Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual
by David Sawyer McFarland
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Book Summary Information
Author: David Sawyer McFarlandEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-06-29
ISBN: 0596510438
Number of pages: 995
Publisher: Pogue Press
Book Reviews of Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual
Book Review: The book you wished you'd found in the box.
Summary: 5 Stars
Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual, is definitely the book you wished you'd found in the box with the installation disk for Adobe Dreamweaver CS3. Weighing in at 995 pages (including a 25 page index), The Missing Manual is the best resource book for learning and using this equally robust web development tool. The book is divided into 26 chapters and two appendices, organized into seven sections. The Table of Contents is quite detailed, listing the chapter headings and sub-heading, making it easy to locate a particular subject. This book is filled from beginning to end with very detailed step-by-step tutorials to help you learn how to use Dreamweaver to accomplish a wide variety of web development tasks. I consider Dreamweaver CS3 The Missing Manual a definite must-have bookshelf reference for anyone who wants to investigate and learn every nook and cranny of this extensive application.
Chapter 1 begins at the beginning and is geared to the new user. There is a tour of the interface followed by a thorough step-by-step `Test Drive' tutorial. Starting with customizing the program preferences, the chapter continues with setting up a site, creating and saving a web page, adding text and images, and previewing your page in a browser. This first chapter touches on a lot of subject matter covered in greater detail in later chapters. Dreamweaver has a wealth of dialogs and wizards to help you create rather sophisticated web documents and they can be just as daunting as writing code. And, there are also extensions (extend the functionality of Dreamweaver), you can install to facilitate productivity. The Missing Manual really holds your hand, leading you through the process of learning to use the Dreamweaver tools. For those who want a little more, there are insets throughout the pages with the titles (in the title bar) of `Workaround Workshop', `Up to Speed', `Power Users' Clinic', `Frequently Asked Questions', `Gem in the Rough', and even `Easter Egg Hunt'.
To really take control of the web document creation process it's important to understand and be able to work with the underlying code. Beginning in Chapter 8: Advanced CSS, the discussion moves to talking about the HTML elements, the building blocks of creating a web page. Terms such as ID and Descendant Selectors enter the tutorial discussion. Why would you care? Well, even when using Dreamweaver as a visual editor and the GUI (graphic user interface) to modify the appearance of say, a list item, you need to know what the <li> tag is and that it needs to be selected for styling. And then wee come to Chapter 10, Under the Hood: HTML. Here we learn about using the Code View. First there are Preferences settings suggested, one for targeting and fixing invalidly nested or unclosed tags, and another for targeting extra closing tags for removal. Dreamweaver provides some great tools for working with code such as code hints, code collapse, the tag inspector and tools for file comparison. This chapter will help ease you into working with code, if you are interested.
Adobe's Spry Framework for Ajax is mentioned as a technique for creating navigation menus in Chapter 5 and as a method for validating form data in the Chapter that explains how to build forms. Spry is the current hot web technology and you'll find the thorough explanations of Spry and Spry Widgets (an element made up of HTML, CSS and JavaScript), clear and understandable. Even if you don't completely understand the technology, you'll find the step-by-steps easy to follow. There are tutorials for adding Spry Widgets such as an accordion of collapsible panels and creating Spry Effects in the chapter that covers Dreamweaver Behaviors. If you've never been able to figure out how to use Dreamweaver's behaviors, working through the information and tutorials in this chapter will help get you past that obstacle.
While a 995 page tech book is not usually a cover to cover read, you should be sure to refer to Chapter 16: Testing Your Site, before going public with your creation. It's a relatively short chapter with a checklist and the usual info on Dreamweaver tools for checking the site performance and detecting errors on your pages. The next chapter addresses getting your site onto the Internet. Section 5 is about how to really get the most out of using Dreamweaver. The chapters cover the topics of snippets, libraries, templates, automation and customizing the application. Section 6 is titled Dynamic Dreamweaver and has extremely good tutorials on using a variety of server side technologies. You'll even be stepped through setting up a free testing server on your computer, XAMP for Windows and MAMP for MacOSX. The last section contains two appendices. The first gives details about a variety of help resources including the Dreamweaver Help System, the Adobe site, Forums, the DMX Zone, and paid support. The second appendix is a detailing of every Dreamweaver menu.
Summary of Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual
Welcome to Dreamweaver CS3. This new version of the popular web design software offers a rich environment for building professional sites, with drag-and-drop simplicity, clean HTML code, and dynamic database-driven web site creation tools. Moreover, it's now integrated more tightly with Adobe's other products: Photoshop, InDesign, Flash, and their siblings. But with such sophisticated features, the software isn't simple.
So say hello to Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual, the fifth edition of this bestselling book by experienced web site trainer and author David McFarland. This book helps both first-time and experienced web designers bring stunning, interactive web sites to life. With jargon-free language and clear descriptions, this new edition addresses both beginners who need step-by-step guidance as well as long-time Dreamweaver users who need a handy reference to address the inner-workings of the program.
Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual teaches designers how to construct and manage web sites by examining web-page components and Dreamweaver's capabilities through "live examples". With a complete A-Z guide to designing, organizing, building and deploying a web site for those with no web design experience, this book:
- Takes you through the basics to advanced techniques to control the appearance of your web pages with CSS
- Shows you how to design dynamic database-driven web sites, from blogs to product catalogs, and from shopping carts to newsletter signup forms
- Teaches you how to master your web site, and manage thousands of pages effortlessly
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