|
How to Use Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 and Fireworks 8
|
| List Price: | $34.99 |
| Price: | $31.49 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details |
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com
65 new or used available from $2.47
Average customer review:
Product Description
New to Dreamweaver and Fireworks 8? How to Use Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 and Fireworks 8 will quickly teach you the basics of the software so that you can get your websites up and running. More than 150 two-page, full- spreads will visually take you through the process of how to use each program to create everything from a simple personal website or a more involved e-business website. Illustrations and figures will lead you through each task with easy-to-follow directions and visual cues. You will learn how to:
- Work with text.
- Reuse information.
- Optimize images.
- Use behaviors and scripts.
- Create forms.
- Use external media.
- Create dynamic webpages.
- Work with CSS.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #256444 in Books
- Published on: 2005-11-13
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 304 pages
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
How to Use Macromedia Dreamweaver MX and Fireworks MX provides visual solutions to more than 100 Dreamweaver and Fireworks tasks. Full-color illustrations and figures lead the reader through each task with easy-to-follow directions and visual cues. The Dreamweaver/Fireworks Suite can be a somewhat intimidating combination for the beginning user, but How to Use Macromedia Dreamweaver MX and Fireworks MX, with its visual, step-by-step approach, makes it simple to learn the basic techniques involved in using Dreamweaver and Fireworks.
About the Author
Lon Coley is an IT professional specializing in Office and Internet applications. An experienced teacher and trainer, Lon writes and develops dedicated customized training courses for business and education. These courses cover the whole spectrum of her expertise and are always prepared with the individual client in mind.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Introduction
Dreamweaver 8 is a web page editor you can use to design web pages and to develop and organize your own website. You create web pages graphically, by inserting tables or frames, or by drawing layers (rectangular containers) to position page elements exactly where you want them. In the background, Dreamweaver creates the HTML coding needed by browsers to display the page as you see it onscreen while you're designing it. You can, when desired, view and edit this HTML code directly to refine your design.
Dreamweaver includes sophisticated and yet easy-to-use tools for designing and managing a website and its many assets: images, videos, audio files, templates, scripts, color preferences, and even URLs you reference frequently. You can work with pages on your computer and then upload them easily to your website provider's server. When needed, you can download files already on the website, make changes, and then upload the files again. For situations in which multiple people are involved in the creation of a site, Dreamweaver provides a check-in/check-out system that makes management of that site a simple process. In addition, Dreamweaver supports Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), which enable you to create styles for text, layers, tables, and other elements, and then reapply those styles throughout the pages of your website. This enables you to maintain a consistent, professional look on your site.
Using Dreamweaver, you can build dynamic websites in which users interact with a database—perhaps shopping your catalog of products, entering or retrieving customer data, searching a knowledgebase, and filling a page with live articles. Dreamweaver supports popular database server technologies such as ASP, ASP .NET, ColdFusion, JSP, and PHP.
Fireworks 8 is a graphics editor you can use to build the graphic elements of your site, such as web buttons, navigation bars, pop-up menus, and image maps. Fireworks integrates seamlessly with Dreamweaver, creating supporting HTML code for these interactive elements and making it a simple process to integrate these buttons, bars, menus, and image maps into your web pages. Large images can be easily sliced into sections you can then optimize with the image format that best suits the image data in that section. Slices can also be used to change a portion of an image when the user interacts with it, such as by moving the mouse over it. Fireworks creates the needed HTML code for Dreamweaver so that a web browser can reassemble these slices into a complete, interactive image.
Fireworks provides the graphical tools you need to build your web images, including layers that help to isolate portions of an image for specific changes, and filters that can apply specific effects such as glows, bevels, and blurs. Using frames, you can build your own animations, such as web banners and animated logos. Fireworks supports the most popular image formats so that you can optimize and save your work for a variety of uses.
Customer Reviews
Ahhh...I see the tree!
In many of the "how to" books on Fireworks and Dreamweaver I've read, there has been a tendency to pile on and sadly, even show off the author's knowlege rather than staying focused on the task at hand. This is all fine for veteran web masters(who probably don't need the books in the first place). But for the person who is new to the interface, it is best to keep things simple and focused. We don't need to see the details of the whole forest ecosystem when all we want is to build a little treehouse.
This is why I find Lon Coley's book so valuable. It stays focused on the concept and, I might add, gives some pretty good hints and tips. The large color illustrations are also a nice break from the monochromatic examples in most texts.
Most books claim they are designed for the "beginner to the advanced user", but they usually focus somewhere in between. They make too many assumptions about the Newbie's level of experience, and most really advanced techniques require their own books. This book is truly for the Newbie beginner and it fills a badly needed slot.
Really excellent format
I really like this book a lot. I have other books on Dreamweaver and Flash but this is my favorite for both.
First it selects the essential tasks you have to do. For a small book it's incredible how often the procedure you need is right there.
Second, it picks a smart easy way to do each of the things. Other books have examples that are overly complex for no good reason.
Third, each procedure is profusely illustrated so it's hard to miss the point. One screen shot for every step. It even has circles around the button on the screen shots and a picture of a mouse with the word "click". In the middle of the night you really appreciate this kind of idiot-proof design format.
Finally, it's a really pretty book. After a wading through books with 1,000 pages of text, something this colorful is easy on the eyes.
Perfect getting started guide
With the many books out there on the subject, I was really impressed with how clear and easy to use this book is. You can work through the tasks in any order you like, even with no previous experience. Everything is laid out in an easy follow format, and the color pictures help to see everything clearly. I would recommend this as the perfect beginners book as it covers everything you need to create a website with great graphics as well as giving handy tips that I had not seen anywhere else. Money well spent.
