Customer Rating:  
Summary: Difficult for new Dreamweaver learner.
Comment: This is a step-by-step instruction guide for Dreamweaver. Although this may be satisfactory for more knowledgeable users of computer software, I spend hours during lessons attempting to decode the directions. It assumes the student knows the terms used for Dreamweaver's "workspaces". I regularly had to spend 20 or 40 minutes to understand the terminology within the directions. This could have been corrected by the author if they had graphically provided full sized images (visual as seen by the user who is looking at their computer screen)of the varied and changing "workspaces" to include the names (vocabulary) for each menu, toolbar, button, etc. for each screen; and the page number(s) where each of these is described within the text.
I have taken college courses already and am knowledgeable in Flash and Photoshop. I reviewed these sections of the text too. If I did not already know what was ment in some parts of these lessons, I would have been very confused by them. Photoshop offers much more (even for a beginner) than what is shown in this text.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Getting Started with Adobe CS3 Standard Edition
Comment: Purchased book as a companion to Intermediated Web Design class that I'm taking at a local junior college.
I had already read Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Revealed - first six chapters are the same, word for word. That makes me feel like I wasted my money.
I had also already taken a semester of Flash CS3, using the "Hands on Training" book. That's much more in depth that one gets with this book so, again, I feel a bit like this class was a waste of time and money.
That said, it's a great book for a beginner or a self taught html programmer to get up to speed pretty quickly with Adobe CS3. It's designed for the Web Standard Edition package of CS3 and one should feel pretty comfortable with that package after working one's way through this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Okay - not great
Comment: Lots of good info, but layout is not very user friendly for a self-learner. This book is probably a fantastic resource if used in a classroom style setting, but I've found online tutorials and "The Missing Manual" series to be better for individual learning. I purchased this looking for something that would give me a good overall implementation of design from FW to DW, but this is set up to first show you step by step learning of the individual suites as opposed to an overall tutorial on webdesign using all three suites. Also - page layout w/ sidebars is not very intuitive. Again - lots of good information, but the delivery not too impressive. Use as a side reference, but find something else to use as a step by step guide / tutorial.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Web Collection CS3 Premium and Standard Edition
Comment: The book is great if you simply want an introduction to Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks or (Photoshop in the premium edition). The Dreamweaver section is not very thorough and the Flash section is somewhat difficult to follow. Overall I was able to master Dreamweaver and Fireworks so two out of three aint bad. The book is definately worth it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beautifully illustrated, well written and helpful
Comment: This is one of several tutorial packages I bought at the same time to help me learn the Adobe CS3 suite of web-related programs. I wanted to determine which was the best to start with, so I sampled a couple of chapters from each of about six titles before deciding this was the clearly best of the group to get me started. My main interest is in learning Flash, but I've got a use for almost everything in the CS3 suite. This book provided an unanticipated motivation to stop avoiding Dreamweaver and take a fresh look at Fireworks as well. (I no longer find FW redundant in a world dominated by PS and IL.) I can't say enough about how exquisite this book is, and the inclusion of camouflage nature scenes was a smart move. It is well organized, nicely paced and I haven't found any glitches yet, which is seldom the case with tutorial books. If you are just starting out with CS3, my advice, and I write educational books for a living, is to start with WC Revealed and then you'll have better info on how to decide what will be your next move. Everyone associated with this book can be proud of the results. Kudos, and thanks. I'd give it more stars if I could.
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