multimedia

I am of two minds about this book. I really like the clear visual instructions on how to manipulate data and objects. However the author seems to thinks you have something to work with.

So this book has saved hours of experimenting. The CD has the complete book so on it so you can do dynamic searches for subjects; then if you prefer manuals like me you can turn to the same page in the physical book. Also on the CD are trial versions for all the programs. Because I already have them I skipped this section. Luckily the book section is separate. Also by going to the CD its self I found the examples from the book. Again they are not intuitive on how to apply them. The help files bring up more questions.

Prompted by the section on "Set up a Dynamic Site" I was able to find the "access" file titled "space" on the accompanied CD. It gave samples of "planets." Now however I am trying to find a way to be dynamic and not use ColdFusion.

I have to admit that this with all these features it is not the easiest book to get you off the ground.

DO NOT buy this book if you are expecting to teach yourself anything. the CD rom contains absolutly NOTHING in the way of useful examples. I spent HOURS comparing books and decided on this one becuase I thought, based on the content of the book and the back cover, that the sample files on the CD would also allow me to explore coldfusion and dynamic html pages. But, when I wrote to wiley.com to get some assistance, this is what they said:

"Unfortunately, we weren't exactly clear making this distinction on page 698 in the "Authors' Sample Files" paragraph. What we said was that "These files contain all the sample code from the book in addition to a Flash-based interface.
For clarification, we will reword this to say: The files contain all of the sample Flash files featured in Part XI, as well as a Flash-based interface and some other sample Flash files referenced in the text. You can simply follow the steps in the book to add these snazzy elements to your own Dreamweaver-based page.
That does not indicate that code from the entire book is provided, and notifys the reader that they are expected to apply the Dreamweaver instructions to their own material."

I wrote back and asked them to explain on page 292 the phrase on the bottom left hand corner of the page, "Note: to create this example, see the files located in the space folder on the CD that accompanies this book." There is no "space folder" on the CD that I have. The only thing that comes remotely close to a "space folder" is a *file* called space.mdb.

They wrote back and said it was an "unfortunate error" and offered another book of the same value from them.

Lots of pictures but not much beyond how-to open the various functions. Also the CD contains almost nothing in the line of real examples. I bought this book after browsing it and expecting the CD to have a full set of work files but was sadly disappointed.

If you're looking for something along the lines of the Adobe Classroom In-a-Book series then this book doesn't fall even close to being in that class.