Rating: 
Summary: Awesome! A Dreamweaver MX User's Template Bible!
Review: As a Professional Website Designer/Developer, it is my job to make sure that I offer my clients a well designed website that they will not only be comfortable with, but proud of. Templates make things a lot easier - but not everyone knows how to use them. The best way that I've found to learn the ins and outs of Templates in Dreamweaver MX is this book. It is written in a language anyone can understand. It offers hands-on projects to show you, not just tell you, how things work. Whether you are an experienced Dreamweaver User or Website Developer, or a beginner, this book can walk you through the process of using templates to design your websites easily and effectively. It's insightful, well-thought-out, well-written, and an extremely useful tool that I would recommend to anyone at any level. Thanks Brad and Murray for writing this awesome book!
Rating: 
Summary: Delve into Templates
Review: As primarily a dynamic site builder, I had never really considered the beneficiality of Dreamweaver's built-in template features; preferring to build a standard page and insert custom code in the appropriate pages afterwards. However, after reading through this book it became obvious that with the powerful new template structure I could adapt these to my back-end skills. The book is structured in two parts; a theory/examples section and a real-project section which takes everything you have learned in section 1 and applies it to a real world project. I found some of the information in section two irrelevant from a back-end point of view; as there are easier ways to implement certain features (such as a changing <title> element) on the back-end. On the whole a feature-packed buy which will seriously increase your knowledge of Dreamweaver templature and replicability.
Rating:
Summary: Seriously good book
Review: Dreamweaver MX has really increased its template functionality. This book will help you tap into that power. Brad and Murray do a superb job of teaching the ins and outs of using all the template features. Not only templates are covered however, so is using snippets and library items. You'll learn how to work with the various template region options, site maintenance benefits and strategies, the template code and even how to add a layer to a child page of a templated site. There are more advanced topics such as template expressions and using expressions to make "implicit"
optional regions as well as importing/exporting the template data XML. The book ends with a project that utilizes the techniques taught in the book. I don't see where the book is rated for user level but it's definitely not a beginners only book. If you are serious about site management using templates and speeding your workflow using snippets and library items, then this book is a valuable addition to your library.
Rating:
Summary: Mystery of DWMX Templates Solved!
Review: Dreamweaver MX Templates is the first great "how to" book for utilizing the power of library items and templates. Of all the mysteries not well understood about DW features, Templates is certainly high on the list. Mystery solved! Brad and Murry have covered the territory well with a book that starts at the beginning (section 1) and builds (section 2) so that anyone reading the book can walk away confident in the uses of templates, new template features in DWMX and the awesome timesaver available in library items. Instructional and easy to read material, complimented by easy to understand exercises reveal the power in templates, library items and snippets. A great book for those new to the power in DWMX and a good reference guide for those who understand DWMX but just haven't gotten the hang of templates and library items.
Rating:
Summary: Mystery of DWMX Templates Solved!
Review: Dreamweaver MX Templates is the first great "how to" book for utilizing the power of library items and templates. Of all the mysteries not well understood about DW features, Templates is certainly high on the list. Mystery solved! Brad and Murry have covered the territory well with a book that starts at the beginning (section 1) and builds (section 2) so that anyone reading the book can walk away confident in the uses of templates, new template features in DWMX and the awesome timesaver available in library items. Instructional and easy to read material, complimented by easy to understand exercises reveal the power in templates, library items and snippets. A great book for those new to the power in DWMX and a good reference guide for those who understand DWMX but just haven't gotten the hang of templates and library items.
Rating:
Summary: Good content - difficult reading!
Review: Dreamweaver MX Templates is the only book on the market that cover the complexity of the new MX template system. This book is codecentric and it has some pretty advanced concepts that might be difficult for a beginner in Dreamweaver. There are some answers in this book to some questions that I have had since the upgrade from DW4 and my life working in templates has now become much easier in dealing with DW Templates. Another good point is that the authors have a ready made site with hands on examples that get you working in the concepts that they explain. I think the book could have been written better, but the content is good and for the most part accurate.
Rating:
Summary: Quick and Easy Ways to Use Dreamweaver MX
Review: DREAMWEAVER MX TEMPLATES
AUTHOR: Brad Halstead and Murray R. Summers
PUBLISHER: New Riders
REVIEWED BY: Barbara Rhoades BOOK REVIEW: OK! So you have begun to use Dreamweaver to create your web sites. GREAT! But just how much do you know about Dreamweaver and what it can do to help you create that web site? Do you know what a Snippet is? How about a Library? Then you can use templates and regions. Oh, you don't know what any of these items are? Then you need the book Dreamweaver MX Templates. A Snippet is a bit of code already programmed for you. Just click and drag to your page and there you have it - a quick form such as a price list. Now all you do is add your information. A Library is another way of adding to your web pages without having to write the code each time. You create it once and save it to your Library. The next time you need it, just add the item from your Library. Now comes the cool part. Six months later, you want to give you web page a new look. Remember that Library item you created for, say, your business address? You have moved your business to a new location and have this address on 15 pages. Change the library item and those 15 instances will all be updated. What a time saver! Templates and regions are another way of updating your pages quickly. What are they? Find out by getting Dreamweaver MX Templates. It is a great book to help you learn quick and easy ways to maintain and update your web sites.
Rating: 
Summary: Useful for experts
Review: First off, this book is not for someone who doesn't already know how to use templates. See previous comments by readers concerning "spawn child pages" which is a vague term not used anywhere else relating to dreamweaver except in this book. What they mean to say is "open as new from template." It took me many many hours to discover this discrepancy. The main problem with this book is that it goes through 150 pages of explaination without any examples. When they hit you with the actual hands on templates tutorial at page 151, they assume you digested the previous 150 pages and give you ZERO meaningful direction back to the relevant topics being demonstrated. The benevolent authors feel that "use methods described in earlier chapters" is enough direction for their readers, which is absolutely ridiculous.
In frustration, i began searching the web and found an excellent tutorial on pattysite.com about creating nested templates that was infinitely more valuable than this book for getting started with templates. it explained the overall structure of templates in a very concise manner. After working through the pattysite nested templates tutorial, the book was a somewhat useful guide to the inner workings of dreamweaver templates. Also to be fair, the authors are fairly active on the dreamweaver newsgroups and are readily available for grilling / answering questions. (they will be hearing from me shortly) So summarizing my rant above, buy this book if you already use templates and want to learn some new tricks, skip it if you don't. This book could easily be reduced to half its size, but as we all know, that doesn't sell very many books. The common logic is that the heft of a manual is directly proportional its value...
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Summary: explainations for templates
Review: Halstead and Summers book on Dreamweaver MX templates is strangled by explanations about, well everything. If you wrote a 40 page document why you love your significant other and presented that document to her or him, they may think something is missing up there. If you, however, gave her or him a ticket to Hawaii and a diamond crusted watch and then said, �I love you�. They would certainly get the message. Dreamweaver MX templates doesn�t present the gems of template building, but instead explains and explains and explains over and over again. While reading this book about templates, you only wished the authors used a template to structure their writing. The main points, key points, or need to know information is just buried in extraneous explanations. This is not a learning by doing book. There is a project at the end of the book, but believe me, you will fall asleep or throw the book in the trash before you get to it. This book says a lot about templates. It says so much about templates that you have to wonder what are the authors trying to tell you about them. If you want to be bored to template infamy, then buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: explainations for templates
Review: Halstead and Summers book on Dreamweaver MX templates is strangled by explanations about, well everything. If you wrote a 40 page document why you love your significant other and presented that document to her or him, they may think something is missing up there. If you, however, gave her or him a ticket to Hawaii and a diamond crusted watch and then said, 'I love you'. They would certainly get the message. Dreamweaver MX templates doesn't present the gems of template building, but instead explains and explains and explains over and over again. While reading this book about templates, you only wished the authors used a template to structure their writing. The main points, key points, or need to know information is just buried in extraneous explanations. This is not a learning by doing book. There is a project at the end of the book, but believe me, you will fall asleep or throw the book in the trash before you get to it. This book says a lot about templates. It says so much about templates that you have to wonder what are the authors trying to tell you about them. If you want to be bored to template infamy, then buy this book.
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