Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Classroom in a Book by Adobe Creative Team
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Book Reviews of Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Classroom in a Book
Book Review: Decent set of lessons horribly edited
Summary: 3 Stars
(Disclaimer: I did not use my own money to buy this book; it was part of a tuition reimbursement package. Had I coughed up my own cash, I would probably have given it two stars instead of three.)
This book is geared toward Dreamweaver beginners, and contains a decent set of concise tutorials aimed at giving the user a taste of all the main features of the program. The two bonus chapters (available when registering the book at Peachpit's web site) - on templates and code - are especially welcome, at least to those of us used to doing all of this by hand. The book will NOT teach you XHTML and CSS - if you are unfamiliar with those languages, this book will likely leave you feeling led around by the nose - and led rather badly, as well.
Which brings me to the editing. I have to agree with all of the editing issues cited in other reviews. A few mistakes are understandable; but it's not clear that anyone actually tried the instructions in these tutorials before sending the book to press. One specific example: in many cases the book instructs you to tab to the next field, when Dreamweaver has already moved to the next field for you. (Note I'm on a Mac; this may be different for Windows.) I was able to get all of the tutorials to work with a little trial and error; but if you are not clear on the goal of what you are doing, this kind of error can really throw you off.
In short: Decent book that was apparently not proofread. Someone should fix it.
Book Review: Dreamweaver CS3 Classroom OK, still a little rough on the edge's
Summary: 3 Stars
The latest if the popular series of Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Classroom "Classroom in a Book" was for me, still a good purchase. However not a great one.
I have used Dreamweaver in the past, but I am feeling a little rusty after too many years of FrontPage use and i was hoping this would help make the much a easy thing for me. The first editions of the CS3 did have some errors in the which were pointed out and corrected rather fast. One of the nice benefit of working with Adobe Press, they do tend to respond fast and very professionally. That is very appreciated.
I use it as a light weigh training guide, with a good number of hints and good examples. I might be a little tough on the book only giving it a thee star rating, but coming from the awesome job that Abode did on the
Adobe Photoshop CS3 Classroom, the Dreamweaver version has some very tough standards to live up to as far as books ago.
If I was going this again as a first book on Dreamweaver ? That might be a toss-up, but gut feeling is I might aim for the "Missing Manual Series" of Dreamwear CS3 by David McFarland also.
Book Review: Decent but full of errors
Summary: 3 Stars
I purchased this book to help with my transisition from FrontPage to Dreamweaver. The book is a good reference in learning the features of Dreamweaver but it so full of errors that the Adobe Creative Team should be embarassed. If any of them would have actually proof-read the book these errors could of been easily corrected before printing.
This sounds like a rant but when you pay $50+ (I bought before there were savings) for a book you'd expect a $50+ book. Not one that is full of errors.
There aren't any other books to recommend but if you're wanting to learn Dreamweaver and you don't mind the price, and the errors within the book that cause you to re-read pages to find out what you missed (when you didn't, the steps just don't always flow correctly), then I recommend this book.
Book Review: OK, but not great
Summary: 3 Stars
I had been using Dreamweaver but never had a book or class, so decided to try this book.
On the plus side, I learned many shortcuts from this book, and the CD with all of the examples was a nice addition. The screenshots are good, and the chapter on CSS was detailed enough.
On the downside, there are a lot of misakes in this book. Since many people who use this kind of book will have had no experience at all with the software Adobe (and other computer book publishers) should use extra care while proofreading. Also, the chapter on Spry was kind of light and didn't touch on a lot of the widgets and what could be done with them.
Book Review: Needs Some Work
Summary: 3 Stars
Right now I'm giving this book a "C." I've read through at least three other html editor-type manuals, including an Adobe Go Live manual, MX 2004 Hands-on Training, and (going back a ways) Adobe PageMill. The assumptions made in this brief CS3 CIB text are okay with my skill level, but what about the rank beginner? The book also needs a glossary, to help the user understand all the CSS terminology. I'm not through the text yet but I'm disappointed. I remember really liking a Photoshop CIB I had a few years ago but this Dreamweaver tutorial seems thrown together to me.