[.ca] Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004: Training from the Source (ISBN 0321219198)

Light Reading:
It may not be insignificant that sample pages are not posted for this book. I stopped by a local store to compare candidate books and found this one rather lacking for my purposes. The page layout is such that the wide, empty margins leave about 1/3 of the page empty. This is what my son does in school when he can't quite reach his page limit. Since there is a more advanced book in this series, the more advanced topics that you find in other books are not covered here. Dreamweaer MX 2004 Bible and Dreamweaver 2004 MX: The Missing Manual both looked more substantive and comprehensive.

Comprehensive yet simple:
In my attempt to learn Dreamweaver MX 2004 I purchased 5 books on the subject and scoured through dozens of others to find the most comprehensive yet easy to understand book. This book tops the list in both categories. Outlined below are some of the most helpful and useful features in this book. 1. Written in plain English without coming across as overly technical and with a full explanation of "WHY" things are done the way they are. 2. Step-by-step tutorials that not only walk you through the exercise, but also explain ALL the options available to you for each command/segment. This leaves you the option of either going through the options or just breezing through the basic exercises. 3. Helpful "tips and notes" are also a part of each step to introduce the reader to different methods of performing the same function. 4. Very well structured (chapter listing below): a. Dreamweaver Basics b. Adding Content to a Page c. Working with Graphics d. Creating Links e. Designing with Tables f. Developing Style Sheets g. Using Library Items h. Using Templates i. Creating Frames j. Creating Forms k. Adding User Interactivity l. Managing Your Site m. Accessibility and Testing n. Editing The Code o. Using Find and Replace p. Creating Layers q. Extending Dreamweaver 5. Easy enough to be used as a reference book after you complete the tutorials. Best book for you dollars, bar-none!

Great Book!:
In college I used to do some freelance web design using Dreamweaver/Fireworks 4. Then I moved on to other career paths, and 3 years later I want to get back into web development. I got a demo of Dreamweaver MX, and I was totally lost. At the recommendation of my local Macromedia User Group Admin, I checked out this book. It was a perfect combination of review (the small amount of things I remembered from 4) and all of the great new functions. I really liked how the author integrated all of the lessons within the framework of the "Lights of the Coast" website. (Even though I catch myself getting really tired of lighthouses by the time I was done). The lessons were the right length to get a firm understanding, without overkill or boring me to sleep. The steps for the most part we straight forward, and in bold type. There were a few sections where I was confused if the author wanted me to perform an action, or if it was just a side note (not in bold type). A couple extra screenshots through longer lessons could have relieved some confusion if I was really doing things correctly. I am surprised the author spent as much time with frames and tables, and only one chapter on CSS. But I also understand that this is a basics book, and they wanted to cover the major functionalities. Luckily most of the lessons did not require the previous lesson to be complete, so the reader is able to jump around. (Skipping frames didn't stop me from learning about forms). And even if they did the completed lesson files were already available. In summary, I highly recommend this book to any newcomer or out of practice user like myself. The lessons were organized with quality content. The ability to pick and choose from topics is essential. I'm sure I will read this book a few more times before I move on. I also look forward to reading more "From the Source" books, especially the Flash and Dreamweaver w/ PHP, Coldfusion. 5 out of 5

An Amazing book!!:
When I first bought Dreamweaver MX 2004, I knew very little about it. After reading this some odd 550 page book I felt very confident with my skills, You can choose to read the book or you can just go through the steps and pick up all you need to know that way. This book allows you to learn very fast and choose the amount of detail you want to learn. I have read many techincal books, which in most have many errors. I found no errors in the step by step part of this book, which is a huge surprise for a book of this type. Great book, I recommend it to everyone I know.

A must have for Dreamweaver beginners!:
I was new to Dreamweaver when I purchased this book to help me with my conversion from FrontPage. The book is clearly written and takes you step by step through each process. In addition, it shows alternatives methods for doing the same tasks which provides a more thorough understanding of the program. I also have to give Macromedia credit for pointing out specific bugs in the program and giving the work around for them. After completing the book I feel confident in my ability to build websites using Dreamweaver MX 2004.