Sams Teach Yourself Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 in 24 Hours [Paperback]

Betsy Bruce (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0672327538 | ISBN-13: 978-0672327537 | Publication Date: October 10, 2005 | Edition: 3rd

Learn how to fully exploit the power of Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 with Sams Teach Yourself Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 in 24 Hours. Divided into 24 one-hour lessons, you will learn how to create webpages and how to use the latest and greatest toolset in this updated version of Macromedia Dreamweaver. Author Besty Bruce, a web applications developer and Macromedia-authorized Dreamweaver and Authorware Trainer, will show you how to build your knowledge of Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 and authoring websites with her carefully guided instruction. You will focus on how to use Macromedia Dreamweaver 8  to:

• Quickly build a dynamic website.
• Employ client-side image maps and interactive forms.
• Design a layout with frames and tables.
• Add interactivity with scripts and controls.
• Add audio, video, and other active content.

Sams Teach Yourself Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 in 24 Hours is fully updated to the newest version of Macromedia Dreamweaver 8, providing you with a comprehensive, up-to-date learning and reference tool.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Betsy Bruce is a web applications developer and Macromedia-authorized Dreamweaver and Authorware Trainer for MediaPro, Inc. She specializes in computer and web-based training applications and consults with major corporations on both design and training. As an authorized trainer, she has traveled the country guiding groups from corporations to school districts in effectively creating dynamic web content.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

"Ooooooo, Dreamweaver. I believe you can get me through the night." Remember that song by Gary Wright? Okay, some of you weren't born yet. The song brought up memories of seventh-grade dances for me. I'm glad that Dreamweaver, the software, came along and replaced that vision in my head. Dreamweaver, the software, has helped me through a number of nights developing websites and web applications!

I started using Dreamweaver when it first came out. Web page–editing tools were frustrating in that pre-Dreamweaver age. Many web developers were annoyed that some tools would rewrite or even delete some of the code they had just lovingly crafted. I remember one instance where I jumped up and down, stomping in my office, for almost five minutes after one tool deleted several hundred lines of JavaScript I had just written. So, many developers at that time preferred to use a simple text editor and write HTML and JavaScript by hand. I think Macromedia web developers must have been frustrated at that time, too, because they created a tool, Dreamweaver, that had all the features a web developer could want.

And Dreamweaver has continued to be the industry standard for web development tools.

What Is Dreamweaver 8?

Dreamweaver 8 is the newest version of Macromedia Dreamweaver, an award-winning HTML editor and web application–development tool. Some people do not exploit the more powerful features of Dreamweaver because they don't know about them. You will not be one of those people with this book in your hand!

Whether you use Mac OS X or Windows, you'll get the same robust set of features from Dreamweaver 8. The interfaces for the two operating systems look slightly different but you can produce the same beautiful, functional websites with either version.

Dreamweaver is excellent at quickly creating attractive web pages that include styled text, images, forms, frames, tables, and more. But Dreamweaver really shines when you need to make your web page do something. Dreamweaver excels at Dynamic HTML (DHTML), the web functionality that enables the user to interact with your web page. Don't know how to script? No problem! Dreamweaver includes behaviors, scripted functionality that you simply click to add to a certain object.

Dreamweaver 8 also excels at enabling you to create and apply standard Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to format how your web pages display in the browser. Dreamweaver 8 gives you the capability to use CSS to style your web pages. You can also use Dreamweaver tools to design your page layout using CSS.

Who Should Use Dreamweaver 8?

Whether you are creating your very first web page or have decided to try web-editing software after coding by hand for years, you are going to love Macromedia Dreamweaver 8. Dreamweaver gives you the freedom to visually design the look of a web page and the power to make it act the way you want. Dreamweaver gives you the flexibility to create your own personal web page or an entire corporate intranet site.

Who Should Use This Book?

This book is for anyone now using Dreamweaver, as well as anyone who is planning to. If you are new to web development, this book will get you up to speed creating web pages and websites. If you are already a web developer, you'll find tips, tricks, and instructions to get all you can out of Dreamweaver 8.

This book covers creating static web pages in Dreamweaver 8, including forms, images, tables, page layout, interacting with users, managing your websites and many other topics. After you have mastered the 24 hours of content covered in this book, you might want to explore the advanced capabilities of Dreamweaver 8 to create web pages that connect to databases. Even if your ultimate goal is to create dynamic web pages based on databases, you'll benefit from knowing how Dreamweaver creates and maintains static web page content.

How to Use This Book

Each hour of this book represents a lesson that should take you approximately an hour to learn. The book is designed to get you productively working in Dreamweaver 8 as quickly as possible. There are numerous figures to illustrate the lessons in the book.

Code lines, commands, statements, and any other code-related terms appear in a monospace typeface. Placeholders (which stand for what you should actually type) appear in italic monospace.

Each lesson begins with a list of topics and an overview. The lesson ends with a summary, questions and answers, a quiz, and some exercises you can try on your own.

Within the lessons you'll find the following elements that provide additional information:

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By the Way notes give extra information on the current topic.

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Did You Know? tips offer advice or describe an additional way of accomplishing something.

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Watch Out! cautions signal you to be careful of potential problems and give you information on how to avoid or fix them.

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As you read this book and work through the examples, remember: Have fun!

Betsy Bruce

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Sams; 3rd edition (October 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672327538
• ISBN-13: 978-0672327537
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,042,711 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Scratches the surface and just that..., November 28, 2005

By 

Ghostman (LA, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 in 24 Hours (Paperback)

This is a great book for beginners that want to create amateur-decent websites. Any knowledge beyond the intermediate level will have to be sought elsewhere.

The book is broken down into chapters, each chapter refered to as "one hour." The first few hours are easy-to-follow, but as you advance the chapters, the author's wear and tear becomes more and more evident. The instructions and descriptions start becoming sloppy and lackluster.

Some chapters - particularly the early ones - cover simple concepts comprehensively with unnecessarily meticulous description, while the later chapters are skimmed and vague. For instance, the author doesn't bother to explain the real difference between table layout, table cells and layers - the advantages, disadvantages, etc. If you're not familiar with these concepts, you will be baffled and left out in the cold. She also doesn't expand further than merely teaching you how to make a table, cell or layer, which is a shame because these tools are pivotal designing tools for professional webdesigners (what the book promises to make of you at its completion). Another tragic mistake by the author was skipping another crucial designing method called floating and failing to spend sufficient time on CSS. Instead she spends a whole chapter on frames, a primitive designing feature that has long been abandoned with stone tires.

The book is also misleading because every "hour" takes closer to two hours. Some even three. This is not because the chapters are so long, but because it takes time to consume the material and process the information into your cerebral registry. It takes time to apply the instructions and practice to perfect the chapters. And that could easily mean more than one hour per chapter. Plus, there are a lot of times you just don't understand what some of the poor descriptions are talking about and spend 30 minutes easy trying to figure out what's happening on your own. Sooner or later you start drifting into space and the next thing you know, an hour has flown by in lala land.

Don't get me wrong. For a newbie, the book is excellent at acquainting you with Dreamweaver 8, but if you're looking to be designing professional websites afterward as the book asserts, I recommend you do a lot of research online, as few books on DW cover beyond the basics.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Betsy Bruce's writing is clear and easily digestible, December 10, 2005

By 

D-MAG.org Reviewer (Lexington, KY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 in 24 Hours (Paperback)

In the computer world, things change in the blink of an eye. The Sams Publishing Teach Yourself . in 24 Hours series can get the reader up and running in a matter of days. Concepts are delivered in units that are designed to be completed within 1 hour per unit. Betsy Bruce's Teach Yourself Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 in 24 Hours is no exception.

Teach Yourself Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 in 24 Hours is written for a reader new to building websites and to Dreamweaver or a reader who is somewhat familiar with those topics but not Dreamweaver. The structure of the book begins with a quick tour of Dreamweaver 8 then takes the reader through basic HTML and images and beyond to more advanced topics such as Dynamic HTML (DHTML) and form handling.

Due to reader request and because many new Dreamweaver users also have Macromedia Fireworks (as part of Macromedia Studio , there is a "bonus" lesson on the use of Fireworks to optimize images for the web.

Dreamweaver how-tos and HTML concepts are introduced in a logical progression; for example, readers are taught basic layout using tables and frames then are introduced to the use of layers and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).

As with all books in the in 24 Hours series, each lesson concludes with a Q&A section to reinforce the key concepts presented and a Workshop section which contains a simple quiz to test understanding and a hands-on "lab" that asks the reader to perform certain tasks that were explained in the lesson.

As a training aid targeted at getting new Dreamweaver users up and running quickly, the book covers static pages only, leaving database connections, server-side scripting options, and other advanced topics for other books such as Teach Yourself PHP in 24 Hours (ISBN 0-672-32619-1) or Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 Unleashed (ISBN 0-672-32760-0), part of Sams Publishing's Unleashed series.

Betsy Bruce's writing is clear and easily digestible. She gives enough explanation with some background information where applicable without meandering through unnecessary or confusing information. Where beneficial to understanding the use of a Dreamweaver feature or capability, she gives examples of how she uses that feature or capability in her own work.

Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 in 24 Hours is an excellent aid for the new Dreamweaver user who has a need to hit the ground running. Those who have used Dreamweaver MX or Dreamweaver MX 2004 or are a new Dreamweaver 8 user who can afford a more leisurely pace may be better off taking a look at the
previously mentioned Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 Unleashed.

Reviewer: Robert Saucier
Member, D-MAG.org

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great start !, January 31, 2007

By 

Eddie Landsberg "My 10th year as a reviewer !... (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 in 24 Hours (Paperback)

Of important note: The back of the book states that its a BEGINNER level book. This means that if you're an experienced web designer looking for DREAMWEAVER'S missing manual to guide you through its more advanced features, the book will be a disappointement. On the other hand, if you're new to DREAMWEAVER, CSS as well as the quirks of how to lay out a web page using the program on a very basic level, the book is definitely a painless and user friendly read. Betsy Bruce's writing style is very nice... flows nicely, easy to follow and will head you off in the write direction. Then, after that you can deal with the NO printed manual problem (grrrrrrrrrr...)