Customer Rating:  
Summary: A Solid Resource!
Comment: This is my third book from Friends of ED (Apress). I also own Flash MX Most Wanted and Photoshop 7 Professional Photographic Techniques. Each friendsof Ed book is packed with useful, easy to understand information and links to download support files. All their books are well organized with easy to follow steps and plenty of screenshots/illustrations.
The book takes you through the steps of building and publishing a complete web site. From initial planning to uploading and updating the completed site.
The first chapter gives you tips on how to plan for your site, such as deciding who your target audience will be and layout/navigation of the site. You'll then start to build a site using Photoshop and Imageready. Some of the things you'll do is create a textured background with some filtered effects like motion blur. You then start blocking out the main areas of your site. They also show you how to use layer styles and custom shapes to enhance your website.
One of the most important steps when building a web site is slicing and optimizing your site. Photoshop to Dreamweaver does an excellent job explaining and demonstrating how to slice your page properly. They go into great detail to make sure the reader understands how and why optimizing your images is important.
The chapter(s) on Dreamweaver was awesome. They do a great job at taking a novice designer and explaining how to define your site. The screenshots of different palettes in Dreamweaver was very helpful too. I especially liked the fact they dedicated several pages to CSS.
To finish out the book, friendsof Ed leave you with some useful advanced tips for both Photoshop and Dreamweaver.
I would have liked to seen some different looks/situations when slicing the site and a chapter for troubleshooting when things don't quite go as planned. Overall the book is very good. I really like how you have the exercise files so you can work along with each chapter. I give the book a strong 4 out of 5 stars and suggest anyone who isn't quite sure of how to tie the two programs together; Photoshop to Dreamweaver is for you. Even those who have used the two programs would find this book helpful. It's well worth the time to read this book.
Ernest Phillips
Member, D-MAG.org
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Solid Resource!
Comment: This is my third book from Friends of ED (Apress). I also own Flash MX Most Wanted and Photoshop 7 Professional Photographic Techniques. Each friendsof Ed book is packed with useful, easy to understand information and links to download support files. All their books are well organized with easy to follow steps and plenty of screenshots/illustrations.
The book takes you through the steps of building and publishing a complete web site. From initial planning to uploading and updating the completed site.
The first chapter gives you tips on how to plan for your site, such as deciding who your target audience will be and layout/navigation of the site. You'll then start to build a site using Photoshop and Imageready. Some of the things you'll do is create a textured background with some filtered effects like motion blur. You then start blocking out the main areas of your site. They also show you how to use layer styles and custom shapes to enhance your website.
One of the most important steps when building a web site is slicing and optimizing your site. Photoshop to Dreamweaver does an excellent job explaining and demonstrating how to slice your page properly. They go into great detail to make sure the reader understands how and why optimizing your images is important.
The chapter(s) on Dreamweaver was awesome. They do a great job at taking a novice designer and explaining how to define your site. The screenshots of different palettes in Dreamweaver was very helpful too. I especially liked the fact they dedicated several pages to CSS.
To finish out the book, friendsof Ed leave you with some useful advanced tips for both Photoshop and Dreamweaver.
I would have liked to seen some different looks/situations when slicing the site and a chapter for troubleshooting when things don't quite go as planned. Overall the book is very good. I really like how you have the exercise files so you can work along with each chapter. I give the book a strong 4 out of 5 stars and suggest anyone who isn't quite sure of how to tie the two programs together; Photoshop to Dreamweaver is for you. Even those who have used the two programs would find this book helpful. It's well worth the time to read this book.
Ernest Phillips
Member, D-MAG.org
Customer Rating:
Summary: A good book to begin...but could close better
Comment: This book is a great book. It will show you how to use Photoshop to create your design and how to ultimately bring it into Dreamweaver. However, there is a reason I didn't give the book 5 stars.
First of all, I think the book presumes that you are more than just a novice in Photoshop. So if you know nothing about PS, then you could get frustrated. Also, as another reviewer mentioned, the book is not designed with creativity in mind. That is, I don't think anyone would create a masterpiece using this book. What I did was use a Photoshop template already designed and started from there. The book eventually tells you how to create slices and import them to Dreamweaver.
As for Dreamweaver, it will tell you how to set things up in DW after you've sliced things up in PS. Again, its pretty much basic stuff. Although if you don't know much about DW, the book does a good job in pointing the reader in the right direction. However, again, I think the books lacks a bit of creativity because it doesn't tell you how to do a lot once you've got it in DW. I'm proficient in DW and so was able to do what I wanted to do. That is, add forms, hotspots, etc. However, for the person that doesn't know much HTML or no HTML at all, they will probably be left with the empty feeling that they haven't accomplished much because you may be wondering what to do next once you've got your slices in DW.
Overall, its a good book. I think I know a lot more about PS than I did before reading this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: learn by doing? I think not.
Comment: Yes, I did learn how to use Photoshop, Image Ready, and Dreamweaver in about a week. So the book must be O.K. However, I found it to creatively uninspiring and utterly lacking in basic make-up. Often there were there sections devoid of real instructions on how to get things done. I would say that if you want to learn the meat and potatoes of making web sites, you will be out of luck on this one. And please, "Footprint Design"? that is ridiculously lame.
Thanks--David Bowie
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good potential, but fall short on delivery....
Comment: I thought the book could be done a little better. If I wasn't familiar w/ Photoshop 7, then I would have been lost on several occasions while following the examples in the book.
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