Dreamweaver? 4 Weekend Crash Course

This book is great! The Crash Course format is perfect for busy professionals that really want to learn a new skill but just can't bring themselves to read a 20lb book from cover to cover, somewhere at page 5 I always feel that there is no end in site and I will be reading the same book forever. This is not the case with "Dreamweaver MX Weekend Crash Course" The Chapters (sessions) are the perfect length. I hope that miss Peck is given the chance to update this book with the new release of Dreamweaver 8. Her work is excellent! I completed the book using both MX and MX 2004. I did not have any trouble with the new version and the older book. The text is written in such a way that the concepts and a confidant usability of the software is the outcome of reading this book, not a fascination with short cut keys or only learning one way to accomplish tasks. Thanks to the Author and the Publisher!

This is only the second tutorial that I've given 5 stars. Every time I thought I caught the author at an error, I found it the error was either mine or Dreamweaver's (a couple of times, I needed to restart the program to get results). The CD and instructions were perfectly in sync. And the book was well-organized and well-written. (I caught no typos or grammatical errors.)I wish the CD ROM contained the exercises at various stages of completion for those couple of times when things went radically wrong due to my misstep. As I knew the error was mine and that I really didn't need to re-do my work to understand the exercise, I would have appreciated the ability to pick up with a perfectly correct page so I could take it from there.It took me more than 15 hours to get through the exercises. I'm sure with a little more concentration and a lot more motivation, I could've completed the book in a weekend. Instead, I took my time.Don't pass up this book if you're trying to learn how to use Dreamweaver and are reluctant to buy this one because it's one of the first Dreamweaver MX tutorials out. It's a good book for a newbie to the program and I wouldn't waste my time waiting for the publishing of other books.

This is the first Wendy Peck book that I have read. Her style is easy to follow and the book is generously spiced with hands-on tutorials. I recently switched to DMX and found her book helpful and effective in doing just as advertised. My only "complaint" is that she piqued my interest so many times, I kept getting distracted, only to find myself delving deeper into DMX's many features and capabilities. Needless to say, I certainly did not manage to finish in the allotted 15 hours! I sure wish some of the more advanced tutorials were as effectively written and stayed on-topic as well as this one did. A small but very helpful feature was her including a PDF version of the book on the CD. How much more comfortable it was not to have to juggle a book while working! This feature should be a STANDARD. I'm spoiled now. Well done, Wendy! Thanks!

I gave this book 5 stars in spite of the typographical and CD errors because this is the best teaching book I've seen. Corrected CD files are available at the author's web site and the typographical errors, although regrettable, are not huge stumbling blocks.The surface problems do not hide this book's well-planned and well-written core. I teach Dreamweaver classes and was looking for a book to use for a new 5-day class. The Macromedia Authorized book still had not exited the publisher and we had sign-ups for our new class. I finally found this book and my company bought copies for all the students. The first session of the new class ended last Friday and the students were extremely happy with what they had learned.The fact that I was able to use a book advertised as a 15-hour weekend course for five 6-hour sessions shows that there is more here than can practically be covered in one weekend. But it's also due to the fact that more average computer users are starting to use DW and they need a slower pace to absorb the material. This book is perfect for that profile as well as web professionals looking to learn a new program.A huge amount of information is covered through orderly step-by-step exercises. The author conveys a feeling of excitement at all the cool things that DW can do. I really like the personal, conversational style written by someone who uses the program professionally. She also makes the reader step into the HTML code, which I also believe is necessary to use any web-related program successfully.For some reason, web authors seem to shy away from giving specific instructions on how to use CGI scripts. But this author dives in and tells us exactly what we must do to use a popular mail script, telling us where to go to download it, what changes to make in the script, and what to do with the form we've created in DW. She also gives step-by-step instructions on embedding sound/music. This is simpler in DW than one might imagine and the author takes away the mystery with a few short paragraphs.Finally, even though I thought I knew DW well, using this book taught me some new tricks. I hope this author continues to produce a book with each new DW version.

There are errors on the CD but by contacting the publisher I found the corrections at the author's site (wpeck.com). The format is great and it is just packed with tips and extra information. I have other Dreamweaver and Web design books, many of them that were over twice the price of this one. There is information in every chapter that I have never seen before. Excellent book.