Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Classroom in a Book

Author - Adobe Creative Team ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from Adobe Press was reviewed on 12-Dec-2008.

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1) Paperback Book Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Classroom in a Book by Adobe Press. I recently purchased this book in hopes that the Adobe tutorial books would be on the same par as Apple´s are for their Video and Audio editing software. Both have DVDs with project files that accompany their lessons. However, by the end of Chapter 1 I noticed a big different between the two.

Do you remember way back in school how there were teachers who could tell you not just that something is the way it is but WHY it is that way, HOW it came to be that way, and most importantly HOW IT CAN BE APPLIED in different situations? Yeah - that´s how the Apple Pro Training Series books are and what I expected Adobe´s to be.

But I was sorely wrong. Adobe´s Dreamweaver CS3 Classroom in a book is not only ripe with grammatical and spelling errors that a fifth grader would find, but it doesn´t TEACH. As another reviewer said, this book tells you to do something and doesn´t tell you WHAT you´re doing, WHY you´re doing it, or HOW it can be applied in different situations. It´s that teacher who used to make you memorize a bunch of stuff without giving you the context for it. Not only does that make it harder to remember the tasks and apparent "goals" in each lesson, but their solutions are completely inaccessible.

For a beginner, this book just doesn´t cut it. What a waste of money. Adobe needs to go back to school and remember what it was like to be a freshman again.¤

2) Paperback Book Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Classroom in a Book by Adobe Press. I bought this book because it says it´s from Adobe.

How can a company that makes such great software fall so short on it´s books? I remember when I bought my first copy of Adobe Illustrator CS, I didn´t go buy a book. Why?

It came with a book! A darn good one, too!

What I like about this book:

1. You can read it start to finish in a coffee shop (not too many pages).
2. It´s very lightweight to carry around (not too many pages).
3. You really feel like you got thru it really fast (see above).

What I don´t like about this book:

1. It glimpses over EVERYTHING.
2. It leaves me wanting more.
3. It brought me back to Amazon.com to look for a better book on the subject.¤

3) Paperback Book Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Classroom in a Book by Adobe Press. I had to buy this book for a class. I have used the CIB series before and have enjoyed them. But, I read the reviews and I felt like why the school would even get this book. But, it is not that bad for just learning the bare minimum basics. There were some errors though. You had to download updateds for a few chapters online, which can be a pain. I have never used Dreamweaver before, so it seemed to help me learn the basics. But the class is now over and we were required to do all of the chapters. I just don´t feel like I am extremely comfortable with Dreamweaver. I feel like I just skimmed the surface. Some of the chapters lacked detail (especially the form chapter (Chapter 10) and Publishing to the Web (Chapter 12). I found myself going over and over some things just to find that there may be a book error. Then other chapters were just so simplistic that the lesson was pointless. But, anyway I also bought the Missing Manual for Dreamweaver and since it is 1000 pages, hopefully I will learn more about the program.¤

4) Paperback Book Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Classroom in a Book by Adobe Press. If you´re new to Dreamweaver CS3 and are looking for a "clear" step by step learning guide, I suggest you pick another book. This book is full of typo´s, mistaken steps, wrong instructions and is very short on explanations. I´ve used many step tutorials and this is by far about the worst I´ve come across. Returned the book for a refund.¤

5) Paperback Book Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Classroom in a Book by Adobe Press. I had written my original webpages (many years ago!) with Adobe PageMill. I finally had to upgrade my computer, and thus the software. Getting Adobe CS3 Design Premium was a no-brainer for my situation, but when I opened Dreamweaver, I found it was terribly foreign to me. Figuring Adobe would be a good place to start my self-training (and seeing that the reviews here on Amazon were all over the map), I purchased Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Classroom in a Book.

Just like a beginning computer class at your local community college, the book follows a prepared lesson plan for "hands-on experience". Unlike such a class, there´s no way to ask for clarification, more examples, or get lesson material errors corrected. Although I started out learning things I definitely needed to know, I soon stalled out when I tried to generalize what I´d just worked through to a real-life creative effort. The book simply is not a resource, but a series of pre-determined exercises to get a person actually doing a few things with the program. It´s value is definitely transient, not lasting, and thus not worth the purchase price by any means.

Also rather disturbing were the incorrect keyboard shortcuts and directions in general for Mac users. In fact, I experienced a repeated freeze-up when using a particular set of shortcut instructions (the "normal" command path worked fine).

I ended up browsing other Dreamweaver texts at a local bookstore (where I could see layout and formatting of each book) and selected "Visual Quickstart Guide -- Dreamweaver CS3" as a result. In it, I learned a LOT more about what I could do with Dreamweaver, and it´s laid out in a way that promotes its use for reference during my learning curve. I tried to finish off the last lessons in Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Classroom in a Book after that ... I lasted only a few pages before I closed the book in disgust. Once the toolbar, panels, and workspace became familiar, the rote exercises lost all usefulness.

I´m sure that Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Classroom in a Book has an audience out there, but it´s not me -- someone with no Dreamweaver experience and just a smattering of website design experience. It´s definitely not going to suit previous Dreamweaver users, either. Unless you´re very certain that your experience level and needs line up exactly with the few folks who gave out 4- and 5-star reviews, you´ll be better off finding some other vehicle to learn Dreamweaver.¤

6) Paperback Book Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Classroom in a Book by Adobe Press. Dreamweaver CS3, now included as part of Adobe´s Creative Suite 3, is the leading professional Web design and development application in the market, and is a must-have tool for any Web designer or developer. Dreamweaver CS3 offers new CSS layouts, a unified CSS panel, and CSS visualization tools that let users create interactive Web sites without having to delve into code. Dreamweaver users can now create dynamic interfaces using the Spry framwork for Ajax. (Spry is 99% HTML, so it´s accessible to both designers and developers). Spry widgets (pre-built user interface components) let users quickly add common user interface components to Web pages. Each chapter in this full-color book contains a project that builds upon the reader´s growing knowledge of Dreamweaver, while review questions at the end of each chapter reinforce the most important skills. Readers will learn how to customize a Dreamweaver workspace, apply cascading style sheets, enter headline and body text, insert graphics and rollovers, and add links to a page. They´ll also learn how to add interactive elements to their site, such as behaviors, effects, and Flash video; add new code or code snippets; and publish their finished site to the Web.

SPECIAL NOTE: Before starting the lessons in the book visit www.peachpit.com/dwcs3cib for important lesson and project file updates.

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 9-Jan-2009, 03214998169780321499813, 050-130-210-160-240-230-390-710-8

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