Prefactoring -- If you understand object-oriented design, and you want to save time and money by considering more efficient designs before you begin your project, Prefactoring will show you the way. This practical, thought-provoking guide details prefactoring guidelines in design, code, and testing, derived from lessons learned by many developers over the years. With these guidelines, you'll create more readable code before you reach the second-guessing stage. Sample Chapter 2, The System in So Many Words (PDF), is available free online.

Web Programming Certificate Series Special -- Go from newbie to know-how in six 40-hour courses spanning the client-server spectrum. Upon completion of the series, receive a Certificate of Professional Development from the University of Illinois Office of Continuing Education. Keep your free O'Reilly books for reference and your Learning Lab account as an online portfolio. Pre-enroll in all six courses and receive a $300 instant rebate. Offer expires December 31st.

Dreaming of an Atom Store: A Database for the Web -- What kind of data store makes sense on the Atom Web? In this month's The Restful Web column, Joe Gregorio draws together some disparate threads into a single, exciting idea: the Atom Store.

Build AJAX-Based Web Maps Using ka-Map -- By using AJAX, Google's maps draw and zoom quickly, pan smoothly, and can be extended to display a wide variety of information. Tyler Mitchell shows how to make similar AJAX-based web mapping sites using an open source toolkit called ka-Map. Tyler is the author of Web Mapping Illustrated.

OpenOffice.org XML Essentials--Online -- OpenOffice.org XML Essentials introduces you to the XML that serves as the native internal format of OpenOffice.org, an open source, cross-platform office suite. The book is available online in its entirety under the GNU Free Documentation License. It's a work in progress and comments are welcome. Find the book through O'Reilly's Open Books Project.

Lightweight XML Editing in Word 2003 -- Strictly speaking, you can edit custom XML in Word, but there are limitations that make the process needlessly complex. Evan Lenz presents a lightweight approach to XML editing in Word that works in all editions of Word 2003. All you need besides Word is an XSLT processor. Evan is a coauthor of Office 2003 XML.

Hacking XML -- Among Mike Fitzgerald's favorite XML hacks are two that use SP, James Clark's free, open source, SGML-parser package. The first hack shows how to convert a minimally tagged document to well-formed XML. The second shows how to convert a Wiki format to XML using SGML and SP tools. See why Mike calls these clever, fun, and time-saving hacks. Mike is the author of XML Hacks.

Your O'Reilly Account: New, Single Sign On -- O'Reilly customers and guests now have a single address and one password to access all things O'Reilly, from oreilly.com and Safari Bookshelf to all of the O'Reilly Network sites and DevCenters. When possible, we've consolidated your prior, separate accounts into one new account. Logging into the new system is quick and easy; details on how to do it have been emailed to you, and you can read more about O'Reilly's single sign on in Tony Stubblebine's weblog.

SVG and Typography -- Few things have as much power to make or break a visual work as typography. This xml.com article by Fabio Arciniegas demonstrates good-look and appropriate use of typography within SVG. Learn the ins and outs of SVG from O'Reilly's SVG Essentials.

Safari Gets Bigger and Better -- There are now more than 2,000 books from the industry's leading technical publishers available on Safari Bookshelf. As the library grows, so does its functionality: searches are powerfully precise and as broad or specific as you wish; and now, with a Safari Max subscription, you can download chapters to read offline. Safari will help you save time, reduce errors, keep current, and save more money than ever with up to 35% off print copies of your favorite books. If you haven't yet gone on Safari, try a free trial subscription.

XBRL: The Language of Finance and Accounting -- In the first installment of a new series reviewing industry XML standards, Dale Waldt takes a look at the what, where, who, and how of XBRL, the eXtensible Business Reporting Language. You'll find all of O'Reilly's XML books featured at xml.oreilly.com.

Gastronomy for Geeks -- Pizza, Twinkies, and Jolt are geek haute cuisine for a stereotypical few. Many of you know the difference between au jus and baba ghanoush, and that Thai shish kabob isn't called sauté. So, you Geek Gourmets, come share your favorite recipes, and see what your peers are cooking.

The Ox Documentation Tool -- Michael Fitzgerald details how to get, use, and then extend Ox, an open source command-line documentation tool for people who regularly work at the shell or command-prompt level. Michael is the author of O'Reilly's Learning XSLT.

XForms and Microsoft InfoPath -- Micah Dubinko compares W3C XForms and the data format and processing model underlying Microsoft InfoPath, the data-gathering technology shipping with Microsoft Office 2003. Micah is the author of XForms Essentials.