David McFarland
1 Well-written, Comprehensive, Simply the Best
I've had a bit of experience with Dreamweaver, but this book rounded out my education. It contains all the information I needed (and more), has clear & well-written text, and an excellent structure that allowed me to access the information very quickly (they even made the binding in such a way that the pages lie flat). Not only is book accessible, but it continues to be a valuable resource on my bookshelf. As others have mentioned, one of the great things about this book is the fact that it also talks about Dreamweaver's limitations; options (such as frames) that could lead to problems later on. By the time I've gone through computer manuals, I usually riddle them with post-its in an effort to organize the information; this book is so well thought-out that so far I haven't needed to.
Earlier I'd bought the Visual Quickstart Guide's Dreamweaver MX manual (filled with post-it tabs in response to poor organization and because the information was so difficult to extract), but ever since I bought the McFarland book, the Quickstart Guide been collecting dust.
2 It ain't "intuitive"
Before reading further, one should note that this may be as much a review of Dreamweaver as David McFarland's book.
Dreamweaver MX 2004 is probably the most popular program for web-site creation. With Dreamweaver one can create complex web-sites more easily than if one were writing in hypertext markup language (HTML). (My son who does this for a living says he can create sites just as quickly by writing HTML directly, but his old man certainly can't.) But this is not a simple program to use. The slim green volume that accompanies the software merely scratches the surface and it is unlikely that anyone could put together anything more than the most rudimentary site with only the instructions that come in the manual.
Instead one needs a book like "Dreamweaver 2004: the Missing Manual" to begin to tap the potential of the program. This book is part of a series by Pogue Press aimed at supplementing software vendors' instructions. McFarland, using straight forward simple language, takes you through the steps to basic competency with the program, using several tutorials that one can download from the publisher's own website.
But don't think this will be a simple task. If you are not familiar with HTML you will have to get at least 200 pages into this volume of more than 800 pages to comfortably create a site. But you shouldn't stop there. Even if you skip to only the most essential chapters, you'll want to go back and consider how to integrate your website with programs like Flash and Shockwave. And if you expect to spend any time building or developing websites you'll also want to learn how to use the Dreamweaver power tools like snippets and templates. Advanced users can even learn how to create dynamic web sites tied to databases. The author covers it all. Unfortunately the software is powerful but not very intuitive. As a result, as I used the program to revise my own website, I found myself frequently looking in the book's index to find help. Most of the time I found it easily.
And the dirtiest secret of all is that eventually, if you want to build complex websites, you are going to have to learn some HTML. Oh, not a lot of tags, but at least the structure of the language, so you can go into the code and make changes. I found myself occasionally lousing up a page so badly that I couldn't figure out how to use the Dreamweaver design tools and had to go into the program's code view to straighten things out. Of course, this wasn't the author's fault - he gave me everything he could, but it's a complex program. Still I don't see how anyone who's serious about building a website would want to be without Dreamweaver, and how anyone who's not an experienced programmer (and perhaps even some who are) would want to be without this book.
3 This book does the best it can with a bug ridden product
If you have to use Dreamweaver MX, this book will help you.
Dreamweaver MX itself is a buggy mess that will create more work for developers who use it than it saves. None of its highly touted features such as browser compatability checking, WYSIWIG, and publishing work very well. Not to mention all the hangs/crashes. PHP and Database support got done just enough to trick people into trying it, then you are stuck unless you toss your site out and start over.
4 Buy This Book - It's the only one you'll need
As an experienced technical writer, this is the first book I've read that is written in the form of a step-by-step procedure. This book is a great help to learning an upgraded version of Dreamweaver. Other authors should take note of its format. Kudos!
5 This is where to start your DreamWeaver education
Really outstanding tutorial by a very good author. This book has a fun, entertaining, pedagogical but not wordy style and contains both sound advice and detailed step by step tutorials covering the fundamentals of web page authoring with DW MX. It covers with precision both the Windows and the Mac interface. After this book and some playing around you will be proficient at web content creation and ready to move on to more advanced matters like advanced use of CSS and "artistic" design. A new edition on DW MX 2004 is coming out and will probably be even better!
6 One of the best books I have.....
If you want to learn Dreamweaver, this is the book for you. Wonderful examples, tutorials and the writing style is very easy to understand. This book has been absolutely invaluable to me at work and it is never moved to my bookshelf to collect dust. By far the best book I have in my collection.
7 The missing manual was surely missing!
This is one of the few books that I would recommend. It has good content and tutorials that were actually helpful! I purchased the online training from macromedia and it didn't hold a candle to this book.
It has many areas that are necessary for the development of a real web site. Dreamweaver MX should purchase this content and put it in the box with the software!
There are 24 chapters that focused on the feature sets of the software. There is even an appendix with useful links.
Thanks David for taking the time to write a useful, easy to use book.
8 as good as it gets for the developer
I am a developer that is usually annoyed by those visual books that assume that the reader will get a heart attack at the first sight of the code. This book was good to present most of the concepts in developer-friendly manner. And even if you skip a chapter on animation (because it's for "creative" types) or on databases (because it's "for dummies") you are still left with a solid book on how to develop, maintain, and administer your site using a developer-friendly environment.
9 great book
this book will certainly get you going on the right path for dreamweaver, it is a great book, well written, and I certainly recommend it.
10 Great overall
I am a beginner at dreamweaver and to start off, I bought 2 dreamweaver books; this one and the visual quickstart guide to dreamweaver. This book has been a pleasure to read and I reach for this book first whenever I encounter a problem. I have not had a real chance to compare this book with other dreamweaver books but I'll tell you this: Dreamweaver MX, the missing manual will not let you down
11 A Lazy Sloppy Writer
You know the writer who doesn't bother checking the correct path, the correct titles of the choices, leaves out steps? You know the "author" who is blatantlyly inflating the number of words in the book with the same nerdy jokes repeated thousands of times? It seems the "author" is "new" to dynamic procedures and can't tell the steps he outlines are slipshod (and didn't bother following his steps to see if they're correct). Maybe he ran out of time and rushed the last part on Dynamic, Database-Driven Websites. And, of course, the editor also didn't actually check if any steps are missing in the explanations, etc. So everybody saved time and money at the customer's expense. Now that you are forewarned don't be a customer.
12 Intuitive, insightful, full of practical information.
There are really two types of people in this world. Those that WANT to read a user's manual cover to cover prior to tackling something new (and do so). And those that want to learn by doing and not spend hours reading how to learn. I, uh, have a laptop with a luscious fruit emblem sitting on a titanium casing-needless to say I fall into the latter category by nature.
I feel comfortable knowing my way around design programs (Illustrator, Photoshop, Streamline), but NEVER touch code. I knew the basic ideas of HTML (tags, headlines, body, title, line breaks) but not much more before purchasing this book.
After only a few hours reading the first 140 pages (easy reading), and following the tutorials (very clear and concise), I started developing my desired website. Within a few hours I had the semblance of the components all functioning in a "Preview in Browser" mode. And I'd say 70% of that time was actually designing and saving the files for each nav button, graphic box, and typing the text.
As many other reviews state, this book clearly explains the benefits as well as limitations of web design in general and to Dreamweaver specifically. There are plenty of references to Dreamweaver 4 for those who are upgrading. There are plenty of basic explanations of HTML, how to best utilize Dreamweaver AND HTML, and the perspective of end use (designing a cool web page) is never forgotten in this book.
McFarland and Progue hit the mark in almost every way with their organizational style, intuitive writing, simplistic tutorials, informative Figures and "Workaround Workshops", and understanding of HOW people want to USE an application like Dreamweaver MX. From building a site, to using dynamic pages with forms, to frames, to tables, to uploading your site, to Flash, to Customizing Dreamweaver and hotkeys; it's pretty much all covered.
A nearly 800 page book intimidate you? Don't worry, many sections are not applicable to a basic website. I feel confident that I can continue to add new features and redevelop my site using only this one book in the future. ...
13 A beginner's dream come true!
This is an excellent book. It covers all major functions of Dreamweaver MX with detail and does not rush through the basic functionality. Gives clever insights and warns you of stumbling points and annoyances. The tutorials are very detailed with clear step-by-step instructions. Throughout the book, the author will give references to previous or coming up chapters, which comes in handy. The later chapters that deal with dynamic html can be a bit terse. However, the tutorial in that section is still strong. Plus, there are plenty of other books that will pick up your training from there. This is a great find and a must have for anyone new to dreamweaver MX.
14 A BRILLIANTLY SCULPTURED MANUAL
This "Dreamweaver MX: The Missing Manual" is one brilliantly sculpture text, which provides authoritative reader-friendly information on the fine software.
With this book, any new user of 'Dreamweaver MX' would find his or her feet in a very short time. In the same vein, experienced users will appreciate its in-depth analysis of every aspect of the software, including the occassional highlights it made concerning its limitations. The outlook of this book is refined, and authoritative. Its versatility is superb. It has every important information that users of 'Dreamweaver MX' would need.
Indeed, it is a shame that profit-minded software manufacturers have consistently refused to include any sort of comprehensive users' manual in their packages. But, don't let this opportunity elude you, if you own (or use) 'Dreamweaver MX'. It is worth the asking price!
15 GREAT
Never done a site before and I purchased Dreamweaver MX hearing that it was the way to go but maybe a little complicated for someone new to building sites. Well, after several evenings with Dreamweaver going through all the tutorials I thought I had gotten in over my head. I figured I'd give it one more shot after getting a manual.
This book made all the difference. The problem wasn't that the software was too complicated, the problem was the lack of clear documentation. This book clarified all the confusions I had and with a few more hours I was able to get a nice site up and running. It's really a crime the manufacturers don't include real manuals any more. Because of this book, I now think Dreamweaver is the greatest (with the exception of their decision not to include a real manual in the first place).
Worth every penny.
16 Hands Down The Best!
Dreamweaver MX: The Missing Manual is hands-down the best tutorial and reference available on this complex, deep program. Dreamweaver 4: The Missing Manual was already an excellent book, but Dreamweaver MX: The Missing Manual improves upon it in almost every way.
McFarland has almost doubled the amount of content in this book while maintaining his clear, accessible style. The presentation is clear and easy to read, but there is great depth here (the tips on database integration alone are worth the price of admission). It's one of the few computer books I've seen that I'd feel comfortable recommending to absolute beginners as well as seasoned experts.
Great job, and well worthy of the O'Reilly mark.
17 Great introduction to database driven web sites
This is a really good introduction to using Dreamweaver MX with database sites. There's a lot of good background detail. I've never worked with databases and web pages before, but this book provided the kind of info I needed to understand how database driven web sites work. AND how to use Dreamweaver to build cool dynamic sites.
The material on Dreamweaver's other features like site management, templates and Cascading Style Sheets is top-notch too. This book is a real winner and unlike a lot of other technical books it gives very clear, understandable descriptions of web page technologies and how to use Dreamweaver to make great sites.
18 mik
I think that Dremweaver MX is most popular and very goot program for web design.
19 Outstanding!
I purchased Dreamweaver MX a couple of weeks ago and needed a book to fill in the 'blanks' that the manual doesn't cover or explain to the depth that I wanted. This book is a perfect addition to learning the features of this application.
The fact that this book is published by O'Reilly was an added bonus.
Great job by David McFarland!
