Dreamweaver in a Nutshell

Dreamweaver in a Nutshell provides a concise, accurate handbook for Macromedia’s market-leading Web authoring tool. The authors assume a basic knowledge of Web concepts, and the book is sharply focused on creating and maintaining Web sites with Dreamweaver, rather than drifting into general topics like attractive page design or how to make a site popular. Each chapter begins with a brief overview, and then offers reference information combined with comments and tips. Illustrations are taken from both Windows and Macintosh versions of Dreamweaver, and there are frequent notes on browser compatibility. The high-end Ultradev edition of Dreamweaver is not covered.

The book is in four main parts. The first covers core features like the user interface, essential page objects, tables and forms, frames and layers, and embedded controls. The next part is about managing Dreamweaver, including team authoring, version control, templates and libraries, and cascading style sheets. Part III looks at Dreamweaver behaviors, a great way to add intelligence and interactivity to Web pages. Subjects include JavaScript, image effects, layers, and animation with timelines. The fourth part shows how to customize and extend Dreamweaver, showing how to modify and create menus or import third-party tag files. This is not only useful for reference, but also give an insight into the inner workings of Dreamweaver. Finally, three appendixes offer keyboard shortcuts, HTML character entities, and a handy site construction checklist.

Shorter than many Dreamweaver titles, this Nutshell title seems to convey just as much information. It makes an excellent resource for any Dreamweaver user. --Tim Anderson, amazon.co.uk