Megabytes

Yet Another Dreamweaver CS3 Tome

O’Reilly Dynamic Learning series: Dreamweaver CS3, pub Sept 2007, by Fred Gerantabee & AGI Creative Team, $44.99

(This review was previously published in PMUG’s March 2008 issue of Mouse Tracks)

O’Reilly Media has one of the most comprehensive collection of computer software books. Within their roster of titles are 14 different series, many of which will include a title on a particular subject in more than one series. Such is the case for books on Dreamweaver CS3. I already own Portland author Dave McFarland’s Dreamweaver CS3 The Missing Manual. When Dreamweaver CS3 Dynamic Learning came to PMUG’s office, I was curious to know how it was different from The Missing Manual book.
Dynamic Leaning on a DVD
Each Dynamic Learning book comes with a DVD; the Dreamweaver CS3 DVD contains video tutorials, a few promotional PDFs for AGI Training, and lesson files. I was looking forward to the video tutorials, eager to know if viewing them would feel as if I had my own personal instructor. I copied all the files to my hard drive and read the instructions in the book for playing the video tutorials.
I think it is fair to expect that playing videos on my Mac is a simple double-click-the-file experience. Unfortunately, O’Reilly chose to format the tutorials as Flash video. Unfortunate because now it is not so simple to view video. It quickly became apparent why the book includes instructions for viewing the videos at all!
When I am surfing the internet in my Firefox or Safari browser and their built-in Flash player, I don’t have to do anything special to view videos on YouTube and other sites that employ Flash video. So why did the tutorials folder contain an index.swf file and not a index.html file? If I double-clicked on an HTML file, my browser would have opened and the resulting web page would begin playing the first video. Instead, instructions ask you to Control-Click the index.swf file and choose Open > Open With > Flash Player. Followed by what to do if you don’t have Flash Player.
Once I got the videos playing, they were quite informative and well worth viewing. There is one video for each chapter, intended as a supplement to the written lesson, not a replacement. These are good quality videos of the computer desktop (sometimes Mac, other times Windows) running Dreamweaver with a voiceover describing the activity. Table of Contents
Before going to a specific chapter, I read through the table of contents. As a long-time Dreamweaver user, I wanted to know what topics were covered and if there was anything new I could learn. The 13 chapters ranged from ‘Jumpstart’ which explains about web servers, browsers, file transfer protocol (FTP), among other items; to ‘Managing Your Web Site: Reports, Optimization & Maintenance’ which includes how to test your site, running site reports, and some good information about search engine optimization.
What surprised me in the TOC was Chapter 8, Working with Frames. In the very beginning of that chapter, the author lists the advantages and disadvantages of frames. Now, if you have to make a pros and cons list about a topic, and the lists come out against the topic 6-to-3; then why are you still including it? I would have preferred a chapter on Spry Widgets (not included) or the XML tools (not included.)On the plus side, the book expands upon the subjects of Flash, using CSS for layout, and making your workflow efficient. The Flash chapter not only demonstrates inserting Flash content, but other media content as well. Dreamweaver creates its own SWF (media player) files, so inserting some Flash Video on a web page means you only need the FLV (Flash Video) file. Learning New Tricks
Scanning through the book, I learned a few things that I was able to put to use right away.
1) The Insert Toolbar has a Text tab that has a drop-down menu making the insertion of special characters easy-peasy.
2) Using the Insert Image command (or drag-and-drop), you can place a PSD (Photoshop) file directly onto a web page and optimize it from within Dreamweaver.
3) Similarly, you can open text files in Dreamweaver and copy and paste content, thereby avoid having another app open for the text files.
Real Dynamic Learning
At the close of each chapter, there is a review section, with questions and answers pertaining to that chapter’s subject matter. If you really want to test yourself, be prepared to place your hand over the answers as they are on the same page as the questions.
Just before the Q&A is a section called Self Study. Here, the student is given some optional, extra-credit homework. Mostly, these short assignments are suggestions about exploring further in one particular area of Dreamweaver. Occasionally, the reader is advised to explore other programs in the Adobe Creative Suite, like Fireworks, Flash, and Photoshop.
Heavy use of screen grabs makes it easy to understand an article in a glance. This increases the likelihood that this book can serve as a reference even after you have done the tutorials.
Throughout the book important tips are denoted by the use of a push pin icon. These are valuable, pertinent tidbits, not to be missed. Sidebar information appears contained in a light gray box with a green background headline. In the CSS chapter for example, a sidebar appears explaining a bit about the naming of classes and IDs.Bottom Line
Overall, this is a fair book containing worthwhile information, rating 3.5 out of 5 stars. People who learn better visually will appreciate the video tutorials but may wish for more video material. I found the Dynamic Learning book lacking detail by just touching the tip of the iceberg on many topics.