Rating: 
Summary: A nifty experience
Review: Every now and then I take up an idea and run with it. Lately I've been thinking about starting my own e-business. To that end I decided to study up on the composition of web pages, so that I might create one for myself and provide my own upkeep thereafter. In reading up on web businesses Dreamweaver was one of several programs suggested for the purpose of efficient web page design. I consulted my husband--the family computer guru--about it, and he said it was probably the best program I could get. When I worried that it might be more than I could handle, his reply? "You're the smartest person I know. Believe me, you can do this." While I appreciated his whole-hearted support, I have to admit I was still a little apprehensive. Before I purchased an expense piece of software, I decided to get the H.O.T Dreamweaver book by Green and Rudner to help me learn it. I found it splendidly lucid. I read the book cover to cover, visualizing the steps with the illustrations provided in the text, then began the programmed learning CD. It was marvelously simple, mostly cut and paste, drag and click. I also liked the advantage of being able to look behind the scenes to learn the HTML that makes the whole thing work. There is a large caveat to the situation, however, mainly that as pointed out by other reviewers you eventually have to have files of your own with which to complete your ultimate goal. That will involve you in learning other programs like Adobe Photoshop, Flash, or others with which you can create these files. Furthermore, these programs require even more artistic talent, scope, patience and diligence than the Dreamweaver program does. For me, that fact suggests more fun things to learn. For others it may be a major pain and one more hurtle to leap on the way to doing what they really want to do. If you find yourself in the latter group, I'd find a professional web page designer to take the problem off your shoulders. If you're like me and enjoy learning new things, especially new media of expression, then this is the program for you. It's a nifty experience.
Rating:
Summary: Great book to begin with
Review: For the newbies to Dreamweaver MX, this is a great book to begin with. The exercises are very easy to follow and the plans are well layed out. I would have given this 6 stars except that the pages are in black and white(which is bearable) and after you finish with the lessons you are still stumped about how to design your first website creating your own .gifs and other cool things the book contains to finish the exercises.
However, I am very pleased with this book for its well layed out tutorial style of teaching.
Rating:
Summary: Excelent!!
Review: Guys, If you really want to learn Dreamweaver from the very beggining, this is the book for you. I have never touched dreamweaver before because it looked so complicated, and I can tell, after you read the first two chapters you feel so confident that you want to start making web sites right away. The books is excelent, one of the best I've ever read. This guys are very smart, some books nowdays are full of repetitive instructions, this one is different, once they have explained something they don't tell you over and over again how to do it, so you save time and you learn new things at every single page. Thanks so much for making this book this way. I hightly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: CAN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS
Review: I bought this book for my wife for her birthday, as she is now designing sites for my web design company. I also work in conjunction with teams of people on web sites as the project manager, and in IT rolls, working with numerous programs. I decided to take a look at it the first time waiting for a dance recital to start. I couldn't have bought her a better book. I have worked in Dreamweaver since version 2 and bought several books for the program, but this book is the best! In fact, it's the best technical book that I have for learning programs. It's got an incredible organization. I have tapped into it myself to catch up on some of the new features that I would have otherwise missed since I do these things in other programs. This book gives you everything you need to know to produce an awesome web site, and it does it in a fresh way. You don't feel like you're looking at a technical book, and you can sense that the writers have a passion for what they are doing. Did I say organization? I know I have but I had to say it again. Great book, can't beat it.
Rating: 
Summary: Clear. Practical. Examples.
Review: I chose this book out of the myriad of Dreamweaver MX instruction books because (a) it has practical exercises - I learn better by DOING, and (b) it has pictures/screen shots - I'm visual and need to see what someone else is doing in order to learn it. The CD-rom that comes with the book contains files that you copy to your hard drive and use with each chapter of the book. I'm very pleased with this book. My only complaint is that, as a newcomer, the book has taught me how to use Dreamweaver MX but I still don't grasp some of the concepts behind it. For instance, the book shows how to utilize Dreamweaver MX to produce your site, but I still don't comprehend the "assembly line" concept of spitting out pages. I understand what templates and libraries are, but since the book concentrates on preassembled examples I don't really have an idea of how to start my own site from scratch. This is not a big complaint. I've learned so much from the book anyway, and find it very clear in its instructions.
Rating:
Summary: Effective educationally, editorially efiicient, and easy.
Review: I come to Dreamweaver as a reasonably good HTML programmer, and an advanced beginner in PHP and MySQL. I was looking for a Dreamweaver book that would get me up to speed quickly on the ins and outs of the program, without a lot of unnecessary text and gobble-de-gook thickening the volume but not imparting information. On that basis, Dreamweaver HOT succeed - it is an entirely comprehensive book for the beginning Dreamweaver-er, especially if you have no HTML experience and come to the application as a Designer. If you are a bit more advanced, you'll find this book quite easy to skim through, as its easy design makes jumping redundant parts possible, but ultimately you'll find it a little bit lightweight. Overall, the book is well laid out with sections tackling each of the major areas you'd be interested in learning: tables, CSS, the odious frames, rollovers, etc. I knocked this off In a long afternoon - despite being 645 pages - as it is very image heavy, which seems to make sense for the material. The layout is very nice and "webby", if that adjective makes sense. The authors are obviously knowledgeable and come across as sympathetic without being patronizing (unlike the Dummies books which I used to adore but now despise.) The authors, from their backpage promo photos, appear to be 20-somethings, and the book is written at that level. A lot of "sweet", "nice!", and "cool" interjections in here, and some hipster commiseration with the fact that you're inside reading a *computer programming* guide rather than, say, listening to Blonde Redhead down at the alternative coffee shop. These never come across as cloying or goofy, though, and in my opinion make the somewhat dry subject matter a little easier to slog through. There is a lot of hand-holding in this book for the designer. The authors are very careful to flag any missteps or strange things you might come across. They explain each feature from two or three different angles, without being repetitive. And they are very thorough in making sure that nobody could be left behind due to poor Macromedia design, conflicting web standards or misunderstood terminology, e.g., "As you work through Dreamweaver MX, you will notice references to a local root folder, a root folder, and root. All these terms are interchangeable. Each refers to a folder on your hard drive that contains all of the HTML, images, etc. for your Web site. This can be any folder on your computer. It can be empty, or it can have an entirely completed Web site. Don't be confused by this slight difference in terminology." None left behind. The authors also do a reasonably good job of guessing what a designer might be looking to accomplish, laying out the steps to get there, and placing flashing warning lights near common mistakes: "As you have just seen, the purpose of this exercise was to get you comfortable inserting different Form objects and modifying some of their properties. Remember, to make a form perform its functions, you would need to attach a CGI or other scripting program to it." I skipped the hands-on demos on the attached CD as they seemed targeted at folks who have confidence problems in dealing with menus, forms, and pop-up interfaces. So I can't tell you a lot about how well those work. This book is most appropriate for designers, people with limited or no HTML knowledge, and folks looking to just make a site without having to become an expert in computer science. With that as the target market, I think this book succeeds very well, and is well worth it or you. I feel that somebody with coding experience and a good understanding of HTML could probably find a better place to spend... for a Dreamweaver guide. Big chunks of the application - those that deal with scripting, database interfaces, etc., are "out of the scope" of this book, which is editorially consistent with their target audience, but probably not what you are looking for. In your case, perhaps the O'Reilly book would be better. I'm reading that this upcoming week and should have a review up then. So although I'm happy with the level of knowledge I acquired, I give this book a 5 out of 5 for newbies and a 3 out of 5 for experienced web people. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: This is an excellent tutorial on Dreamweaver MX
Review: I had one weekend to get up to speed on Dreamweaver MX, so that I could start the design process on my companies web site. This is the book that will take you step by step through learning to use Dreamweaver MX, by the end of the weekend I was up and running on Dreamweaver MX. I highly recommend this book for learning how to use Dreamweaver.
Rating:
Summary: Great, Great Book!
Review: I have been creating and updating websites for some time, using various HTML and graphic software. I ordered Macromedia Studio so I could take my websites to a new level. Even with my background, this was a lot of new stuff to learn. This book sailed me right through DreamWeaver. I read the entire book, then started working. Great writing. Great examples. Great tips.
Dj
Rating:
Summary: HOT Rulez
Review: I have never bought a book to learn how to use a program and i was looking in amazon for a Dreamweaver MX book when i saw this one then i read the reviews and they just seem fine but just like you (they are just reviews) i was thinking How can i really know if this bood is going to be fine? well i just can tell you that when i first open this book i didnt even know how to open Dreamweaver MX (just kidding with that) but you can get a picture of how newb i was so i start to read and i figure that the book was completly graphic and everything that it is in the book is what you are getting by follow the chapters so i let my computer away and start to just read the book and undestand it well i can just say that now i am really excited becouse i really can do a webpage it was really great becouse i thought that Dreamweaver was Difficult but with this book i came to me really easy so I TOTALLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK and ohhh that only problem is that when you do or make your webpage you will realize that you need to lear to make animations or graphics or cute tittles or banners i dont know becouse thats exactly my problem right know and i am looking for a book now to learn to make this kind of Graphics so go on buy this book and if you can buy it with another book for a graphic program like Fireworks or i dont know becouse the only thing that i know now about webpages is how to make then not to make the stuff inside of then ok bye and have fun
Rating:
Summary: A tech book for non-techies
Review: I set out to buy a tech book that wouldn't drown me in bafflegab or bore me to death by the end of the first chapter. I have very little technical background, but I realized a few months ago that I needed to acquire some basic Web design skills -- and fast. I am so glad I decided to purchase a copy of this book. It covers a lot of ground and yet it's easy to understand and navigate. (Unlike a lot of technical books, the index actually makes sense. Eureka!) Highly recommended to other folks like me with little previous technical background.
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