GoLive 5 Visual Insight

GoLive 5 Visual Insight is part of a series from Coriolis that's aimed at novice to intermediate users--particularly those who appreciate terse instructions alongside step-by-step screen shots. The goal is to offer practical lessons that users can put to work right away, and in a visual presentation that, one hopes, makes even complicated tasks seem easy.

For the most part, the authors have succeeded. First, they introduce the GoLive work environment--with all of its inspectors and docking palettes--and then take readers slowly through the process of creating pages, site organization, and using images, links, tables, and frames. And they introduce JavaScript actions and cascading style sheets--all in the first 11 chapters. The remainder of the book walks readers through five projects, each of which deals with a specific task; for example, making page templates, or using JavaScript actions to create alert boxes.

Unfortunately, the situations in these projects are exactly as "real-life" as promised. For example, one JavaScript project shows how to make clickable text that changes the background color of the page--readers must imagine their own rationale for using such a trick on their own sites. Another problem is that some of the characters in the source code are incorrect: a few times, squares appear in HTML, where double quotation marks should be. Although one doesn't need to know HTML in order to use GoLive--and, in fact, the book doesn't show the source code very often--these errors could confuse readers.

These negatives aside, the book does include a handy pullout of keyboard shortcuts and a thorough index. Also, its ultra-slow pacing might appeal to those who feel overwhelmed by all of the buttons and inspector options in Adobe GoLive. --Angelynn Grant

Topics covered:
Introductory instruction for using Adobe GoLive, including:

• Learning the work environment--tools, palettes, and inspectors.
• Creating pages and sites.
• Working with text, images, links, forms, tables, and frames.
• Introduction to style sheets and JavaScript.