Dreamweaver MX 2004 Magic New Riders, 2003
The biggest disappointment is that Massimo Foti, a brilliant creator of Dreamweaver extensions whose name appears as the lead contributor, seems to have been directly involved in only one of the 12 projects in the book. What's more, it's a project that works in ColdFusion and IE6 only. It may be brilliant, but I'll probably never find out because I have no plans to switch my server to ColdFusion. If it were just one project that had this problem, it might be acceptable, but of the five projects using server-side technology, only one has been designed to work with all three main ones, PHP, ASP and CF. Another works with ASP and CF, but the remaining three are single-technology projects - one each for ASP, ASP.NET and CF. It's no criticism of the individual authors that they have concentrated on what they know best, but New Riders has let both them and readers down. "Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 Web Application Recipes" by Joseph Lowery and Eric Ott came out a month earlier, and the entire book has been written so that everything works in ASP, PHP and ColdFusion. As a result, the book is bigger - and more expensive - but you get the impression the expense is more than justified. In spite of these serious criticisms, "Dreamweaver MX 2004 Magic" does have some very strong points. Stephanie Sullivan kicks off with a tutorial on using CSS to position and style your pages. Anyone familiar with Stephanie's designs will appreciate that it's a winner, and there are some very useful tips you'll pick up from it. Brad Halstead and Murray Summers (authors of "Dreamweaver MX Templates") each present projects based on using templates for site navigation, again full of useful hints. Eduardo Zubler brings his love of Flash to a project called "Flashing Up Dreamweaver", which includes a very nifty extension called "Flash Date Picker". This, in fact, is one of the strong selling points of the book: the accompanying CD-ROM contains Dreamweaver extensions currently not available elsewhere. Eduardo's extension inserts a pop-up calendar that inserts dates in the correct American or European format into a form. Another feature that will appeal to anyone who finds difficulty following just written instructions is that every project is accompanied by a Quick Time movie showing you how to go through all the steps. Although useful, I would have preferred the authors themselves to talk you through the projects, and explain things that aren't in the text. For my money, at least, the Magic series, while still attractive, has begun to lose its original sparkle. |
Special Edition: Using Fireworks MX Que, 2002
The book is aimed at beginners to intermediate users, and goes through all the mechanics of Fireworks MX - what the various tools do, and the difference between vector and bitmap objects - before getting on to more creative issues. One section I found particularly helpful is the chapter on masking, something I've never found easy to master, and creating custom shadows. The explanations and illustrations were clear and easy to follow. I also like this book for its honesty about Fireworks' biggest shortcoming - the unwieldy HTML and JavaScript it creates. Jeffrey Bardzell strongly advises using Fireworks for what it's good at - graphics - and creating all the HTML yourself in Dreamweaver. At first glance, flipping through the pages doesn't inspire in the same way as a book like "Playing with Fire", but don't be fooled by first impressions. There is inspiration aplenty, but it's on the accompanying CD-ROM, which contains the examples from every chapter. Opening up the CD-ROM, you realize just how good a designer Jeffrey Bardzell is, and this where the book really shines. Because the files are in png format, you not only see the finished product, but you can take them apart, and examine them layer by layer, inspecting all the settings and experimenting with new ones. By the time you get through, you should not only have a solid understanding of how to use Fireworks MX, but hopefully a bit of Bardzell's design skills will have rubbed off on you, as well. |
Beyond Dreamweaver New Riders, 2002
Whereas the Macromedia manual simply describes the properties and attributes of each function in detail, Beyond Dreamweaver puts them into practice in a series of practical examples. Some chapters, such as the opening one on integrating Dreamweaver with a content management system, do not require any specialist knowledge. Most, however, expect readers to have a solid understanding of JavaScript and, for the final chapter, C++. What's nice about the approach, though, is that Joseph Lowery adopts the same helpful, friendly style as in his books for less advanced users. He walks you through the code section by section, explaining how it works, and what it's for. As a result, even if you've never attempted going under really under the hood of Dreamweaver (into its inner workings, not just Code view), it's far from being a journey into uncharted territory. The subjects covered in this book are varied. They include incorporating XML content into templates, automating sequential navigation (using templates, JavaScript or server side technology), working with Dreamweaver's classes and code libraries, and building an extension that will automatically open Fireworks from inside Dreamweaver to build a thumbnail from a larger image. There is also a useful chapter on Dreamweaver MX's new features that help make websites meet accessibility requirements, such as those laid down by Section 508. Although this book will be beyond the capabilities or interests of the average web designer, it makes fascinating reading for power users of Dreamweaver or anyone aspiring to step up to that level. |
Fireworks MX: Zero to Hero Friends of ED, 2002
The second half - which promises to turn you into a "Hero" - is written by Joyce J Evans, an established writer of web design teaching material. The section starts off gently enough with tips on how to combine basic shapes to create tabs (for a menu interface), rounded corners, a perfect heart, and so on. Then come more complex techniques for creating spheres with highlights and glass-like sheen, as well as some very classy text effects. As you work through the chapters, you'll learn about retouching and enhancing photos, creating metallic effects, and integrating designs created in Fireworks MX with Dreamweaver MX. With Joyce Evans' clear explanations, most of the techniques can be mastered quite quickly, even if you don't have years of graphic design expertise under your belt. There's no CD-ROM with the book, but all the files can be downloaded from the accompanying web site. Be warned, though, that the zip file containing all files is nearly 30MB! (if you're on a slow connection, it's probably better to dowload files for just one chapter at a time). Most of the files are in Fireworks PNG format, which enables you to examine each element of the image to see how they have been put together - just as important a learning process as following the instructions in the book. One major reservation about this book - with the exception of a small colour section, all the illustrations are in black and white. Graphic design is all about appealing to the eye, and although readers will learn a lot from this book, it's a pity Friends of ED didn't do the book more justice. Even though colour printing would have made the book more expensive, it would have been worth it. |
Dreamweaver MX: Building on Solid Foundations PVII Press, 2002
Foundations is not really a design pack, nor is it "Son of Dreamweaver 4 Magic", but it contains elements of both. It's a project based e-book (more than 300 pages in length) that aims to teach web designers sound page building techniques - using only valid HTML, separating presentation from content through CSS, and ensuring pages comply with accessibility guidelines such as Section 508 and the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative. Although Foundations takes a step-by-step approach that will appeal to beginners, it dives quickly into unexpected areas that may come as a surprise even to experienced users of Dreamweaver, helping them increase their productivity. Foundations contains three projects, all built around the same basic design, and shows you not only how to build them from scratch, but - more importantly - explains how and why certain design choices have been made. A great deal of thought and effort has gone into teaching readers how to create designs that are not only elegant and highly functional, but also robust. Special mention should be made of the two contributing writers - Linda Rathgeber and Patty Ayers, whose work is already well-known through the excellent "Playing With Fire" and "Inside Dreamweaver MX" (both reviewed elsewhere on this site). Linda guides you with ease through the creation of simple, but stunning graphics, and finally takes all the pain out of the one aspect of Fireworks that seems to reduce even grown men to tears - slicing, optimizing and exporting. Patty provided invaluable (and practical) insight into the Dreamweaver User Interface. If you've not yet taken the plunge into CSS, Foundations is an ideal way to dive right in. One of the greatest strengths of the book is that it shows you how to create style sheets that work in all browsers from Netscape 4 and IE4 upwards, and it teaches you how to do it without writing masses of repetitive and unnecessary code. One project designs first for version 5+ browsers, then adapts it for older ones. Another works in the opposite direction. Foundations won't teach you everything about CSS, but it will provide you with a very solid... foundation. Foundations is an e-book available only directly from the Project Seven web site. |
Fireworks MX Magic New Riders, 2002
Should it be on your bookshelf, though? It's a difficult question, because it depends on your level of skill, and what you're looking for. By turning everything into a project, the authors have made it difficult to flip through the book and find techniques that solve the problem that's been bugging you for ages. It's also disappointing that a book about graphics has all its illustrations in black and white. Fireworks MX Magic won't turn you into a brilliant graphic designer if you don't already have artistic talent, but working through the projects will make you a confident user of the program, and expose you to a wide variety of useful tricks and techniques. Although step-by-step instructions are given for each project, readers are expected to be already familiar with the wide range of tools and options in Fireworks. Perhaps the best feature of the book lies in the PNG files on the included CD-ROM. By deconstructing the finished files, you can see how the professionals have achieved certain effects, and experiment with them. |
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New Riders released this book one week before Christmas, presumably in the hope of filling many Dreamweaver enthusiasts' Christmas stockings. Like a lot of things in Christmas stockings, it's attractive and there are some really good things inside, but there are also plenty of disappointments. The line-up of distinguished authors held the promise of some really good stuff, but I get the impression that the rush to get it out in time for Christmas meant they weren't given the opportunity to polish everything to perfection.
I got this book on the recommendation of Linda Rathgeber, author of "Playing with Fire" (my favourite Fireworks 4 book). She described it as "brilliant". That, plus the fact that Jeffrey Bardzell is a co-founder of phireworks, which produces some very innovative extensions for Fireworks, was enough for me. And very good it is, too.
Joseph Lowery has taught countless newcomers (myself included) how to create websites and graphics with his Dreamweaver and Fireworks Bibles, but this time his target audience is neither beginners nor, indeed, most people working in web design. Beyond Dreamweaver is pitched squarely at power users of Dreamweaver, who may already have started writing their own extensions or would like to start doing so. In fact, a more appropriate title for the book might have been "Extending Dreamweaver MX", except that's already the name of the official manual (available direct from Macromedia) for extension builders.
As the title suggests, this book is aimed mainly at newcomers to graphic design for the web, but there's also plenty in it for more experienced readers, too. The first half of the book - the "Zero" section - takes you through all the main features of Fireworks MX. It's such a powerful program, with many new features added since the upgrade from Fireworks 4, so even old hands could probably pick up some useful tips skimming through the first six chapters. Instead of just a dry recital of what each tool is for, Charles Brown offers hands-on examples of how they work. Along the way, he points out some very useful shortcuts, such as pressing Ctrl or Alt to access a different function temporarily when creating various objects.
As one of the technical editors for this e-book, my opinions are naturally biased, but I think Al Sparber and his Project VII team have come up with another little gem. For anyone not familiar with Project VII, this is an excellent introduction to their stylish design packs and superb Dreamweaver extensions (many of them free) that make the creation of sophisticated web pages a breeze.
Like all of the New Riders "Magic" books, this consists of a series of independent projects by people regarded as leading experts in a particular field of web design. Although Lisa Lopuck's is the only name on the front cover, she created only four of the 15 projects. The rest are by other leading graphics designers. There's plenty of variety in the projects, including one that teaches you how to build your own extensions to Fireworks.