Macromedia Studio 8: Training from the Source

At first I thought all the typos, and errors were deliberate, to get you to fully learn the software. I could deal with it until lesson 3, the lessons on disk bare little resemblance, to what is shown in the book.

I am looking for another tutorial, any recommendations?

Could (and should) have been better (0/0 people found this helpful)

I agree with the comments in an earlier review. This book is lacking in essential detail in many areas. Some of the tutorials miss out quite significant steps. I am not impressed with having to figure out what the book has omitted to get me from one part of a tutorial to the next!
That said the principles of building a site from the ground up is well presented with good demonstration of how to create content in one the studio 8 programs and then export it for further work into another part of studio 8.
This book could have been so much better. Take a look at the other studio 8 tutorial texts before parting with your cash for this one.

Some say it's bad........I say it's GOOD and here's why..... (8/9 people found this helpful)

The problems listed by the previous reviewer (button sizes etc) may seem like a big deal to some. But the point of the exercise is to learn how to create YOUR OWN site not immitate others.

I have a very basic understanding of computers and the art of webpage design but found the book easy to work with and a font of useful information. Everything you could need for a basic (by basic i mean professional looking 'basic') web page is explained and a bit of practice is all thats needed to make quite astonishing sites.

Take my advice and plough through the book (don't worry about any mistakes), then create your own site using your own images whilst following the text book again, chapter by chapter. For any pictures you imported from the accompanying disk replace with you own images and scale them accordingly. It's easy when you know how and this book does explain it all.

Poor tutorials - would not recommend (25/26 people found this helpful)

Having purchased this book with a view to learning via 'Training from the Source' I would not recommend this book at all. The book prides itself on training from the Source - a bit of a joke really. This book does not even provide you wtih the basic information as to what the different tools actually do. So much of the basics of the programmes are missing I don't know how Adobe (nee Macromedia) have the cheek to call it a training book. The tutorials in the book are missing a substantial amount of information which is required to complete the lessons and you are left trying to figure it out for yourself. As I have used Photoshop and Illustrator i have managed to work out some of the stuff myself. I have waded through four of the tutorials and am dismayed at the many mistakes. One prime example of this is that in one of the lessons you create a button in Fireworks with the task of using this in the next lesson. You spend ages creating the button and it looks pretty good only to find that in the next lesson you have to import additional buttons from the library files provided on the CD, and include these in the navigation layout alongside the one you have created. What you find is that the measurements for all the ones in the library are not the same as the one your have created from the measurements provided in the book. You therefore have to work out the measurements from the library buttons yourself and then go back to the one you created in the previous lesson and redo the whole thing again based on the correct measurements you have had to calculate yourself. Not helpfull at all and certainly not in view of the almost �20 it cost. Don't buy it - seriously - I usually buy the Quick Start Guides from Peachpit press which are substantially much better than this book.

Shaowen Bardzell, Jeffrey Bardzell, Bob Flynn

Reader Reviews:

Look for another tutorial! (0/0 people found this helpful)

Could (and should) have been better (0/0 people found this helpful)

Some say it's bad........I say it's GOOD and here's why..... (8/9 people found this helpful)

Poor tutorials - would not recommend (25/26 people found this helpful)

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