Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual (Paperback)

by David McFarland (Author)
Key Phrases: server behaviors, page properties, site root, Internet Explorer, Rule Definition, Cascading Style Sheets (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Welcome to Dreamweaver CS3. This new version of the popular web design software offers a rich environment for building professional sites, with drag-and-drop simplicity, clean HTML code, and dynamic database-driven web site creation tools. Moreover, it's now integrated more tightly with Adobe's other products: Photoshop, InDesign, Flash, and their siblings. But with such sophisticated features, the software isn't simple. So say hello to Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual, the fifth edition of this bestselling book by experienced web site trainer and author David McFarland. This book helps both first-time and experienced web designers bring stunning, interactive web sites to life. With jargon-free language and clear descriptions, this new edition addresses both beginners who need step-by-step guidance as well as long-time Dreamweaver users who need a handy reference to address the inner-workings of the program. Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual teaches designers how to construct and manage web sites by examining web-page components and Dreamweaver's capabilities through "live examples." With a complete A-Z guide to designing, organizing, building and deploying a web site for those with no web design experience, this book: Takes you through the basics to advanced techniques to control the appearance of your web pages with CSS Shows you how to design dynamic database-driven web sites, from blogs to product catalogs, and from shopping carts to newsletter signup forms Teaches you how to master your web site, and manage thousands of pages effortlessly Witty and objective, Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual is a must for anyone who uses this highly popular program, from beginners toprofessionals. Altogether, it's the ultimate atlas for Dreamweaver CS3.

About the Author
David McFarland has been designing web sites since 1995. He's a professional web designer and educator who has worked with the University of California at Berkeley, Intuit, and Macworld magazine among others. He is a frequent speaker at web-related conferences and teaches web design and development at Portland State University. He is a Macromedia Certified instructor and a member of the Dreamweaver Advisory Council.

Product Details

• Paperback: 995 pages
• Publisher: Pogue Press; 1 edition (June 22, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596510438
• ISBN-13: 978-0596510435
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (108 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #6,593 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #4 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Graphic Design > Web Design > Flash
  #8 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Graphic Design > Web Design > Dreamweaver
  #20 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Graphics & Multimedia

• This item is part of The O'Reilly Missing Manuals Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

135 of 136 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FINALLY, SOMEONE GETS IT RIGHT - ALMOST (REVISED REVIEW), August 27, 2007

By	DougA (Beaverton, OR USA) - See all my reviews

ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I can't tell you how many books I've trudged through to "learn" innumerable new applications only to find out that the book or the tutorial CD has errors. I never knew if I was making the mistake, or if the book was wrong. It was incredibly frustrating to spend $50 on a book, only to find that it was useless because you couldn't depend on anything in the book but the page numbers.

FINALLY someone takes the time -- and has enough respect for his audience -- to get it right. I own 3 Dreamweaver CS3 books and this is, by far, the best, most comprehensive and most error-free. In fact, I haven't found a single error yet -- and, believe me, I've looked.

The great thing about this book is that all of the tutorials are online. So there's no CD to lose or scratch. You can download the tutorials as many times as you want, no password needed.

There are just enough tutorials in this book to give me the information I need, but not so many that it becomes a rote "how-to" book. There's real information here combined with real-world applications in the form of tutorials. I'm actually in the middle of one right now and I'm so impressed with this book, I just had to stop and write a review for it!

If you want to learn Dreamweaver CS3 -- and learn it RIGHT THE FIRST TIME -- buy this book. Or steal it. Just get it.

REVISED: After making my way through this book in its entirety, I did discover some fairly significant errors. McFarland does post some of the corrections on his website, but he also moved the website and it's a little difficult to find. All-in-all this is still the best of the books that are out there, but its star got a little tarneished the farther into the book I got.

63 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Diamond Of Dreamweaver Books, August 17, 2007

By	Daniel McKinnon (Tewksbury, MA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No Bull Instruction, September 25, 2007

By	D. GORR (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the second book I've studied by this author (the other is "CSS, The Missing Manual"). I've used Dreamweaver from the very first version, and as a Marketing Communications/Graphics/Web professional for more than 18 years, I'm no novice where web design and production is concerned. Now that web design has finally emerged from the table-dominated HTML world, it's great to have an instructional resource like this to aid the transition to CSS-based page layout.

Both of McFarland's books are excellent instructional manuals (and I seriously recommend that you buy both). They combine concise, easy-to-understand explanatory text and superb tutorials to present the material in a manner that only the dimmest bulb could fail to appreciate. I've read many intstructional texts over the years, and this is the most fully competent and effective manual I've yet encountered.

It helps if you have some experience with Dreamweaver, but even if you don't, this is the book you should buy. I can't imagine any other manual that could possibly give you a better -- and usefully functional -- overview than this one. Buy it and study it. If you do, all your web friends (pretenders) will be knocking on your door, asking you to share your expertise.

The "Missing Manual" series, at least as far as I've been exposed to it, is excellent. I just bought the Flash CS3 manual, and I will report on that shortly.