Macromedia Studio 8 All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies

July 1, 2006
The popular Macromedia Studio 8 web design package includes five applications: Fireworks 8, Flash Professional 8 and Dreamweaver 8 (both in Computer Media, LJ 2/15/06), Contribute 3, and FlashPaper 2. For beginners, Training from the Source emphasizes using the applications together, relying on two large-scale sample projects to walk readers step by step through creating project components. Among the self-study items are exercises, learning objectives, approximate lesson completion times, and -What You Will Learn - lists; the CD-ROM contains project files and completed projects for comparison purposes. Each step is nicely explained to give readers insight into why it's important and what they're doing. Recommended for all libraries.

For beginners to intermediate users, All-in-One Desk Reference includes -minibooks - on building web sites, Dreamweaver 8, Fireworks 8, Flash 8, Contribute 3, FreeHand MX, and ColdFusion MX Developer Edition. There is more background information here on web design and content development than in Training from the Source, yet Training does a better job of talking about integrating suite components. (All-in-One confines interoperability to separate chapters rather than weaving it into examples throughout.) A nice reference that covers many common functions; appropriate for all libraries. Both of these guides also address working with ColdFusion, and All-in-One covers FreeHand; both programs were included in older versions of the Macromedia Studio suite and are still available from Macromedia.

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