Dreamweaver MX: The Missing Manual
Book Review

By Dale Farris, Secretary Golden Triangle PC Club November 2003 Macromedia's Dreamweaver MX offers a rich environment for building professional Web sites. The program offers drag-and-drop simplicity, produces clean HTML code, and incorporates the dynamic, database-driven power of the product formerly known as UltraDev. Unfortunately, it comes without one of the more important features of all: a printed manual. The MX version of Dreamweaver is really 2 programs in one. First, it is the latest version of Dreamweaver, complete with all the fabulous layout, design, and productivity tools that made a hit of Dreamweaver 4 and its predecessors. Second, it incorporates the program formerly known as Dreamweaver UltraDev. This program, once sold separately, offers advanced programming technology for data-driven Web sites. These 2 newly merged programs add up to a serious tool for creating dynamic, database-driven Web sites. You can now turn your company's database of products into a dynamic online catalog, or turn a cherished recipe collection into an online culinary resource for the public. You can create Web pages for updating and deleting database records, meanwhile keeping designated areas of your site secure from unauthorized visitors. Most reassuring of all, Dreamweaver MX does the programming for you. Dreamweaver MX happily opens Web pages and Web sites that were created in other programs without destroying any of the carefully crafted code. While Dreamweaver has always prided itself on leaving HTML code exactly as written, Dreamweaver MX offers greater support for hand-coded Web pages. In fact, many of the new features in Dreamweaver MX are aimed specifically at people who like to work in the raw code. Why Dreamweaver MX? While there are literally dozens of other Web page design programs, Dreamweaver MX has become one of the leading programs, because of its many super features. These include: Visual Page Building Complex Interactivity, Simply Roundtrip Code Site Management Tools Database-Driven Web Sites Have It Your Way The Missing Manual Series This "Missing Manual" series is now a joint venture between Pogue Press and O'Reilly & Associates. With O'Reilly's already established reputation for solid, substantial computer books that are a cut above all the rest, and the wonderful attention to new users that characterize all these "Missing Manual" works, this venture should prove very successful for these publishers. As with any operating system you buy these days, you get no user guide with the software. Instead, you are expected to read the online help system built into the software. While this decision is understandable, as a means of keeping down the costs of the software, for many users of the software however, using electronic help files is just not enough help.  To the rescue comes these wonderful guides that serve as the manual that should have accompanied the software. Filled with hundreds of screen shots, this guide includes numerous step-by-step instructions for using almost every Dreamweaver MX feature, including those you may not even have quite understood, let alone mastered. Super Features What helps set apart this super book on Dreamweaver MX is author McFarland's crystal-clear writing, welcome humor, and exclusive features. These include: Live examples - Step-by-step, annotated tutorials guide you through the construction of a state-of-the-art commercial Web site, complete with Flash buttons, Cascading Style Sheets, and even dynamic databases (in your choice of programming languages) Tricks of the Trade - The book bursts with undocumented workarounds, shortcuts, and hilarious Ester eggs in Dreamweaver itself Design Guidance - With this book - and Dreamweaver MX - you can create any modern Web feature you can name:  forms, animations, pop-up windows, and so on. The book lets you know which browsers, situations, and audiences are appropriate for each. Uses and Purpose of the Book Armed with this book, both first-time and experienced Web designers can bring stunning, interactive Web sites to life. With over 500 illustrations, a hand-crafted index, and the clarity of thought that has made bestsellers of every Missing Manual, Dreamweaver MX: The Missing Manual is the ultimate atlas for the excellence-driven Web designer. Until version 4 of Dreamweaver, the program still came with a printed manual. With the MX edition, all you get is a simple "Getting Started" booklet. You will find the real information only in the program's online help screens. While this is not uncommon today, as a cost-saving measure, this also makes finding help a bit more difficult, since looking for help on your issue may be more difficult in searching online help files, than looking for help in a secondary printed manual. The purpose of the book is to serve as the manual that should have been in the box. The book will provide instructions for using ever feature in Dreamweaver MX, including those you may not even have quite understood, let alone mastered, such as Libraries, Layout view, Behaviors, and Dreamweaver's dynamic Web site tools. In addition, you will find clear evaluations of each feature that help you determine which ones are useful to you, as well as how and when to use them. The book is designed to accommodate readers at every technical level. The primary discussions are written for advanced-beginner or intermediate users. However, if you are a first-timer, special sidebar articles called Up To Speed provide the introductory information you need to understand the topic at hand. If you are an advanced user, on the other hand, keep your eye out for similar shaded boxes called Power Users Clinic. These offer more technical tips, tricks, and shortcuts for the experienced computer fan. Dreamweaver MX works almost precisely the same in its Macintosh and Windows versions. Every button in every dialog box is exactly the same, and the software response to every command is identical. In the book, the illustrations have been given evenhanded treatment, rotating among the three operating systems where Dreamweaver is at home, including Windows XP, Mac Os 9, and Mac OS X). Table of Contents The twenty-four (24) chapters, organized into six parts, include the following: Part One - Building a Web Page 1)    Dreamweaver MX Guided Tour 2)    Adding Text to Your Web Pages 3)    Text Formatting 4)    Links 5)    Images Part Two - Building a Better Web Page 6)    Tables 7)    Frames 8)    Cascading Style Sheets 9)    Under the Hood:  HTML Part Three - Bringing Your Pages to Life 10)   Forms 11)   Dreamweaver Behaviors 12)   Layers:  Interactivity and Animation 13)   Flash, Shockwave, and Other Multimedia Part Four:  Building a Web Site 14)   Introducing Site Management 15)   Testing Your Site 16)   Moving Your Site to the Internet Part Five:  Dreamweaver MX Power 17)   Snippets and Libraries 18)   Templates 19)   Automating Dreamweaver 20)   Customizing Dreamweaver Part Six:  Dynamic, Database-Driven Dreamweaver 21)   Getting Started with Dynamic Web Sites 22)   Adding Dynamic Data to Your Pages 23)   Web Pages That Manipulate Database Records 24)   Advanced Dynamic Site Features Part Seven contains the Appendix, Getting Help. Target Readers The focus is on accommodating readers at every technical level and the primary discussions are written for advanced-beginner or intermediate PC users. Special sidebar articles called Up To Speed provide the introductory information new users need to better understand the topic. For advanced PC users, the Power Users' Clinics offer more technical tips, tricks, and shortcuts for these veterans. This is an excellent book for users of Dreamweaver MX, and for anyone interested in designing complex Web sites. First-time users of Web page design programs will likely NOT want to start with Dreamweaver MX, unless they have a lot of hand-holding assistance and formalized training available. Microsoft's FrontPage HTML editor is a good example of a Web page design program more useful for first timers. Book Contents 792 pages; acknowledgments; introduction; appendix; index; cover colophon Author David Sawyer McFarland Editor David Pogue About the Author David Sawyer McFarland is the president of Sawyer McFarland Media, Inc., a Web development and training company in Portland, Oregon. He has been building Web sites since 1995, when he designed his first Web site: an online magazine for communication professionals. He has served as the Webmaster at the University of California at Berkeley and the Berkeley Multimedia Research Center. In addition to building Web sites, David is also a writer, trainer, and instructor. He has taught Dreamweaver at Intuit, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, the Center for Electronic Art, the Academy of Art College, Ex'Pressions Center for New Media, and the Art Institute of Portland. He has also written articles about Dreamweaver and the Web both for Macworld magazine and CreativePro.com. He welcomes feedback about his book be email:  missing@sawmac.com. About the Editor David Pogue is the weekly computer columnist for the New York Times and the creator of the Missing Manual series. He is the author or co-author of 25 books, including 6 in this series and 6 in the "For Dummies" line. In his other life, David is a former Broadway show conductor, magician, and a pianist. www.davidpogue.com ISBN November 2002 - First Edition April 2003 - Second Printing 1-596-00349-8 List Price $34.95 $54.95 CAN Publisher Marsee Henon marsee@oreilly.com Suzanne Axtell suzanne@oreilly.com O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. 1005 Gravenstein Highway North Sebastopol, California 95472 707-827-7000 707-827-7114 800-998-9938 FAX 707-829-0104 www.oreilly.com