Web Guides Books

The Definitive Guide to Actionscript by Colin Moock is a must have for anyone serious about Actionscript. Moock explains object oriented programming with ease. There are many samples and examples making this book easily accessible to a wide range of programmatic abilities. This book is a great learning resource and also serves as a reference for developers.

i dont need to say more, I even pre orderd the second edition allready

It's all good... lot's of info, examples, details, etc etc...
I do have to comment though that everything you find in this book is EASILY found and sometimes in a way more deep and detailed manner in the Macromedia Flash Help section and in www.macromedia.com Flash support section... I would not consider this an essential book even though one feels secure to have it close...

Nice book, found it pretty pleasant at first, but it was too easy to digest (six, seven hours and you can toss it over your shoulder). The real answers I need (mostly dealing with movie clip behaviours) are only vaguely explained or absent and I found the book more of a frustration than otherwise from about 1 week onwards.

Having said this, there doesn't appear to be any other title for Flash that caters to those whose programming knowledge exceeds their experience as a graphical design user.

Finally, an actionscript guide that is superb in its production! My hat is off to Colin and Gary for this detail-oriented volume that has cleared the smoke out of my head and has made a programmer out of an artist.

Bravo!!!

As another reviewer stated, this may be the most important book you will ever read. Ms. Hodgson, you are to be profoundly congratulated for pulling this information together into a readable form and I hope that your sales are rewarding you appropriately. I have done my best to get the word out and have purchased multiple copies as gifts to friends.

I will take my recommendation of this book even a step further and say that anyone who manages to get the information contained in this book into the mainstream dialogue, and force both politicians and big business/banking to explain how continuing business as usual is a viable blueprint for the future, deserves a Noble Prize in conjnction with Ms. Hodgson. Read this book, talk about it with friends, and recommend it to everyone. In my opinion, any chance at a sustainable future depends on it.

Attorney Brown's book could hardly be more timely and important. In fact, whilst reading it, one can hardly help but to be fairly amazed at the author's evident prescience in publishing this book some time ago. Its warnings and admonitions appear as if they could taken from the pages of today's newspapers. And its insights are generally important and insightful.

The very interesting thesis of this important book is that the American monetary system was taken over by a cabal of private bankers with the passage of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. And Attorney Brown makes this case very convincingly. We would differ with only in her proposed solution: to cede more power yet to the federal government. Certainly, the Constitution confers to the Congress the right to coin money and to regulate the value thereof, or words to that effect. But the last thing we seem to need now is more government control of the economy. And we can't help but to caution against Ms. Brown's proposal from this perspective. Money does need to return to its proper role in the economy, as a faciliatator of exchange. And the Congress does have the sole legal responsibility of assuring that this facilitator of exhange is a fair and consistent measure. But I, for one, have come greatly to distrust the continuing increase in the power of government. One could even make the case that Treasury Secretary Paulson's mad plans are in concert with Attorney Brown's proposals. I grant that this is stretching the point a bit. But other readers will certainly grasp the point.

The book is well written and even quite entertaining, given its subject matter. We strongly recommend it. God bless.

I never knew how money was made, but now it's crystal clear both how it's made and why we're never taught this in school. We've all been duped and this is undoubtedly the biggest crime in history - yes it is! Want to know how we can reclaim our freedom? Buy this book and study it, then share about it far and wide. May the farce be over soon and may we all live free from the shackles of debt.

I have read many books concerning the state of the US economy and this is the best. She expounds on positions touched on by Ron Paul, Bill Bonner and Edward Griffin so that you have a much better understanding of what they mean. Some books like this can be a chore to get through. I could barely put this down. You need to read this.

A must read. Read this book if you want to understand the severity of our economic crisis and the causes of it.

My copy is dog-eared. You can get the book online; I still prefer dead trees in hand.

You can read the table of contents and get a feel for the book. But what is best is Greenspun's attitude.

I think his best comment is that the hard part is the design and the easy part is to "Write a couple of programs that parse the HTML forms and turn them into actual database transactions". (pg 172) And then he provides examples of doing just this.

But as I said, Greenspun has an attitude that is very refreshing.

Easily the most readible treatise on DB weblishing that I've seen, Greenspun's book covers all the bases without descending too far into geek speak.

Your VP will understand it, and your MIS manager will be able to use it for something.

Some of the specific technology described in this book is a little outdated now, but the core techniques live on.

Greenspun's writing is a delight to read, and the information he shares here will provide you with the foundational knowledge on which to build a wide variety of web applications.

Buy this book (or read the online version at philip.greenspun.com), follow the examples, and start building yourself (and others) great, content-filled, easy-to-use web sites.

Philip Greenspun is a rare find: a techie who knows how to communicate. He doesn't even limit himself to one media! While other books may take a schlolarly approach to building websites, Greenspun's story is told by someone who's rolled up his sleeves. As the reader, you get to view web-database design through Greenspun's eye for detail. All tech books should be this good.

This book focuses on the goals of Web site design rather than the nuts and bolts. Although the book contains specific code fragments, it is not a coding book. Rather it is a chronicle of Greenspun's experiences in setting up more than 50 Web sites over the years. This chronicle contains many hard-won lessons that will help prevent the reader from making similar mistakes.

Greenspun has an easy-to-read writing style and a wry sense of humor. (The book has no CD ROM attached to the inside back cover but a picture of a CD ROM with the international "No" symbol overprinted. All code an more is available from Greenspun's Web sites, as you would expect from a book about Web sites.) He also emphasizes esthetic choices and subscribes to a minimalist visual style, in the book and for Web sites, that enhance reading and make downloads as fast as possible.

This book is not for everyone. The first half as the author refers to it is a science book in every meaning. Details, facts, vocabulary are all present. I've had a fair amount of science in college but never in this area. I'll admit it was a bit slow at the start. But once you get to the second half it all falls into place. When he starts to discuss different composts, you understand what is in them, what purpose they serve, because he's already given you the background.

Cons not for everyone.

A beautifully written book. This book is simple and highly informative. It is a must read for everybody who is interested in organic gardening. Once you have read the book you will have a deep appreciation and understanding of soil.

This is a detailed description of organisms in the soil, what kind you need for different types of plants, and how to get and keep them. It explains why organic gardening is more efficient, and eventually an easier way to grow. It is well written and informative.

I love this book! I raise red wiggler worms and lecture on worms and composting. This book has added to my interest and fascination with worms and now with worm/compost tea. I will use it as part of my lectures and recommend it in my classes and lectures.

Despite the short length of this book, it was packed with lots of good information and was easy to read. It brought to my attention aspects of fungi versus microbial activity that I was never aware of and how these affect soil quality for gardens versus shrubs. The book has had an immediate payback for me, as I am a novice composter and now know how to do that better. It also described compost teas which I was only vaguely familiar with. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in gardening in an earth-friendly way or to those who have relied solely on inorganic fertilizers and need to learn their true effects.

I have taken this book apart and used it in the classroom. I bought it used and didn't receive a CD-ROM with it. My students are able to glean many ideas from it for our school newspaper.

Tim Harrower provides a very practical guide to newspaper design. The art of newspaper design tends to be very subjective, so this book lays down some facts and guidelines to put to rest some of the indecisive elements of design.

For a beginner, this is a book that will give you the confidence and understanding to conquer page layout.

The CD gives the novice an even more practical guide than the book can deliver.

One criticism is that the book is printed on light gloss stock and is spiral bound. I am not sure how it was survive rough treatment.

Brian Hurst

This textbook is awesome. I've never seen a better textbook. It lays everything out, and makes it simple to understand. It tells you what to do and what not to do in simple language and clear pictures. It's one of few textbooks worth keeping for future use in your career (provided you're going into the newspaper industry)!

When I accepted my first "real" job in journalism as a page designer for a local weekly I was struck by a horrifying thought, I really knew nothing about newspaper design. I had done it before for my college paper, sure, but this was the big time. I needed a refresher course and I needed it fast... Tim Harrower and this spiral-bound book came to my rescue.

Although it was first published in 1989, this book will be relevant as long as newspapers exist, even in this age of computer design. Harrower explains and shows why certain designs are good and bad and he approaches it in a situational, problem-solving format. For example, he explains what should be done when you have to design a page with no art, when you have butting headlines, or two horizontal photos etc. Harrower says that most page designers stumble into the job and from this point of view he explains what exactly, a good design is. This book will always be on my desk.

(I wish my publications professor used this instead of the worthless $105 monstrosity he made us buy (and that we never used by the way).)

So, after some mild freaking out followed by a lot of reading, I can start my new job with confidence thanks to this book.

I am an editor these days.
I came on this book quite a few years ago when I was a sub. It was recommended to me by an old hand in the newspaper game.
Without doubt, it is the single best aquisition I have made in terms of newspaper design.
In the places I have worked, I have been regarded extremely highly for my layout skills.
This book, with a little creativity, is the basis of almost everything I do in terms of layout.
If you are serious about the newspaper game, get it, study it and then apply what you learn. It will help our career enormously.

It's now over 6 years since this book came out and it still has a tremendous amount of relevance. I am rereading it again and stop by every now and then in hopes that a new edition will come out. I have all the other Zeldman books and they are all useful, but nothing approaches how much I learned from this book. It amazes me how much of the content is still applicable. Anyone who's been doing this since the book came out can make mental notes about what has changed. A proponent of CSS before it was practical (really), Jeffrey seems to have planned a long shelf life for this book.

If you're a graphic designer who is entering web development (which is a large segment), it's still a must read, but beware the 4.x browser version suggestions, and don't bother to try and support tables any more. It's not necessary, and it's bad form for oh, so many reasons. Everything else in the book is absolutely essential for the transition. Your best bet would be to read it and ask questions from someone who's been developing websites for a long time (and is open to web standards).

And if you've been building these things for a long time, it's still a great book to revisit at least yearly.

You can't really go wrong with a Zeldman book, imho, at least so far. If he writes something on knitting, I can't guarantee it...

This book gives a good overview of Web Design till 2001.
People who are interested in where the web is coming from will like this book. If your are looking for how web design is done today anno 2005 I would like to recommend Jeffrey Zeldman book "Designing with web standards".

Even though some of the content in this book is outdated (such is the nature of a book based on the internet, which evolves daily), it is still a mainstay in my collection. I would recommend this book to anyone even remotely interested in web design.

Jefferey Zeldman teaches basic, foundation building principles that you will use almost daily during your tenure as a web designer. If your looking for a book to hold you by the hand and teach you how to perform specific actions with step by step coding, this isn't your book. Instead, it touches upon ideas and methods. Zeldman covers topics from designing good navigation to fundamental steps in working with a potential client.

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. It would have received a perfect score if it wasn't for some outdated material. Purchase this book, it should be a part of any collection.

A thorough, comprehensive and usable book for people trying to migrate from traditional media into the (sometimes) scary world of new media.

Jeffrey Zeldman's unique voice permeates the entire book, holds your hand, and gently guides you through the ups & downs of working with the web. His examples are concise and to the point, his writing style (as always) humorous and friendly, and, most importantly, you get the feeling that he truly loves this medium, and would like nothing more than being able to help another person discover just what the fuss is all about.

Should be on the shelf of every designer - no matter what your level of experience is.

This book opened my eyes to issues such as accesibilty, css and xhtml, I now have a site that is fast to load and easy to update. I found this book to be an easy read,[ I am neither a graphic designer nor a trained web designer] I really like Zeldman's writng style and will use some of his points in my classes web design for photographers. The mix of code and ideas was great and for once I just read the book rather than being tempted into turning on my computer and starting work.

This book is a must for anyone looking to get stuck into PHP, AJAX and Dreamweaver (as in the title). The steps are clearly written and easy to follow with troubleshooting sections at the end of each chapter. The steps for setting up a local server (Apache or IIS) or again well written with good advice that you are able to choose or ignore. I highly recommend this book!!

Mr Powers....write us another book soon pleeeaaasssee!!!

I dont normally review books, but I thought this one was worth reviewing. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who works with dreamweaver and wants to create modern, standards compliant websites and web applications.

The book is well written and thoroughly covers the subjects it claims to cover.

Each chapter is also written in such a way that it could be read independently of the other chapters. This is highly useful if you only want to cover one or two of the three primary subjects covered (css, php and ajax with Dreamweaver cs3).

By the end of this book you will be able to create basic (though useful) web apps, validate user input in forms, use dreamweaver's built in ajax functions (spry) to make content much more interesting and create standards compliant websites that will be viewable in all browsers.

I have a lot of books. I teach this stuff and try to read everything I can. This book is great. Easy to follow and the tasks are a useful way to learn how to use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). This goes from easy to more advanced in each section so anyone that needs to learn how to use CSS will get value. I highly recommend this book.

I LOVE THIS BOOK. David Powers did a great job on this book. I've been looking for a book to teach me dreamweaver cs3, css, and php and this book delivers. It killed three birds with one stone. The book is wonderfully written, easy to understand, easy to follow, contains no php errors. This book has saved me countless hours of headaches and frustration. This is a sixth book I bought on php and it actually works. Only bad thing about this book is you wished there was more, a part 2. Once you start this book you can't sit it down. Everything goes so smooth. David Powers has me hooked I hope he writes a book for cs4 when it come out.

I've been through this book hard enough...everytime I think the author got some missed point, no...it was my own mistake. I go back and read over again the part where I encounter the problem and thats it..The author has never left anything incorrect. I encounter a lot of frustrating part (cursing the author!) but when I turn back, again; it was my mistake. I left some paragraph unread. (Sorry.) David had done an excellent job concerning about his readers. He definitely try to delivers as best as could and he succeed. Everything works just fine if you care enough to read thoroughly. I've been through with the Vhost, Vista installation, the relative root link, the PhpMyAdmin and yes, it works just fine. My side of advice, honestly; This book is more suitable if you at least have some basic experience working with Dreamweaver. Otherwise, I can't guarantee you know what you're doing (and not enjoy in doing so). Take a basic Dreamweaver book first (such as Adobe in a Classroom. Although it's there are some negative review about it, just ignore it. If you're really a beginner, you will be comfortable with it). And then take on this book. You are on a path of correct way to learn drive fast and efficiently. The combination to success in Dreamweaver is; The Classroom in a book, This book (Essential Guide) and the Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver by stepahanie and greg. Finishing this three, further on with the PHP. That's all. And for me, again; David Powers has done an excellent job.

Buy this book. Enough said. Doesn't get any easier.

While confirming many of my already developed ColdFusion skills, this amazing book tough me a few new techniques that have brought me to the next level. An excellent book!

I have been programming in Coldfusion for over a year now but with this book, I've discovered more techniques in creating an efficient code.

Although I haven't taken the exam yet, I'm pretty sure that what I've learned would be a great help in passing it.

Once again the pen of Ben comes produces a gem! This book is the perfect capstone to any introductory level book for developers that not only want to study for the Cold Fusion certification exam but take their knowledge of Cold Fusion to the next level. This 378 page tomb has more higher level tips and tricks than his equally well written 1000 page+ giants. Several tips and tricks have saved me hours of time and helped me produce better code. Now all that I need to do is pass the exam and I am sure that this book will indeed do the trick. Keep em' coming Ben...

I have been working exclusively in cold fusion for a bit over 1yr. Just when I thought I knew everything there is to know to pass the CF certification test, reading this book was a humbling experience -- I learned something new in every chapter.

This book was a quick read, it took about 20 hrs +/- to complete all 38 chapters. By the time I was done with this book, it only took me 25 minutes to complete the 60 questions (90min) exam. Best of all, quite a few of the questions on the exam came straight from the book.

The only flaw, if that's what it is, is that it was written with CF 4.5 in mind -- Did not cover things such as CFFLUSH, CFGRAPH, and other new tags.

Even if you think you know all there is to know, you can still learn a few things from this book. It's a MUST GET!!

Un libro de facil lectura y que te abre la mente, para el desarrollador común como yo.

McGovern illustrates strategies for creating more impactful web content without boring the reader to death. The advice is practical, easy to follow, and timely. I have been very satisfied with this purchase.

I purchased this book specifically to read more about the process for researching usability issues. I am not a market researcher, but I am a web developer who understands SEO, basic usability issues and general web practices. I found this book to be well-written, simple to understand and it provides a pretty good map for researching your web audience. I have actually read it twice now, finding even more the second time around.

I highly recommend this book, I still use it as a resource as I learn more about market research, something I don't particularly care for, but that is essential to my success as a brand manager and web developer.

Gerry is a genius.

Gerry McGovern's "Killer Web Content" *seems* to be a primer about writing "killer content." And it is. He talks about simple ideas (e.g., "killer, not filler," or, on the Net, "in self-service mode, people go on gut instinct") in simple sentences, with lots of words in red so you get the idea. Then you put those ideas all together and think about them. And *then* you start looking at websites created from the grad school universe by professionals, all too often FOR PROFESSIONALS, that leave you - us - Everyman - frustrated or even amused (and that is not the intent). Ah, the epiphany: you realize that too many people are getting paid too much money when they have no idea how to talk to us: the folks who are surfing at 2AM in hotel rooms, trying to learn something for tomorrow's presentation to the Executive Committee. Obviously McGovern has practiced medicine: you listen to the patient, and the patient will tell you what the problem is. You listen to the customer, and the customer will tell you what she needs to hear. You listen to your children, etc.

Of course, the devil is in the details. Would that there were a standard operating procedure to ferret out the words that each of us wants to hear. Then we could fire Sales and Marketing - all they do is get us folks in Technology and Operations into trouble, right? Nope, says McGovern, you have to talk to people, relate to them, listen to them, hear what they say, abstract the content, try it out on your site. Each word is a hypothesis: true or false. Does it work? Does it bring people? You measure, you re-frame, you redesign, you re-relate. Surely it must be easier than this! All Jeff Bezos did is slap some stuff onto a website, and look at him! Right? McGovern just smiles, probably lifts a Guinness - he hints at his pleasure in Ireland - and, secure in the knowledge that you'll reread his book, just goes on about his business, writing and consulting.

Oh, it seems so simple. Oh, it's not really that complicated. Oh, it is so, so worthwhile. Read the book carefully.

David Block MD, PhD
Editor & Publisher, "The RoadeWarrior: every consultant's ezine"
www.roadewarrior.com
david@roadewarrior.com

I work for a Fortune 500 company and was first introduced to Gerry McGovern through one of his workshops that my company was hosting. I really connected with Gerry's passion for both the customer's perspective, as well as his message to get the fundamentals right. Armed with his book Killer Web Content, I left the workshop inspired with new ideas for solving some of the UX issues we were having with our Careers website (strategic business tool for talent recruiting).

I started to read his book the next week and learned enough useful information with each chapter that I finished it. I got a lot of value from some of the techniques described in Killer Web Content. I appreciated the information specific to generating good content using "Carewords" in the right way and at the right time. I also learned from this book that the web user is a different animal than traditional application users. Gerry has a good handle on the machinations that drive this new information hunter's behavior.

I can honestly say that I've quoted Gerry's work in UX meetings dozens of times since first attending his workshop. Since December, I've given away three copies of Killer Web Content to other UX professionals. All 3 have given it rave reviews! In addition to attending one of his live workshops (absolutely awesome!), I HIGHLY recommend getting this book!

This is one of the best books around on marketing your book on the internet. It presents all of the latest techniques in considerable detail, including information on the effectiveness of web pages, blogs, virtual book events, and the importance of the right keywords. The author has developed the concept of a virtual book tour, and explains it in the book. She also discusses press releases, podcasting, online syndication (ezine articles) and email newsletters.
The book is up-to-date and there's no doubt about her expertise in the area. She has written several books on the subject and runs an online marketing company. She also puts out an excellent newletter about marketing your book.
The information on building a website is detailed and particularly good and would be of tremendous value to anyone considering a website.
For anyone self-publishing a book, or getting published by traditional publishers, this book would be invaluable. It contains information that is difficult to find in other books, and it is very up-to-date. Highly recommended.

How can you level the playing field for your book to get any attention in the book market? The answer is through the Internet and more than half of the books are sold outside of the bookstore. Great quotations are highlighted throughout the book for inspiration like "Eight-seven percent of blog readers are book buyers." (Page 95)

Penny Sansevieri covers the gamut of Internet marketing tools like websites, keywords, search engines, e-commerce blogs, podcasts, Internet Press Releases, virtual book events, autoresponders, email newsletters, Ebooks and cultivating your relationship with Amazon. Each chapter is loaded with ready-to-apply URLs and insight. She writes with experience and authority about a topic where she is intimately familiar.

In fact, Sansevieri lays out her goal on page 169 saying, "I want RED HOT INTERNET PUBLICITY to be different. I want you to put down this book with not only a mountain of inspiration, but a plan as well. Book marketing isn't an easy task. It takes time, effort, and lots of sweat equity and most of all, it takes a plan."

Get this book--and let the planning (and success) for your Internet marketing of your book begin.

If you are looking for a load of websites to help promote your book, then look no further..."RED HOT INTERNET PUBLICITY" by Penny C. Sansevieri is the book for you...This book takes the place of a publicity agent and will save you thousands of dollars you would have had to dish out to such a person...This book is also crammed with information on blogs, how to create your own website, affiliate programs, getting your site listed in search engines, getting people to buy, and much more information you will need to know to sell your book...I would like to end this review by saying, "Thanks Penny for your great book."

Penny Sansevieri has cut to the chase with her amazing new book Red Hot Internet Publicity. It is easy to read but more importantly easy to understand!. It will give you the basic" what to do" and "what not to do" in a quick informative way. I have just recently used Penny's advice for my national internet launch of my new book, Thou Shalt Not Whine...The Eleventh Commandment and achieved a #1 Bestselling ranking on amazon.com within 24 hours. Thou Shalt Not Whine: The Eleventh Commandment: What We Whine About, Why We Do It and How to Stop My advice would be to definitely read Penny's book before you start advertising on the internet or else you could end up becoming a real WHINER and not a WINNER!

This book opened my eyes to a whole new world of book marketing. Gone are the days of traditional approaches like expensive press releases to mainstream media outlets. We are now living in a world where book promotion can be much more effective and much less expensive thanks to the online strategies outlined in this book.

Stacie Vander Pol, author of Top Self Publishing Firms