Customer Reviews

Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 Unleashed

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I recently purchased both this book and Dreamweaver CS4 Classroom in a Book because I wanted to gain a firm grasp on Dreamweaver. I was unimpressed by Dreamweaver CS4 classroom in a book. It was pretty short, didn't go into much depth, and wasn't worth the [...] I spent on it. It was surprising because it was made by the same company that made the software.

However, Dreamweaver CS4 Unleashed has broadened my understanding greatly. I haven't yet finished the book (I'm almost halfway done, I'm starting chapter 10), but already I've walked away with a more thorough knowledge of the software. The book starts off by discussing some of the changes made to Dreamweaver CS4. This is useful if your already accustomed to using Dreamweaver CS3 (as the look of the Dreamweaver CS4 interface is similar, however, some significant changes have been made. For the rest of the first half of the book, the basics of Dreamweaver are discussed (dreamweaver interface, using tables, using css, etc.). This section is perfect for those of us who are not experts at web design, or might even be new to the field (as I am).

So far, that's all I've read, but glancing at the table of contents and skimming through the chapters later in the book, it appears that the author delves into deeper material for the intermediate to moderately advanced user, in the second half of the book (i.e. Adding multimedia elements, integrating w/ photoshop/fireworks/flash, a basic SQL primer, a basic database primer). I'll add more info on the later chapters after I get through them. But so far so good :).

****One thing I must mention, and this is important, the files needed for the exercises are NOT in this book and must be downloaded from the authors website. Here's a link to the website http://www.dreamweaverunleashed.com/dw/downloads.htm . The download is fast and is really easy. Also, links to MAMP, WAMP, and some of the other software programs that appear to be used in the second half of the book can be found on the downloads page as well.****

If you only buy one book for Dreamweaver CS4, you won't go wrong choosing this one.

Jesse Jones
(College student majoring in graphic design; beginner in web design)

Dreamweaver CS4 Unleashed offers everything you really want in an educational Software publication: expert guidance and ease of understanding - not just in the examples and variations of usage, but a true understanding of the program, the web, and how it all works together. This approach makes working in Dreamweaver approachable and less of a chore, even for the novice. You may actually start designing websites with no trepidation at all.

I would describe the author's style as completely knowledgeable in the subject matter, with a bit of humor, that makes learning fun. Kind of like the Math teacher that actually made you understand and like Math, you know the type. And if you want more in-depth material, it is all in the book, ready to for you to explore.

As a marketing and creative professional learning new software for the web, I highly recommend this book. And with the low Amazon price, free shipping, and lots and lots of material, you can't go wrong with the Dreamweaver Unleashed. After careful consideration, this is the best book in class, and the best value.

This book provides a solid foundation for the Dreamweaver and web development novice and has detail for the advanced user. It is well written and very readable. It walks the reader through exercises to demonstrate the features of Dreamweaver to get the reader up to speed quickly. Downloadable material provides assets such as images, text, and partially built websites used in the exercises.

Dreamweaver is a powerful and complex program that requires both knowledge of how the program works and the web technologies that are integrated in it. This book gives the necessary background information and shows the user what to build and how to build it. Due to his long experience with Dreamweaver, its predecsssors, and web development, Mr. Ruvalcaba shows a deep and nuanced understanding of the subject. (He has written several previous books on earlier Dreamweaver versions.) I highly recommend this book.

I hesitated after reading the critical review by J. C. Nicolai, but I bought the book anyway and had no problem downloading the supporting material at the addresses listed in the book:[...]. It isn't clear from that review what the problem was, but I note it was written on December 18, 2008, 5 days after the December 13 publication date Amazon lists. The publisher may have had some initial glitches posting the exercise material on the web. Anyway, there clearly is no problem at this time.

Read through the book; do the exercises; you will learn to use Dreamweaver well, quickly and efficiently.

I found a link to download chapters for the book at http://www.dreamweaverunleashed.com/dw/resources.htm
After I downloaded, I discovered that what I got was the material and images that I needed to complete the examples in the book.

I've only completed two chapters so far, but it looks like everything I need for the rest of the book is there also.

AXS

Title says it all. Great resource for taking advantage of Dreamweavers lesser known features. Will keep this book close to my computer.

Great Book,
the content is precise, comprehensive, However, when you try to do the examples by charters, a catastrophe.
When you download, examplefiles.zip, from [...], you get a very well disorganized zip file. There are some many duplicated, you have to be wasting time thinking, "which one would be the right file". He should have organized the files per charter 1, charter 2 ....................... charter 10.

Adobe Dreamweaver Unleashed CS4 is a great web design training book. It covered the necessary Html and CSS perspective to allow me to fill in many of the gaps from my own website hacking attempts with enough insite and depth to help me understand with out getting confused (with too much detail).

I also found the parallel companion DVD lectures to be great for reinforcing the lessens. Each lesson (book and DVD) takes the training website further to completion and with more sophiscated web design with every new lesson.

Through out the book, (and DVD lectures)how ever far you follow the lessons you learn complete concepts and skills that are useful and immediately able to be applied.

This methodical approach really works.

excellent resource. book and exercises are well laid out and easy to follow. would be appropriate for a novice, but DW vets looking to update their skills will find it an asset, topics are well indexed and easy to find.

This book is great. Easy to follow tutorials and easy to understand. I recommend this book to any one who is using DW cs4 for the first time and to someone who knows dreamweaver and wants to be more efficient.

From the start, Zak dispenses with all the usual flowery preludes and jumps into the subject matter with both feet and fists flying. Usually with these technical books one has to endure the author's spending so much time recounting their experiences woven among the subject matter. CS4 Unleashed is an invitation to apply these concepts To Do and create my own story rather than reading about someone else's experiences. When I received the book, and it was so thick I thought, Oh man, this is going to be so overwhelming. The vast subject matter is broken up into bite sized pieces so promptly dispels any intrepidation. I appreciate the screen shots which are included this book. Zak also defines terms in the industry so that a novice can pick up this book and with some effort applied one starts to catch a vision of what's possible. Let's all get the concepts of the book and make some money!!