Dreamweaver 3 for Windows & Macintosh, Third Edition (Visual QuickStart Guide) [Paperback]

J. Tarin Towers (Author)

Book Description

Series: Visual QuickStart Guide | Publication Date: April 25, 2000

J. Tarin Towers' best-selling guide to Dreamweaver is now completely revised to cover the newest upgrade of this cross-platform visual tool for creating sophisticated Web sites. The Visual QuickStart Guide format lends itself to getting users up and running quickly by using loads of screen shots and step-by-step instructions. Dreamweaver 3's newly enhanced features help users create flexible HTML while designing WYSIWYG Web pages that can automatically update links and changes on the fly. Web designers who have spent countless hours updating HMTL code by hand are converting to programs like Dreamweaver to save time and automate their work. Readers will learn to create rollovers without knowing JavaScript, and save time creating complex tables, frames, style sheets, simple animations, and image maps by following the step-by-step instructions and time-saving tips offered in the book.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Whether you're a beginner who needs a quick introduction to Dreamweaver or an intermediate user who needs help with one of the program's newer or more complex features, this handy guide is perfect. Instead of a tutorial where you work through a specific project, the lesson in this book walks you through your documents while you work on them.

If you've used QuickStart guides before, you know how convenient they are as references. Succinct text eliminates having to wade through discourses on theory or history, and a thorough index directs you to answers quickly. Plus, with their small footprint, these guides earn their place on a crowded desk. The QuickStart series is consistent in style (with numbered steps in one column, screen shots in the other) and quality.

Even within this established format, author J. Tarin Towers's light and friendly style shows through--making for interesting reading. The author has also included numerous sidebars on how things work (for example, using measuring units such as pixels, picas, or ems) and timesaving features (for example, the Hints menu in the Quick Tags editor). Alternate methods for executing tasks and other handy information can be found in the many tips that follow each section.

Macintosh users in particular should read the introduction, which explains the few, but crucial, differences in the Windows version of Dreamweaver. This affects the way screen shots look throughout the book.

This edition has four new chapters that cover changes in Dreamweaver 3. Since one of the best features of Dreamweaver is the ease with which you can view and edit source code, the book devotes a chapter to HTML and the application's tools for working with it (for example, the new Clean Up Word HTML command). With more than 500 pages, this is one of the longer QuickStart guides and well worth a spot on a Webmaster's desk. --Angelynn Grant

Topics covered: Step-by-step instructions for using Dreamweaver 3 (including an introduction to the working environment, palettes, and menus); creating a Web site and site management; working with text, images, links, tables, frames, CSS, DHTML, behaviors, timeline animation, and plug-ins; customizing and automating tasks; working with HTML; and the new features of version 3.

From the Back Cover

WYSIWYG doesn't always translate as "simple," as many Dreamweaver users have discovered. Dreamweaver 3 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide takes this sophisticated site design and management tool and breaks it down topic by topic into easy-to-follow, visually rich sets of instructions. This edition of the bestselling guide includes new and reorganized chapters that focus on site management, the HTML Styles palette and Quick Tag Editor, and customizing and automating Dreamweaver. What hasn't changed is the patented Visual QuickStart approach: clear, step-by-step directions and plenty of screen shots, plus an easy-to-navigate tabbed format that lets you page straight to the subject you want. Whether you're new to Dreamweaver or moving up from the previous version, you'll be creating sophisticated and sound Web sites in no time.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press (April 25, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201702401
• ISBN-13: 978-0201702408
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,515,223 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good but flawed; spend a little extra and get a better text., July 31, 2000

By 

S. Moon (Lower Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreamweaver 3 for Windows & Macintosh, Third Edition (Visual QuickStart Guide) (Paperback)

This is basically a good text, but it covers little that is not contained in Dreamweaver 3's tutorial. However, the book has two significant flaws beyond that which turn my recommendation to a 'don't buy.'

First, the text makes frequent reference to an 'online companion' web site. This site is said to contain a great deal of the real 'meat' of using Dreamweaver. As of this review (some four months after publication), the site is still 'under construction.' As such, there is significant information simply not available.

Second, the final chapter on how to use the FTP Client built into Dreamweaver is horrible! Little information is given about this critical step.

I suggest, in light of the fact that most of the information in this book is readily available in Dreamweavers help files and tutorial, that you give it a 'pass' and spend a little extra for a better text. A good starting place would be the 'bible' series.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Additional Information to the Dreamweaver Manual Set, June 23, 2000

By 

Steven A. Bell "Even Keel" (Kemp, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dreamweaver 3 for Windows & Macintosh, Third Edition (Visual QuickStart Guide) (Paperback)

Sorry, my review title says it all. Essentially if you are looking for a book to walk you through learning Dreamweaver (and have it done step-by-step) this book is not for you. This book would not work for you very well if you are learning from the Dreamweaver download. Instead I suggest using the online tutorial and help (which, BTW, are excellent).

Now, with the negativity aside, let me tell you what is great: it covers Style Sheets, Timelines, Frames (boy talk about being nasty sometimes in DW), and Automation. All of these are intermediate topics and not for the shy of heart. I liked being able to turn to an additional reference for tips and techniques (of which these are scanty in the DW docs).

Anyway, well worth the purchase price, but not a beginner's book.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good book for a quick learning of Dreamweaver, May 25, 2000

By 

"sudhakarreddy" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreamweaver 3 for Windows & Macintosh, Third Edition (Visual QuickStart Guide) (Paperback)

The book is very easy to understand and is good enough for a web developer who already knows HTML and just want to know how to use Dreamweaver to create effective websites. The book should have included some start to ending web site development examples.