When it comes to building professional websites, Dreamweaver CS4 is capable of doing more than any other web design program -- including previous versions of Dreamweaver. But the software's sophisticated features aren't simple. Dreamweaver CS4: The Missing Manual will help you master this program quickly, so you can bring stunning, interactive websites to life. Under the expert guidance of bestselling author and teacher David McFarland, you'll learn how to build professional-looking websites quickly and painlessly. McFarland has loaded the book with over 150 pages of hands-on tutorials to help you create database-enabled PHP pages, use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for cutting-edge design, add XML-based news feeds, include dynamic effects with JavaScript and AJAX, and more. This witty and objective book offers jargon-free language and clear descriptions that will help you:

• Learn how to control the appearance of your web pages with CSS, from the basics to advanced techniques

• Design dynamic database-driven websites, from blogs to product catalogs, and from shopping carts to newsletter signup forms

• Add interactivity to your website with ready-to-use JavaScript programs from Adobe's Spry Framework

• Effortlessly control the many helper files that power your website and manage thousands of pages

• Examine web-page components and Dreamweaver's capabilities with the book's "live examples"

Perfect for beginners who need step-by-step guidance, and for longtime Dreamweaver designers who need a handy reference to the new version, this thoroughly updated edition of our bestselling Missing Manual is your complete guide to designing, organizing, building, and deploying websites. It's the ultimate atlas for Dreamweaver CS4.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 34 Ratings

Exactly what is says... - 2009-11-11
Reviewer Rating:
After looking for a book that I could use as one single resource without having to carry a library with me at all times to check up on forgotten procedures, I finally landed on The Missing Manual. This book gave me all the answers I was looking for, and I did not know I was looking for. In this book I found answers to almost every question regarding how to use the software in a professional working process. Especially interesting is the part concerning Dreamweawers potential in connection with creating dynamic pages. The book is a brick and contains in my opinion all the really vital stuff especially if one is an emerging developer, but certainly a must have backup for the more experienced also. Excellent mix of encyclopedia and hands on tutorials ease the need for constantly searching the web after tutorials on how to do this and that. I would like to recomend it as a resource worth having as your companion while developing websites with Adobe Dreamweawer CS4. Finally a release delivering exactly what it says in the title, and then some...

About Dreamweaver CS4: the Missing Manual - 2009-11-01
Reviewer Rating:
Long a fan of the Missing Manual series, the Dreamweaver CS4 Missing Manual is a cut above Adobe's Dreamweaver CS4 Revealed. Coming in at just over 1,000 pages it has details about every aspect of Dreamweaver.

Dreamweaver CS4 - 2009-11-01
Reviewer Rating:
This is a well-written, if rather daunting, tome of 1064 pages, which can serve as both a reference manual and a series of tutorials on "Dreamweaver CS4-The Missing Manual" (DW). Explanations are clear, and tutorials are detailed enough that procedures are easy to follow. Tutorials feature commands appropriate to both Windows PCs and Macintoshes, so the Mac user is not frustrated by a Windows-centric approach.

DW is an extremely sophisticated and powerful web design/web authoring/web maintenance package with a long and steep learning curve, and this book is consequently not for the rank beginner. A pre-requisite is a working knowledge of HTML, without which the book would be very hard to follow, despite the fact that DW is billed as a WYSIWYG editor. With that caveat, the book is suitable for both the amateur and professional web designer.

The author, and DW, do an excellent job of introducing and integrating Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) into web design, so that even CSS newbies can add CSS to their web sites without tears. Additional sections deal with Spry tools and Javascript, and with php files and dynamic ("database-driven") web sites, but I have not reached those sections of the book yet.

Like all The Missing Manual Series volumes I have read, there are relatively frequent typos, unavoidable sequelae of rapid publication schedules, but the author provides a web site where readers can give feedback and suggest corrections.

The book lists for $45 (remarkably for the same price in Canada), but is available for under $30 at Amazon. It is also available in a Kindle version for $23.75. The Kindle version has the advantage of a more portable format, as the print version is rather heavy for a "vade mecum."

I will try to write a more complete review when I have finished the book, but in the meantime, I can recommend it as the most complete guide to Dreamweaver CS4 that one could ever hope for.

This book is a "Must Have" - 2009-10-28
Reviewer Rating:
This book is an incredible resource. It provides all the information and instruction for using Dreamweaver CS4 as well as a great deal of information on website development, PHP server set-up, and a host of information on the internet in general. This is one of the most referenced books in my collection. I can not recommend it highly enough, its worth 10 stars.

Doesnt miss a thing! - 2009-10-03
Reviewer Rating:
A step by step, almost idiot proof way to learn website design.

You get tutorials that take you by the hand and then show you what you should have. Then, if you don't - well you can go back and find out where you went wrong and make it right.

Website design by numbers and are not talking cheap and nasty - good quality designs.

I am going to get the next ones - Photoshop and fireworks and totally blow my senses.

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