Dreamweaver 4 Hands-On Training [With CDROM]

I enrolled in a Dreamweaver HTML editor class and this was our text book--most people in the class were able to work thru about the first 15 chapters in 3 days--everything is so well explained and if you follow it step by step you'll have that instant gratification all computer junkies crave! I would highly recommend this book to anyone--I am a visual learner and this is so well laid out it will teach you Dreamweaver in a snap...We all love Lynda! I can't wait to get the Photoshop Hands on Training Book I just ordered...

In my humble opinion, a well-written book is tantamount to a good teacher. And they are rare! This book surpasses many 3-day seminars that I have attended on other programs for a lot more money. I purchased Dreamweaver version 3 when it was released, and dug into the accompanying manual and exercises. I got absolutely nowhere and concluded that I just must think differently than the designers of the program. I ran off to Adobe Go Live, and Netobjects, but still knew that Dreamweaver was the one to master. This time around, after purchasing the version 4 update, I came here to see what people had written and chose this book. This book - and only this book - completely swung me around. I have read every word in it and have 3 empty highliters to prove it. The exercises and the explanation of same are concise and have a way of sticking in your brain when you return to the program. The chapters are broken down logically, and are not so long to where you can't complete them and find yourself looking forward to the next one (in my case, the following day). I have never written any opinion on any book or program, but in this case, I felt compelled to take the time to let others know that this book is an absolute must. If Macromedia wanted to increase their marketshare, they would include a copy (hard bound) with every program. Thanks Lynda and Garo.

This book is really good for new users of Dreamweaver. I have hand-coded HTML for a couple years, and have used (that other web design program ... shudder), Frontpage, too. I liked Frontpage for it's server extensions, and how easy the program made some kinds of tasks, but of course Dreamweaver is the Cadillac to the Frontpage Pinto.Anyway, Lynda's book is great! I started with no knowledge of Dreamweaver and ended with a feeling of confidence enough to explore the function of the program on my own, but also a sense that I knew enough about Dreamweaver to really design web pages with it. If you do buy this book, don't skip any chapters. The page after page of hands-on exercises this book contains will guide you comfortably through material that out of another book would fill you with insecurity. Really, the "Dreamweaver 4 Hand On Training" book makes learning the intimidating comfortable. I've coded HTML and designed webpages from scratch for years. I have no belief in the whining complaint that "stuff for newbies" is not what you should find in an introductory book. A "newbie" is some kind of less-than-equal to a normal person, I guess. But if your only problem is that you don't have a lot of trust in your ability to get yourself through learning Dreamweaver 4 at top speed while you're using Dreamweaver 4 to design websites for real clients ... then buy Lynda's book. And if you fear being associated with newbies, and you have lots of patience, then why don't you buy the "Dreamweaver 4 Ultra-reference" and learn the basics of Dreamweaver from a 1000 page tome with all the reference information you'll ever need.I can't recommend Lynda's book more highly. Buy "H.O.T. Dreamweaver 4" to learn Dreamweaver 4 effectively. Do it for yourself, and ignore any threatening feelings of "newbieness".

Outstanding... You can tell the authors of this book are teachers and not just writers. This is evident in the step-by-step, clear and concise instruction they give us on how to accomplish each objective in the book. I'm a software instructor at a business school in PA. I teach ages from 18 to 78 in my classes. I know so well that people just don't "get it" if they can't follow along and work the problems with the instructor. There is a place out there for reference books, you know the ones... they regurgitate all the information that comes with the user manual for the software, but I don't find these very helpful when learning a new program. This is defiantly not one of those books. The authors don't hedge on the advanced stuff either. There are a few chapters near the end of the book that require some conceptual thinking (working with timelines comes to mind), but here again, the reader is in good hands all the way. And for those really difficult concepts there are Quick Time movies that demonstrate exactly how it's supposed to be done. There are aprox. 630 pages of instruction in the book, and I chewed it all up in a couple days. Do I remember everything I read? Heck no! But I understand what I read, and now I can go back and start applying the lessons to my own website. Even if I don't remember each step exactly, I comprehend the concepts and can always use the book to look the steps up again if I need to. Oh, and by the way... I just read another person's review of the Dreamweaver 4 Bible. The reviewer observed that the author of that book, while very long on explanations of HOW to do things, was very short on suggestions on WHEN to do things. This is one of the things I appreciated most about Garo and Weinman's teaching style. They are always quick to point out the pros and cons of nearly everything (Using frames for instance). They tell you when something will work in IE but not in Netscape. They tell you when some DW4 feature is not supported in an earlier version of either browser... and then give their opinion on whether or not it's worth putting in your website. I find this to be extremely helpful. I am brand new to DW (although I have about a zillion hours in working with FrontPage 2000), so I can't speak to those of you who are wondering if the advanced topics are meaty enough for you, but for you beginners out there here are some words of advice: Buy this book. You will take weeks off your learning curve if you just start here and ignore all the other books on the shelf clamoring for your money. My only regret is that there is not a serious advanced DW4 HOT book.

If you can only buy 1 book to learn Dreamweaver 4; then this is the book. I wrote a review for her Dreamweaver 3 book and had teachers and professors from all over the United States e-mailing me about the book. And I know of at least one college and one high school that are now using it as a textbook. I have used a lot of books to teach myself different software programs and this one far surpasses any of them. Sorry to all of the other publishers out there. Lynda Weinman just has a knack for teaching that is grade A. I have used her books and CD's for training and they all get the job done; teaching you how to use the software. P.S. If you ever get the chance to go to one of her seminars; GO it is well worth the money.