Dreamweaver CS4: The Missing Manual review

Dreamweaver CS4: The Missing Manual

reviewed by Dr. Eric Flescher, Olathe, KS: (dreric1kansas@aol.com)

Author: David Sawyer McFarland
Publisher: Oreilly Media, , Inc. ,1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472
Released: 2009
Pages: 1066
$45 USA
$45 Canada
ISBN: 978-0-596-522926-6

Strengths: This massive book is well designed and is packed with helpful information. The index is well written. This book includes a very nice set of introductory based guides and information so that novice Dreamweaver users or those who have switched over, can learn how to use the software. There is a “CD” on a website for additional information. Intuitively written book with lots of helpful ideas, information and tutorials. There are tutorials and a program that can be downloaded for free, that allows importation of Go Live files/websites, so that users don’t have to start completely all over. Uses can work with Dreamweaver and your favorite files almost immediately. Excellent guidance section is integrated and goes along now with Dreamweaver CS4. Dreamweaver CS4 now is much more user friendly because it is now integrated with Adobe related interface features.

Weaknesses: The book has only black/white text / color.

Novice/ Intermediate/ Advanced

Rating: 5/5

insert dream1.jpg

Introduction

Dreamweaver has been, for most part , recognized as a web developers’ “tour de force”, for website design. It has remained as the choice for designing websites for many years due to its lofty reputation and being the “standard” for website design. Mostly this reputation has come about due to its complex and feature laden design in one package. Dreamweaver has been a real nightmare for me however. My disdain for Dreamweaver has been a long one. Unwieldy, hard to figure out, even with the guidance of tutorials, it was highly non-intuitive and very not user friendly. In 2000, after dropping my use of Dreamweaver, I was able to produce good websites, within a week, with its new found nemesis, GoLive. Since that time, I have watched with interest the battle between Golive and Dreamweaver, year in and year out. They have always been “neck and neck” with Dreamweaver having a few more innovations. But overall, Golive was more intuitive and a better visual tool. Still, like it or not, Dreamweaver was the “main weapon” in website building, even as both Golive and Dreamweaver became more powerful.

When Adobe took over Dreamweaver, the “writing was on the wall”. Golive would soon be left for dead. My feeling was that Adobe bought Dreamweaver to use the best of Golive, meld it into Dreamweaver and gradually improve other parts of it. My feelings now are borne out by working through Dreamweaver CS4: The Missing Manual. My intention was to delve into its guiding principals and see if I could finally quell my disdain for Dreamweaver.

The Missing Manual book series is written by David Pogue, the New York Times Technology columnist, who continues to be the author at the helm of this series. The words on the front cover of the book say it is “the book that should have been in the box”. For the most part, you can call this the main theme of this series of books. The series books are self help guidebooks for learning how to use software and hardware that usually and only comes with the meager original documentation or manuals.

This book, authored by David Sawyer McFarland, is a media and website developer since 1995. He has produced a massive but thoughtfully written guide. The fact that this author is also a writer, trainer and instructor and has taught many classes involving Dreamweaver, is borne out and is also self evident in the ways that he has thoughtfully crafted this book.

This book is more a guide then a “textbook”. That is the main intent for the The Missing Manual series books, as well as in this book. There are a short hand system of arrows that replaces the use of “much more text laden information” . These guide the user through the learning process in a much more efficient manner. Illustrations and additional visual aids are in black and white. This is a drawback but screenshots are, for the most part, of ample size and very readable. Throughout the book, there are helpful tips, help boxes, notes along with some very nice tables (conversions for different formats. Throughout the book, there are helpful ideas in the way of tips, (called: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) , Power Users Clinic, Work around Workshop, and more), sprinkled throughout the seven parts of the 1065 page massive book. The author helps the user cover “a lot of ground” but admirably, one can start from the beginning.

insert dream2tutsoverview.jpg

In this book, there is guidance within its 26 chapters. These are: Building web pages; Building better web pages; Bringing your pages to Life; Building a web site; Dreamweaver CS4Power; Dynamic Dreamweaver. The complexity grows with some chapters but at least there is a guidance as you progress from which ever place you start. Adobe has built a good user friendly area to learn about many facets of the Dreamweaver. This new area makes learning with this book even better and supplements the assistance of this book.

The Appendix A has an assistance help section with more information on-line which in the long run can help speed up finding more ideas and information. That combined with this book made for a much more pleasurable learning experience then when I first started with Dreamweaver. Appendix B has menu by menu descriptions for Dreamweaver CS4. Unfortunately there is just text here and no visuals and screenshots are available in this section. Finally, the huge index is well done and was very helpful.

Conclusions:

I am not happy that GoLive will slowly go the way of the “Dodo bird”. But I could see the “ writing on the wall” when Adobe acquired Dreamweaver. My only wish was that Dreamweaver would some how become a better program and be more user friendly for me as well as others, (should they choose to work with Dreamweaver). This wish has been fulfilled to a great extent. This book includes down to earth, basic, easy to understand tutorials. My main thought was, I “wish I had this book “ when I was first starting out with Dreamweaver.

What I also like about this book are the “little things”, that make reading and understanding, a more pleasurable experience. Codes, application terminology and more are outlined and explained. There is a better understanding and guidance of the information. Tutorials are well outlined in all parts of the book. By explaining, what is needed and why, applications etc are necessary, one appreciates also and learns better from this book. There are informative answers and examples which make for even greater understanding. You learn because you understand, not because “someone is teaching you and wants your to understand it”. Step by step guides also provide substantial assistance, whether you use Macintosh or PC/ Windows. In fact, I found that even though this software version is made for Macintosh G5 with lots of ram, I was able to workaround many aspects of Dreamweaver with my current ancient old flat panel Imac with 900 mgz! ( You can download Dreamweaver for a free trial by the way).

Finally if you are a Golive or Dreamweaver user, novice to advanced, take a look at this book. While it doesn’t wipe away my frustration with Dreamweaver over the years, this book and the author’s way of writin this book, has given me a new outlook on this application nemesis. Hopefully one day, I can call Dreamweaver a true “friend “ for website building. At least my journey has begun. Time will tell but at least with this book, I as well as others can have a good start or begin to improve and learn website building . Check it out to see if this book can meet your needs with Dreamweaver.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Bible

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Bible
reviewed by Dr. Eric Flescher, Olathe, KS: (dreric1kansas@aol.com)

Authors: Ted Padova and Kelly L. Murdock
Publisher: Wiley Publishing , Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NY 07030
Released: October 1, 2007
Pages: 1296
$45 USA
$54 Canada
ISBN-10: 0470130679
ISBN-13: 978-0470130674

Strengths: Enormous in-depth guide. Screenshots are fairly readable. Introduction to the new application interfaces (except Dreamweaver which did not change) has a good set of toolbox windows. Understanding Version Cue and Adobe Bridge is included.

Weaknesses: Black and white instead of color. Hard to read. Special notes are all rectangular and don’t stand out. Does not talk about MacIntosh users. Mostly text laden. The look of the text is very drab and is some of poorest I have ever seen. The guide structure could use more numbers or something to break up the plethora of text. The Parts of the books (sections) focus on using the Creative Suite tools instead of focusing on the applications.

Novice/Intermediate/Advanced

Rating: 3/5

Web creation and publishing has evolved over the years since HTML was once the only way to publish on the internet. Now there are many new programs, applications, software, and other tools that can help web publishers, novice to advanced. In addition new versions of the software are arriving yearly which can make keeping up with web publishing efforts more difficult. Assistance might be needed to start, develop or advance web building skills, especially to speed up your efforts. If so, Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies, may be a book to answer your learning needs.

Ted Padova, has written Adobe related books while Kelly Murdock has also authored books and worked with web design, graphics and multimedia. They have pooled their efforts to develop a comprehensive huge guide book for computer users who wish to develop graphics and web design while using the six application Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, InDesgn, and Acrobat.

This massive 882 page book includes an introduction, a series of tutorials that span seven sections and a big index. This Black and White tutorials covers nine parts that guide you through 38 chapters. The readings and tutorials are meant for helping to create dynamic websites. Utilizing the latest web design tools, these authors outline a series of tutorials to complete necessary steps to start, develop and finish websites. Along the way, this guide utilizes the six applications, to “ walk “ the web user through the six different applications which most web professionals use on a daily basis. However learning about these applications are scattered throughout the Sections.

Each section of the book is a book in itself. The authors attempt to create an user friendly guide that offers in-depth instruction. But there is much that keeps this from happening for me and possibly others, depending on how you like to learn.

The sections of the book (called Part) are: Getting to know the Creative Suite 3, Getting Started with Design, workflows , working with objects and images, workin with type, Using creative Suite and Microsoft Office, Working in Creative desiggn workflows, Document repurposing, Creative Suite documen delivery workflows and Printing and digital prepress. This method focus is applying skills instead of focusing on the applications themselves. And for the most part, I would applaud this approach but it seems that the way the book is written, make this approach less learnable.

The book is written with a PC computer in mind and includes Microsoft Office. While I use Macintosh that did not bother me. It is the fact that the authors did not include any information about Macintosh users was a little baffling. Screenshots are employed and they are PC oriented. This is fine but there is little or no information by the authors to define how Macintosh users or the PC user who has switched to a Macintosh, can use the book.

Most of the book is text laid out in the paragraphs. Screenshots are readable for the most part with “ Line pointers” used within the screenshots. These help the reader “see” more precisely what the tutorials are targeting during the instruction. But these don’t appear in many sections of the book. This makes the tutorials more difficult to understand, as the reader has to sometimes “fish around”, to find and try to connect between, what the authors are saying and the reader is perceiving. It would have been better if more of the text or information were laid out in Tables and Illustrations form, numbered or something else to cut down all the text.

Conclusions:
While I am sure the authors are very competent, they have created a book that “falls farshort” in many ways. I have designed and created websites for several years. I am always trying to improve my efforts, but when a book makes the job more difficult, instead of assisting how to use the application, there is trouble. When starting out, I found that Dreamweaver was and still is, a very finicky program to understand. In many cases, no matter how much I tried, with the program and using books, I still could not understand and get the job done. It was a combination of the book and the application and perhaps my learning style. Starting out as a novice, at that time, I needed less text, in some cases, better targeted screenshots and better layout of the instruction.
I thought that this book had potential. But the text and how it “looks”, is some of the poorest I have ever seen, for an instructional book. It basically looks, feels and reads like a college textbook instead of a user friendly guide, for website and software application users. Whether you are a PC or MacIntosh user, I feel that you should look elsewhere to find help with the learning and using Creative Suite 3 and its applications.

Photoshop CS2 Workflow: The Digital Photographer's Guide

Photoshop CS2 Workflow: The Digital Photographer's Guide

By Tim Grey
$39.99
pages 352
© 2007
ISBN: 978-0-470-11941-4
Sybex
1151 Marine Village Parkway
Almeda, CA 94501
http://www.sybex.com

Strengths: Includes information on raw format images. An in-depth highlight of curves with the applications, which is a very difficult topic, is applied in an excellent fashion in this book. Information regarding adjustment layers well done.

Weaknesses: Too much verbiage.There is a need for more arrows and pointers to integrate the information laid out in the screenshots and applied to the text and tutorials.

Rating: 4/5

*

Reviewed by Dr. Eric Flescher, Olathe, KS (dreric1kansas@aol.com):

“Workflow” is the latest “buzzword” regarding digital imagery. The word relates to the whole process of taking your images from the beginning to end and all the processes, tasks and management issues that are needed, for making your finished images even better. Photoshop CS3 Workflow: The Digital Photographer's Guide, is the next version of a popular book that takes your through the steps of workflow evolution.

The author, Tim Grey, is a renown Photoshop and digital photographer . He is Microsoft’s Chief ambassador to professional photographers and presents workshops on digital imaging. He is the author of another book Color Confidence. This book is the latest version of this book. I wanted to see whether this book has been updated compared to the previous version which I reviewed.

Within the book, there are many brilliant photographs to illustrate the points the author is trying to show you. Notes are also “peppered” throughout the fourteen chapters. Additional ideas related to the techniques are highlighte. I found these insightful and tied in well with the tutorial type information for the most part. Many screenshots, help illustrate the learning process but I wish some of them were larger. I would have liked to have seen more icons (like more red circles or pointers) that could have served to highlight and focus what the author talking about in the text.

Part 1, points to “getting started” and takes you from the beginning. Chapter 1 talks about workflow foundations. The main focus is the final results you want for your images. Chapter 2, “ downloading and sorting, uses the browser Adobe bridge. On page 28, the “palette set up” is very well written in explaining and using palettes. The tool and palette shortcuts (page 34) are also well done and useful. Chapter 3, “ raw conversion” is well explained in terms of the reasons for using RAW images instead of JPEG or other types of images.

Part 2, works on the basic adjustments that are needed. In Chapter 4, “Basic adjustments” details how to use basic tools as, rotate and crop, using crop tool, using aspect ratio.

Chapter 5 “Basic tone and color “ specifically targets evaluating channels. This written introduction into channels is done very well. In fact, this is some of the best information on the topic that I have seen. The screenshots and the shots of the application windows (example, Curve, levels, etc.) helping with the understanding. However only in a few places (for example in p.101) were additional pointers or guides used in the windows (for example: red enumerated small circles or additional ways) to verify even more explicitly what the author is speaking about. This chapter (p. 110) has a real nice listing of five benefits of adjustment layers but I would have liked to have seen this information earlier in the chapter and focusing specifically on the benefits through the tutorials and screenshots. Levels and problems signs followed with clipping, gaps and posterization with levels adjustment p. 110-113) but I did not feel that the information was cohesive enough. Color balance (p. 108) and (p. 112) basic saturation have well done instructions.

Notes in Chapter 6 are very helpful. Here in Chapter 6, “ Image cleanup” has information concerning healing brush, cloning stamp (copying parts of the text to others to clean up smudges by copying from one part of the image into another – for example sky color).

Now Advanced adjustments come into play on Part 3. Chapter 7, “Advanced tonal adjustments,” covers working with image tones. Shadow highlights (page 138) is an interesting section and nicely done. Curves information and adjusting these (p.143) I fell are the most difficult to understand and master. The author does an exceptional job in explaining this topic done and is some of the best I have ever seen. Ways to use anchor points are excellently written. The curves table (p.159 and throughout this chapter visually nicely done.

Chapter 8 has advanced color adjustments information which includes hue / saturation, color casting and more. Chapter 9 works with the selection tools is not one of the best chapters. There should have been more visuals, many of the screen shots should have been bigger. I wish there was more to show and display how the selection actually work instead of all the verbiage.

Chapter 10. targeting adjustments layered masks I have been a difficult one to accurately portray and teach in many books. Once again there are too many words, not enough visuals and some parts are plain confusing to understand. Chapter 11, creative adjustments talks about filters. The screenshots are small and there aren’t arrows, pointers or circles. Steps to take are created in paragraph form and it “hurts “ when trying to figure out the processes.

Part 4 finishing the workflow (Chapter 12) finishes with saving files while workflow automation (Chapter 13) follow and finally there is (Chapter 14) teaches some of the output processing.

The Appendix has a sample workflow checklist which makes sense. I like that the chapters for target objectives are included here (but I would have been even better if the pages were listed). Finally the index is well done.

Conclusions

Overall the author portrays the PhotoShop tutorials for use of digital photography. The notes throughout the chapter help break up the use of the text but its not enough. There is just too many “words” in the explanation process.

I would have liked to have seen more arrows or pointer to the parts of the histogram that the instructions “talk about.” Sometimes the terms (like posterization on p. 103) are inserted at the end of a paragraph and should have been integrated better instead of making me feel like some of the information is included at the end or the last second.

I “wrestled” with this review. While there is a lot that “hits the mark” in terms of understanding, I feel that style and way much of the instructions are written get in the way of learning. The text feels “too much like a seminar workshop” which the author is noted for. Lectures go too fast at times. Sometimes there is a need for visual pointers for additional guidance so one does not “get lost”. Sometimes with seminars, I say to myself “ stop, hold-it, backup”. The seminar has moved ahead and I am stuck or still digesting what is said. Added visual pointers can help slow down the written workflow when one needs to, to regroup and then forge onward.

But fortunately this is a book and you can go back and try to make sense of the process if you are listening to a presentation/ workshop. I thought about the final “grade” for evaluating this review. Overall this book is solid but it has a lot of gaps mainly because of the multitude of text and not enough visuals. The tutorials are too long and should have been broken up. At times I found it difficult to figure things what the author was trying to “say”. I have seen tutorials in other books. I just did not “get what the author was saying” part of the time. Part of the problem is “too much text”.

I was looking for something a little different to find out more about using Photoshop skills to supplement what I already knew and in some ways I found it in some of the chapters. But much of this book and the way it reads does not suit my “learning style”. For my tastes, I will have to look to my other resources to advance my workflow knowledge. But other Photoshop ( intermediate and advanced) users who want to improve their image production and work on their workflow, may find the book to their liking.

IMOVIE 08 & IDVD missing review

IMOVIE 08 & IDVD missing review

IMOVIE 08 & IDVD


reviewed by Dr. Eric Flescher, Olathe, KS: (dreric1kansas@aol.com)

Author: David Pogue
Released: 2007
Pages: 448
$ 40 USA
$ 48 and
ISBN: -10-:596-51619-3
ISBN: -978-90596-51619-2

Strengths: There is no CD with the book but at the website you can find additional information that can be found and utilized. The index is well done. The book includes colorful screenshots which are very readable. Helpful hints and techniques

Weaknesses: Most of the information is in regarding iMovie. Troubleshooting ideas for using iDVD are missing for the most part. These are relegated to looking into 4 areas which include discussion groups, lists, official iMovie area and Official in regard to iDVD troubleshooting. I know there is more that could have been said.

Novice/Intermediate/Advanced

Rating: 4.5/5

Introduction

No doubt about it. Since I created videos with iMovie and iDvd for my private use as well as a for business. But I have not been real happy with iDVD. I have found iMovie and iDvd 6 a mixed blessing and lacking in several ways. In many regards, I think that the radical shift to Imovie 8 from iMovie 6 is due to that many Mac users have had problems with various parts of iMovie and iDvd or both. I know this is the case for me as I have had continual problems with iDVD. And I have not been able to correct them while PC users are humming along creating their DVDs. Maybe Apple heard about this from others as well or possibly was thinking that the two products were getting too close and taking away sales from Final Cut Pro or Express. In any case, I was hoping that the author could shed some light on using these two Imovie versions to a better extent and why.

This book series is written by David Pogue, the New York Times Technology columnist. He continues to be the author at the helm of this series of books called “The Missing Manual”. These series of books are self help guidebooks for learning and using software and hardware that go beyond the meager original documentation /manuals. I like some of the series of these themed books. So I thought it would be interesting to review IMOVIE 08 & IDVD missing review for several reasons.

This thick book has 448 pages and not filled with “fluff” but has page by page insights that will help you along way with iMovie and iDvd.It is divided into 5 parts spanning 21 chapters. There is a good appendix with 4 sections (iMovie 08 menus, troubleshooting, master keyboard shortcuts listing and visual cheat sheet. There is a short hand system of arrows that replaces the use of “much more text information” that guides you through the learning process and where to use the applications. Other visual aids are in color, the screenshots are of a good size and readable. Throughout the book, there are helpful tips, help boxes, notes and more. Throughout the book, there are helpful ideas in the way of tips, (up to speed, FAQ -frequently asked questions, Poweruser information, Clinic, tips , notes gem in rough hidden techniques). This is a nice way of targeting specifically helpful information without having to wade through the text (which is well written, authoritative and insightful).

Additional highlight included the following. Chapter 1, tips on recording time (p. 25) was nicely done; chapte 2 framing and rules of 3rd is something I know of with photography but this is one of the only times I have seen it spoken and used in terms of videorecording. There are 22 different ways to use weddings was very interesting. Chapte 4 is packed with various iMovei strategies using digita 8 and recording dv, importing older imovie has some good ideas ( also practical information about the cables and webcam to firewire information). Chapte 5 (p.113) includes all videoscodes and recording onto DVD. Chapte 6, includes copying, posting and deleting most wil already know but Chapte 7 Favorites, Chapte 8 transitions and Chapte 9 histograms are done very well. Interesting tips in Chapter 10 title and credits how to Chapter 11 narrative and can isntall news and effects.
Chapter 12 has photo browser tips, and great tips concerning photo browsing, fimstrips, using fade to black and therer are some nice specific hints that I would like to use. The section on power editing and power up editing is excellent. Chapter 13 moving from v8 to v6 or vica versa is is well done and helpful to many videographers who read the book. Chapte 14 has an interesting section with ideas on expert ipod, iphone, apple tv use. Chapte 16 covers iMovie to Quicktime (o.285) while Quicktim while Chapter 17 QuickTime information about using the Quicktime player.

Finally there is more about dvd use and burning in Chapter 18. Dvd has the information for two ways to burn your DVDs (OneStep or Magic iDVD). These two different methods and techniques are included in step-by-step fashion. Chapte19 make up slide show while Chapte20 talks about the using of themes. Should you want to work with scripting, Chapter 21 is for you.


Conclusions

The frank discussion about iMovie O8 “hits you in your face”. You know that this is a radical new “upgrade” in many ways but why this was done is really a mystery. You will have to make up your mind whether to use either iMovie version or like many , both. Solid, informative and packed with techniques, hints and ideas, this book is a great resource despite the new versions.

The Missing Manual is for those trying to make sense of this new shift and in that way this book has hit the mark. The screenshots, visuals and tips, techniques and other notes are well done and insightful. There is a six page section on working with iMovie 6 and iMovie 8 and while it is okay, I think it should have involved more troubleshooting information especially on the pros and cons and on transfering to iMovie 8. I would have liked to have seen a listing, when not to use iMovie 8 in plain language. Overall I think this book at well done but the proof in the pudding will be whether iDVD and iMovie work better for me and others. To get there you have to try and try again. This book may help you solve some of the short comings now and in the future for iMovie and/or iDvd. If IMOVIE 08 & IDVD Missing Manual can’t help, it might be time to switch to another video editor and DVD burner. Time to read the book, try out the new version and see if you want to try it , use both or use the older versions.