An openings book for beginners?

I have a few beginner's books with the first few moves of common openings, and a Dover reprint of the 1935 'How to play the chess openings' by Znosko-Borovsky. The latter is close to what I want, as it has:
1. The first few moves that define an opening,
2. a general discussion of continuation strategies and advantages for White and Black, and
3. some discussion of poor continuations and traps.

However the book has limitations today:
It is not in algebraic notation, has few illustrations (virtually none of the first few moves) some important openings get only casual mentions or are missing, the table of contents is poor and there is no index. You must know the (old) name of an unfamiliar opening to find it, which brings us to my fourth requirement:

4. A book should have a page index based on a series of moves.

I'm too poor (cheap) to buy a bunch of Encyclopedias, and too inexperienced to get much out of books dedicated to one opening.

Any ideas for a single guide to openings?

Thanks,
paper

Originally posted by paper
I have a few beginner's books with the first few moves of common openings, and a Dover reprint of the 1935 'How to play the chess openings' by Znosko-Borovsky. The latter is close to what I want, as it has:
1. The first few moves that define an opening,
2. a general discussion of continuation strategies and advantages for White and Black, and
3. some dis ...[text shortened]... f books dedicated to one opening.

Any ideas for a single guide to openings?

Thanks,
paper

Originally posted by bbarr
Check out the two volume set 'Basic Chess Openings' and 'More Basic Chess Openings', published as part of the exceptional Everyman series. The first book covers all the 1. e4 openings and the latter covers major alternatives. You'll find the structure of these books organized to your liking.

Originally posted by paper

Any ideas for a single guide to openings?

Originally posted by bbarr
Check out the two volume set 'Basic Chess Openings' and 'More Basic Chess Openings', published as part of the exceptional Everyman series. The first book covers all the 1. e4 openings and the latter covers major alternatives. You'll find the structure of these books organized to your liking.

Originally posted by bbarr
Check out the two volume set 'Basic Chess Openings' and 'More Basic Chess Openings', published as part of the exceptional Everyman series. The first book covers all the 1. e4 openings and the latter covers major alternatives. You'll find the structure of these books organized to your liking.