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How to Use Dreamweaver 4 and Fireworks | |
By Mary Headley
May 2001
Sams Publishing, Feb.
2001, 373 pages, $29.99
This book provides a good tutorial for learning the basics of Dreamweaver and Fireworks 4.0. I would recommend it for people who are already somewhat familiar with HTML, Web page design, and graphics drawing programs, but who want to learn these specific Web design tools, which are quickly becoming some of the most popular in the market today.
Although I had heard glowing praise for Dreamweaver, I wasn't sure I wanted to invest the time and money in purchasing and learning a new product. In addition, I wasn't sure whether to buy the Studio combination of Dreamweaver packaged with Fireworks, or just Dreamweaver. I decided to ease in slowly. First, I downloaded the 30-day trial version of these products, and then went through Macromedia's tutorials and online help. But I still didn't feel comfortable enough with the software to make a decision. What to do? A quick literature search (in March 2001) revealed only a few books out then about version 4.0 of Dreamweaver--this was one.
As the title implies, this book focuses more on how to do certain tasks, rather than providing information on the process of designing a page or artwork. It covers the most common tasks that users are likely to want to do, chunking this information into easy-to-follow, bite-sized pieces. Even the table of contents is chunked--the book presents three views of how the information is organized. The first is called "The Top 10 Tasks You Will Learn," the second is "Contents at a Glance," and the third is the detailed "Contents" that lists all of the tasks. There are 22 topical Contents areas, each covering 5 to 8 tasks.
The book's attractive, color layout mimics an online demo, with mouse drawings located underneath each procedure indicating when you click, right-click, double-click, drag, and drop. Each step is fully illustrated to show how it looks on the screen, complete with a red circle to highlight the area being discussed in that step. The author describes this page layout as a "complete visual reference." A helpful glossary and keyboard accelerator chart are provided in the back matter, along with an index.
The book also provides extra hints at the end of each procedure to encourage you to go on. Most of the time, these hints provide welcome information. However, I was frustrated when one hint called "Links with Style" promised to describe in an upcoming Part 8 how to remove the underline formatting of links through the use of styles. Such information was not there.
Most of the time the procedures were very easy to follow and accurate. I did notice a few minor errors, however, such as incorrect cross-references to upcoming steps. As is often the case, the book is PC-centric; some of the language used and the screen shots shown are different for Mac users, but most of the time this bias did not pose a problem. Moreover, I found the step-by-step directions for certain tasks, such as how to create a navigation bar and how to upload files, clearer in this book than in Macromedia's user guide. This was also true for certain glossary terms, such as "jump menu."
The book states that it "is first and foremost about Dreamweaver" and that it seeks to cover those aspects of Fireworks that are needed "to create basic graphics and buttons for use on your Dreamweaver Web pages." I agree with that assessment, although the section on Fireworks provides a helpful place to start learning this feature-rich package.
In summary, I would recommend the book as inexpensive training for people wanting to try out the Dreamweaver and Fireworks software before purchasing them, and as a companion to Macromedia's documentation.
Author's Update Note: Since I wrote the above review, Lynda Weinman's "Dreamweaver 4 Hands-On Training" has been published. In my opinion, Weinman's book provides superior training exercises and explanations. In addition, the book offers many useful design nuggets. Unfortunately, the book does not cover Fireworks.
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