Dreamweaver 4: The Missing Manual

As is the case with all of the Missing Manual books, this one uses an excellent style for its procedures. Rather than treating procedures as sequences of inflexible directives, as do many user-lever books, this book allows for the fact that the person reading the procedures has a brain and may want to do something that deviates from the example. For that reason, McFarland explains the options that appear at each point along the way as he details a procedure, and explains why you might want to take alternative actions. He's also good about explaining HTML conventions, like the supremacy of specified table width over specified column widths. One might wish for more coverage of the server-side routines to which forms submit their contents, but what's here is excellent. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to use Macromedia Dreamweaver 4 to create and maintain Web sites. Billing itself as "the book that should have been in the box," this volume explains text formatting, hyperlinking, tables, frames, forms, and other aspects of site design and management via the Dreamweaver interface.

Product Description
As the Web's popularity continues to soar, so does that of Macromedia Dreamweaver, one of the most elegant and powerful web-page creation programs you can buy. Dreamweaver deploys a rich, well-designed, WYSIWYG environment for building cross-platform, cross-browser web sites; but unlike most visual editors, it doesn't clutter up the underlying HTML code by inserting unnecessary tags that make large web sites difficult to manage. Dreamweaver is a favorite of multimedia designers, thanks to its smooth integration with other Macromedia applications like Flash and Shockwave.

Dreamweaver 4 extends Macromedia's lead in the web-design market. The new, more sophisticated Version 4 incorporates the latest developments in browser technologies--and the best way to get the full advantage of these improved features is with Dreamweaver 4: The Missing Manual, the ideal companion to this complex software. Under the guidance of Missing Manual series editor David Pogue, author Dave McFarland brings Dreamweaver 4 to life with clarity, authority, and good humor.

After orienting you with an anatomical tour of a web page, the book walks you through the entire process of creating and designing a complete web site. Along the way, a unique "live examples" approach lets you see and test, on the actual Internet, real web pages that follow the development progress of the book's chapters. Armed with this book, both first-time and experienced web designers can easily use Dreamweaver to bring stunning, interactive web sites to life.

I've got lots of these kinds of books - from the dummy books to the huge bibles - but Dreamweaver:The Missing Manual is leagues better than any of them!

By the first few pages, I knew that this book would be fabulous, and it is. I like it because it is written for an intelligent reader, yet it uses non-techy language. Plus, there are lots of humorous references, which makes reading it fun.

Importantly, it doesn't assume technical knowledge on the part of the reader. It explains the whys along with the hows. This is of utmost value to me - I find the "whys" missing in many books. Often, a tutorial will say, "Do this. Then do this. Then do this." Well, any monkey can follow 1,2,3 instructions, but if you don't know WHY you're doing something, you won't be able to apply it to something else later on. I am constantly frustrated by that. I wanted more than a beginner's book, but I wanted the complex stuff explained in simple language. This book does that.

I started to bookmark the pages where I learned something valuable and realized I was marking the whole damned book - that's the type of book this is.


The Missing Manual Misses..   August 28, 2001
 9 out of 24 found this review helpful

As a HTML/CSS freak that had enough of FP and migrated to DW, this book provided plenty assistance, and I would recommend it to other novice users that are willing to learn DW. However I must point out my dissapointment that there was no coverage of SSI(server side includes) what so all, and it's misleading concept of the Library/Template function. Yes, the "update library items" updates your site in one click indeed---the local site, that is. Considering the uploading one has to deal with(not to mention the dreadful DW FTP) AFTER the local site is fully effected, this is definetly not what I could 'sit back and smile' at. Otherwise, nice book.


Excellent Guide   August 22, 2001
 13 out of 14 found this review helpful

DreamWeaver 4: The Missing Manual is a book that is easy to follow and gives many great examples of how to perform various tasks using DreamWeaver (DW). As a novice DW user (but not at web design), I found the tutorials to be very helpful in learning more about this complex product. Among the topics covered? Basics like text fomatting, adding links, and images. The book's second part goes into more advanced subjects like Tables, Frames, and Cascading Style Sheets.

It also explains forms and inserting JavaScript into your code, as well as incorporating other types of media (like Flash & ShockWave) into your file. There were certain items I'd seen in web site code done in DW that I'd never understood and thanks to this book, I certainly do now.

If you're a novice (like me) or even an intermediate DW user, this book is well worth having not only to learn more but to keep as a handy reference.