Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I bought this book prior to using the software, thanks to rumors of Dreamweaver's supposed higher learning curve.

In hindsight, the official manual shipped with Dreamweaver has more in common with this book than just their size and length, for the manual covers essentially the same topics dealt with in this somewhat prosaic, clone-like book. The inclusion of more screenshots and the occasional humor fail to enrich the contents sufficiently for the casual intermediate-to-advanced user.

For that crowd, a guide of insight to taking advantage of Dreamweaver's more subtle functions, at the same time addressing its few quirks, is more useful than a run-of-the-mill explanation of such basics as what tables and frames are.

Indeed, the novice should consider the Lynda Weinman book: pricier but by far friendlier and livier. Certainly you won't get Yet Another Manual!

I had some experience with HTML and FrontPage, so I found the first half of the book perfect for my needs, except that the visuals were a bit small. I actually thought the early chapters were carefully written. The book crashed in the Style Sheets chapter, which did not explain style sheets so that I could grasp them, and offered absurdly small visuals with code that the reader was invited to examine. The book recovered with layers and behavior modification somewhat, then offered a cursory coverage of timelines, which requires a more look-see-do approach for beginners. Also, some surprisingly careless editing, which a $20 tag for a 500 page book explains but does not excuse. This book could have been much better with more careful writing in the second half, larger visuals, and more careful proofing.

This book is easy to understand (and cheap!) and the dozens of pictures make it much, much better than the manual or any web sites about dreamweaver. I read the dreamweaver 2 book and this edition has much more information in it.

A dog of a book. After the usual description of what the windows/pallettes are for; voila! Then comes CHapter 3, "what you probably want to do is jump right in and start making web pages" well, yes yes yes. After a little while you get tocreate a new folder in the site window. Sadly this doesn't work. But wait! The very next chapter for us absolute beginners is "Editing HTML" For crying out loud we bought DW because that's precisely what we don't want to do - at least not for another three months until we're familiar. I suggest that the author aquires some Adobe 'Classroom in a Box' titles and sees how a logical mind can steer a new user alonf and instruct & inform clearly. I bought this book so that I could try DW's offer of 30 days evaluation. Now I have Go Live and the appropriate classroom book and I'm away. Incidentally, I taught myself Photoshop & Illustrator from Classroom books and Filemaker & Quark from other books to the point that I teach these programs to fellow professionals. END

This book makes a good companion book to the book already provided along with the Dreamweaver 3 sofware, but does not walk you through actual web page development. I am now odering Dreamweaver for Dummies, so I can get some sort of a handle on Dreamweaver 3.

I'm a little perplexed by the Visual Quickstart series. They can always be counted on to take a mediocre manual, repackage it and sell it back to you. They have done so again with this book. If you have read the manual you'll realize this book is very similar. I'd suggest saving your money and purchasing Dreamweaver 3 HOT (Hands on Training) by Lynda Weinman and Garo Green. It's the best "training" book I've found to date.

This book does not cover more than the tutorial - and if you already have the same book for Dreamweaver 2 (Peach Pit Press - just like this one) and are a beginner or just getting started... you can certainly get by between the a Dreamweaver 2 book and the online tutorial. This book is just not worth the money. If you are a beginner across the board - the visual quickstarts are easy to follow, but still you can get just as much info in the online tutorials. If you want a real help - I recommend the 'Bible' series.