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Rating: 
Summary: Good idea, Very disappointing execution.
Review: Being able to learn something visually is great for those of us who are 'visual'. But this book seems to be just cranked out according to a formula, with little time (or perhaps little talent) being spent to make it very good.
Occasionally there's an image which illustrates a helpful point, but mostly it's just screenshots and assemblies of clipart with very dry text. It looks like the author just made a list of the features and tools in Flash and Dreamweaver and took a set of screenshots for each one and wrote a blurb telling about each. Most of the images which are supposed to be illustrating some point are fairly pointless, and most of the screenshots are not very useful either. Do you need a screenshot everytime you're told to select something from the menu? For instance, to import a sound file, it would be enough to mention File > Import, rather than giving four screenshots showing people how to use the menu and resulting file dialog box etc. Maybe the last shot, with the found file showing up in the library, is useful. But even that is badly executed, since you have to hold the book close and squint to read the text in the relevant portion of the image that lets you see just what is being illustrated. This squinting problem is owing to the fact that (virually?) all the screenshots are of a whole screen. Either the authors are too lazy to crop them, or they have a (bad) format forced on them. Either way, it's lame.
As for the illustrative images (which appear to be pieces of clip art assembled together): most add very little value. Does a picture of a movie reel, with (door) keys next to two of the frames convey any more than the name "key frame" already conveys? If you're just taking the metaphors that are embedded in the terminology, and throwing together pictures of them, how is that of any value?
I'm not sure what makes the "Master Visually" series different from the "Learn Visually" series, since this starts out by telling you how to use Control-O to open files and Control-N to create new ones. Is this "Dreamweaver and Flash for the Totally Braindead™"?
I recommend getting PeachPit books instead. In my experience they don't suffer from any of the problems I mentioned here. The images are well chosen and convey useful information, cropped down to what is relevant and sized so you can see them. And not ugly, either. Furthermore, the writing is much better, which is still extremely important. Just because a book is teaching 'visually' doesn't mean the writing should be mere captions to the pictures.
Rating:
Summary: not good for 'teach yourself'
Review: DO NOT buy this book if you are expecting to teach yourself anything. the CD rom contains absolutly NOTHING in the way of useful examples. I spent HOURS comparing books and decided on this one becuase I thought, based on the content of the book and the back cover, that the sample files on the CD would also allow me to explore coldfusion and dynamic html pages. But, when I wrote to wiley.com to get some assistance, this is what they said: "Unfortunately, we weren't exactly clear making this distinction on page 698 in the "Authors' Sample Files" paragraph. What we said was that "These files contain all the sample code from the book in addition to a Flash-based interface.
For clarification, we will reword this to say: The files contain all of the sample Flash files featured in Part XI, as well as a Flash-based interface and some other sample Flash files referenced in the text. You can simply follow the steps in the book to add these snazzy elements to your own Dreamweaver-based page.
That does not indicate that code from the entire book is provided, and notifys the reader that they are expected to apply the Dreamweaver instructions to their own material." I wrote back and asked them to explain on page 292 the phrase on the bottom left hand corner of the page, "Note: to create this example, see the files located in the space folder on the CD that accompanies this book." There is no "space folder" on the CD that I have. The only thing that comes remotely close to a "space folder" is a *file* called space.mdb. They wrote back and said it was an "unfortunate error" and offered another book of the same value from them.
Rating: 
Summary: It is all there just not intuitive
Review: I am of two minds about this book. I really like the clear visual instructions on how to manipulate data and objects. However the author seems to thinks you have something to work with.
So this book has saved hours of experimenting. The CD has the complete book so on it so you can do dynamic searches for subjects; then if you prefer manuals like me you can turn to the same page in the physical book. Also on the CD are trial versions for all the programs. Because I already have them I skipped this section. Luckily the book section is separate. Also by going to the CD its self I found the examples from the book. Again they are not intuitive on how to apply them. The help files bring up more questions.
Prompted by the section on "Set up a Dynamic Site" I was able to find the "access" file titled "space" on the accompanied CD. It gave samples of "planets." Now however I am trying to find a way to be dynamic and not use ColdFusion. I have to admit that this with all these features it is not the easiest book to get you off the ground.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, Quick and to the Point
Review: I found this book to be just what I needed to get up and running fast with both products. I don't have time to wade through some text-heavy tome, and I really appreciate the screen shots that illustrate the steps. Since I don't spend every waking hour in front of my computer, I really needed a book that literally showed me how to work with Dreamweaver and Flash, and gather enough basics to apply my own material/content to the various features and techniques. If you're looking for a quick and basic introduction to Dreamweaver and Flash, then this book will take you there. I'm definitely going to try some other titles in this series.
Rating: 
Summary: Are You a Kinesthetic Learner? If so, you'll love this book
Review: I have found that I have a tough time with technical manuals that are primarily text... Case in point are the many MS manuals I have used for accreditation and upgrading. OK, and I'm a tad lazy too. I learn best by seeing and doing. The more senses involved, the better. When I complete a task once, I've got it. I am a huge fan of the Visual Quickstart books from Peachpit Press (I own many and recommend them as well) and have only recently come upon the Visually books. I like this book even more. Yes indeed. This book takes me through the app's new interfaces quickly and simply. It's very reasonably priced, even after converting Canadian dollars. A welcome addition to my library. Now if they only had one for Fireworks...
Rating:
Summary: Are You a Kinesthetic Learner? If so, you'll love this book
Review: I have found that I have a tough time with technical manuals that are primarily text... Case in point are the many MS manuals I have used for accreditation and upgrading. OK, and I'm a tad lazy too. I learn best by seeing and doing. The more senses involved, the better. When I complete a task once, I've got it. I am a huge fan of the Visual Quickstart books from Peachpit Press (I own many and recommend them as well) and have only recently come upon the Visually books. I like this book even more. Yes indeed. This book takes me through the app's new interfaces quickly and simply. It's very reasonably priced, even after converting Canadian dollars. A welcome addition to my library. Now if they only had one for Fireworks...
Rating:
Summary: Visual but not natural...
Review: I wondered why the author even bothered to write the book...anyone can do better using the help menu in Dreamweaver itself. Not helpful....definitely not useful. Too basic even for beginners.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the beef?
Review: Lots of pictures but not much beyond how-to open the various functions. Also the CD contains almost nothing in the line of real examples. I bought this book after browsing it and expecting the CD to have a full set of work files but was sadly disappointed. If you're looking for something along the lines of the Adobe Classroom In-a-Book series then this book doesn't fall even close to being in that class.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the beef?
Review: Lots of pictures but not much beyond how-to open the various functions. Also the CD contains almost nothing in the line of real examples. I bought this book after browsing it and expecting the CD to have a full set of work files but was sadly disappointed. If you're looking for something along the lines of the Adobe Classroom In-a-Book series then this book doesn't fall even close to being in that class.
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