Customer Reviews

Sams Teach Yourself Adobe Creative Suite 3 All in One

5 star:		(5)
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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Some people have a real gift for taking the complex and breaking it down into a simpler language for others to understand. That's exactly what Mordy Golding did with this book and I love it!! I bought this book after trying "Adobe Illustrator CS3 WOW" which seemed to assume I already knew how to use the illustrator program and thus left out many relevant details. This book doesn't assume anything and walks you through each program step by step! It has been exhilarating! I feel capable!

I bought this book because I just got CS3. Now, I bought full books for reference on the programs I'll really use a lot, but I wanted a good, decent book to give me an overview of the new features of the programs I know as well as give me a decent working knowledge of the programs I don't know at all (Flash and Dreamweaver).

What I found was that in each program's section... The best way to say it is that the authors and editors got bored. For the first three programs it starts out strong, then goes downhill. I skimmed the last few (up to 15-30) pages of the sections.

Then the real problems started. Gobbledygook sentences. Vague explanations. References to things I know nothing about.

And I really mean this. I can't believe Sam's editorial staff is so poor that they let this book go out like this. (With the gobbledygook sentences. I think someone scanned in pages, or hit keys by accident, but no matter--after more than 5 such instances, I'm getting annoyed.)

I'm in the Flash section now and some concepts are beyond me. This means the authors didn't explain them well at all. To add to the confusion they're suddenly talking about features for the first time and not telling the reader how to access them or anything logical like that. The only time this one feature is mentioned in the book is this one paragraph (I checked the index. I checked Flash's help menu. Nada.) The continuity editor should have caught this bit.

I used to like Sam's books, but unless this one does a bang-up job teaching me Dreamweaver, I won't be returning.

Concise, clear and didactic introductory text for Adobe's Creative Suit 3. Recommended for beginners to grasp the basics.

I bought this book to learn a few skills for all the apps in Adobe's CS3 Suite. It's terrible. It doesn't teach. Rather it's a giant list of features that doesn't put features in context. It doesn't provide tutorials. It doesn't give you step-by-steps. I happen to be on page 152 as I discover this Amazon review page. I wanted to learn about Quick Masks. In eleven sentences, you learn to press 'Q'. If you want instructions to follow that puts Quick Mask in context, forget it.

I bought this book hoping to use it to learn the basics on a few of the programs in my Creative Suite. Unfortunately, this book doesn't cover two of the programs that I really wanted to learn, namely Fireworks and Premiere! I don't know why they're not included. Seems kind of weird to leave those two very functional programs out. So if you are wanting to learn anything other than Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, Dreamweaver or Acrobat, look for a different book.

This seller went above and beyond to rush me this item in pristine condition. Packaging was first class, even aesthetically pleasing. Buy with confidence. Would purchase from seller again.

The book was exactly what I needed. It was mailed in a very timely manner and the transaction was very smooth.

I have only read a small portion of the book, but I received it in a timely manner. The parts I have read I have really enjoyed, and it is exactly what I wanted.