Customer Reviews

Dreamweaver CS4 For Dummies

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

 

 

I had been advised not to purchase Dreamweaver since it would take at least a year to learn it. After reading some of the "helps" on the market, I was ready to give up - until I discovered Janine Warner. She presents it in such a logical and sequential way so that Dreamweaver can be learned in a much shorter time. In addition to having a tremendous insight into how to gain a presence on the Web, she makes it enjoyable to the extent that the phrase "user friendly" takes on a new and different meaning. Not only do her writings have a comfortable flow, she provides free step-by-step tutorials on her website that make learning Dreamweaver even faster. I've had three on-line courses through a local college but never learned as much as I did through her books, videos and website. She's a remarkable lecturer and writer, but more than that she's someone who knows what it takes to get other people up to speed. - Ed Walton

Even after my friends had raved about how easy DreamWeaver was, I was still intimidated. I checked out a couple of DreamWeaver tutorial books from the library and this was by far the easiest to understand.

It took me step-by-step through everything I needed to know to design my Web site in less than two days. I was amazed. If you're starting from scratch, this is the place to start.

I bought 3 or 4 books to learn Dreamweaver (which should have been named Nightmareweaver!) and this one was the only useful and helpful one. After using Frontpage for a long time, getting a handle on Dreamweaver was difficult and frustrating and the only real help I found was with Dreamweaver for Dummies and an online seminar from the SIte Wizard...With those two I've finally managed to create a beautiful and user-friendly site!
Avoid at all costs Dreamweaver CS4: The Missing Manual: you'll be throwing money down the drain! Where Dreamweaver for Dummies has clear explanations and walks you through, the Missing Manual is total gibberish...

I am an ameteur web designer. I have the Adobe creative suite cs4 which contains Dreamweaver. I have listened to Jeannine Warner on Dreamweaver cs3 from Total Training. That video series was very very good, but the book is even better. It is written in a way that you do not have to go in any order. I wanted to know first how to set up a server on my computer which is in back of the book, and had no trouble starting there. Everything is very logical and straitforward. You will be able to create your own web site as complicated as you like with just this one learning tool. I just wish she wrote the training on the other Adobe CS4 programs.
Donnie Land

I bought this book because I assumed it would be a step-by-step guide to learning Dreamweaver. The book does give basic information, but it is more of a reference book than a "how to" guide. The author descibes what Dreamweaver can do and explains basic concepts, but she does not SHOW how to do it through step-by-step examples. There are gaps in the linear process--a good "how to" guide needs to be linear and not miss any steps--examples progess from A to B to C and then she shows the result incorporating D,E & F without showing how she got there. The author describes "what" Dreamweaver can do but often fails to show the exact steps on "how" to do it. The "tutorials" are theoretical and do not give all the steps to accomplishing the task.

I purchased three books to help me learn Dreamweaver:

Dreamsweaver CS4 for Dummies (this book)
Dreamweaver CS4: The Missing Manual
The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS4 with CSS, Ajax and PHP

I started with Dreamweaver CS4 for Dummies, which I found to be a pretty good book. I was able to read it cover to cover (though it's not necessary to do so to get started). In addition to a good basic overview, it had a couple of very helpful tips in a chapter called "10 Resources You Might Need."

As my design became more detailed, I felt the need for a book that went into more depth and bought the other two books listed above. I like both books, but find I rely on The Missing Manual the most. Its writing is clear and easy to follow. The numerous tutorials give step-by-step instructions for a beginner on how to accomplish various tasks, with more advanced details included in the text.

I like The Essential Guide as well, but since I'm not using PHP, I find that there are areas where the advice they give simply doesn't work for me. For example, when I wanted to learn more about using templates, The Essential Guide gave only a very basic explanation, then went into far more detail about using PHP "includes" instead. While I agree that the PHP "includes" are probably the better choice, it's not one that is available to me since I don't have a PHP testing server (and don't want to go through the complexity of setting one up on my home computer). If you are using PHP, then this is definitely the book to get.

All in all, if I had to recommend one book to get started, it would be For Dummies, particularly if your needs are very simple and/or you're completely new to web site design. For those who want to move beyond the basics, I like The Missing Manual the best. This book could also be used by beginners as long as you're not put off by its length -- with over 1,000 pages, it's not one you'll be able to read cover to cover. I think The Essential Guide is best suited for those who want to create very complex designs, especially those that use PHP. It, too, is very clearly written, but more intimidating to a beginner.

This book is an excellent source. She explains everything clearly and with great detail, yet it is smooth reading and simple to get through. Its a perfect first step into dreamweaver.

This book will save you months of aggravation -- I know from experience.

I tried for at least two months trying to figure out Dreamweaver, and this book laid it all out for me in two days. Two days ago, I had no idea how to even create a site with Dreamweaver. Now, I expect to spend the next few days getting my hands dirty with Java like all the pros.

Do yourself a favor and buy this book as soon as you get CS4.

I'm not a fan of most Dummies books but like anything, it depends on the author. This particular book was very well done. I am a long time user of Dreamweaver (since version 1). I was asked to take a look at this particular book and was pleasantly surprised...I even learned a few new things. I didn't have time this past beta cycle to really keep up with the new features of Dreamweaver CS4(such as easily removing JavaScript to an external file jumps to mind)and this book helped to get me up to speed very quickly.

I am a green head rookie when comes to web site designing, creation. With help of this book I created a dynamic web sit in 3 days, not to impress anyone, but impress upon. This book do give you all the needed information. Only thing I am not happy with the book is it only covers IIS server (microsoft product) but not Apache server (open source). That is a whole day I wasted on searching on "How-To Apache".