Amazon.co.uk Review
Macromedia's Dreamweaver 3 is a high-end Web design program that's as whizzy as WYSIWYG can get despite the Internet being a tangled web of graphics, code and competing technologies.
Mastering Macromedia Dreamweaver 3 is an introduction to all aspects of the software and Web design. It's a series of chapters and tutorials that take you from the basics of Dreamweaver 3 to designing and uploading a complete Web site onto a server. The style is concise and informative and the text, peppered with tips and notes, is liberally illustrated with screen shots throughout.
Though Mastering Macromedia Dreamweaver 3 should have new users with some basic understanding of Web design up and running simple Web sites by its end, they will have to be prepared to work on occasion to get the best out of the book. Although it's about as straightforward as it can be, it's probably not the best introduction to the program for complete novices or professional Web designers, since it's likely to overwhelm the former, while the latter might find much of it superfluous. For everyone else, it gives a good grounding in Dreamweaver 3 and covers everything from frames and tables to cascading style sheets, JavaScript and graphics, even sneaking in a brief tour of colour theory along the way.
A point to note is that one third of the book is dedicated to Macromedia's Web graphics software Fireworks. Since some designers might already have or prefer another graphics package, they should consider whether they want to pay out for a book that's at best only two-thirds relevant. Also, sensitive Mac users should take heed that although Mastering Macromedia Dreamweaver3 covers both Mac and Windows platforms, all the screen shots are from Windows. --John Cranmer
Synopsis
Dreamweaver X is a cross-platform visual tool for professional Web site design. This text provides 200 bonus pages on Fireworks, Dreamweaver's sister software product used to create and optimize feature graphics, buttons, animated banners and more. The CD provides demo software and tools.