Foundation Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 450 pages
• Published by: friends of ED
• Edition: 1st Edition February 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1590593081
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1590593080
• Book Dimensions: 9 x 7.6 x 1.1 inches
• Weighs: 1.7 pounds

Product Description
Dreamweaver MX 2004 is the latest version of Macromedias world-class visual web-authoring tool, which includes powerful yet easy-to-use database integration. Unlike many other books, Foundation Dreamweaver MX 2004 focuses on both sides of coin &emdash; no matter what your background, this book will give you a solid foundation in graphic design and layout issues as well as full training in the powerful server-side and database integration features that Dreamweaver offers. The truth is that in today's climate database integration is no more of an extra than faultless visual design, and this book is here to guide you through this new world, covering dynamic scripting with PHP and the popular MySQL database. This book covers:

• Site design and layout principles
• Using templates and Cascading Style Sheets to create advanced site designs
• Adding interactivity to pages with PHP script Setting up PHP and MySQL to create powerful dynamic database-driven applications

Even if you are already using Dreamweaver and want to extend your skills towards dynamic content, interactive and engaging to your visitors. Or maybe youre a developer who wants to make the most of this sophisticated productivity tool and take full advantage of the renowned Dreamweaver interface to improve your workflow. Foundation Dreamweaver MX 2004 gives you the essential grounding that youll need in the all-important design context. Whether a complete novice or a past user, after reading this book, youll be fluent in the full breadth of the powerful functionality that Dreamweaver MX 2004 has to offer. This book presents a unique learning curve backed up by solid real-world case studies and tutorials. Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 makes this all possible, and Foundation Dreamweaver MX 2004 makes it easier than you could have imagined! This book will benefit you if you're:

• Someone who wants to learn Dreamweaver MX 2004, but only wants a static site.
• The same, but who might take a look at dynamic sites later.
• Someone who already has a static site, but wants to make it dynamic.
• Someone who wants to create a dynamic site from scratch.
• Those who want to improve their sites and learn best practices and web standards.

Summary of Contents:

• Chapter 01: Introducing Dreamweaver MX 2004
• Chapter 02: Introducing our Case study
• Chapter 03: Working with Dreamweaver
• Chapter 04: Creating a Layout
• Chapter 05: Beginning Page Layout in Dreamweaver
• Chapter 06: Internal Page Layout in Dreamweaver
• Chapter 07: Creating a Template
• Chapter 08: Adding Content
• Chapter 09: Working with Code
• Chapter 10. Introducing dynamic content with PHP
• Chapter 11. Getting interactive with forms
• Chapter 12. Pages that think for themselves
• Chapter 13. PHP/MySQL: the real dynamic duo
• Chapter 14: Secure Login and Registration
• Chapter 15: Case Study: Content Management System
• Appendix A: Dreamweaver Extensions

About The Author
Craig was trained in the fine arts, but later became immersed in digital media, showing videos and multimedia work at leading international media festivals. The web caught his attention in 1995, and he now divides his time between creating websites, writing for various web and design-related magazines, and working on his eclectic Veer Musikal Unit audio project. Information, downloads, music, movies and dancing trees can be found at his website, Snub Communications (www.snubcommunications.com). Craig is a co-author of the original Foundation Dreamweaver MX from friends of ED, and also Dreamweaver MX Design Projects, from glasshaus.

George lives in Glasgow, Scotland and is a freelance PHP developer. He has been a beta tester for Dreamweaver MX, and also one of the developers for a third party extension called PHPMXDB, which aims to provide additional database support for PHP within MX. He is a member of Team Macromedia newsgroups. George is a strong supporter of Open Source and, when time permits, he tries to provide feedback to the PHP QA team. George was a co-author of Foundation Dreamweaver MX for friends of ED, and also authored Dreamweaver MX: Advanced PHP Web Development for glasshaus.

David Powers is an Adobe Community Expert for Dreamweaver and author of a series of highly successful books on PHP, including PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy (friends of ED, ISBN-13: 978-1-59059-731-6) and Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8 (friends of ED, ISBN-13: 978-1-59059-569-5). As a professional writer, he has been involved in electronic media for more than thirty years, first with BBC radio and television and more recently with the Internet. His clear writing style is valued not only in the English-speaking world; several of his books have been translated into Spanish and Polish.

What started as a mild interest in computing was transformed almost overnight into a passion, when David was posted to Japan in 1987 as BBC correspondent in Tokyo. With no corporate IT department just down the hallway, he was forced to learn how to fix everything himself. When not tinkering with the innards of his computer, he was reporting for BBC TV and radio on the rise and collapse of the Japanese bubble economy. Since leaving the BBC to work independently, he has built up an online bilingual database of economic and political analysis for Japanese clients of an international consultancy.

When not pounding the keyboard writing books or dreaming of new ways of using PHP and other programming languages, David enjoys nothing better than visiting his favorite sushi restaurant. He has also translated several plays from Japanese.

Reader Reviews
This is a great book for certain kinds of people, and maybe not so great for others, so it's important you're able to assess your style of learning to avoid disappointment with it. I love it and think it's one of the most fantastic books of its kind for any application -and I'll tell you why: they don't fill pages with over-detailed explanations of simple interface issues and figure that's teaching you the application; they teach you the application as a means to make sites. You're always in the thick of using Dreamweaver to accomplish the real-world tasks involved in designing, building and launching a site. They cover tangent technologies as they come up in the process of building the book's example site, so you're learning way more than just how to push Dreamweaver along -PHP, MySQL,the Apache server, CSS, accessibility issues, etc., -whatever you'd come across getting the site done and online. The catch is you need to be able to follow deep material covered in few pages, because it covers the most ground, in the most depth and in the fewest amount of pages I've come across in a computer book. YET- everything is explained so you're not left feeling steps were left out or that you're being told to just imitate without being given enough to understand why and what's going on. I love it because you're constantly being challenged to keep up with all the diverse information that weaves in & out of the website creation process. The layout helps enormously by breaking the information into different visual chunks per page, and the screen shots are big enough to be informative and clear despite being b&w throughout. An excellent return on your time investment with this one; you'll come away with a lot more understanding than just how to work Dreamweaver's interface, if you're willing and able to keep taking giant steps following along.