How to Do Everything with Dreamweaver® 8

February 1, 2006
Dreamweaver 8, the newest version of Macromedia's widely used web development software, remains popular, and libraries need to furnish current guides. "Teach Yourself" covers creating static sites with Dreamweaver (those seeking coverage of dynamic page creation or other more advanced tools should instead look at "Unleashed", below). A self-study guide for absolute beginners, it includes quizzes, exercises, Q& As, and step-by-step instructions to help both new Dreamweaver users and those new to web design in general get up and running quickly. Topics range from getting started with the interface to using Dreamweaver's site management capabilities. Appropriate for all libraries, but supplement with more thorough guides. Also for beginners, "How To Do Everything" focuses mainly on basic web sites but includes limited discussion of dynamic pages and SSI programming. New v.8 features are highlighted throughout, and straightforward step-by-step instructions make this a useful purchase for all libraries. For advanced beginning to intermediate users, "Build Your Own" centers on using CSS (especially v.8's new unified CSS features) and XHTML to produce standards-compliant sites. It pays special attention to validation and accessibility issues, outlining how to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines standards and use the Dreamweaver and World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) validators to check documents -and explaining why standards are important. Clear prose and the accessibility focus make this a useful purchase for all medium and larger libraries. For intermediate to advanced users, "Unleashed" includes the same basic page creation information as the other series titles but also moves into using Dreamweaver for team collaboration and integrating Flash and Fireworks. Thorough and clear, this is a great purchase for larger libraries.

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.