Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual by David McFarland Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual
Book Review: The Perfect User's Manual
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is clear, with easy to follow descriptions and tutorials. It covers basic and complex web design in an easy to understand format. This is the best user's manual I've ever used.Book Review: Great book, easy to understand
Summary: 5 Stars
I am new to both web design and dreamweaver. I have been reading this book from cover to cover. It is very well written in a logical manner and easy to understand. This is probably one of the best guide books I have ever read. The tutorial files available online really help to enforce concepts. Highly recommended.Book Review: The book you wished you'd found in the box.
Summary: 5 Stars
Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual, is definitely the book you wished you'd found in the box with the installation disk for Adobe Dreamweaver CS3. Weighing in at 995 pages (including a 25 page index), The Missing Manual is the best resource book for learning and using this equally robust web development tool. The book is divided into 26 chapters and two appendices, organized into seven sections. The Table of Contents is quite detailed, listing the chapter headings and sub-heading, making it easy to locate a particular subject. This book is filled from beginning to end with very detailed step-by-step tutorials to help you learn how to use Dreamweaver to accomplish a wide variety of web development tasks. I consider Dreamweaver CS3 The Missing Manual a definite must-have bookshelf reference for anyone who wants to investigate and learn every nook and cranny of this extensive application.
Chapter 1 begins at the beginning and is geared to the new user. There is a tour of the interface followed by a thorough step-by-step `Test Drive' tutorial. Starting with customizing the program preferences, the chapter continues with setting up a site, creating and saving a web page, adding text and images, and previewing your page in a browser. This first chapter touches on a lot of subject matter covered in greater detail in later chapters. Dreamweaver has a wealth of dialogs and wizards to help you create rather sophisticated web documents and they can be just as daunting as writing code. And, there are also extensions (extend the functionality of Dreamweaver), you can install to facilitate productivity. The Missing Manual really holds your hand, leading you through the process of learning to use the Dreamweaver tools. For those who want a little more, there are insets throughout the pages with the titles (in the title bar) of `Workaround Workshop', `Up to Speed', `Power Users' Clinic', `Frequently Asked Questions', `Gem in the Rough', and even `Easter Egg Hunt'.
To really take control of the web document creation process it's important to understand and be able to work with the underlying code. Beginning in Chapter 8: Advanced CSS, the discussion moves to talking about the HTML elements, the building blocks of creating a web page. Terms such as ID and Descendant Selectors enter the tutorial discussion. Why would you care? Well, even when using Dreamweaver as a visual editor and the GUI (graphic user interface) to modify the appearance of say, a list item, you need to know what the
Adobe's Spry Framework for Ajax is mentioned as a technique for creating navigation menus in Chapter 5 and as a method for validating form data in the Chapter that explains how to build forms. Spry is the current hot web technology and you'll find the thorough explanations of Spry and Spry Widgets (an element made up of HTML, CSS and JavaScript), clear and understandable. Even if you don't completely understand the technology, you'll find the step-by-steps easy to follow. There are tutorials for adding Spry Widgets such as an accordion of collapsible panels and creating Spry Effects in the chapter that covers Dreamweaver Behaviors. If you've never been able to figure out how to use Dreamweaver's behaviors, working through the information and tutorials in this chapter will help get you past that obstacle.
While a 995 page tech book is not usually a cover to cover read, you should be sure to refer to Chapter 16: Testing Your Site, before going public with your creation. It's a relatively short chapter with a checklist and the usual info on Dreamweaver tools for checking the site performance and detecting errors on your pages. The next chapter addresses getting your site onto the Internet. Section 5 is about how to really get the most out of using Dreamweaver. The chapters cover the topics of snippets, libraries, templates, automation and customizing the application. Section 6 is titled Dynamic Dreamweaver and has extremely good tutorials on using a variety of server side technologies. You'll even be stepped through setting up a free testing server on your computer, XAMP for Windows and MAMP for MacOSX. The last section contains two appendices. The first gives details about a variety of help resources including the Dreamweaver Help System, the Adobe site, Forums, the DMX Zone, and paid support. The second appendix is a detailing of every Dreamweaver menu.
Book Review: Dreamweaver CSS3
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was an excellent introduction to Dream weaver for a novice like myself.It has easy to follow tutorial and is very user friendly. High recommended.Book Review: 968 pages of help
Summary: 5 Stars
The Missing Manual series sports the tag line "The book that should have been in the box". Generally it's the truth and "Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual" is a shining example of what a tech manual should be.
It's huge: 968 pages, not counting the index.
It is thorough: the table of contents runs 14 pages and you can see that just about every subject a beginning to advanced intermediate website creator is included. (Note that I say website creator and not designer. This is not really a book intended for designers.)
McFarland is an excellent writer for this kind of book. His style is moderately spare. He keeps his sentences concise and direct, which is a boon in this kind of manual. Unlike some tech authors, he does not see himself as a comedian, and doesn't attempt intoducing lame humor.
Website creation isn't a single subject and, if it is covered in detail, it isn't necessarily simple. One needs to understand HTML, XHTML, CSS, HTTP and more. McFarland does an excellent job of introducing the reader to both website creation and Dreamweaver CS3.
Dreamweaver CS3 is a complex environment, which accounts for its being the most used creation tool by web professionals. But McFarland takes the reader by the hand and walks him through virtually every aspect of Dreamweaver CS3. Not every capabilitity is treated in great depth, but that is to be expected.
Overall, this is a fine example of what a technical manual should be. Exhaustive, but readable and highly informative. Its 968 pages may look daunting at the outset, but the reward is in leaving with a thorough explanation of what Dreamweaver CS3 can do - and being able to do it.
Jerry