Dreamweaver 3 for Dummies

List Price: $24.99 Discount Price: $9.98

Customer Reviews:

An excellent book but not for beginners. [Posted on 2000-08-31]
This book is an excellent reference. However it's format differs considerably from some "For Dummies" books. I cannot claim to have read all the "For Dummies" books, but most that I have read pretty much take a hands on approach, tell you what to do, indicate what the screen is supposed to look like after you do it, and go on from there explaining the function of all screens and the various choices they present. And then usually walking the reader through most of the choices. This doesn't happen in Dreamweaver 3. It does discuss the functions of the program in a clear and accurate manner. But there is no thread of an ongoing project that, upon completing the book, would be finished and ready to be read by a browser. The book is strong on technical aspects of the program but contains virtually no practical applications of these technical functions. The closest it comes is at the beginning of the book where the auther instructs the reader... "Write something". But that's the last specific directive given to the reader. It's an excellent book for those who have a good solid understanding of basic Web site development. But as a step by step hands on training text for the beginner, it could lead to more frustration than learning.

Deeply disappointing [Posted on 2000-10-06]
Y'know, I was just rarin' to go, to dive straight into Dreamweaver 3 and knock out my first web site. I figured the "Dummies" series might be a good place to start. Now I'd never bought a Dummies book before, but (silly me) I assumed from the title that one of these books would walk one through a project from ground-zero inception.

Not only does this book *not* do that, but some of its commentary is inaccurate - as if someone had done a sloppy rehash of "Dreamweaver 2 for Dummies" and peddled it as the latest and greatest.

So...I'm still, sadly, looking for a Dreamweaver 3 book as stylish *and* practical as Hillman Curtis' book on Flash. I strongly recommend against buying this book unless you're already a little proficient with this tool.

Lacks A Project Format [Posted on 2000-10-09]
This is not a bad book for beginners but it could have been better. The language is uncomplicated but the one important thing that it lacks is that there is no thread of an ongoing project that, upon completing the book, would be finished and ready to be read by a browser.

There should have been a fictional company and the assignment for readers should have been to design a webpage for them. PLEASE include this in the book for the next version.

Haphazard. Unnecessarily difficult for beginners. [Posted on 2000-10-30]
As a basic get-going this Dummies issue isn't too bad, in that it explains the menu options and some rudiments. That said, I found it to be rather disappointing in the way it approached matters; it tending to start a subject, dive off somewhere else, returning to what you started with someplace else - maybe chapters later.

The opening chapters were rambling and repetitive with useful details mentioned in passing, For example, shift+enter is a line break and the enter key is a paragraph break. I missed this the first time around and, after finding the function by accident, spotted it in the book's text by chance.

The way in which table-sizing was handled was also clumsy: all you have to do is use the mouse and click and drag the sizing handles like in other programmes instead of always going through the property inspector.

Too much space was spent in giving examples of other peoples' work which wasn't particularly poignant (18oz being a remarkable piece of nonsense) and, more often than not, a contradiction to the better practices preached.

Okay, the book covers a lot: Dreamweaver 3, Fireworks 3, and Flash 4. But in rather an unnecessarily schematic way within the space provided to avoid the feeling that I should be reading something more advanced and which still covered the opening basics.

Nevertheless it's reasonable value at the price.

Dreaming of a better Dummies Dreamweaver Book [Posted on 2001-02-11]
If you already know something about HTML authoring this book isn't too bad if you want a quick guide to the program. BUT if you are a newbie to creating websites, then this book is a poor place to start. I purchased this book for a friend who wanted to get up and running, and while I know there is no substitute for a human teacher - this guide was a poor textbook at best. The chapters don't explain the basic concepts behind websites, so while the reader can find out how to use Dreamweaver to make frames, tables and CSS - there is little to nothing on what a "dummy" would find useful (example: how to make text a specific color). This book has too much fluff with chapters like "Fulfilling Your Dreams" and "Making It Cool" but very little about the basic lessons a beginner could use.

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