Code Cook

The first thing that I have to say is that you’ll need to be quite familiar with databases to get going with this book. If your not you may just have to take a little extra time with that part of the code and set up. With that said I think that this is an excellent book for someone who is new to either Dreamweaver or ASP. There are great examples, some that can be ported easily to real world projects that you might be working on right now. The only negative note is that there are a few errors in the code that closer review and testing would have fixed before releasing the book. Although, it’s always good to get some debugging under your belt when learning a new programming language or tool…right?!

Being a Dreamweaver trainer, I always like to check out new resources for the tool. Rachel Andrew’s book Build Your Own Standards Compliant Website Using Dreamweaver 8 is a nice introduction to Dreamweaver as a tool for building simple Web sites, as well as focusing on creating a site that meets Web standards guidelines. She does this while also creating a site that is visually appealing with the “conventional glitter that most of us have come to expect”.

The book begins by focusing on XHTML, describing what it is and how it differs from HTML. CSS is also a main focus of the book providing excellent examples of how to create, edit and apply CSS style with Dreamweaver.

Chapter 7 is a bonus Chapter for though who are new to Web compliance. The book clarifies differences between the conforming WCAG guidelines as well as illustrating how to use Dreamweaver to access/create the compliance settings.

If you’re looking for a resource for building dynamic Web sites, this isn’t the book for you, but this is a great starting point for building a web site and great resource if you are new to either Web compliance or Dreamweaver.