Web Designer's Reference Friends of ED, 2004
Although the title makes it sound dry and academic, nothing could be further from the truth. It's a practical, hands-on book about building stylish web pages with CSS. There are chapters devoted to text, navigation, tables, and the CSS box model. But it's not just about CSS. Craig covers all the essentials for working with web pages. He hates frames, but acknowledges that they can be useful in the right context, and devotes a chapter to highlighting the pitfalls and how to avoid them. There are also chapters on choosing the best HTML and image editors, and a brief chapter on multimedia. As technical editor, it was my job to test all the code to make sure that it worked. It does. What I liked particularly about Craig's approach is that he doesn't simply give you the CSS style rules for a drop cap and leave it at that; he shows you step-by-step what each rule is doing. Consequently, you end up not only knowing how to create a nice text effect, but also understand how the rules interact with each other. He takes the same approach with pull quotes, navigation, and restyling the same content in different ways. My other role as technical editor was to make sure that Craig had got his facts right, and that everything was up to date with the latest versions of the W3C standards. Where there was any doubt, we pored over the specifications (not the most user-friendly of documents) until we were satisfied. The result is an accurate and user-friendly guide to all aspects of web page design that should appeal to beginner and expert alike. |
Adobe Photoshop CS: Classroom in a Book Adobe Press, 2004
What's pleasing about this book is that, although it's very friendly towards complete newcomers to Photoshop like myself, it doesn't waste any time before getting into sophisticated techniques. Consequently, it's likely to be of just as much value to advanced users wanting to get to know the new features of Photoshop CS. The book comes with a CD-ROM containing all the images for the exercises, and most of them are stunning. Because Photoshop's core user base originated with print designers, a couple of chapters focus on issues that will be of less interest to web designers, such as working with CYMK separation. Several chapters, though, are devoted to creating images specially for the web in both Photoshop and Image Ready, which comes bundled with it. There's also a chapter on colour adjustment for monitors running on the Windows and Mac platforms. The problem with Photoshop is that it's such a massive program, with so many features, I found I was beginning to forget things the deeper I moved into the book. I'm going to have to come back to it again and again until I learn to stand more on my own feet with Photoshop. The combination of the clear writing and beautiful images will make that a pleasure, not a chore. |
Web Standards Solutions friends of ED, 2004
One of the first things you notice on opening the book is that the Foreword is written by none other than Jeffrey Zeldman, the great-granddaddy of web standards advocates. As he puts it, Dan Cederholm offers "clear examples and no wasted words" of how to design clean, lightweight web pages. Whereas Zeldman's own book, Designing with Web Standards (also reviewed on this site), is more of a treatise on why such standards are so important, this is a practical guide to their implementation. It covers navigation menus, styling lists, hyperlinks, text, background images, etc, etc. Usually each example requires only a few lines of CSS, and in line with his principle of keeping things simple, Dan Cederholm shows you how to avoid becoming "class happy". If you don't know what that means, then perhaps you should just drop everything now, and order this book immediately. Being class happy is a stage that just about everyone new to CSS goes through (I know, I've done it myself), applying classes to just about everything in sight, ending up with markup that's almost as complex as the font tag soup it's intended to replace. Even though I've been working with CSS for several years now, I still found quite a few fresh ideas in this book, particularly on the use of less frequently explored tags, such as cite and q. I also found a lot of honesty. I was particulary wary when I approached one of the final chapters - on the controversial subject of image replacement. Dan Cederholm demonstrates three of the main ways of using background images to replace text, and highlights both their advantages and drawbacks, before going on to demonstrate how they can be used effectively in a way that doesn't damage a site's accessibility. The final chapter also shows how a site can be composed of both two-column and three-column pages with just a simple change of class. All very simple - deceptively so. |
Flash MX 2004 ActionScript: Training from the Source Macromedia Press, 2004
The book follows strict ActionScript 2.0 data-typing, but the instructions are easy to follow, and accompanied by succinct explanations of the underlying theory and language structure. The logical layout means I often turn to this book as a reference, but I expect I'll no longer do that when something more substantial comes out, such as Colin Moock's "Essential ActionScript 2.0" or Sham Bhanghal's "Designer's ActionScript Reference". The book is targetted primarily at people with little or no experience of ActionScript, and it should certainly give them a strong foundation in all basic aspects of scripting for Flash. What it lacks in comparison with Sham Bhangal's "Foundation ActionScript for Flash MX 2004" is the sense of fun or the feeling that you're building something that eventually ties all together. Because each lesson involves one or more standalone projects, no clues are given as to how different elements might be made to interact in a complete application. Another disappointment was that the LoadVars and XML lessons work only with ASP. Nevertheless, it's a good, solid book that will appeal to many. |
Flash MX 2004: Training from the Source Macromedia Press, 2004
Like "Foundation Flash MX", this book is aimed at teaching Flash from the ground up - no previous knowledge is required. Everything is very clearly explained, and the accompanying CD-ROM contains all the necessary files in both "before" and "after" state, so you can take them apart and see where you may have gone wrong. The book's approach is the construction of a complete website, introducing you to important aspects of Flash site construction as you go along. It's aimed very much at the serious end of the market. Although there are some little touches of humour in the design, you're learning how to create a business-like site, not how to create a space invaders game. That's probably my main criticism of the book - I missed the sense of fun imparted by the "Foundation Flash MX" authors. Nevertheless, I have found it easier to use Jen deHaan's book when I need to look up a technique that I've forgotten. There are also some nice design techniques, so I'm happy to have both on my shelf. |
Foundation Dreamweaver MX 2004 Friends of ED, 2004
The friends of ED Foundation series takes a hands-on approach, and the book teaches you all the ins and outs of Dreamweaver MX 2004 through a case study that builds an online photo gallery. Although readers are expected to know the basics of web design, the book is aimed at the beginner to intermediate level. Even if you're completely new to Dreamweaver, you should have little difficulty in following the detailed instructions. If you're familiar with earlier versions of Dreamweaver, this book will quickly introduce you to the new features, particularly the way the program is now almost entirely CSS focused. I promise you - there's not a single font tag in the book, and tables make only a brief appearance. If that worries you, don't let it. We don't preach. We guide you through the steps, and help you feel just at home with CSS layout as you may have been with old-school designs. The second half of the book is devoted to the dynamic capabilities of Dreamweaver MX 2004. Rather than skirt over a little of each of the server-side technologies, we chose to concentrate on PHP and MySQL. There are full instructions for installing them on both the PC and Mac OS X (not difficult - honest). We also decided not to dive straight into MX 2004's automatic code generation. That approach may give you quick results, but leaves you banging your head on the keyboard because you don't understand what's happening behind the scenes. Instead, you learn all the basics of PHP through a series of practical examples. By the end of the book, the static website created in the first half is converted to a database-driven version. You will also have learned about sessions, user authentication and dynamic navigation bars. What's more, you'll be able to dig into MX 2004's code and tweak it to get things to work just the way you want. If you plan to buy online, support one of the authors by purchasing through this site. |
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This is my second collaboration with Craig Grannell, this time as technical editor (previously we were co-authors of Foundation Dreamweaver MX 2004). Craig is a talented web designer, who is passionate about web standards, and in my opinion, he's put together a very practical and readable guide. As the book's subtitle says, it's "an integrated approach to web design with XHTML and CSS".
Normally I'm wary of instruction books that carry an "official" title from the producer of software, but several Photoshop users strongly recommended this book to me - and they were right. It's superb. I have used Macromedia's Fireworks for many years, and was completely at a loss trying to find my way around Photoshop. Everything looks so familiar, but often works in a completely different way. This book had me doing things with ease in no time at all, and made me realize why Photoshop has such a loyal following. Many of Photoshop's features make Fireworks pale by comparison.
Dan Cederholm's personal website and company are called SimpleBits, a name that could equally apply to this nifty, little book. For anyone already deep into CSS, this book is probably a bit too simple, but for anyone still yet to be convinced of the value of embracing web standards, this is likely to be an ideal introduction. It's also perfect for designers who've decided to take the pluge, but still can't get their head around CSS. Although Dan's approach to design is "keep it simple", that doesn't mean boring or plain. What he demonstrates in chapter after chapter is that you don't need complex markup to achieve elegance. By keeping things simple, the accessibility of a site is also greatly enhanced.
As someone already familiar with ActionScript 1, I've used this book to dip into, rather than follow the 20 lessons in strict sequence. I hadn't used Flash for a while, and wanted to get up to speed quickly with ActionScript 2.0 and things like version 2 components and the Shared Object. Although each lesson is meant to take one and a half to two hours, most of them are split into discrete sections that can be completed on their own; and the accompanying CD-ROM contains .fla files for each stage, so it's easy to pick up and leave at any point.
I've been trying to get to grips with Flash for some time. It's much more complex than building a website with (X)HTML, and not having a graphic design background puts me at a distinct disadvantage. I first learned from "Foundation Flash MX", which certainly got me off the ground and interested in learning more. That's why I turned to this book when Flash MX 2004 came out.
As one of the authors of this book, you'll understand if my review is slightly partial, but I think Craig Grannell, George McLachlan and I have put together something really special. I wrote the second half of the book in conjunction with George, all about building dynamic websites with MX 2004 and PHP/MySQL. I also created some of the JavaScript for Craig's half of the book, which is a thoroughly enjoyable and in-depth tutorial on building a static website, using MX 2004's standards-compliant XHTML and CSS features.