because the wordpress.com site only uses a small subset of the full WordPress. That might come as a rude surprise. (But stay tuned, there is help included in the final section.)
However, if the reader has, or can set up, a personal web site, the text section that explains WordPress is well organized and full of helpful illustrations that should make creating WordPress pages very easy. (The creators of WordPress have helped a lot in recent years, partnering with domain hosts to offer one-click installation rather than the "download, unpack, and ftp it yourself" process used in years gone by.)
In the next comic-book section, Kim learns how to personalize her WordPress site using the Appearance page in the dashboard, plugins, and WordPress themes. There are a lot of options available and the comic-book section walks Kim through them, and there's even a surprise ending as she finds out that there's more to WordPress City than she's been told. Once again, the text section goes into a lot of detail and explains the customization process so most people can easily understand how it all works.
Kim And Tofu Put It Together
What if the reader doesn't have his or her own web site already? The final section, The Big Launch, offers plenty of good advice (both comic-book and text) about choosing a web host (including expecting to pay for a hosting service rather than just picking the first free one you see, which is excellent advice). It also explains the process of using ftp to upload the necessary files for any kind of web site, including a recommendation for FileZilla, an excellent free ftp client.
By the end of Build Your Own Website: A Comic Guide to HTML, CSS and WordPress, the reader should have plenty of useful information on hand to use as a guide to the creation of almost any kind of web site.
Final Thoughts
I found this book easy to read, and it was well organized and well thought out. People who expect it to be 100% comic-book format, though, are going to be disappointed (not that this is a bad thing, I hasten to add, because the information in the plain-text sections is much more detailed and easy to turn to for future reference).
Despite the title, Kim's journey through the Land of Code really leads her to WordPress City, where the code she spent so much time learning is secondary to the WordPress package's sophisticated page creation process. Since the creators of WordPress are always adding new features and improving the current lineup, the illustrations likely will not match what the current version of WordPress looks like, but the basics of creating WordPress sites remain the same.
Verdict
Each person learns best in different ways, so I can't make a blanket recommendation for Build Your Own Website: A Comic Guide to HTML, CSS and WordPress. I can say that the authors put a lot of thought and a lot of work into the guide, so if your learning style fits the way they've taught these complex subjects, this book will be a valuable addition to your reference library. Buy it from a bookseller who has a good return policy, and give it a whirl!
