With this new primer, Mastering Macromedia Dreamweaver 3, beginners and intermediate users of Dreamweaver 3 and Fireworks 3 can easily master (that is, get a handle on) the applications' myriad features. Dividing space between Dreamweaver and Fireworks in a two-to-one ratio, the book's main audience will be those who are completely new to creating Web sites, although others may still find it useful in troubleshooting. The chapters follow a natural course. First is a thorough introduction to the work environment, including tools and palettes, followed by site management and Dreamweaver's HTML facilities, creating pages, formatting text, using images, adding links, color, tables, forms, and frames. Next comes using the Library, cascading style sheets, Layers, and JavaScript behaviors. This section will be particularly helpful to intermediate-level readers who have yet to take advantage of some of Dreamweaver's capabilities, for example, sending form information by e-mail.
The rest of the book covers Fireworks--using all its tools and effects, optimizing images, creating sliced GIFs, image maps, rollovers and animations, and exporting the results--with particular attention to inserting them into Dreamweaver documents.
There is a tutorial with a sample Web site and images on the companion CD-ROM, though this is the book's weakest point. The site is very simplistic; readers will want to substitute their own Web site and artwork for the amateur-looking graphics. Also, the index, which doesn't include enough basic terms, is weak. For example, recording a command is not found under "recording" or "command," and nothing in the index refers to assigning a behavior that opens new browser windows (although that information is here).
The book's strong suit, however, is its writing style. There aren't many screen shots, and it doesn't cover anything too advanced, but for the topics that are covered it clearly details how things work and why. If you think you might not be getting the most out of Dreamweaver 3 on your own, this book might be the answer for you, despite its flaws. --Angelynn Grant
Topics covered: Introduction to Dreamweaver 3 (including tools, palettes, site management, page creation, formatting text, working with images, colors, tables, frames, layers, Library elements, cascading style sheets, and JavaScript behaviors) and to Fireworks 3 (including tools, palettes, optimizing images, creating sliced and animated GIFs, rollovers and image maps, and exporting them to Dreamweaver). CD-ROM includes demo versions of both applications, tutorial files, links to helpful Web resources and supporting applications like Internet Explorer 4.5 and QuickTime 4.02.
