Adobe Dreamweaver CS6 Classroom in a Book

I used dreamweaver once or twice about 10 years ago... so I consider myself a beginner to the application. I did have a little HTML and CSS understanding before starting with this book but from what I saw in the book, it didn't really make that big of a difference. Hopefully the insight I bring as a beginner will help other beginners.The book uses a fictional company that you are designing a site for. You do not need to have a server to run the site (but it helps). All of the image files and media you need to fill in the blanks are available on the CD that comes with the physical copy (I am not sure how or if this media is available to the e-text versions - something to look into before you buy).The book takes you from the beginning planning of the site all the way to putting finishing touches and publishing it. If there is a chapter that you want to skip, you can. Each chapter assumes you have completed the previous steps exactly the way it was described up to that point... but never fear, you don't have to agonize over the minor missteps you may have made along the way - simply go to the folder for the specific chapter you are starting, and you will find all files and folders with content exactly the way it should be up to that chapter in the book (this is also explained in the text).There were some very minor differences between the illustrations in the book and what I actually saw on my screen (most likely due to updates in the software since the book was published). It may also be worth noting that this book is for CS6 and not for the creative cloud version of dreamweaver (they are quite a bit different). This book was assigned for a web design class I took online. I believe I only asked the instructor one or two questions at most. The rest of the time I was completely independent.An argument has been made that this book is incomplete because it doesn't include instruction on a very big feature (fluid design). While I cannot refute the value of including this information, I did not feel it was egregious enough to ding it a star. This book should be marketed as being for beginners. So, if you are a beginner, have at it! If you are not a beginner, this book won't really teach you that much and you're best surfing youtube for your answers.

The cover excepted, a quick glance at this Classroom in a Book printing for Dreamweaver CS6 compared to the CS5 version and one might conclude that there was little difference. That's because many of the illustrations, based on building a website for the fictitious "GreenStart" company, are identical. However, that would be an unfortunate conclusion. DW-CS6 is functionally much the same as CS5: little change to the interface or how you interact with the software. Behind that though, the product has made the major advance to support HTLM5 and CSS3.Similarly for the books, CIB for CS6 has been rewritten to help the reader understand and embrace these web changes, many of which are commonly used today and are already supported by the major web browsers (including IE 10 that will be released with Windows 8). Adobe has done an admirable job of making Dreamweaver CS6 a painless upgrade as possible for regular Dreamweaver users, including the new HTML5 and CSS3 functionalities. However, to best catch up, a run through with this CIB version is very helpful and working on two screens with the ebook on one side and DW on the other is certainly the way to go.It's not so visually apparent that the software or the book have changed much between these two versions but the web is changing and the choice is pretty clear: stay locked at HTML4 or keep up with the dramatic improvements being brought by HTML5 and CSS3.If we were all to keep looking at only desktop screen displays, it might not be as important but the web is shrinking to the size of an iPhone or a tablet so the advances made to DW-CS6 and the accompanying CIB are very welcome. It's ironic really, as the horsepower grows to support sophisticated browsers and the web experience becomes more intense each month, the importance of efficient code for wireless devices keeps growing, which is much of the advantage to HTML5 and CSS3 and is well supported in DW-CS6.

Adobe Classroom in a Book series are the best books to learn their software. I have been using Adobe software since the beginning, have looked at lots of other manuals and the CIB books are the best. I also like the Visual Quickstart Guides. When I upgraded from CS2 to CS6, I bought almost all the CIB books for it. There is such a huge difference between CS2 to CS6 that I needed them. The InDesign book was perfect in getting me up to speed. However, I didn't like this Dreamweaver book. Even after reading it, I still took a $100 ed2go class to learn Dreamweaver (which I found more helpful than the book). The book starts with building a site right off the bat but doesn't explain to the reader what he is doing and why so I felt lost. The author did not start at the beginning to give me an understanding of the environment and how Dreamweaver operates before jumping into tutorials. I was very frustrated with this book. I had more questions than answers. At least with the ed2go class, I had a teacher to answer my questions. I did not find the other Dreamweaver books out there to be any better. Adobe now has training and downloadable tutorials for free. I have found these to be the most helpful. Save your money and learn at Adobe instead.

I teach a Web Design 1 class at Northwestern Michigan College, and I'm using this book with my class. The students are learning a lot just by using the lessons in the book, and the included disk of files.My only small complaint is that sometimes the instructions are slightly vague, and it takes us a few minutes to figure out where in the Dreamweaver interface the writer is talking about. We've also found a couple typos along the way that stumped us for a minute.All in all, it's a very good lesson plan to work with.

This textbook gave a very basic overview of Adobe Dreamweaver software. I feel that buying this book was a waste of money as I did not gain any further information than what I previously had known from studying on the Internet.

Does what it says on the tin. I have been dabbling with web design for years. This book has helped me get to grips with Dreamweaver and made me more productive. I would recommend this title to anybody starting out in web design.

This book has helped me in a number of way, for example: to be able to follow the videos and apply them in my training this is the way all training should be done.

Satisfied with the product and delivery service

Really helped me to get my head around Dreamweaver.