Customer Reviews

Adobe GoLive CS Classroom in a Book

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This is the latest in a series of the famous "Adobe Classroom In A Book". It is part of the official training series for Adobe graphics, web and tools. As Webmaster for the Alaskan Apple Users Group (AAUG), I wanted to see what was new or different in GoLive CS.

The book is 520 pages and comes with a CD that includes files for thirteen lessons included in the book. It is for anyone who designs, develops and manages web sites. It teaches fundamental concepts and lessons designed to work at your own pace. If you are more familiar with GoLive, you can learn advanced features including tips and techniques. You can go start to finish or do only the lessons that corresponds to your interests or needs.

The lessons in this book "include information on the GoLive workflow. customizing the work area, converting layout grids to tables, creating stationery, spell checking, using variables with Smart Objects, adding date and time stamps, creating HTML styles, and working with Smart rollovers".

On to Lesson One! I opened the existing file Design Diagram.site. I clicked Diagram tab in the site window and double clicked to open the design file as instructed. A dialog window popped open with a message that said "Files included in Diagram may have changed location or been removed. Some pages or links within the diagram may be missing or drawn incorrectly". Hello! Didn't page one just tell me that all lessons had been revised to incorporate updated information on GoLive CS commands and tools? In the next paragraph in the book it said "Due to variables in system configurations, you may see an erroneous warning message regarding printing. You may safely disregard this message".Printing? I'm just trying to open the first file in Lesson one! I clicked "OK" to close the box and the lesson went well until I got to Adding Sections. While dragging a Section icon as instructed, the promised black bar did not appear that indicated the family relationship to the new page. No matter what I tried, it just wouldn't come up.

In the Creating a new design diagram section, there was a typo in 1: choose Diagram>New Design Diagram while the file menu simply says New Diagram. No biggie although I could not save the file as directed. Either the command was greyed out or when it wasn't and I saved the file, it didn't reflect as such on the top in the save red button. When I got to Adding Sections, dragging a section icon to the page didn't display the promised "black bar" indicating the family relationship to the new page!

I checked both Adobe and Peachpit Press to see if any "Errata" was posted. There was none. I really wanted to love this book as I have many in the Classroon Series. I am disappointed that it is rippled with errors and omissions.

I'm going to go through all the lessons as I am sure that the bulk of the book is good. It's just a shame that this book was not tested and edited more thoroughly.

Pros: Wonderful layout with lots of graphics, easy to follow instructions, review questions and answers at the end of each chapter.

Cons: Incorrect instructions, errors and typos. Not up to par with Adobe's Classroom in A Book series.

This book is the latest incarnation of the famous Adobe "Classroom In A Book" series. It appears to be a rather large rewrite of the prior version of the book from GoLive 6.0.

Initially impressive, this book suffers from a wealth of typos and operational problems within the first few pages of actual tutorial.

For instance:

On page 14 (Creating a new design diagram), there is no option called "New Design Diagram", rather, it is merely "New Diagram" (#1).

On page 15, the icon describing "Diagram Set" is drawn with straight lines (like the "Site Items" icon) rather than with curved lines (#5).

On page 17, the option "Canvas As Single Page" is spelled wrong. It is "Canvas Is Single Page" (#13).

On page 18, I do not get any sort of "black line" (as mentioned) showing up on any side of the "Main" page icon. Also, the in-text icon for the Diagram Set is wrong again (#2).

On pages 18-19, I cannot get any arrows to automatically add connections to the two Section icons I've pulled over and below the "Main" page icon on my Design tab of the Design window (as shown). Instead, the two boxes simply sit there (#5). However, I can get the correct effect by right-clicking on the "Main" box, selecting "New" then "Child" and then right-clicking on the "No Name" page and converting it to a section.

I have only read to page 19.

These typos are rather minor, but I am concerned I will continue to run into similar or more serious problems.

This is an early review for the explicit purpose of warning people before purchase. Unfortunately, it is the only book on GoLive CS at this time. Should the rest miraculously be without problem, would truly suffice for learning the program, though. I would have expected better from Adobe and PeachPit Press.

Oddly, Adobe Press hasn't posted an addendum on its site, so I guess I'm the first to notice the problems. The book has been out since earlier this week (Dec 12).

[UPDATE: There are more than two dozen such problems throughout the first chapter alone. I am reducing my 3-star rating to 2-stars. Use this book at your own risk!]

I have never used the original version of this book/CD, but I purchased the Revised
Edition (printed in late August 2004) and everything has been perfectly clear so far. It appears that many changes were made between printings, because the consistency between the book and the included CD has so far been faultless, typo-free, and error-free. I'm through 5 of 13 lessons, and every step of every lesson so far has occurred exactly as indicated in the text, and all files on the CD have been found in exactly where the book says they should be. Looks like Adobe read all of the bad press here and did something about it by giving us this revised edition in which all the errata seems to have been corrected (so far).

I have prior experience with HTML design and with computer programming, but neither before in an Adobe environment. I find the text to be VERY easy-to-follow, and I am impressed enough with how it has helped me that I have ordered Photoshop CS CIB and Illustrator CS CIB. I'm no Go-Live whiz-kid yet, but the book has made me completely functional within just a couple of days. I definitely recommend it.

Beware if you buy this book- make CERTAIN that you buy/receive the "Revised Edition", or you may encounter the problems all these other reviewers have encountered.

After being so impressed with Illustrator CS Classroom in a Book, I forked over the money for this one and would like it back. Learning a new software program is difficult enough when you have accurate instructions. With incorrect instructions you have to spend extra time deciding if you don't understand or if the book is wrong. Don't buy this book unless you have time and money to waste.

Although the book was filled with the obscene number of errors other reviewers mention (I wondered often whether I was mismatching book and software versions somehow), there are no complete show-stoppers. There are several major inconveniences, particularly as regards importing files into the site, which the book says can be done much more simply than my copy of the software allowed. I managed to complete the instructions for every lesson, and it effectively showed, step-by-step, how to use most of the major features of GoLive.

It describes the basics of forms, CSS, JavaScript, etc., making it a fine 'for dummies' intro, though one might wish it went into considerably more depth on just about every topic, or at least had a sequel.

A serviceable instruction book once you learn to work around the more major errors, but not up to the par of the other Adobe books. You may want to look elsewhere.

I was confident (as a GoLive novice) that my purchase of this book would be the best route for learning the software because I had already used the Classroom in a Book for InDesign, which worked out quite well.

I quickly started on the first lesson in the Classroom in a Book for GoLive CS, but quickly found, to my dismay, that it was packed with errors, omissions, incorrect referencing, and even typos. My confidence plummeted.

Among the many errors (see the Adobe User to User Forum), the most aggravating thus far has been the explanation of how a "black bar" appears when adding objects to a diagram. This does not happen, and it left me confused and wondering whether or not my software had a problem. Unable to resolve the problem, I skipped lesson 1 only to find similar instances of non-usable, confusing lesson material in the lessons that followed. I'm currently on lesson 4 of 13, and I certainly hope it gets better.

Update 12/19: I have battled up to lesson 9, and have found this one to be the worst so far. For example, on page 337, the lesson refers to files in lesson 8, but that's only the beginning of the maze. You cannot even use the lesson files here until you delete layers that do not belong in the files (you are not informed of this). A novice would most likely not be able to do this. The book has almost become a joke. I have adjusted my rating accordingly.

I consider myself an intermediate software engineer, and this book was written way too fast, and released for publication even faster. It's better than nothing (not many "Go Live" books out there) but I wish I'd waited to spend my money on something better written AND USEFUL. C'mon Adobe - you're better than this!!

I can only agree with the other comments on this book. It is VERY irritating when a book, with step-by-step instructions, doesn't reflect the software. When a step doesn't work the way it is told and nothing happens... what do you do? Skip the lesson? First major "bug" is already on page 18!
(It is however possible to make the Section Icon "snap" to the Main page if you first export the Main page to PDF!!!)

I bought this book because I've just run through the InDesign book in the same series, and I was impressed that they always seemed to read your mind in every step. If there was a slight possibility to do wrong, you were guided into the right direction again.

I should've trusted other reviewers here and skip this book. What a waste of money and time.

I am an hardware engineer and know HTML and have built basic websites using HTML coding, but would like to build websites that looks more slick. That's why I purchased Adobe CS ( for the photoshop and illustrator). since goLive is part of the suites I thought I'll learn goLive and redo some of my old sites.

after going through all the chapters, you would only learn a couple of things about this software: where the buttons are, how to use the pick to make links, etc.

it does not explain to you how the software works -- which is what I'd be looking for when I learn a new software.

bad book. worthless.

I read the reviews and then hoped for the best as I could not find another book which would help me learn this programme. I use a MAC and I am reasonably computer savvy soI hoped I would be able to find some work-arounds if needed. All went well until Ch 8 when there were no scroll bars but by reducing the page size I could see what I needed. Ch 9 was the worst. To start with I had a copy of the finished file to pratice on. By deleting bits then trying to replace them I managed to do some of it but there were other problems as well. If I hadn't read the reviews I'd have given up at that point but fortunately the remaining chapters were almost trouble free. I have learnt a lot and I am confident I can create a simple web site using this programme. My other criticism is that the book tells you what to do but seldom explains why so although I have finished it I feel I still have an awful lot to learn so I understand the programme