Web Books

As a manager for the advanced technology practice of one of the world's leading executive search firms, I found Dr. Canton's book comprehensive, illuminating, and deeply insightful. It is a beautiful work of art, a majestic tour de force of what is to be, detailing how technology will impact our lives beyond our wildest expectations. The material is comprehensive, yet easily understood. I came to appreciate life in this era of aggressive change and discovery. Dr. Canton's book is a must-read for any inquisitive mind, young or old, and is actually difficult to put down. I have purchased additional copies as gifts for clients.

Technofutures is an eye-opening experience into the world we live in today and the world we will live in soon. If you have any desire to know how life will be on earth and in the heavens, this is the book to read.

Dr. Canton is Heinleinesque in the way he weaves a coherent, congruent, knowledgeable and thoroughly entertaining story about the future of technology and its influence on our lives. I believe his predictions serve as a blueprint for where to position your career, investments and personal interests over the next half century. I was blown away by his insight into the future of medicine, specifically and quite selfishly, his prediction that I may clone my favorite dog right down to its personality. Dr. Canton forced me to my learning and dreaming edge, right where you want to be if your goal is to endeavor into the technological fray, but aren't sure exactly how and where.

TechnoFutures is written by Dr. James Canton. Dr. Canton is one of the leading technology futurists, and he is editor-in-chief of the Canton Technology Report. This book is about how technology will continue to bring impacts and changes, both economically and socially, to our lives. With the evolution of technological development, the interaction between human and technology will become inseparable.

According to the author, in terms of economic changes, e-business will eventually dominate the traditional business practice. The industries that will be transformed by e-business included stock brokerage, insurance, travel, auto, chemicals, media and entertainment, computer and electronics, telecommunications, real estate, medicine and health care, etc. As Dr. Canton suggested, if we want to survive through the 21st century, we must learn how to adopt e-business technology.

In terms of social impacts, technology will bring impacts at both the personal and collective levels. In the future, our personal lives will involve computers, robots and virtual reality. Robots and computers will play a role as a companion such as a housekeeper, a secretary, or even a friend to human. And as for human, we will engage more activities via virtual reality such as playing golf. For the latter one, educational changes will be a good example. Educational institutions will change their formats of teaching. Instead of the traditional classroom learning, students and teachers will meet via virtual schools.

By means of frequent sidebars, the author has provided readers an insight of our evolving technological world with vivid scenes and dialogues amongst the robots, cyber companions and human. However, the design and placement of these sidebars, often of similar fonts right in between the texts proper, could sometimes be confusing. Also, the author could have arranged the hierarchy, if any, of the sub- and sub-sub-titles of his chapters better, so that the readers can better digest the often far-fetched subject matters. Indeed, the subject matters discussed sometimes verged on science fiction rather than scientific prediction. This is most evident in the author¡¦s discussion of cyborgs and androids, all, perhaps coincidentally, also prominently featured in Star Trek: The Next Generation. I do appreciate, however, the author¡¦s efforts in making technical matters easier to understand for lay persons. There is, as far as I can see, no one single formula in the book. The author is also good in presenting moral issues for deeper thoughts, such as that concerning eugenics.

Although Dr. Canton¡¦s future world may seem too advanced for most of us, we are in fact living in an information society. This book has provided me a chance to be aware of our technological developments and dare me to envision our future world from a non-traditional perspective. Overall, I enjoy reading the book.

This is one futurist in a million that has it right! From the future of electronic commerce, robots, bioscience, computers and more--it is a comprehensive tour of the next century written by a noted futurist who makes sense. I heartily recommend it to anyone interested in preparing for the future and in understanding the tech chaos all around us. Easy to read, accessible and imaginative for the CEO or college student.

This book is a great read for lessons in everyday life! It is great reading for all ages!

kind of book you can read over and over again. inspirational..

Its a book of quotes that can be applied to everyday life. It can help readers to get through the trials and tribulations of life! Great book, you can pick it up anytime!

This book is simply spectacular. It changed my life and I'd recommmend it for all. It's simply one of the greatest books ever written!!! Thank you R.C. Avioli

Excellent, and insightful. Opens a whole new world to me. Thought provoking and easy to read.

This book has a great html and cascading style sheet reference. This alone is worth the $$ the book costs.

This book covers it all, from Perl to ASP to XML and more! Has several very informative and often entertaining examples. I already used one example at work, with a little customization. If you're new to webdev or have been doing it for years, this book is packed with coding gems. A must have for any real web coder!

Bookviews by Alan Caruba, February 2002

Thinking about starting a web site business? Well, the single most complete and authoritative reference available is The Ultimate Web Developer's Sourcebook by Jessica Keyes ... and it runs over 780 pages, is two and a half inches thick, and worth every penny! The author is a noted authority on the science and business of technology and the book has contributions from more than thirty web development experts. It is a one-stop guide and reference that will enhance any existing site and help insure the success of a new one.

I'm pretty new at this business of creating web sites. I think I must have bought 100 books but none of then got me more than a few steps into the process. The Ultimate Web Developer's Sourcebook put me on the right path. I now have a good first site. I'm going to use the advanced portion of the book to provide me with the info I need to add a shopping cart and some animation to the site.

I think that this is a great book.

I looked through the Dummies and Idiots book on this subject but they didn't offer much. What I wanted was a book that could start me out as a novice and then grow with me when I started getting good at it. This is the only book I found that could do all of that.

It is clearly one of the best books on webdesign, a compulsory one on any IA's or IxD's bookshelf.


What I liked:
- the insights this book gives you are instantly actionable, it is really a step-by-step guide
- the authors discuss the topics that are relevant to persona creation (and take it literally, there is great information on survey design, how to segment results, what sources to use to find a photo for your persona, etc.)
- you will find good real world examples
- the book shows multiple approaches based on different needs and constraints
- the copywriting is also outstanding, no nonsense and easy to digest

What I didn't like:
I am trying hard but really can't think of anything :)

This book has got to be one of the most comprehensive on the topic of personas available. Between the detailed types of personas and processes on when and how to use them, it's almost overwhelming in scope for such a relatively small book.

The power of this book is the amount of experience the authors have in the subject. Where other books may make a cursory review of personas and how to apply them, this one makes clear delineations of the two types it describes (qualitative and quantitative) and how/when they should be used and their limitations. Examples and discussions of successful projects as well as when "personas are taken too far" distill a lot of practical experience.

This book is for the serious UI/usability designer/developer. Though it is not so technical as to be over the heads of executives, managers and stakeholders, once past the first chapter the details are likely to be more than most will need.

When companies want to skimp in a development process, whether that be for a web application, a desktop application, a content management implementation, a usability project, or a documentation set, the first thing they'll cut (if they even thought of it at all) is doing persona development. They'll say it's not important, or that it will get captured in the scenarios (if they do those), or in the use cases - and that's if they do the types of use cases that capture user experience, not the type that simply talk about database interactions. In their book, The User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas for the Web, Steve Mulder and Ziv Yaar dispel all those naive notions and show how personas set a sound foundation on which to build. Skipping this step means building on what is likely an unstable foundation - and from the world of bricks and mortar, we know the steep costs associated with shoring up buildings with badly-constructed underpinnings. A great book with concrete suggestions for practitioners.

I recently finished Steve Mulder's book and today, I had the privilege of seeing him speak at Web Design World 2006 in Boston. His approach to capturing the essence of users and taking this knowledge all the way through design and marketing, into strategic business decisions not only makes good sense: one wonders how much of a web-based operation is pure luck without taking this framework into consideration.

Mulder presents various options depending on the level of time and investment you can afford to make, ranging from strictly qualitative approaches that take relatively little to gather user data and come up with some form of segmentation, to all-out statistically-loaded qualitative studies with the end goal of defining a user as clearly as possible, giving him/her a name, traits, goals and a whole personality that your organization can relate to.

After personas have been defined, the book helps you use them to drive decision making about site structure, content and design, so as to ensure success getting the users they represent to accomplish their goals, while you make your company money. This makes this book a must-read for all people involved in the early stages of conceptualizing for a web site design or redesign, whether you are a designer, product manager or simply in charge of changes to a web site.

This comprehensive guide approaches user experience research like never before, and is well-written, easy-to-read, and quite user friendly. It provides real-world examples of how user research is done in just enough detail that it can both inform an executive of the role of usability research as well as introduce methodology for persona creation to someone starting out in user experience design.

"You are not the user."

As an interaction designer and information architect for the past 12 years, I have been most drawn towards books that go far beyond principles and theory to ones I can actually extract from and use their contents for the praxis of the craft, rather than just reading descriptions of a process. This is a great book that is a blueprint to follow to get it right. It defines the entire user research and persona creation process and offers insightful case studies from successful companies that Mulder and Yaar worked with like Vista Print.

The use of personas has become an increasingly popular technique being used by the interaction design community to address user needs. Introduced into the mainstream in 1999 in The Inmates Are Running The Asylum, personas have gained momentum in both the software and website design communities, but still faces hurdles.

What are the benefits of personas?

A key aspect to any practitioner responsible for bringing real user centered design to an organization's product design process, being able to evangelize the importance of user research and persona creation is absolutely key. Many interaction designers understand the importance of persona creation, but lack the arguments to persuade management to both fund user research and persona creation, and to incorporate real users into the design process. This is where the book is particular important - selling proper user research and persona creation to upper management constrained by resources and deadlines.

According to Mulder and Yaar, personas bring many benefits, including these:
* Users' goals, behaviors and attitudes become a common point of focus for the team. (They keep repeating this mantra until I found myself chanting it in the shower)
* The team can concentrate on designing for a manageable set of personas knowing that they represent the needs of many users.
* By always asking, "Would Will use this?" the team can avoid the trap of building what users ask for rather than what they will actually use, or the problem which is far more pernicious - building features that a product champion thinks are important.
* Design efforts can be prioritized based on the personas.
* Disagreements over design decisions can be sorted out by referring back to the personas.
* Designs can be constantly evaluated against the personas, getting better designs into usability testing.

What is a persona anyway??

A persona is a fictional person that the team creates to reflect what is know about one of the key audience groups (sometimes that knowledge is gained from interviews, focus groups, or surveys). Typically, a team creates two or more personas to represent different user segments, while identifying a few key archetypes as the primary personas.

Helpful persona profiles include demographic information, levels of computer expertise, descriptions of the personas' needs for the particular site in development, and the goals and tasks they would have in mind when using the site.

The User Is Always Right takes you through each step of persona creation, including tips for conducting qualitative user research, new ways to apply quantitative research (such as surveys) to persona creation, various methods for generating persona segmentation, and proven techniques for making personas realistic. You'll also learn how to use personas effectively, from directing overall business strategy and prioritizing features and content to making detailed decisions about information architecture, content, and design.

What characteristics are included in a persona?

Some of the information Mulder and Yaar say a persona usually includes:
* a name and picture
* demographics (age, education, ethnicity, family status)
* job title and major responsibilities
* goals and tasks in relation to your product/web site/application
* environment (physical, social, technological)
* a quote that sums up what matters most to the persona with relevance for your site
* A narrative that brings the persona to life

The User Is Always Right is an entertaining and clearly written book that is also filled with great insight into the process, both qualitative, and quantitative, of creating user personas based on real research and how that can help interaction designers, product designers, and other user experience professionals make more usable and useful software. There are also extensive samples and examples throughout the book of real personas, actual user research data, and analysis spreadsheets. These give a very clear idea of how the recommended approaches work in practice.

For the first time (as far as I'm aware), this brings together two very different approaches: qualitative research based on interviews and observation; and quantitative research based on surveys and usage data. The authors' overall methodology provides real answers on when to use field research, when to conduct surveys, and how to combine the two sets of results. The end product are personas that have much greater rigueur and impact.

In summary, this is a must-have book for people tackling the design of complex sites, applications or devices, or for user-centered designers seeking more rigorous methodologies when creating personas. I cannot recommend this book too highly.

A WONDERFULLY fun book -- to read, to refer to, to give as a gift to alll your girlfriends! Endless information, up-to-date resources, very knowledgeable and savvy and the only book you need about vintage on the net. I hope it gets a new edition every other year or -- knowing the net -- EVERY year; I'll keep every edition, because none will ever be obsolete. These authors know their audience, know their subject, know their territory. A book you'll read again and again and never, ever, finish. :->

Virtual Vintage stands out from most other books on the vintage-resale-thrifting topic -- even though it is geared to the online market. First, the writing is both excellent and entertaining; I found the book hard to put down.

Additionally, the authors also offer some good tips -- laced throughout the text -- on HOW TO WEAR some of this old stuff. As much as I love vintage fashion, and have collected it for several years, I am often at a loss as to how to WEAR some of the pieces, or how to incorporate my vintage "finds" into my real-life wardrobe. So far, few books actually address this issue, and tend to focus instead on buying, selling or simply "collecting" vintage fashion.

This book is thorough and carefully put together -- like a great outfit. I hope the authors write more on this topic, and maybe put together a how-to guide to vintage fashion.

Kudos!

Usually I don't "read" antique guide books, but a couple of pages into this one and I was hooked. In Virtual Vintage you'll find common sense tips on buying and selling vintage on-line, the A to Z of navigating eBay (I learned several new tricks) and lots of design and fashion tips. The book presents useful info including international size conversion charts, how to remove stains from clothing and must-see Hollywood films for clothes lovers. It was so well done I wanted to learn more about Virtual Vintage's two women authors and how they came to write this surprisingly literary guide book.

Virtual Vintage has a section that rates many of the dot com vintage sites for content, ease of use and return policies. Virtual Vintage is considerably more user friendly than most other antique/collectible guide books that I've seen... I am also fond of the book because it gave my vintage site a great review! I will certainly recommend this book to my web customers.

Usually I don't "read" antique guide books, but a couple of pages into this one and I was hooked. In Virtual Vintage you'll find common sense tips on buying and selling vintage on-line, the A to Z of navigating eBay (I learned several new tricks) and lots of design and fashion tips. The book presents useful info including international size conversion charts, how to remove stains from clothing and must-see Hollywood films for clothes lovers. It was so well done I wanted to learn more about Virtual Vintage's two women authors and how they came to write this surprisingly literary guide book.

Virtual Vintage has a section that rates many of the dot com vintage sites for content, ease of use and return policies. Virtual Vintage is considerably more user friendly than most other antique/collectible guide books that I've seen... I am also fond of the book because it gave my vintage site a great review! I will certainly recommend this book to my web customers.

Virtual Vintage covers the world of online vintage fashion. If you are new to buying and selling vintage fashion online, its a great place to start. If you are not new, it still had plenty of tips that I didn't think about before.

The book is much more than online vintage fashions. It also goes into detail about what to look for from different designers, periods, etc. It has chapters on how to repair and care for your vintage fashions. The back of the book includes a directory (with summary) of online retailers to check out.

I found this book easy and enjoyable to read cover to cover rather than just as a reference. The authors write in an informative yet enertaining way.

The only negative thing I would have to say is; when will there be an updated version??? Some of the online sites and eBay information is dated, as is to be expected in a virtual world.

Matt Carrigan is a 20 year CIA veteran field agent. After escaping from an Iraqi prison where he'd been held for two years, Matt determined to quit the agency and rekindle a romance with Lisa. But Carrigan is persuaded into one last assignment: older people are suddenly and inexplicably killing their loved ones. Lisa tags along as the crisis worsens and becomes worldwide. Carrigan must find and stop the person or persons responsible for this global tragedy which becomes so severe and epidemic that the President is in a military stronghold in Utah for his own safety. The situation is bleak and hope begins to fade -- but Carrigan won't give up, won't stop, no matter what or who gets in the way. Web Craze is a superbly crafted novel of absorbing interest and compelling engagement.

This novel by Ron Cox is truly one of the best novels I have ever read. The story is a perfect blend of action as in "Lethal Weapon", suspense as in a "Steven King" flick, and bedroom romance as in "Eyes Wide Shut". It has just the right amount of twists. Cox is a self published author and should be recognized for his brilliance and hard work. Kudos to you Cox! If the right person should read this, I can almost garauntee a "best seller" and the making of a "superb film!" This story is a work of excellence. For anyone into fast paced action and suspence, this is a MUST READ!

A touch of romance, a dash of mystery, a pinch of suspense. WEB CRAZE is all of that and more. A thrilling adventure, with edge of the seat action. A novel put together so nicely by Ron Cox, you won't want to put it down. WEB CRAZE.... Is this our future?

If you want thrills and chills, WEB CRAZE is the book to read for "Edge of the Seat, Can't Wait to Turn the Page" excitement. For a second timer in publishing a novel, Ron Cox has the "umph" to tantalize his readers. Can't wait to see what happens next. Good movie material. One question..."is this fact or fiction?" Subliminal messaging via computer. THINK ABOUT IT!

Matt Carrigan was a twenty-year CIA veteran when he escaped from the Iraqi prison which had held him for two years. Now home, he only wants to quit the CIA, try to make up with his girlfriend, Lisa, and settle down into a normal life. The CIA Director and the President of the United States convinced Matt to take one last assignment.

Lisa became Matt's personal assistant and joined him as they tried to figure out why people were suddenly and unexplainably killing the ones they loved. It soon became a world wide problem. After much investigation, it turned out a subconscious virus was being spread from the Internet. Now the virus has taken on a life of its own. Matt's mind control is the only thing that saves him. But even he is not immune. However, it is up to Matt to find a cure and quickly, because now it has Lisa.

***Be warned that there is a lot of explicit sex in the first half of this story. I definately recommend this one to all who like spy or tech thrillers! I reviewed an uncorrected copy. The back gave away the entire book except the last couple of chapters. Therefore, when you purchase it, do not read the back, just in case it is printed out the same as my copy is. That way you will find one surprise after another. Ron Cox has created a tech thriller which is made scary in the fact that some day this COULD happen! A powerful piece of work!***

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Received book in record time. It was in new condition as promised. Great Seller and would order from him again.

This is the third in a series of books the author has written. While some of the concepts in e-commmerce are outdated due to the dotcom crash, the architectures, data management and functional aspects are still useful for e-business and e-commerce. The author discusses many of the challenges in managing databases on the web and shows the need for this technology for web data management.

This is an excellent book on e-commerce and databases. However it is somewhat outdated as the book was presumably written during the dotcom boom. Nevertheless many of the ideas are still very useful. I would suggest that the author updates this book to reflect the recent developments.

The book covers a great deal and provdes a broad overview of web data management and e-commerce. It starts with a lot of background material on database systems, the web, data mining, etc. and then focuses on web data management technologies in Part II. Finally it describes how the technologies may be used for e-commerce. I like the writing style of the author, rather casual and takes a building block approach. He sort of tells a story about supporting technologies, web technologies and e-commerce. My one concern is that the book was written during the dotcom boom years. While the technologies are all still valid and useful, although they have advanced quite a lot today, the idea that the web and e-commerce will take over is long gone. At one time we may have thought that we will be doing all of our shopping even buying groceries on the web. But this has still not happened in large scale. Therefore, it may be time to take another look at the ideas and perhaps get another edition out reflecting what is real today. But then one never knows what the future will be. Maybe once the technologies mature and our approach to the web evolves, the dotcom ideas may take off again.

I found this book extremely useful. The author starts with some excellent background material on web data management and then goes into more details on architectures and models for web databases. Finally, she discusses their applications to e-commerce. At times I thought the book was too detailed (e.g., in data management) and at other times I felt that the book ought to have given more details (e.g. in e-commerce). Nevertheless the book emphasizes on web data management and all aspects of this topic. It was very easy to read and as a newcomer to the field I found it very thought provoking. I thought the author explained the security aspects extremely well, partly because she is an expert in database secruity. At times she dwelt more than it was necessary on security as the focus of the book was not on security. I would have liked to have seen more discussions on how specific organizations carry out e-commerce. Since the field is evolving so rapidly I would love to see a follow-on book giving details and examples on e-commerce and the applications of web data management to e-commerce. On the whole an excellent, easy to read book.

I bought this book in 1996, and referenced it again and again. I still find it so useful on web server technology, especially on web security. A worth-while reading.

This book is excellent, if you want to understand the general properties of a Web server. The book explains the basic jobs a Web server can do in simple way so that many people can understand it. The description of the tasks, which will be performed on a Web server, is not too detailed. Excellent is the explanation of the different types, advantages and disadvantages of process concepts which can be used for Web servers. The securtity issues and the chapter about searching on the Internet are also highlights. I recommend this book for everyone who wants an detailed overview on Web servers and related topics.

I thought this was an excellent book. For a newbie interested in learning the details of web infrastructure components, including SSL, this book is a solid choice. I read it a year ago and I still find it a useful reference.

Tired of those IT books that look like help files or manuals dumps? Tired of books based on programs rather than concepts? If your answer is yes, than this book is for you. It is simply the best book about Internet/Web technology ever written, of great importance for anyone thinking of working with the Web. A must read: concepts, explanations, examples, everything as clear as it should be.

A great book for understanding what's happening on the web--essentially a must-read for anyone publishing there to any significant extent.

These guys know what they are talking about. Web services with real life examples and great points such as web services inside the firewall. I greatly recommend this book!

Real life examples, diagrams, easy to read, and is up-to-date - this book is recommended for architects, managers, developers, who would like to get a good understanding of SOAP and XML Web services. This book contains answers to your "what", "why", and "how" questions pertaining to XML Web services. The chapters flow nicely. It also talks about BizTalk and ebXML and how they fit in Web services paradigm. This first volume ends with discussion on more recent Web services standards (WS-****).

Collaboratively written in a light and engaging style, by Brian E. Travis and Mae Ozkan, Web Services Implementation Guide Volume 1: Getting Started is a straightforward and "user friendly" instruction manual that accessibly teaches the reader what web services are and how to take advantage of them. Written especially for systems architects and developers, it describes in direct, friendly language how to automate internal systems, determine integration points, and then reveal integration points as web services. Enhanced with a tutorial on the state of web services standards, real-life examples of web service use, code samples and more, Web Services Implementation Guide Volume 1: Getting Started is an excellent beginning guide for anyone ready to take the first step into capitalizing on the manifold advantages of what the World Wide Web has to offer.

I read the book very easily. It thought me so much about web services, how it evolves and where it is going to. It cleared many questions I had in my mind. I am technically enhanced now! It is fantastic to understand the cool technologies.

This book is one of many new titles on web services (the book's introduction makes the case for using a lowecase-w in "web" services). Most of the books that I have seen cover the world of web services in terms of this or that tool. Java J2EE, Microsoft .NET, IBM Web Services Toolkit, etc.

This book gets beyond a particular implementation of code and talks about the business reasons for implementing web services. This includes planning, automating processes behind the firewall, determining security issues and so forth. This is the only book I have seen that covers such architectural facets.

As a developer, I found the coverage of the technologies very helpful. As my company's chief architect, I found many things to think about in the book.

The book covers the standards (XML, XSD, SOAP, WSDL) in a very accessible way, with witty commentary so it does not get boring. This is quite a feat for such an acronym-rich technology.

I am an amateur when it comes to using any Web design software as well as software that can be as intimidating as PhotoShop. That's why I think Sherry Hutson's book is so good. She is a teacher, and that shows throughout the book. She is able to break everything down into steps that are clearly understandable. Too many of these guides skip just enough steps that you can't follow. Not this book. It has helped to take me from being an amateur to not being afraid to try different things with Photoshop. The index is very helpful, too. I have a question, go to the Index, and invariably find the topic I'm looking for. You can't go wrong with this book even if you have never used Photoshop at all.

Yaah! Finally a book about Photoshop that even a beginner like me can really make sense of. The Web Wizard's Guide to Photoshop has introduced me to the joy of improving the images that I download from my digital camera. My friends and family are delighted with the much improved, innovative, and high quality, images that I am now able to create using this fun, user friendly, program. The clear and simple explanations in this book have encouraged me to move on to the next step. I am now in the process of designing my own web page. What fun!!! If you're interested in improving the way you work with images and/or in trying your hand at designing a website, this is definitely the book for you. If you try it, you most definitely will like it.

mick rasley, Sculptor,silversmith, September 20, 2004,
Breath of fresh air
Well spent $s. It costs more to get film developed today.This book was what actually cured my of 'film',and put me in the world of digital photography(and comfortably too).Glad this book was recommended to me ,and I will for sure pass on the 411.

Sherry Hutson has produced one of the most informative and consise books on Photoshop that I have ever read. It covers all tehniques of a very complex graphics program in an easy to read (and learn) format.

As a former student in many classes taught by Sherry, I can attest to the value of this book (I now design web sites, myself). A definate value for beginners and a strong resource for the expert.

Sherry Hutson obviously knows exactly what we Photoshop beginners are facing and what language to speak... no arrogance in this `how to' masterpiece. I have books on other programs in my bookshelf, as well as on Photoshop, which are about 800 pages and my eyes just gloss over so I've never even tried. When I started this book, though, I just followed step 1 and kept going because it was easy to understand and stuff miraculously started happening.

Although I'm not a website designer, my work requires me to create and maintain the company website along with my other duties. In small companies, the few wear many hats and it's terrifying to create a website when you don't know what you're doing. My nephew recommended the Web Wizard's Guide to Photoshop and I decided to go for the `keep it simple' approach, using the book's "Do's" and "Don'ts." Now feel like I've published a site as appealing as some of the big corporate ones.

Under "Features" on the back jacket of the book, the list reads, "Assumes no Photoshop experience . . .; Progresses in a natural order . . .; Contains extensive reference material, including a Web-Safe Colors chart, keyboard shortcuts, and annotated tool bars . . .; Provides tutorials in each chapter . . .; Uses full-color screen shots, so what you see in the book is exactly what you'll see on the computer screen." I'm usually pretty skeptical at such claims, but it's all true for once.

Don't be afraid. Just get the book and start in. I bet you will be surprised at how quickly, for example, you catch on to working with and correcting pictures, and the different types of image formats and when to use them. I had tried to figure out layers once before, but now I understand exactly what's happening. I've done the exercise on how to make an animation and it's amazing. The eagle actually flies.

This book is straightforward and very much a "fast start for beginners." I'm giving it five stars.