You’ve heard of it: HTML5. Everybody is using it. It’s being heralded as the savior of the Internet, allowing people to create rich, engaging web pages without resorting to using Flash and Shockwave. But what actually is it? Find out in “Get Started With HTML5?, the latest MakeUseOf manual from Matthew Hughes.

So what is HTML5? Well, that’s not an easy question to answer. HTML5 is used to describe a really diverse group of things. It’s a standard of writing web pages. It’s a collection of APIs. It’s a new way of adding interactivity to web pages.

HTML5 is all that and more. So what’s this book about?

I’m going to assume that you at some point have touched on HTML and CSS. Perhaps you’ve created your own WordPress theme, or edited a MySpace layout back in the day. Perhaps you’ve read MakeUseOf’s very own XHTML guide. The point is, I’m assuming that you know your way around a web page and that what we discuss in this guide won’t be too alien to you.

The aim of this guide is not to teach you the entirety of HTML5. That would be entirely out of the scope of this book. The aim is to provide a gentle introduction to these amazing new web technologies, and to show you some cool ways of incorporating them into your websites.

MakeUseOf staff writer Matthew Hughes will take you through everything you need to know in order to get started with HTML5. You’ll learn about: