Customer Reviews

Sams Teach Yourself Macromedia Dreamweaver MX in 24 Hours

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Wow! What a great book! I work for a small business and had been given the ominous task of updating our company Web site. I knew that with only basic knowledge of HTML, I was in for some longer work days ahead. Bruce's book not only gave me the immediate skills I needed to accomplish the task at hand, but provided me with numerous tips and tricks to increase my efficiency. With the time-crunch over, and the Web site up and running, I've had time to go back through the book and appreciate the extra "cool" features that she has included. I personally recommend this book for anyone who needs a quick guide to help them get down and dirty with Dreamweaver. I didn't know it would be this easy!

At the risk of echoing what others have said, this book is not a tutorial at all. It provides information on how to do basic things in Dreamweaver in a kind of haphazard way but provides none of the guided practices or exercises that would qualify it as a tutorial or "teach yourself" book. It is certainly not on par with Sams Teach Yourself Flash MX, a book that I would highly recommend. 90% of what's in this book, you could get from the Help that comes with Dreamweaver, and the Help is at least as intelligible as this book. For what this book offers, the reader would be better off with Que's Using Dreamweaver MX. If you want a "teach yourself" type book, look elsewhere.

As a new Dreamweaver user, I was not pleased with this book at all. The authors approach was unclear and not laid out thoughtfully. I had just gotten through the "Flash in 24 hours" and I was expecting the Dreameaver book to be just as good. Unfortunately ive realized that its not the series, but the author which makes a book great. Im currently half way through and Im now on-line searching for another Dreamweaver book.

Sams Teach yourself Macromedia Dreamweaver MX in 24 hours by Betsy Bruce consists of 24 one hour lessons that guide you through the whole web development process in Dreamweaver MX from absolute basics such as exploring the interface to finally uploading your completed site. The one thing I found that this book does not cover is connecting a website to a database.

Bruce's book works well, both as a reference guide and a step by step tutorial guide. I was using the basic features of Dreamweaver 3 and found this guide useful in quickly familiarising myself with the MX interface, while also learning new things as my work required.

The language and explanations are clear and easy to understand and the ordering of information is logical and flows naturally. The use of icons to break up information is useful, for example a light bulb icon indicates extra tips and an alarm clock icon cautions the reader of potential problems and how to avoid or fix them. The information is also made easy to understand by the use of a lot of visuals.

I personally recommend this book to new Dreaweaver users as well as basic and intermediate users of previous versions of Dreamweaver.

I bought this book and was sorely disappointed. I am a fairly proficient computer person; this book was not easy-to-follow. Contrary to a previous review, there were no "step-by-step" instructions at all. It basically said "do this", threw up a screenshot, and it didnt say exactly how to do it. I got to Chapter 6 and I am realizing that I am going to need another Dreamweaver MX tutorial book. I'm not happy about this at all.

On a related note, I have bought SAMS Teach Yourself books and have never been disappointed. This was a first. ...I plan to avoid future titles from this author based on this book. This is just my honest opinion. Good luck...

If you have never used Dreamwaever before or had minimal exposure, this book will frustrate the heck out of you. I found myself constantly thinking that I had 'missed a page' somewhere because the book was not making sense. I'm only on Day 4 and am already looking for a new book. This book is not written well and is hard to follow. So for a newbie such as myself I do not need the frustration of trying to figure out the program and the book that's suppose to make the program easier.

I have found using this book to be a frustrating experience. The author's approach, while friendly, is frequently unclear. I can't help but feel that this book was edited by already-proficient computer users, not by those who are new to computers. Illustrations scattered throughout the book often serve to further obscure, rather than clarify, the author's meaning. I had little trouble with another book in the Sams series - Teach Yourself CorelDraw 8 - so I am surprised that this one seems so hard to use.
I know that the author has also written the book for DreamweaverMX 2004. One hopes that she has gotten some of the "bugs" worked out of her most recent tutorial!

This book is a very helpful guide to Dreamweaver MX. I found that I was able to avoid several pitfalls I was headed for before I read the clear and easy to understand tips. The instruction was easy to follow and guided me step by clear step through most of the things I needed to accomplish. I liked the friendly tone of the writing style.

This book introduces Dreamweaver in an easy to understand format. The directions are clear with numbered steps. I didn't read all of the chapters but will keep the book as a reference for future stuff I might want to do on another website.

Recommended.

If you're looking for a book to get you started with Dreamweaver MX then buy this book.

I found the book worth the money. It's a quick, easy, enjoyable, and productive book. It's broken into small segments that can be easily read during the typical TV commercial breaks.

I found it quicker and easier to use than trying to go through the built-in Dreamweaver MX tutorial. Even though our Coldfusion MX server isn't ready, there is code and lessons learned that can even be used for Coldfusion 5 projects.

After successfully finishing this book, then venture out and tackle the more complex, harder to comprehend, technical offerings.