This is a thick, heavy book, hard to hold, worth the trouble. It doesn't solve every problem but it comes close, and offers links for more insight and details. If you are looking for a way to understand what you are working on, for a foundation from which to be creative, good book.

For those that are just starting out with Dreamweaver CS3 this is a complete breakdown of all the technical stuff but in a non-technical language. The tutorials are easy to follow and give you a good basis for creating your own website. It is rather lengthy but not every word needs to be read to follow along. As your skills increase there is information that will allow you to learn at your own pace.

This manual reads so easily, works great as a reference and has a tutorial to follow after most of the key chapters. This is by far the easiest method I've found for learning this complex program. The author also speaks to mac and pc specifically if there are any differences. Great product!

The book is clear and provides good "learn by doing" exercises to reinforce the explanations. It also serves as a good reference. I was immediately able to create a website for a non-profit that I am a member of. Highly recommended.

David McFarland's guide answers most, but not my any means all, of the questions, a beginner or intermediate user might ask about Adobe Dreamweaver, the absolute best commercial program for web design. It's a good start and McFarland writes clearly and accurately but doesn't always follow through to the depth that some users nned. That said, it's still probably the best book yet published on Dreamweaver, useful and easy-to use.
JoeGraphics, Memphis, TN

I'm only a few chapters in, but this book is great for learning Dreamweaver. Step by step instructions and tutorials, along with a little humor make it an easy and fun read.

Just as the subtitle reads, this is the "manual that should have been in the box". Well written and organized, the tutorials were especially helpful for me.

Before getting this book I knew absolutely nothing about Adobe Dreamweaver. Granted, I use Adobe Photoshop and InDesign a lot...so I was familiar with the Adobe family. Regardless, this book covers everything. I went from knowing nothing about web design to having my own web page up and running in 2 days. The book is very thorough, easy to read...especially for beginners, and the format is setup so that you can quickly refer to a particular topic if needed. The included tutorials are solid and really helped me learn at my pace.

I've only just started working my way through this book. So far it is well-written, clear and detailed, and I feel the author did his best to help his readers get up to speed with Dreamweaver quickly.

However, I had to knock one star off the review, because there are no page numbers! The author refers to something that will come up on page 126, but there's no way to find that page; there's no way to know what he is talking about when he references any page number, because there's not one, not anywhere in the whole book! Once I started flipping through it, I realized they had been cut off in printing. Overall, a very sloppy job was done with the printing. The text appears at an angle, and the pages are torn at the bottom.

Publishers are getting cheap and indifferent to quality. This terrible printing job should have been caught by someone before it left the publisher's warehouse. Instead I paid full price for something that can not really be used for reference after I finish reading it, because the table of contents is pointless without any page numbers for guidance.

As the title says, this book contains a ton of information. At times you have to search for specific items, but when you find it, it's like finding gold. The fact that it is enjoyable to read is a bonus.

I needed to program my first web site using Dreamweaver CS3. I had designed the web site and programmed it in a higher level language which didn't give me access to the html code. I needed this access capability for SEO (search engine optimization) purposes. Although I had programming experience, I didn't know html or cascading style sheets and had never used Dreamweaver. I spent a considerable amount of time searching for the best manual for me. I selected two manuals-McFarland's Dreamweaver CS3 as my primary manual and Master Visually Dreamweaver CS3 and Flash CS3 Professional by Gunter & Valade for its outline by function.
Now, six months later, I have completed the web site ([...] if you wish to see its complexity) and will give you my opinions. Contrary to what some say about the verbosity of McFarland's book, with my lack of experience, I found the detail explanations most helpful. As it turned out, even though I liked the Master Visually manual, I seldom needed to use it. I did about half of the exercises in the McFarland book, and didn't find the few errors in the examples disruptive. But I didn't have the patience to go through the rest of the examples. I found very few errors in the manual itself which is important when you are working in unchartered waters. I really liked the McFarland book and I also liked how it would cross reference the same topic elsewhere in the manual. One area I was really concerned with was what I would use for a menu structure. I decided on the Spy menus and was very happy with how well they worked as well as their appearance using CS3. Using FcFarland's manual and Dreamweaver I made two master templates. This was well worth the extra work in learning. One master template fixed the header, sidebar menu and the footer. The net result is that a menu change takes only seconds to propagate through the entire system saving a lot of time. The second master template is designed for those times I used images to fill the content area. This saved some work and insured consistency. Probably the most difficult area with Dreamweaver is to get a handle on its complex interface. But once learned, you can appreciate how so much info that is needed is available on your screen. I guess my best recommendation for McFarland's Dreamweaver CS3 is that I was able to use it to program my website in Dreamweaver CS3.

I still use this book on most working days.
It is such a great reference for dreamweaver.
One of its main features are all of the things that you don't get in the official documentations.

Really well written continueing the great tradition of the
'missing manuals'

Tony

Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual

If you want to learn Dreamweaver and don't know much about webpages this is the book for you....written in a very clear manner, it is very easy to understand......

Excellent book that SHOULD have come with the program. Steps you through even complex tasks with clearly written text and ample diagrams and examples. First rate.

This is a well laid out book that fills in the blanks for those that have used Dreamweacer before. If you are new to Dreamweaver, it is must have reference.

Good reading and great reference. A huge book! Goes into detail about many aspects of CS3 and the Dreamweaver program. Helps solve those little problems that may crop up when designing a site or a page on a site.

I live with my nose in this book when writing websites. As with any new area of knowledge learning the vocabulary is essential in order to find the information. This book helped.

I work for an engineering company, do their web, and a bunch of other stuff. We're moving from Go-Live to Dreamweaver. I've been doing the web for nine years, and am not a rookie. Having said that, this book is excellent for beginners or advanced code writers who wants to learn Dreamweaver. I just don't have a lot of time to waste. The tutorials march you through it. This book is recommended if you don't have a lot of time. I have NOT bought any other books for Dreamweaver, but I have bought Adobe's Classroom in a Book for other programs. This book is as good as those, and with fewer errors. And the writer is more precise in the steps to take. Nearly impossible to get lost in the steps.

Personally, I don't write reviews very often. But this is a real review by someone really working for a living, and I MUST figure out how to use Dreamweaver right NOW!!! The book is helping; this is day 2; I'm on page 243 (Images) and it's starting to sink in.

One other note: the reviewer who said he was suspicious of all the positive reviews: get a life! This book is detailed, but not mindlessly so. The tutorials found on the writer's website are just fine, and the website is easy to navigate. Not sure what the gent meant. But I guess you can't please everybody.

Gotta get back to work!

I am in no way a computer expert. I was trained to be a teacher way before Windows even came out. The internet was nothing more than personal computers connected by modems way back then. So it has been rather daunting that my mid-life crisis involves a desire to create a website. Who am I to think I can pull this off??

Before I stated out, I checked out a bunch of website creation books from my local library. Several of the books made me feel like a real nincompoop who had no hope of ever understanding the inner workings of a website. Some of the books were so incredible boring, they were great for insomnia. The rest were better used as door stops. One book, however, was so good that I had to go out and buy my own copy.

Dreamweaver CS3, The Missing Manual is perfect for a person like me with very little knowledge of programing (DOS in the 80's) and a not a whole lot of time to learn something new. I love the humor that is intertwined with the material. It makes the book that much more enjoyable. I also love the way the author points out many things but cuts right to the chase and lets his reader know exactly what the important stuff is.

I have found that the website which accompanies this book is a perfect companion to the book. The downloads are quick and easy and the tutorials are easy and entertaining.

I highly recommend this book.

I am very suspicious about these other reviews. I purchased this book because the very high recommendations that others have given it. This book goes over the most complicated aspects of the program without giving guidence on the use of the items. The website for the book that contains the demos looks like a 8th grader made it in front page. So if you cant make a good website for yourself, why are you telling me how to make one.

It would be like reading a book on how to change a tire, but the first 500 pages are about how a lug nut works.

I've been hand coding for over eight years now and was pretty reluctant about trying something like Dreamweaver--especially since I couldn't figure it out on my own. When I decided to give it another shot, I also decided to buy Mr. McFarland's book based on the reviews and how much I love his CSS book. The first chapter itself is a huge help, and I've been able to set up a simple site after reading that and skimming some other sections. I like that it's not too wordy like some other books I'd looked through, and the screenshots are great as well.

Calling this the "missing" manual may go a little too far, because I can't imagine any manufacturer doing such a thorough job with a guidebook. It's a comprehensive intro and reference that no Dreamweaver learner should do without. I looked at several and actually bought one that was so bad I wound up demanding (successfully!) a refund for at Borders. Good work, Mr. McFarland, and kudos to you for being visible and open to feedback through your blog.

I am a novice at web design - and with the help of this manual and of course Dreamweaver - I have set up two business web sites. I am pretty good generally with computers - though I think Dreamweaver and web design is still fairly complicated, but this book is able walk someone like me through the process and help me understand how to get things accomplished. There are several sections I won't have to use - but everything I have used is well written and thought out. I'd recommend this book.

I painful dug thru many of the "well respected" writing out there and none of them measure up to the clean and clearly well thought out to Dreamweaver CS3 The Missing manual by David McFarland .

I recently moved from Front Page over to Dreamweaver CS3 and was looking for the one book to use and have found it after a long and sometimes a painful search.

I had originally purchased Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Classroom in a Book based on the excellent verion of Photoshop by the same group. Yet the version that David wrote is far cleaner and it what I alway recommend to friends an colleges about " the right stuff" You just earned 5 stars from me, and I told hand those out very often...
Keep up the awesome work David !

I like this book and the tutorials, and I'm glad I bought it, BUT it gets annoying after a while with how verbose it is. For instance, the author even says at one point in the first chapter,

'"Enough already! I want to build a web page," you're probably saying.'

Yes, you're right! That IS what I was saying!

He then takes p.44-64, (20 pages!) to walk you through importing a graphic, copying a text file, adding a background, and centering the page in the browser. When you list on a piece of paper the steps that you just did and repeat it, it can be carried out within maybe 90 seconds.

I started to think that this book is like friends you may have that are really nice, they're smart, and you like them, but they just can't give you the short version of a story! I find myself jotting in the margin the one thing from the whole page to remember.

This is a book for absolute beginners, not only to Dreamweaver but to web pages in general. If you've been writing web pages in a text editor and just want to see how Dreamweaver can make everything easier, this book makes you want to pull your hair out! For instance, three leading paragraphs in Chapter 2 on adding text to your pages that can be summed up as, "Text is still the most important thing on the web". WE ALL KNOW THAT! Don't make me read a whole page for that!!

I buy a new computer book about once a week, and this book does what so many are guilty of - sidebars to the point of distraction. There is a sidebar topic, hint, etc. on virtually every page of this book, which, along with the wordiness, adds to the "Let's get this done!" frustration you start to feel.

If you're already familiar with html and web pages and aren't real patient with people that take forever to tell you something, get a different book.

As another reviewer said, this book could be 1/4 its size and would be SO MUCH better!

This book is a lifesaver! I still had many questions about Dreamweaver after taking a six-week online class, but no one to ask. Dreamwear CS3 the missing manual answered all of them and more. It has made my job easier, and completing task faster.

It is discouraging to work with the book. To much small talk and very little hands on. You have to go trough four pages of autor's ideas and tips before you find what you are looking for or what you have to do. The book could be four times smaller and then would have been one of the best.

I have had no prior experience with web programming, or with Dreamweaver. I really liked the flow of the manual and the amount of information in it. I did not realize how thick the manual is physically, but glad that it has so much information. The tutorials are a step by step process, which I needed to get me started. The examples and source files are all included. I recommend it.

I've heard about O'reilly books before. And I'm glad to have one. It has a comprehensible and sincere expression. After all I've found my missing manual! Thanks...

If you're new to dreamweaver this book will be very very helpful, pretty straightfoward, although it's huge, it will cover everything you need to know about dreamweaver cs3, very easy to understand, especially for newbies like me, highly recommended!!!

I like the Missing Manual series over other popular help series in the way they don't use as much empty space as filler. This book is wall to wall information on helping the novice (me) understand how DW CS3 works, but it also has advanced chapters that I might have needed if I wasn't building such a simple website. This was my second Missing Manual after having received the first on another topic for a Christmas gift. I will look for everything in this series from now on when I need a hand. I highly recommend it. It is written so it is clear to both the novice and intermediate users. However, I imagine an advanced CS3 user would not learn much, beyond the occasional, "Wow, I didn't know CS3 could do that...".

This book is as it says...the book that should have been in the box. It is very clear and concise and covers most of the things you'll need to know to get your web site up and running and looking good...an excellent book.

As a GoLive user for many years, I wanted to get up and running as fast as possible with Dreamweaver, now that I am making the switch-over. This book does the trick, with very well written explanations and tutorials. I highly recommend it!

I own a dozen books of the Missing Manual series, and I haven't found a bad one yet. This one is exceptional. Dreamweaver CS3 is as deep as web design programs get, and this book allows extended dives well beneath the waves without running out of air.

This is an average book. The description is lengthy but the information is all over the place, making it difficult to reference. The steps to create a web page are presented in two ways: first a vague description of the steps are presented and after that, a tutorial at the back of each chapter is given. Thus, the steps are presented twice. This explains the thickness of this book.

A topic which is not covered in other books is the use of PHP in Dreamweaver. This book describes how to set up an online catalog using Dreamweaver but it stops short of creating an interface which takes in orders in a shopping cart, a powerful feature in PHP/SQL. Thus, this book is just an average book.