Web Design Complete Course [Paperback]

Joyce J. Evans (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0764537520 | ISBN-13: 978-0764537523 | Publication Date: April 1, 2003

• Shows how to use four Web power tools- Fireworks, Dreamweaver, ColdFusion and Flash-together in one book
• Offers a full-color tutorial that walks the reader start to finish through the process of building a media-rich, e-commerce Web site
• After completing this book, readers will have a polished, fully functional e-commerce site adaptable to their own needs
• CD-ROM contains all the files and materials needed for the project

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Written by a Web design expert and illustrated throughout in full color, this Complete Course shows you how to master the top three Web design power tools–Fireworks®, Dreamweaver®, and ColdFusion®–while working on a single project. Seventeen sessions and more than 100 step-by-step tutorials, accompanied by vivid color images and screen shots, walk you through the creation of a slick, fully functional e-commerce Web site, from start to finish. After completing the course, you’ll have an impressive portfolio piece, a site you can adapt for your own use, and a thorough understanding of Web design fundamentals.

CD-ROM Contents

• Demo versions of Mystical lighting, DreamSuite®, Linx Flash™ Editor, and SWfX
• Trial versions of Color Schemer, SmartDraw, and WA PayPal eCommerce Toolkit
• ColorWrite freeware for multiple platforms
• Images, files, and a database to use in the tutorials; bonus movie tutorials and even a bonus session

System Requirements: PC: Pentium III or better, 64MB of RAM, 280MB hard drive. Mac: G3 or better, 64MB of RAM, 320MB hard drive. See the About the CD Appendix for details and complete system requirements.

About the Author

Joyce J. Evans has more than a decade of experience as a Web designer and trainer. She founded, designed, and maintains JoyceJEvans.com, a site devoted to Web design. The author of Dreamweaver MX Complete Course and Macromedia® Studio MX Bible, she has also written articles and tutorials for online design publications.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764537520
• ISBN-13: 978-0764537523
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,386,112 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I found it disorganized, April 25, 2004

By 

electroplated (Halifax, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Web Design Complete Course (Paperback)

I'm more experienced in print design, Photoshop and Illustrator are now old friends, so I expect to climb a steep learning curve with a program like Dreamweaver. However, this book is not proving a great travelling companion. I have found many, many examples of tutorials not working according to the explanations. It's unsettling in a way no other program guide i've tried has been. It feels like they skipped the proofreader stage. The actual projects are good, the design of the web page is quite nice and that's what attracted me to the book. Now I'm just struggling through it to get my money's worth since I can't get my money back!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice Package, Good Info, Not Mac Friendly, September 26, 2003

By 

R. LeFebvre "mac geek" (Anchorage, AK United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Web Design Complete Course (Paperback)

I really like this book, at first glance. It's not a huge volume, but has a satisfying weight, as if it contains the knowledge I need. It's full color glossy pages jump out at me, and make me want to delve into it's chapters. A quick glance at the Table of Contents shows an impressive array of feature knowledge, waiting to be unfurled: Image Design and Export, Cascading Style Sheets, Dynamic Data Driven Pages, Scripting. I want to know all about these things!

I have a fair amount of web design knowledge, from WYSIWYG editors like Dreamweaver MX to the HTML bones behind it all, as well as CSS layout and text styling. This bookd seemed to be a great start with "the rest of the picture." It uses the concept of a complete web site, fully realized, to plan the tutorials. We're building the web site for stockimagination.com, a fictitious stock photo company.

I spent some time with the Fireworks graphic tutorials, to layout the basic look of the site, and to make the icons for navigation. The first thing I noticed was a startling lack of Mac screen shots. Allt he pictures in the book show a Windows XP interface. Now, all the MX programs have the same content in either platform, but where's the nod to the Mac? Even the book nods to the fact that Mac users would frequent this web site, if it were a real site, as they are the majority working in the design industry. It made me sad.

In a tutorial about creating a web palette so multiple designers don't pick other colors (a feature I thought fantastic-big nod to the MX designers at Macromedia), there was one step I needed to complete before it worked as advertised. This step is missing from the book. I needed to click the "rebuild" button in the Save Palette routine.

Another example of missing info, I spent a goodly time trying to figure out why one specific rectangle did not look likew the one in the book. I read through it three times, trying it each time. The tutorial said to create one rectangle, add an inner shadow, then clone it, which places a duplicate on top of the original object. I did so. The tutorial then told me to change the shadow in the cloned rectangle. I did so, to specifications. But I couldn't see the inner shadow around the entire new double object, like in the book. I tried opacity settings, I tried fill options. No go. Finally, I realized that I needed to choose the "Knock Out" option in the inner shadow options. "That's not in the book," I yelled. Ok, I only yelled in my head, but still!

I'll spend more time with this book, definitely. It's a great way for me to sharpen my skills in a practical, contextual setting. I really like the way this website is shaping up too. It's modern looking, pleasant to look at and thoroughly effective. Well designed. If you're a web designer, and you want another skill set, this book might be for you. Just watch for the trickiness in some of the tutorials, and be prepared to feel like you're not part of the Windows only screen shots. For $45.00, I'd grab this one off the shelf any day.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not for beginner, May 30, 2004

By 

C. Moss - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Web Design Complete Course (Paperback)

I thought this would be a great book to start with...but I was wrong. Nice projects. But it's a struggle. It seems like steps are missing. If you are a beginner, skip this book unless you don't mind wasting time trying to figure out deleted steps.

This is not an easy quick learn. I wish I could get a refund.