Dynamic Learning: Dreamweaver Cs3 [With Dvdrom]

As someone who is relatively new to Adobe CS3, I found this book easy to use and a great help. Happy to recommend it to anyone who wants to learn Dreamweaver CS3.

This is a good book for beginners trying to get started with Dreamweaver CS3. I teach DW courses and have used this and the Lynda.com HOTS book both with success, but this book gives a more logical progression through the material. I notice the 1-star reviews both mention frustration with the missing/misnamed files on the disk - be sure to download the missing files from the O'Reilly web site. (examples.[...])

Not fully understanding what I was getting into I offered to support a web site for a non profit organization that did not have the funds to pay for the service. Using this book as a textbook, I was quickly able to get up to speed and bring their web sit up to date. I have since been asked to develop a web site for a possible new business. The book takes a step by step approach with each step explained. Possible errors or points of confusion are anticipated and clarified. Each lesson has well developed examples that can also serve as models for your web site. The book is in color so the book pictures match the screen displays. I scanned over the first chapter of what was new because it was all new to me. I followed the other lessons as one would a textbook using what was appropriate for my own site. I never encountered a step that wasn't possible and when finished with the lesson their examples were good templates for what I was doing. This book does not cover the server side of the coding and I have started using another source to learn how to use PHP with Dreamweaver. However, I still refer to this book for ideas and found it to be an incredible frustration free way to learn how to create and update web sites.

While not part of the Missing Manual series, the book provides the reader with a step-by-step set of instructions on how to use Dreamweaver CS3. It is aimed at new users of Dreamweaver CS3, but will be of use to more advanced users as well because it covers the upgrades to and changes from the last version. The book begins with clear and succinct instructions on how to use the video tutorials as well as the lesson files and sets forth the requirements for both Windows and MAC users. The first lesson jumps right into Spry and discussions of integration with various other Adobe products along with an explanation of how web sites work, domains, servers and web hosts, the role of web browsers and an introduction to HTML. The order of the topics is a little weird with the discussion of Spry and Adobe Bridge before the basics of web sites and html. That having been said, it's still a good introduction for the beginner. Other lessons include creating a web site from scratch with Dreamweaver. There are lots of illustrations and each is accompanied by a clear explanation of each topic discussed. For those interested in adding Flash, videos and sound to pages, there is a chapter devoted to how to do it. It does not show you how to create the Flash content, but Dreamweaver does include functionality to create some Flash content such as buttons and text. Another lesson is on building web forms and at least mentions ways to connect the form data to a database. The scope of the book doesn't permit detailed coverage of the topic, but does include the addition of some behaviors to the form, such as validation. Dreamweaver has a number of built-in javascripts to do validations that are easy to add. Chapters are followed by a number of assignments for studying to reinforce what has been discussed. There is a set of review questions complete with answers. One of the best features of the book is that as the lessons progress, there is a great emphasis on the use of CSS to style the pages and it includes discussions of the differences between print and the web when choosing font sizes, how to prepare images for use on the web. Several chapters are devoted to page layout, both with tables (for data mostly) and with CSS. The first part of the book teaches using the design view in Dreamweaver--the reader doesn't have to deal directly with the HTML, but it does include a lesson on editing in the code view as well. The final chapter discussions maintenance of the web site, including reports and optimization.

'Dynamic Learning Dreamweaver CS3' is a fantastic guide for all those developers who are looking to learn and ramp up on Dreamweaver CS3 asap. Jam-packed with 400+ pages of material with a DVD inside, this wonderful book isn't just pages but full interactive content included!! Chapters are called Lessons in this book and there are 13 here. The transitions from one lesson to the next are smooth and clear with not just great layout (so easy on the eyes) but nice writing as well!! If you are a new user or want to see what the newest version of Dreamweaver has to offer you will be hard-pressed to not be happy with this book. It's a welcome addition to your web library and a sure fire hit!! ***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED