Dreamweaver MX: The Missing Manual

Before reading further, one should note that this may be as much a review of Dreamweaver as David McFarland's book. Dreamweaver MX 2004 is probably the most popular program for web-site creation. With Dreamweaver one can create complex web-sites more easily than if one were writing in hypertext markup language (HTML). (My son who does this for a living says he can create sites just as quickly by writing HTML directly, but his old man certainly can't.) But this is not a simple program to use. The slim green volume that accompanies the software merely scratches the surface and it is unlikely that anyone could put together anything more than the most rudimentary site with only the instructions that come in the manual. Instead one needs a book like "Dreamweaver 2004: the Missing Manual" to begin to tap the potential of the program. This book is part of a series by Pogue Press aimed at supplementing software vendors' instructions. McFarland, using straight forward simple language, takes you through the steps to basic competency with the program, using several tutorials that one can download from the publisher's own website. But don't think this will be a simple task. If you are not familiar with HTML you will have to get at least 200 pages into this volume of more than 800 pages to comfortably create a site. But you shouldn't stop there. Even if you skip to only the most essential chapters, you'll want to go back and consider how to integrate your website with programs like Flash and Shockwave. And if you expect to spend any time building or developing websites you'll also want to learn how to use the Dreamweaver power tools like snippets and templates. Advanced users can even learn how to create dynamic web sites tied to databases. The author covers it all. Unfortunately the software is powerful but not very intuitive. As a result, as I used the program to revise my own website, I found myself frequently looking in the book's index to find help. Most of the time I found it easily. And the dirtiest secret of all is that eventually, if you want to build complex websites, you are going to have to learn some HTML. Oh, not a lot of tags, but at least the structure of the language, so you can go into the code and make changes. I found myself occasionally lousing up a page so badly that I couldn't figure out how to use the Dreamweaver design tools and had to go into the program's code view to straighten things out. Of course, this wasn't the author's fault - he gave me everything he could, but it's a complex program. Still I don't see how anyone who's serious about building a website would want to be without Dreamweaver, and how anyone who's not an experienced programmer (and perhaps even some who are) would want to be without this book.

This is one of the few books that I would recommend. It has good content and tutorials that were actually helpful! I purchased the online training from macromedia and it didn't hold a candle to this book. It has many areas that are necessary for the development of a real web site. Dreamweaver MX should purchase this content and put it in the box with the software!There are 24 chapters that focused on the feature sets of the software. There is even an appendix with useful links.Thanks David for taking the time to write a useful, easy to use book.

There are really two types of people in this world. Those that WANT to read a user's manual cover to cover prior to tackling something new (and do so). And those that want to learn by doing and not spend hours reading how to learn. I, uh, have a laptop with a luscious fruit emblem sitting on a titanium casing-needless to say I fall into the latter category by nature.I feel comfortable knowing my way around design programs (Illustrator, Photoshop, Streamline), but NEVER touch code. I knew the basic ideas of HTML (tags, headlines, body, title, line breaks) but not much more before purchasing this book.After only a few hours reading the first 140 pages (easy reading), and following the tutorials (very clear and concise), I started developing my desired website. Within a few hours I had the semblance of the components all functioning in a "Preview in Browser" mode. And I'd say 70% of that time was actually designing and saving the files for each nav button, graphic box, and typing the text.As many other reviews state, this book clearly explains the benefits as well as limitations of web design in general and to Dreamweaver specifically. There are plenty of references to Dreamweaver 4 for those who are upgrading. There are plenty of basic explanations of HTML, how to best utilize Dreamweaver AND HTML, and the perspective of end use (designing a cool web page) is never forgotten in this book.McFarland and Progue hit the mark in almost every way with their organizational style, intuitive writing, simplistic tutorials, informative Figures and "Workaround Workshops", and understanding of HOW people want to USE an application like Dreamweaver MX. From building a site, to using dynamic pages with forms, to frames, to tables, to uploading your site, to Flash, to Customizing Dreamweaver and hotkeys; it's pretty much all covered.A nearly 800 page book intimidate you? Don't worry, many sections are not applicable to a basic website. I feel confident that I can continue to add new features and redevelop my site using only this one book in the future. ...

Never done a site before and I purchased Dreamweaver MX hearing that it was the way to go but maybe a little complicated for someone new to building sites. Well, after several evenings with Dreamweaver going through all the tutorials I thought I had gotten in over my head. I figured I'd give it one more shot after getting a manual. This book made all the difference. The problem wasn't that the software was too complicated, the problem was the lack of clear documentation. This book clarified all the confusions I had and with a few more hours I was able to get a nice site up and running. It's really a crime the manufacturers don't include real manuals any more. Because of this book, I now think Dreamweaver is the greatest (with the exception of their decision not to include a real manual in the first place).Worth every penny.

Dreamweaver MX: The Missing Manual is hands-down the best tutorial and reference available on this complex, deep program. Dreamweaver 4: The Missing Manual was already an excellent book, but Dreamweaver MX: The Missing Manual improves upon it in almost every way.McFarland has almost doubled the amount of content in this book while maintaining his clear, accessible style. The presentation is clear and easy to read, but there is great depth here (the tips on database integration alone are worth the price of admission). It's one of the few computer books I've seen that I'd feel comfortable recommending to absolute beginners as well as seasoned experts.Great job, and well worthy of the O'Reilly mark.