Dreamweaver MX 2004 [With CDROM]

I was a FrontPage 2003 web designer when I started using Dreamweaver at my job, and needed help in getting into the interface. I worked my way through the tutorials that Macromedia supplies, which were excellent, but which left me with a lot of unanswered questions. This book has helped me answer them. There is a lot of information in this book, and it is well layed out. I always seem to be able to find what I am looking for. I especially appreciated the chapters on database design and web application development, which gave me a good intro into how Dreamweaver approaches this subject. While not in depth, I am a beginner with this product and do not yet need an in depth multi-volumn discussion of arcane technical details. That can come later. In the meantime, this book has helped me sort things out. Dreamweaver is not just a page layout tool. It has a lot of functionality built in, including application development and database connectivity tools that are not obvious on the surface. For now, this book has given me the jump start I needed to become productive quickly, understand the nature of the tasks that Dreamweaver can perform, and get my job done. Web application design and development is definitely a multi-technology enviromnent. No one book ever contains all the information needed to perform such complex tasks. This book has helped me understand the pros and cons of various technologies, and pointed me in the right direction on how to use the ones available in my work environment. I can always find more detailed information elsewhere on any specific technology when I need it. For now, this book has given me the entry level overview I needed and has continued to be a useful reference as I become more proficient with Dreamweaver.

The book keeps mentioning code to be found on the CD but the CD does not have most of the examples. Only 11 out of 36 chapters have sample code and usually just one example even when a chapter covers mutliple examples. The Osborne web site has no errata page nor download page to correct this. This book came out in December 2003 and by July 2004 it was already being sold by bookstores specializing in discontinued books. It is not "complete" as it frankly admits that it will not be covering any server-side code to handle forms, email, threaded discussions etc. Lots of little errors such as stating that absolute positioning will place a layer exactly inside any container. This is what relative positioning does. It also has chapters on HomeSite, PHP, Contribute and e-Commerce, which while interesting, are not really part of Dreamweaver. If you bought Dreamweaver MX STUDIO 2004, you need a different book. It is "complete" in what it covers but does not cover the "complete" Dreamweaver. J. Leonard - Woodinville