Customer Reviews

Macromedia Dreamweaver MX Hands-On Training

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I come to Dreamweaver as a reasonably good HTML programmer, and an advanced beginner in PHP and MySQL. I was looking for a Dreamweaver book that would get me up to speed quickly on the ins and outs of the program, without a lot of unnecessary text and gobble-de-gook thickening the volume but not imparting information. On that basis, Dreamweaver HOT succeed - it is an entirely comprehensive book for the beginning Dreamweaver-er, especially if you have no HTML experience and come to the application as a Designer. If you are a bit more advanced, you'll find this book quite easy to skim through, as its easy design makes jumping redundant parts possible, but ultimately you'll find it a little bit lightweight.

Overall, the book is well laid out with sections tackling each of the major areas you'd be interested in learning: tables, CSS, the odious frames, rollovers, etc. I knocked this off In a long afternoon - despite being 645 pages - as it is very image heavy, which seems to make sense for the material. The layout is very nice and "webby", if that adjective makes sense. The authors are obviously knowledgeable and come across as sympathetic without being patronizing (unlike the Dummies books which I used to adore but now despise.)

The authors, from their backpage promo photos, appear to be 20-somethings, and the book is written at that level. A lot of "sweet", "nice!", and "cool" interjections in here, and some hipster commiseration with the fact that you're inside reading a *computer programming* guide rather than, say, listening to Blonde Redhead down at the alternative coffee shop. These never come across as cloying or goofy, though, and in my opinion make the somewhat dry subject matter a little easier to slog through.

There is a lot of hand-holding in this book for the designer. The authors are very careful to flag any missteps or strange things you might come across. They explain each feature from two or three different angles, without being repetitive. And they are very thorough in making sure that nobody could be left behind due to poor Macromedia design, conflicting web standards or misunderstood terminology, e.g., "As you work through Dreamweaver MX, you will notice references to a local root folder, a root folder, and root. All these terms are interchangeable. Each refers to a folder on your hard drive that contains all of the HTML, images, etc. for your Web site. This can be any folder on your computer. It can be empty, or it can have an entirely completed Web site. Don't be confused by this slight difference in terminology."

None left behind.

The authors also do a reasonably good job of guessing what a designer might be looking to accomplish, laying out the steps to get there, and placing flashing warning lights near common mistakes:

"As you have just seen, the purpose of this exercise was to get you comfortable inserting different Form objects and modifying some of their properties. Remember, to make a form perform its functions, you would need to attach a CGI or other scripting program to it."

I skipped the hands-on demos on the attached CD as they seemed targeted at folks who have confidence problems in dealing with menus, forms, and pop-up interfaces. So I can't tell you a lot about how well those work.

This book is most appropriate for designers, people with limited or no HTML knowledge, and folks looking to just make a site without having to become an expert in computer science. With that as the target market, I think this book succeeds very well, and is well worth it or you.

I feel that somebody with coding experience and a good understanding of HTML could probably find a better place to spend... for a Dreamweaver guide. Big chunks of the application - those that deal with scripting, database interfaces, etc., are "out of the scope" of this book, which is editorially consistent with their target audience, but probably not what you are looking for. In your case, perhaps the O'Reilly book would be better. I'm reading that this upcoming week and should have a review up then.

So although I'm happy with the level of knowledge I acquired, I give this book a 5 out of 5 for newbies and a 3 out of 5 for experienced web people.

Enjoy.

Dreamweaver MX HOT (Hands-On Training) is a great book.

I am only on page 156, and the book has gone through the basic fundamentals, showing different ways DW MX can accomplish different tasks.

I highly recommend this book as an addition to your collection. I have bought maybe 6-7 books, returned some, kept others, this is one I will keep.

It shows you images (blank & white) of how your page should look as you move through the exercises. It is really a book to have if you are looking for the tutorial approach as opposed to just a reference book!

Thumbs up!

As the name indicates, this is truly a 'Hands-On Training' book. The writing style of the book is focused on explaining how to perform various actions and accomplish the desired results using the step by step illustrations. It is a simple, clear, and fairly complete introduction to using Dreamweaver MX for creating stellar websites.

If you are used to an abstract discussion of a topic, you will NOT find it here and may be very frustrated by the lack of defined principles to teaching Dreamweaver MX. One simple example of this problem is with the discussion of Absolute and Relative Links. If you are trying to understand the definitions, advantages/disadvantages, and usage at first glance, you will be disappointed with the exercise style format. It will take a couple of readings to glean that type of information from the book.

Throughout the book, every topic starts out by giving you the details of different results and ways to accomplishing them. It is up to you to figure out the principles behind Dreamweaver MX (if you are interested in that sort of thing). The book does clearly indicate in the title and in the introductory pages that it was NOT written for technical folks or programmers, but for non-technical/non-programmer audience.

If you meet the criteria for the intended audience, this is just an absolutely fantastic book to get you started with Web Design using Dreamweaver MX. You do not need to master HTML to use Dreamweaver MX and hence the book doesnt try to teach you HTML. The book is a bit on the pricey side but well worth the investment.

The book comes with a CD-ROM that has 30 day trial versions of Dreamweaver MX, Fireworks MX. It is helpful for those with dial-up connections to have the software on CD-ROM to avoid long download times. The CD-ROM also comes with the exercise files which are very valuable for practice. Though you could very easily use any site on the Web for practicing the various concepts, it is easy to just use the examples from the book to stay with the Author's explanation.

The paper quality and page layout is very pleasing throughout the book. Sometimes, the wrong kind of paper can discourage frequent use of a book. This book does not suffer from that problem. The entire book is in black and white though and there are no color images anywhere in the book. The only color you will see is on the cover of the book. This hasn't been a problem for me yet. I would imagine this could be a problem for similar book on Fireworks MX or Flash MX that are more graphic intensive.

What really stands out about the book is the thorough coverage of almost everything that is involved in using Dreamweaver MX. And you dont even have to be a programmer! No wonder this almost 700 page book has such a good sales rank at Amazon.com. There are other really good books on the topic so do check out the others before deciding on this pricier choice. I hope you enjoy the book as much I do.

Dreamweaver MX Hands-On Training is definitely a book I would recommend to anyone wishing to learn Dreamweaver MX. The book is intended for beginners and intermediates.

The explanations are clear and easy to understand. The many screen shots are invaluable. The exercises were developed to naturally flow. Doing an exercise in the previous chapter assists with the following chapters.

The CD includes all the software, files, and images needed to learn Dreamwaver and secondly, to build a great web site.

The website that you build by following the exercises in this book is amazing! The website one builds is one model of what an excellent website looks like.

I originally wanted to purchase the TeachYouself Visually book but I'm glad I purchased this book instead.

The authors are definitely effective teachers who know their material.

I'm in the middle of the book and I must say that of all the 4 Dreamweaver MX tutotial books that I've bought this one is by far the best and the most effective of them all. It guides you step by step seeing to it that you understand each topic before moving on to the next that no matter how complex some topics are, they will appear so simple and basic, hence, very easy to comprehend. How I wish I've discovered this book earlier (before I bought those other books)for that would have saved me a lot of precious hours and cash in learning Dreamweaver MX. To the authors and publishers of Dreamweaver MX Hands-On Training, you really did a great job deserving of a 5 star rating!

I've just finished this book couple of minutes ago. I'm really glad to buy this book.

I do programming in HTML,Java Script,C++, Java, ASP, and soon CFM. I tried many books about web deveplopment&design(dreamweaver,flash,photoshop,cold fusion,etc,...). The other books had way too many jargon words, or way too many examples without real explanations.

This book starts with the basics and walks you through all the fundamentals you need to know about dreamweavermx.It's easy to read and follow. You have the questions, they got the answers.

After I went through the first 6 Chapters of this book, I ordered FlashMX Hands-On-Training and Photoshop7/ImageReady Hands-On-Training. Thank you Garo,Abigail, and Lynda for this book and the rest of H.O.T series

I was new to all the Macromedia MX products and was confused on which book to start with. I am familiar with other web design tools, terminology, and concepts so understanding the content was not a problem. I have also been through several certifications where the training materials were complicated reading, which this is not. This book starts with the basics of the tool and walks you through chapter by chapter, using different aspects of the tools abilties in an easy to read, easy to follow format. The tutorials provide useful excersizes which are explained well. I was impressed at the pace I was able to keep while going through this book. It is laid out well and has proved useful for me to get a good understanding of Dreamweaver MX. Now I just need something like it for Fireworks!

The hands-on-training books are BY FAR the best tutorials I have ever seen. They don't try to cover everything, but the fact that you can start the tutorials ANYWHERE and have a complete set of files to work with make them head and shoulders over books where, at the end of a chapter, you are not really sure how to do something. In other words, you can choose your learning style, and approach the subject in a non-linear manner.

One reviewer worried about the demo software timing out. That's not why you should by the book. The book is for the tutorials. And the clarity of the writing.

If you are trying to get started and only have the bucks for one book, this is the one to get.

I will keep this short. I have been working in the Tech Sector for years, and now I felt it was time to start a small business and put up a website. I bought the Dreamweaver HOT book, along with some other HOT books.

The content is excellent! It is the most straight forward manual I have ever read. The authors make sure you don't get lost with information. I am very pleased with this book. I have also purchased the Flash HOT book, and from now on, will get HOT books for any subject I may need to brush up with.

It is worth the money. Also, there was a customer that stated not to buy this book, and just stick with the tutorials that come with Dreamweaver MX. BIG MISTAKE. Buy this book.. The tutorials only cover some of the content, and they are not good themselves. Buy this book. You will be pleased.

As someone who is highly computer savy but new to Dreamweaver, I found this book very helpful in giving me a foundation and skill set to use this software. At times it seemed like it was written specially for me - right when I was about to skip ahead came a paragraph stopping me from doing so and urging me to stay with the program! I powered through the book from cover to cover in 3 days and since have built 3 sites. As a reference guide it's not the best (I'd recommend Dreamweaver MX Bible for that), but for a practical introduction to getting up and going it would be tought to beat this book!