Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual by David Sawyer McFarland
|
List Price: Our Price: $12.80 You Save: $32.19 (72%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.05 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual
Book Review: The Diamond Of Dreamweaver Books
Summary: 5 Stars
At nearly 1000 pages and 26 chapters, 'Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual' by David McFarland is one of the rare books that I can EASILY give a Highest Possible Recommendation for. It has been known for quite some time that Dreamweaver is THE #1 resource for creating a professional web site in the most efficient way possible and with the fewest steps so that you can get your site created with netters surfing to it in the shortest amount of time. Now learn how to use Dreamweaver as efficiently as possible and get a peek at all the newest features in CS3!!
The material contained within is simply staggering: Basics, CSS, Forms, Flash, Automation, Database connectivity, and server-side XML and XSLT, it's all here!!
The Missing Manual is my favorite line of books because of the logical separation of content, the writing, and the design. My only gripe with this book would be the lack of color which could have easily been put in for only a small amount more added to the retail price, but this is not enough to knock my recommendation down. If you use Dreamweaver or want to learn more about what CS3 has to offer, pick this book up TO-DAY!!
***** HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION
Book Review: Dreamweaver CS3 the Missing Manual is a friendly course in the use of DW CS3
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is ideal for the explanation of the use of Dreamweaver CS3. Its tone is light but not cutesy, quite accurate and detailed, but not pedantic or overly academic. I came to DW CS3 with some knowledge of DW 4, DW MX and html. I had also had used some CSS style sheets in making a few web sites. This version of DW is very advanced over DW 4 and MX in its support of CSS. For that alone DW CS3 and this book are worth their combined prices.
The pictures in the book are frequent and useful. The book is rather lengthy and therefore physically somewhat unwieldy, but with DW CS3 having so many features and so much power, I can't imagine any other way to address them all in such a form. And once you get a taste of the power of CS3 via this book you will want to learn every last thing you can from such a source as MacFarland's book. Perhaps the book isn't for the newcomer to web site construction, but neither is DW CS3 in my opinion. MacFarland's book is the definative guide to DW CS3. I highly recommend it.
Book Review: Worth every penny
Summary: 5 Stars
This may possibly be THE BEST how-to book of any kind I have ever owned and read. Unlike many of the other how-to books on Dreamweaver - which usually amount to not much than a very wordy version of the Quick Reference Guide - "The Missing Manual" contains everything I was looking for and more.
This book takes you through the WHOLE process of organizing and building a web site using Dreamweaver CS3. It does so in a very logical fashion with very easy to understand language. If you are (like I am) someone who has limited experience building a web site, this book will give you a very good head start. It explains to you WHAT are important and WHY they are important in Dreamweaver and in web design in general.
The included tutorials (the files need to be downloads from the author's web site) are very helpful, especially for beginners.
All in all, I couldn't be happier with this book. It was well worth the money to purchase it and the time to read it.
Book Review: In a word, "excellent!"
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this book (and its predecessors).
First, each chapter has a kind of 'theoretical' section at the beginning - not over the top - which is excellent for enabling the reader to really understand the topic of discussion. Good bedside homework!
Next, the tutorial section ... which is clear, concise and very easy to follow. All of the required images/webpages that the reader needs to complete the tutorials are freely available to download from the publishers. Fantastic.
Finally, this book is accessible but also comprehensive. Consequently, whilst you will be able to build a decent website after reading through the first nine or ten chapters, if you read on you will get to learn how to really jazz up your sites using forms, Flash elements etc.
Having stated that I prefer video tutorials over self-help books - this book has gone a long way to changing this opinion.
Book Review: A perfect introduction for an experienced computer user
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is exactly what I was looking for: a text to introduce the basic and advanced tools of Dreamweaver without bringing me all the way back to kindergarten. McFarland does an excellent job of providing detail to the point that his instruction is always straightforward without being demeaning or boring.
As an experienced computer user, I was able to get quickly up to speed in Dreamweaver CS3 with The Missing Manual. A+ instructional writing and tutorials! I recommend this book wholeheartedly.
Note: There are some errors throughout the text and tutorials, which I expect in any 1,000+ page technical document. Most of the errors are accounted for on the companion website. Furthermore, we often encounter small frustrations like these when designing for the web, so I think a little confusion here and there spices up the learning experience and is really just par for the course.