Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 on Demand [Paperback]

As a college educator, I am always on the outlook for new books for potential usage within a classroom setting. When I saw this book, I just couldn't help but check it out! ;-)

First, here's what's great:

1) If you already have experience with Dreamweaver, you'll find this book to be an excellent reference guide.

Each chapter is broken down into mini, how-to pages that are solely designed to provide you with quick directions on how to accomplish a particular task. This book isn't really designed to teach absolute beginners how to use Dreamweaver, but instead, it serves as a quick, "Help! How do I do this?..." reference guide.

2) The book is organized in manner that makes it easy to look up the help topic that you need.

- Having problems with the appearance of your text? Check out chapter 5!
- Need help adding and working with images? Chapter 6 is for you.
- Adding links between pages? That's where chapter 7 comes in, etc.

3) Book is in full color, which makes its illustrations easy to understand.

The Disadvantages:

- There's not that many, but the one disadvantage that I can think of is that the cover of the book needs to be clear that this book is designed as a reference guide, and not as a training book with tutorials, lessons, etc. The first lesson starts out for absolute beginners, which might easily confuse those who think that this book will train them in website production, instead of simply how to perform various tasks using Dreamweaver.

If you're looking for a tutorial on Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, this is not your
book. "On Demand" is a visual quick reference book organized in 22
color-coded chapters designed to direct the reader to specific functions
and features of the program. Chapters are organized in general category
headings from basic to advanced and are filled with color screen illustrations,
keyed to step-by-step instructions.

The book looks great. It's colorful and attractively designed, but in this
case design trumps function. Reference tabs are color-coded but don't contain
any descriptive text making them unusable as a quick reference tool. To find
the content you want you'll have to do that the old-fashioned way -- by flipping
to the table of contents or index. Screenshots are nice to look at but are
small and best viewed with magnifying glass.

The explanatory copy is sparse as well. Even the most complex concepts are
limited to a single spread. If you're looking for information about using html
<div> or <span> tags -- tools used for positioning content on your webpage --
you'll have trouble finding it. Neither are listed in the table of contents or
in the index but are discussed in a general section covering CSS layout
techniques.

Unless you're already well-versed with Dreamweaver you may find yourself
referring to better sources for an explanation of the topic you just "learned"
from "On Demand." If you are already a moderate or advanced Dreamweaver user,
content contained in this reference guide may leave you looking for more.

Save your money. Keep shopping.

Do you like lots of pictures and do you learn best that way? If so, you've found your Dreamweaver CS5 book.

I've been a fan of QUE books for some time now. They are typically timely and very visual books. You can easily find a thicker book with "Bible" in the title to take up more space on your desk and make you look like the office geek ... but if you are the type of person who learns visually, this book is right up your alley and you'll gain a lot from it. Keep in mind this book is for beginners to intermediate Dreamweaver CS5 users. There have been numerous changes between CS4 and CS5 - but the changes involve more streamlining in CS5. If you are a current Dreamweaver CS4 or CS3 user and are proficient, this book might not add anything to your knowledge base. I would consider stepping up to something else or using online tutorials (especially if you already own a book on Dreamweaver CSX).

This book isn't about just diving in and building a website. A lot of books can do that and can teach you how to write PHP or HTML and launch something onto the web. This book goes deeper than that and asks the reader to take a step back from some of the technical jargon and really "mind map" the concept of a potential website. The book encourages starting with a plan and not just diving into code. This is one of the features that sets it apart from other books in it's class is that it really takes an academic approach to launching a website and offers screenshot after screenshot of concepts and examples. In fact, the book is so highly visual that it might not be for everyone. For instance, this book might not appeal so much to advanced user's who really want to get under the covers of Dreamweaver CS5 and exploit code. This book is not for hacks who like to develop on the fly. These types of developers would do better with a book such as Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 with PHP: Training from the Source or another tool altogether. But if Dreamweaver is the required tool in the workplace, this book has it's place among the editorial staff, web designers, QA staff and the team that works above the hardcore developers and database folks.

The book is very, very visual and also very useful for it's intended audience. It teaches the user how to get the best and most out of Dreamweaver CS5 without having to worry so much about what's going on with the code side of things. The book's index is well planned and makes finding the topic of interest relatively easy. It's a great source for website planners and QA testers as well (at least to borrow from your colleague when it comes to testing your websites).

I have worked on web teams before and this is the perfect type of book for those who work nearer to the website interface. The book shows how to develop balanced and accessible pages. It will also prepare the reader with the fundamentals needed to take the "ACE" (Adobe Certified Expert) exam in Dreamweaver CS5. In such a competitive economy, certification never hurts. Another great feature is that the book is available with a free online edition for 45 days. If you are studying for the ACE exam, this could be extremely useful!

Great book and very well planned and laid out. I recommend it!