Customer Reviews

Adobe(R) Framemaker(R) 5.5 (Classroom in a Book)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Highly recommended for anyone starting out in After Effects. In fact, if you've never even seen After Effects, this book is for you. After just a few lessons, you'll feel more comfortable and confident using the After Effects interface and features. If you need to get up to speed quickly with this powerful compositing software, then AE Classroom in a Book will serve you well.

Regarding a few of the criticisms that some people have leveled against this book:

If you're already an AE pro and have gone through the earlier edition, then the "what's new" section of the official AE manual should be your main learning tool. This book is designed for beginners, not to help people migrate from version 3.

Yes, the lessons in this book are not earth shattering and exciting. This book teaches you how to use a professional compositing software package. Serious compositing is, generally, an unexciting procedure. For people wishing to be entertained, I would recommend a collection of Gary Larson's Far Side strips. For people who wish to learn After Effects, I would recommend this book.

Happy compositing!

Philip Williams
(...)

Although I generally like Classroom in a Book, if you have already done the 3.1 Tutorial, don't bother spending money on this one.

Although this book covers a lot, it does not detail how to create a document from scratch. It does not thoroughly explain how to set up templates and master pages. The tutorial has you work on existing documents rather than start a document from scratch, which is what I would prefer.

If you have Classroom in a Book for AE 3.1, don't bother with this book. The lessons are identical. Very disappointing in that no new features are discussed or covered.

This tutorial served as a great way to be introduced to using FrameMaker. I had never used FrameMaker before. The tutorial touched on all the main features of the program, providing a comprehensive overview. However, the tutorial is lacking in several ways. For one, the lessons give you steps to follow to accomplish a specific task, but does not explain the why's of these steps, resulting at times in confusion as to why something was done. Also, the lessons often integrate various functions into one long step, and little attention is paid to one particular function. Many individual functions are never even covered. (This last aspect of the tutorial is, again, why I believe that this tutorial primarily serves best as an introduction to the program.) Yet used in conjunction with the FrameMaker User Guide, Classroom In a Book serves as a simple and handy counterpart.

I faithfully completed all the lessons in this book then attempted to create my first FrameMaker document from scratch. Within five minutes I was stuck and didn't know what to do. I should add that I am not a computer neophyte. I am a software developer by trade and I am an experienced Word user, some would say a power user.

This book gives an overview of the basic features of FrameMaker and leads the reader through exercises on existing documents. I would have found the book more effective if it had started at the logical starting point, creating a new document with a simple one-sided layout. Each chapter could have introduced the same features, but by building on that original document.

For the information that is consistent with After Effects 4.0 the diagrams and accompanying text are clear. However, Lesson 4 (specifically p. 155, item 4) is wrought with errors and is frustrating for the learner; the directions in the fourth tutorial fail to match the capabilities the actual application. If one purchases this book, be aware of the discrepencies in Lesson 4.

Remember this: Adobe has meant this book to be used in conjunction with the Users Guide, not instead of it. Also, this book is simply an introduction to the many features available in FrameMaker as it walks you through different lessons that show you how you _might_ use certain tools. You will not learn everything FrameMaker has to offer by using this book alone, but you will learn a whole lot.

The 15 lessons build upon one another, in "Do this...do that" type of tuttorial. You start the lessons with an existing document. The lessons have you copy and paste text over and briefly go over some formatting of new docs, but not a whole lot. The instructions are so clear, so precise that just about anyone could follow them and achieve the final product. This is a good thing for rank beginners. Users familiar with the main functions of FrameMaker may not find this book helpful.

Those who teach classes in FrameMaker might find this book a valuable text--with built in homework.

The review questions after each lesson are my favorite, because they force you to go back and review each concept presented. Don't skip these questions! The questions are more general in nature than the specific task. Some questions are:

- What is the difference between importing a graphic by copying it into a document and importing a graphic by reference? - What are the first two basic steps you need to perform to format entries in a table of contents? - What are two ways to resize columns?

The answers are in the back of the book, too, by the way if you get stuck.

Great for beginners, which, I'm sure, is this book's intended audience-- 5 Amazon.com stars.

I recommended Frame to my company and had to quickly learn how to use it and be productive from day 1. I purchased this book and went through it. The proof of the book's quality was when I recently took a Frame Int/Adv course, there wasn't much that was new for me to learn. One word of advice... Go through the lessons then use Frame in your work. Go through the book again in about 3 months - you'll reinforce concepts and learn something new, since you'll be able to apply certain features to the work you have in progress.

I HIGHLY recommend this book to all Frame users. Now if only Adobe could get some help with their online help ....

If you already own or use a copy of FrameMaker at work, and you need additional skills in using the software, or want to learn more of the powerful features Frame has to offer, this book will be useful to you. I can't say how helpful it would be to a new user, but for anyone who's been muddling through by learning how to use Frame on their own, this book will teach you many things you don't already know, and will help you create better-constructed documents. Remember to practice on documents you create yourself (from scratch) or the lessons won't stick.