The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS4 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP (Essentials)

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I purchased three books to help me learn Dreamweaver:

Dreamsweaver CS4 for Dummies
Dreamweaver CS4: The Missing Manual
The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS4 with CSS, Ajax and PHP (this book)

I started with Dreamweaver CS4 for Dummies, which I found to be a pretty good book. I was able to read it cover to cover (though it's not necessary to do so to get started). In addition to a good basic overview, it had a couple of very helpful tips in a chapter called "10 Resources You Might Need."

As my design became more detailed, I felt the need for a book that went into more depth and bought the other two books listed above. I like both books, but find I rely on The Missing Manual the most. Its writing is clear and easy to follow. The numerous tutorials give step-by-step instructions for a beginner on how to accomplish various tasks, with more advanced details included in the text.

I like The Essential Guide as well, but since I'm not using PHP, I find that there are areas where the advice they give simply doesn't work for me. For example, when I wanted to learn more about using templates, The Essential Guide gave only a very basic explanation, then went into far more detail about using PHP "includes" instead. While I agree that the PHP "includes" are probably the better choice, it's not one that is available to me since I don't have a PHP testing server (and don't want to go through the complexity of setting one up on my home computer). If you are using PHP, then this is definitely the book to get.

All in all, if I had to recommend one book to get started, it would be For Dummies, particularly if your needs are very simple and/or you're completely new to web site design. For those who want to move beyond the basics, I like The Missing Manual the best. This book could also be used by beginners as long as you're not put off by its length -- with over 1,000 pages, it's not one you'll be able to read cover to cover. I think The Essential Guide is best suited for those who want to create very complex designs, especially those that use PHP. It, too, is very clearly written, but more intimidating to a beginner. If you're a computer professional or experienced web site designer who really wants to exploit the power of Dreamweaver, this is the book to get.

The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS4 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP is a valuable resource for the DWCS4 user who wants to understand the more complicated DW tasks in a way that is friendly to the mind. Comprehensive in scope. Powers seems to provide mental hooks to help the reader grab the concepts, whether it's how to make the best use of the CSS tools, or how to easily latch on to all the new Dynamic PHP features. I was amazed at how quickly I was putting together my recent online store.
Lots of "Aha!" experiences.

This book is a must have to all new Dreamweaver, MySQL and PHP users. The exercises are very good and very easy to follow.I had no previous experience with Dreamweaver, MySQL or PHP and now I can manage my new dynamic website!

This book is pure genius. I am pretty good at HTML and CSS but David pointed out some things that really surprised me and have helped my Web Design to be even better. I mostly skimmed the first few chapters and now I am in the AJAX area. I absolutely love it. David please keep writing and don't forget to add in your humor once in a while in the book. Thats what I like about the book. It isn't dry and boring he throws something in that is geeky funny. Thats what really makes me keep reading the book.

Finally - a book for what is NEW in Dreamweaver. There have been many exciting changes in web development, and in Dreamweaver. It is frustrating to only find books that begin at - the - very - beginning.
The Essentail Guide to DW CS4 brings the intermediate and advanced web designer up to speed with clear and brilliant tutorials. There are some "texty" areas, but Powers acknowledges how tedious it is to read about programming - and gets back to hands on quickly.
Wish there were more authors out there who see the need for books that jump in 'beyond the basics'.
Thank you.
(I'm a mac, so it was a bit rough setting up a dynamic site with this book. I used the Missing Manual series to walk through that part...MM is mac friendly :)
PS - If you do the tutorials out of order, you may not have the necessary files for the sprys. MADDENING. If Amazon would let me take away a star I would for this very reason ...

I bought the book because the title captured a blend of my strong and weak points. I'm very comfortable with AJAX and PHP, but really didn't seem to get the true power of CSS or Dreamweaver CS4 tool set. I'm 3/4 through the book now and I can tell you that the writing style is way above the norm. Very few or no typos, great insight on how to use the Dreamweaver CS4 features, and nice integration of common open-source products such as PHP and AJAX (ala SPRY mostly). Now I feel very comfortable leaving my table web page designs and using CSS to cascade my way through the style of my new page designs. Thanks again David.

This is the second FOE book i bought for web development work. In my opinion, it is an excellent book.
First, the author is very complete in his explanations as to how the code works. He writes in a way that will keep your interest and challenge your thinking process - unlike so many of the 'for idiot' books out there that tend to bore the reader to death with over-simplification.
Second, the book is loaded with practical examples that really teach you how things work inside DW CS4. DW CS4 can be very intimidating at first, and I found following through examples in the book gave me a lot more confidence writing successful code.
Five stars, hands down.

I bought the Dreamweaver CS3 version of this book and loved it. However, when Dreamweaver CS4 came out, I decided to get the updated book. While this book is completely revised and updated for Dreamweaver CS4, there is still some common content between the two books, and hence my 4-star rating.

Right off the bat, this book starts off with an introduction of the *new* features of Dreamweaver CS4, giving me a 'jumpstart' in using Dreamweaver CS4 and getting comfortable with it. The CS4 version dropped mainly three chapters from the CS3 book; Building Dynamic Websites with PHP & Ajax, Getting the Work Environment Ready, and Setting up MySQL and phpMyAdmin. The 'dropped' content wasn't as so much as cut out of the book entirely, but re-edited to suit other chapters in the book in a more seamless fashion. (i.e., instead of a full chapter on MySQL, the book now touches on it in talking about creating/accessing a database.) On thing that seemingly did get cut out from the CS4 book entirely was the 'Getting the Work Environment Ready' chapter, so readers may want to borrow a book (or two!) from a library about creating a LAMP server on the same machine or elsewhere.

The CS4 book has added new content, and updated other chapters. The new content mostly covered...
* Creating a Web Page and Adding Content
* Using Spry Dynamic Effects and Components
* Going Beyond the Basics with Spry and Ajax
* Working with Templates and InContext Editing
* Deploying Your Site on the Internet
* Generating XML with PHP

What I loved most about the new content focused on Spry, Ajax, and Dynamic website building. One particular thing I've loved about the book was that the author made several attempts to explain what the Dreamweaver server-side PHP (or client side Spry) code was actually doing, and how to 'tinker' with them in achieving a desired result.

Overall, this book will give you a solid introduction in using Dreamweaver CS4 in creating standards-compliant dynamic websites with a minimum amount of pain associated with hand coding.

This is a good work book. You can download the files from their web site, and work through the examples used in the book.

I am using it right now for a class, and I'm happy with what I've got.
However, it is not really a book for Dreamweaver beginners.

It's all too rare to find a book as thorough and well-written as this. Usually I have found that I need to buy 3 or 4 books on a subject to fill the "holes" or clear up confusion on a topic. Not so with this book. It's ALL there in a concise conversational style that is intuitively organized. I look forward to more books from this author.

This book does a good job of going over the new basic and new features to CS4, and it also gets in depth with a lot of new features.

I have David's PHP for Dreamweaver 8 book and have been able to successfully build CMS' with this book for many of my clientele. When I purchased this book, he pretty much took everything from the old book and put it into this one and expanded for compatibility with PHP 6, MySQL queries, and XML, besides the usage of Sprys and RSS feeds.

What was missing from the old book that is in this book is an expansion on the understanding of JOINs (briefly), but it does get to the point simply, so you can learn how to get the information you want with minimal query.

My favorite part of the book that was missing from his older version was Ch.17 HANDLING CHECKBOX GROUPS, SEARCHES, AND DATES. He gives a step-by-step setup and guide on how to create and process forms via email and dbase and the usage of dates within MySQL in relation to PHP.

For a 900+ page book, this is a definite bible for Dreamweaver CS4 users who wish to MySQL/PHP. Kudos to David Powers!

I have painfully gone through 4 other books in my process of learning Dreamweaver. And I can't praise David enough for his clear and step by step writing style that has truly brought this software into focus. The biggest benefit for me was the actual step by step exercises that build upon each other. Allowing for the big picture to evolve naturally.

Don't waste your money on other books, if you have the basics down but need to take that next step, this may be your book.

The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS4 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP (Essentials)

NOTE: For those of you using SnowLeopard 10.6.2 The correct step by step creation of server testing with MAMP (In Chapter 2) can be found here - [...].

FURTHER: The standard FREE version of MAMP seems to work fine for those on 10.6.2 [...].

So I can do some forms of coding such as HTML and a little CSS but I wasn't all too familiar with Dreamweaver CS4. To make a long story short, I didn't read this book from front to end but I now definitely know what I'm doing...and it's perfect to use as a desk reference for it's easy to just find the chapter on whatever problem you need help with.

Out of all the books I have read and the classes I have taken on webdesign David Powers is the best at explaining and teaching the reader all that Dreamweaver CS4 has to offer. This is the best book on the market. I am sure that he will be writing another book when CS5 comes out. I highly recommend his books.

I think this book will be my bible for working with DW. I am new to the program and think I may be able to learn code as well as do just about anything I need to on the various sites I manage. This was money well spent.

David has written a very complete guide to using Dreamweaver. His guidance is very complete from the initial deployment of a server on your localhost to the xml he covers at the end of this book. I would recommend this book and give Mr. Powers five stars.

Ken Carlson

First of all, to give a useful review of this book, I should note I will present it for two type of developers:
- PHP web beginners
- Experienced web developers with decent or no knowledge about Dreamweaver CS4

Let's see how could this book help PHP web beginners. I gave this book to my friend - PHP beginner. He was really satisfied with the content of this book. In one book he had all the information about Dreamweaver, how Dreamweaver evolved through older versions
and information how to define web site, how to handle page layout, reuse Dreamweaver templates. The book contains really useful information how to use CSS panels and tips and tricks for handling your CSS code and refactor styles using Dreamweaver.
The book is not meant to give you full overview of CSS design. For this topic I would recommend CSS Mastery. Also, this book gives you an excellent introduction how to use Ajax functionality in Dreamweaver, how to use Spry Ajax Framework and how to implement useful Ajax snippets into your code.

After chapters about client-side code comes chapters about PHP and MySQL in which you can learn PHP and MySQL basics - basic PHP syntax, creating code pieces, MySQL database and all things needed for starting your first real PHP-MySQL project.
It's really nice to see how to use Dreamweaver wizard for getting data from MySQL database by using PHP code.

What I really like in this book that it contains a lot of tips and tricks for each topic covered by specific chapter. These tips can be quite helpful and I'm sure a lot of experienced developers are not familiar with these tricks.

Here's my review for experienced web developers with decent/no knowledge of Dreamweaver.
I should be in this group :) In the past few years I didn't have so many opportunities to work with Dreamweaver. I've been working more with PHP code than I was making HTML/CSS design and all I needed was Zend Studio or PDT. Also, in the past few years from CS to CS3 version Dreamweaver didn't offer me so many new functionalities. By the time I started using CS4, there was a lot of new and useful features and I wanted to investigate how they work and how can these new features can help me on my new projects.
That's why this book was very helpful. Like I said, it contains a lot of tips and tricks for each topic covered by specific chapter. I didn't take much time investigating topics about PHP and MySQL but these chapters also contain useful information, for example how to quickly create a decent overview of you database data.

Overall, if you decide to use this book for fulfilling your knowledge gaps and when you upgrade your knowledge with CS5 features, you will have really good standards for developing your code with Adobe Dreamweaver.

Coming from many years of print design I'm still struggling to understand web design. This book is not for someone like me.

The Dreamweaver CS4 book was priced just right. I was able to save some money compared to the Student Book Store.
It came in just a couple of days. When it arrived it was is good condition and overall I was very happy with my Amazon purchase. I would definitely recommend anyone to use Amazon to make their school book purchases.