Customer Reviews

GoLive CyberStudio 3.1 for Macintosh (Visual QuickStart Guide)

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3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

It was filled from cover to cover with useless information, typeos, and omited several key operations and topics. Completely useless!

The following is an excerpt taken directly from this book."3. In the Label field, GoLive Inc. with text of your own,describing the page or site the visitor will see when that item is chosen. (pp189"). It is an example of the many confusing and poorly edited instructions. In addition, there are numerous typos. And, if that isn't bad enough... there isn't any real depth to the instructions that ARE clearly written. It appears that this book was rushed to the publisher without any editor involved. I hope the 4.0 version (by the same author) VQG for GoLive shapes up!! I depend on these books which usually are quite good. This one sadly bombs!!

I agree with the other reviewers in that the book lacked depth. However, as a newcomer to web design it got me started and taught me the basics that I need to know. Before CyberStudio I did layout in plain HTML (which is helpful with CyberStudio) but I was not familiar with a lot of the tools and info boxes that are common in graphics programs. A CD with some Gifs and pages would have been a nice plus.

Manuals that accompany detailed programs like Cyberstudio are in almost all circumstances poorly organised and written, which is why some one would purchase a third party reference manual such as this. I have been studying Cyberstudio for some time using both this book and the official manual and have found that both are needed. The manual has FAR more detail than the quick start guide and in many areas simply explains things better. Having said that there are areas where the quick start guide explains things more CLEARLY, but leaves many of the details needed to properly use the functions out. I have found the quick start guide lacking in detail and poorly illustrated. Golive must be congratulated for thoroughly re-writing the 3rd edition manual from the 2nd edition, which was a joke. Not surprising considering these manuals were written in Germany by Germans who had a basic understanding of the English language and had no sense of how a beginner would first interpret the program (it was written in Germany) This quick start guide does not in any way replace the user manual and I would only recommend it if you need CLEARER explanations than what the user manual offers. You will have to read the quick start giude next to the user manual at the same time to get the full picture in how to use this wonderful program.

I purchased this book basically because it was the only 3rd party guide written on CyberStudio 3. I was disappointed by the general lack of specific tips and techniques about using CS3. Some real life examples using actual web sites would have been much more helpful than the generic tips that are given. Maybe my expectations were too high, after all this a QuickStart guide and doesn't necessarily claim to get into too much detail. The lack of detailed examples would have forgivable if the guide was well-written and easy to follow. Unfortunately, it wasn't. There were many times when using this book that I became confused about exactly what I was supposed to do. In fact, there were a few places in the book where the information was just plain wrong. There were also an unusually high number of typos. I would say to anyone considering purchasing this book, if you really need a 3rd party guide to CS3 and you can't wait, purchase it at your own risk. If not, wait for IDG Books to come out with the inevitable "CyberStudio for Dummies" or MacWorld's "CyberStudio Bible".

While I found Brisbin's book generally helpful, I can't ignore the astounding number of typos that are present in this edition. It feels very much like it was rushed to press to capitalize on the popularity of Cyberstudio 3.1. I hope future additions will address the problem.

I did hope for a few more technique how-tos, but for a beginner or intemediate CyberStudio user, it will be an indespensable guide.