Adobe Books

Very useful reference for anyone learning Acrobat 5. A bit verbose at times.

A book for a program such as Acrobat needs to be straightforward and to the point. This one really isn't. Maybe buy used, but certainly don't buy new.

This is SUCH A GREAT BOOK! Gush, gush. If you have any need, whatsoever, to create Adobe PDF documents, or PDF documents of any kind (for instance PDF documents from PHP tools), this book is for you.

Question #1: What does this book bring to the field that was not here before?

Answer #1: Donna Baker's masterpiece "Adobe Acrobat 5: The Professional user's Guide" brings the soothing wisdom of a master document expert, who has been seasoned in experience, marinated in the challenges that real-world document translation provides, and then baked and coated in the design patterns that inhabit the lives of real world automated document creators. In short, Donna is the real thing. This book is the real thing. This book delivers far more than it promises.

The case study template alone is worth many times the cost of the book. There are many one-page instruction topics that are, in themselves, worth the price of the book.

A great thing about this book is the smooth, soothing readability integrated into the wide range of view-altitudes that the reader is taken on. From tiny, tiny make-or-break details to the widest picture possible, the reader is swiftly swept along in this rapid, river flowing masterpiece. By the end of the book, the reader is left with dozens of valuable website addresses and names of professional societies that are the center of the digitally rich document creation world. Therefore, this book hand-holds and guides the reader through this important step in a larger document creation journey.

Certainly, the simplicity and confidence of the text inspires in the reader an urge to hurry and go out and use the features covered and to create documents with the tool presented. I suggest you, the reader, follow your urge. Don't wait to finish reading the book to go out and use the parts you have read. Start making documents WHILE you read the book. Then go back to the book and dive in again. The smart double-versions of the tutorials (to-be-done versions plus already-fully-done versions) allow the attention-deficit-disorder reader to quickly get the goods (view the end result) without bothering to read the details.

Question #2: Why does the reviewer believe that this book is superior to the normal user reference documentation book?

Answer #2: I suspect that the love of music of the author provided a richly textured background from which the author approached a complicated subject that is a literal forest in which the trees block the view. Simply put, the dryness of the norm of documentation makes it difficult for a reader to rapidly change their altitude of view. Rapid mastery is not available in normal how-to documentation. This book provides a superior, integrated presentation.

"Adobe Acrobat 5: The Professional User's Guide", from the first page to the last appendix, steps outside the norm of documentation and provides the written-word equivalent of a majestical musical journey through Adobe Acrobat 5 technology - where the words are the notes; and the headlines and half-page topics give the beat and tempo. [Editor's Note: There are no actual music or sound files in the book or on the CD. The reviewer is using a metaphor here.]

Recommended Usage:

I recommend this book be used by any document production shop, department, division or even one-person office. It can be a wonderful textbook for classes. Corporations are well advised to form classes immediately and invite persons from departments that previously had to fend for themselves or stay with non-PDF document preparation (Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, HTML).

In addition, the book serves as preparation for taking the Adobe Certified Expert Exam. The value of certification cannot be minimized. The expectation of a solid ability to use the product correctly accompanies a person holding the certification. Information technology departments would be wise to have some of its members attain the certification and then offer professional help services by certified professional Adobe Acrobat experts. Other non-certified IT department workers can tag along on document creation projects, but, after they learn the ins and outs of Adobe Acrobat as an authoring tool, they should get their certifications as well.

Question #3: What is in the future of PDF documents?

Answer #3: The future of PDF-based, automated documents includes more features, and more abilities. Simply put, the future includes smarter documents. Toolmakers are busy at work creating these features as we speak (as you read this). Knowledge engineers are offering increasingly powerful guidelines for putting richer intelligence into automated documents. The demands on Adobe Acrobat authors are going to increase. The competition from non-PDF formats is going to drive this trend.

Question #4: How does this expected richer future impact users of Adobe Acrobat as an authoring tool?

Answer #4: Persons should get up to speed now so that they can be taking a little step at a time as new features roll in. It is much smarter to increase your skills a step at a time every few months than it is to hold off and then face that big brick wall learning curve all at once.

Conclusion:

This book is the best gift given the Adobe Acrobat authoring worker in a long, long time. Get the book, hear the music (metaphorical statement), and produce fascinating documents whose abilities are getting richer and more diverse, even as you read this review.

- Jim Massey, Editor-In-Chief

International News Agency
http://inewsagency.com/bookreview/donnabaker.htm

Pages are filled with cutesy commentary unrelated to the subject matter at hand, and subject matter (when the author finally gets around to it) is replete with vague and undefined references that beg instead of answering questions necessary to make the material useful. Don't buy this book expecting to get well thought out, helpful instruction, if you do you will be disappointed.

In my consulting business the use of Aadobe Acrobat is required. But I never really understood it.

Donna Baker's Adobe Aacrobat 5: The Professional User's Guide made it very understandable. She has done a very good job, it is a easy read, and what is stated works.

Thanks,

Harvey

This book presents photographic color management in straightforward, understandable terms which any advanced amateur or pro photographer can use to improve the quality of her/his photos. I highly recommend this resource for anyone seeking serious help in managing the color aspects of digital photography.

The only shortcoming, though not yet a serious one, is the shortage of specific tips and techniques using Adobe Lightroom. Judging from the numerous technical postings on Lightroom fora by Andrew Rodney, I assume that producing a new edition that addresses this issue would be no problem at all if he chose to take up the task.

This is the other definitive resource on color management for professional creative communities. (Real World Color Management was the first definitive resource.)

Color management is a complex subject akin to rocket science and brain surgery. When you need to know particular details at a level of depth rarely covered elsewhere, this is the place to go. This is your last stop before dipping into color science textbooks or hiring a consultant to get the job done for you.

You probably want to have an overview of what color management is and why you need it before you buy this book. Once you know you need to know more about color management and you know you need to know how to get the job done exceptionally well, this is the book that will guide you through the process step-by-step with hands-on tutorials.

Andrew possesses an exceptional ability to present a complex subject in well-paced clear language. The back cover promises "less `why' and more `how to'". This is the pragmatists guide to color management. Step-by-step, how-to examples make the information highly practical.

Better graphics than almost any other book of it's kind make this information more compelling, more pleasurable to engage, and easier to adjust. In many cases Andrew tells a story about visual perception visually first with excellent illustrations, which are then supported by commentary. It's an excellent approach.

On the accompanying CD, the test files alone are worth the price of the book.

Despite excellent diction and graphics, you might find the level and breadth of this book daunting. Take it a piece at a time. Given your particular needs, there may be whole sections of this book that you may not need to read. Once you've identified the areas you need to know more about, read those sections. And, put them to use. Your images will be the better for it.

[...]

Get Andrew Rodney's book, and a copy of Real World Color Management, and you'll have the best existing CMS tutorial and the the best reference text.

Edmund Ronald, Ph.D, (...).

Nobody can deny that Mr. Rodney knows how color management works in Photoshop better than most people, but unfortunately, knowledge of a subject doesn't make you a good writer. I find the bulk of Mr. Rodney's ramblings (both those published on his website-that-time-forgot and posted to various discussion groups and mailing lists) to teeter on the verge of complete unreadability most of the time, and while my hopes were high that a good editor might tame his curious linguistic proclivities here, they were quickly dashed upon skimming through the text. What's worse, the illustrations and photos in every single copy of this book I've ever seen have suffered from severe magenta color casts, leading one to wonder why the author and his publishing company failed to practice what they preached in bringing this title to the public. If you didn't know who Andrew Rodney was to begin with, you'd likely think him full of beans based on the appearance of the plates in this volume. After all, why should readers believe consistent, predictable color in print to be a realistically attainable goal when even the guy who wrote the book on the subject can't seem to achieve it?

There's certainly some good information in between these covers, but none of it is groundbreaking in any way. You might learn something interesting about WWII by asking your grandfather to tell you some old war stories, but you'll have to suffer through a lot of pointless rambling to get to it, and that's pretty much what reading this book feels like. About the only thing this book really has going for it that its competitors lack is the nostalgia longtime Photoshop users will likely feel at the sight of the dog image gracing the cover. Since you can see that image right here for free, there's not a lot of point in paying for yet another rehashing of this subject matter, even at amazon's substantially discounted price. I have no doubt that Mr. Rodney is a very technically proficient color management consultant who can deliver $10,000 worth of results to all who can afford his services, but his efforts in the creative fields of writing, illustration and design just ain't worth a plugged nickel.

It may also be worth noting that more than one of the glowing 5-star reviews that have been posted here were planted by friends and associates of Mr. Rodney. How's that for class?

This is a great book on color management. Color management is a oft-misunderstood subject and it is fair to say that there are good reasons for this - mainly that it is complicated.

Andrew Rodney does not simplify the subject, thus the reason I did not give this four stars. However, if you are serious about the subject, this book is a vital tool in trying to understand color management.

Some of the book is tedious and some of it is hard to understand, but there are large parts of the book which offer valuable and understandable information on color management and your quest to achieve this "holy grail."

My suggestion is that if you are casually trying to understand how to calibrate your monitor, this book may not be for you. If you are seriously trying to understand color management and are building a library of useful references and gleaning useful nuggets of information from several different books in your quest to achieve color management nirvana - then this book should be in your library.

If you do not have alot of time in your day and a basic understanding of Illustrator this is perfect. Each tip is just that a tip. Half page explanation, easy way to do things.

Unlike a lot of Illustrator books, this doesn't describe the full range of functionality or offer lesson plans. Instead, it's a compendium of hints and shortcuts, many of which are those niggling little things that you wish you knew how to do, but can never seem to find in the bigger, more complete books.

I've bookmarked a lot of these nifty items: how to align items using one item as the "keystone"; selecting an object "hidden" by another object; and how to get that @&#*!$ knife tool to cut in a straight line. And there are many timesaving techniques and shortcuts, such as averaging and joining two points in one step. Not earthshattering, but a nice way to speed things up so you can spend more time on creative work.

I guess "photoshop Junkie" must be an incredibly experienced Illustrator user to know all the tips in this book. I've used Illustrator for around 5 years and there were lots of tips that I didn't know. Okay, I probably could have found many of them by searching around in the Help Files, but why bother when they're right there in the book?
There were enough tips in there for me to say it was worth the money. Why not 5 stars? Some of the graphics were not the greatest (although that really didn't affect the tips I guess, so I'd give it 4.5 stars if I could)

I do not agree with the 5-star reviewers of this title. If you have used Adobe Illustrator for more than, oh say 15 minutes, you probably know more than this book will teach you, and anything else can be found out by using the pull-down menu system, or the Help button.

Okay, maybe not fifteen minutes, but there is nothing here, no "hidden" tips and tricks. And if the creative value of this title were to be measured from 1 to 10, it would rate a minus 6.

I hear Dave's doing another book for CS2; however, if it's like all the other Kelby-clone titles, it will just be a rehash of this book with a few screen shots from the new application.

Save your money on this title, and treat yourself to a nice dinner.

I bought this book based on the wonderful customer reviews and was very disappointed. Most of the items can be easily found by anyone exploring the menu bar or palette options. In my opinion such things don't qualify as "hidden secrets," as the cover claims.

I did find one tip that I use (a keyboard command to reset the horizontal scale of type to 100%). It saves me, oh, a minute a month or so. At that rate the book will pay for itself in five years!

New Raiders have problem with Flash MX Magic and now there are some problem with Photoshop 7 Magic, too.

Photoshop 7 Magic also have CD problem, I can't open picture in Project1 Folder. So, I can't Follow the book. Further more, Most of all folder contain only Start File.. no psd, no finish file there are only TIF file without layer! oh dear Sherry London, I'm not professional like you but I need some PSD file to see each Layer because sometime I can't follow your instruction. (as I see, 3 folders have finish file.. it's a big mistake)

in page 47 of this book, Phill Williams say only use Retouching tool to move object in TIFF file to other place (this is like a photo retouching) but they give me only 2 picture in that page .. just only original image and finish image.. there are no clue to point me out where I have to rubber stamp nor start to clone! and it's very small .. I do not understand why they left space behind. Maybe this is a MAGIC! So, it's very hard to understand. I need more picture and bigger! I do not know why her left space away like this .. :(

Worst ever, NO FONT!! but in book say include in cd, (lier) .. and many many error i.e. wrong folder name (I read only 3 projects but I found 4 or 5 errors!! it's too much!) and wrong picture in project 4!! you can download fix file from newriders website but it doesn't help anything! because errata still have error itself!! oh no.

Only a few better left is good tech support! but it's useless because this book is .... ok, I can say only don't purchase this book until next edition of this title came out! or try by yourself :) or purchase Photoshop 7 Wow! book instead!

A plethora of new books are arriving on bookshelves thanks to Adobe releasing version 7 of Photoshop, and Photoshop 7 Magic by Sherry London and Rhoda Grossman from New Riders is one of the latest.

I have been using Photoshop 7 for a few months now (and had used a beta version, Liquid Sky, for a few months before that) so I am pretty comfortable with the new version. I was hoping Photoshop 7 Magic would teach me something new, something I did not know I could do with the new version of the program. Alas, that is not what this book is about.

Starting off with some very simple ways to use text, layers, and transparencies, the book moves into many different categories of Photoshop, from Marbled Backgrounds to Satin Beveled Type. The book is broken out into three main segments, Artistic Techniques, Web Techniques, and Image Manipulation Techniques.

The book features some really nice artwork and the accompanying CD-ROM has all the files you need to re-create the projects done in the book.

The book is well written, if somewhat Spartan. There is no sense of who the people are writing the book. It is "I did this, then I did that, etc..." With all the white space in this book, I would have liked to see a little more of the personalities of the writers come through. As it is, it is a boring read. Photoshop 7 Magic is a textbook, not an entertaining read. With the great pictures and examples in this book, it could have been so much more. Perhaps Sherry and Rhoda should take a page from another New Rider writer, Scott Kelby, and liven their work up a bit.

This book is geared to new Photoshop users, or graphic designers just now making the switch from brush and canvas to mouse, stylus pen, and monitor. Experienced graphic artists who have been using Photoshop for a few years will get little from this book they do not already know, or have learned from the countless book already available on the subjects covered in this book. Add to that and the very hefty price tag of the book, a whopping forty-five bucks, and I cannot recommend this book unless you are really lacking in Photoshop skills, unlike the demographic this book seems to be catering to.

Average book at best. Nice paperstock and heft to the book, but price is way too much for the quality of the 275 pages of actual content. The only Magic here is watching [money] disappear from your wallet or purse.

MacMice Rating: 3 out of 5

------------------------------------------------------------------------

With hundreds of choices out there for the category, this one stands out. Photoshop 7 Magic really enhances the possibilities of the tool. As a user, I want a text that's simple to read and NOT overwritten. Just show me how to do it! I'm a painter who found the chapter on brush techniques and liquid painting to be very helpful. You'll want this book on your shelf.

It seems that most photoshop books simply recycle the same tutorials over and over again. NOT this one! Photoshop 7 magic takes a wonderful approach to not only going over the basics for beginners, but diving into some of the newest features such as the painting engine. The tutorials in the book are easy to follow and duplicate, yet are not long winded with and over abundance of info. I think they did a wonderful job with spreading out the abilities of photoshop without lingering one one feature too much. Whether you are new or a long time user, this is a book worth checking out!

I have a bunch of Photoshop books, and being a digital photographer, I did not find this book helpful at all for my interests. It is a great book for learning how to do artwork with Photoshop but has nothing about photographs. I wanted to write a review so that way the next person looking for a book on messing with your photographs, would not buy this book. I recommend The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby if you are looking for Photoshop methods to play with your pictures.

If you are a digital photographer and you ask yourself if this book will be good guide for you, then you have 99,9% chance of positive answer. This book is wrote for every photographer as for beginners as for professionals. And in both cases i don't see reason why we shouldn't at least listen to author who have about half century of experience as professional photographer. In this book everybody can find smth for himself, that lays close to your interests.

Even if you already have experience with you using Photoshop, i still would recommend you this book, as it will open for you new perspectives of using this program - photographers perspectives.

As was brilliantly noticed in the beginning of the book: "Where the digital photographer is concerned, Photoshop CS2 is really three applications: Abode Bridge, Camera Raw and Photoshop". That is exactly the point that gives you right direction for studying Photoshop CS2 as photographer.

In the beginning book prepares you for working with all three-in-one programs and the very first thing you need to do to work properly with them is to configure them.After this you will study to orgazine, manage and rate you photo collections for magic transformations.

When everything ready for creative process, you will make acquainted with curves, gradients, filters, masking and retouching tools that will move you step by step to perfect photography, that after all your affords you can proudly place in frame on the wall near your computer.

This book teaches you not only to make "candies" from your photos, but also how to plan your time with maximal efficiency. I would specially recommend pay attention to "Pro Tips" that was organized in pull-quotes to attract you attention to small but important moments.

Everything that waits you in this book you can see from short or detailed content which is presented to your attention in the beginning. In book itself you will find big amount of different pictures-examples for photographers with different areas of interest and i am sure you will find much of them that you would like.

Personally, I fall into the category of people who like to read book in good quality and believe me, people who are the same as me will not be disappointed, because this book have one of the best paper quality i ever saw. Also a lot of pictures that will make you really happy, pullquottes, very stylish cover. At the end of every chapter you can still have some question about subject you just studied - and even here authors took care - you have FAQ (most frequently question and answers for them). Isn't it amazing?

All information you will see is presented in color and, as promised, visually. At the end of book you can find shortcuts information. Maybe people think that this information is useless, but if you will take a bit of time and effort - i, personally, promise that it will save a hell of a time to you. You work will be more effective and quick than ever before.

This book is really for every taste and age -I strongly recommend it to everybody, who is a bit interested in photography. It will help you to make you own portfolio, to help photomodels to make perfect portfolio and just let you feel inside of Photoshop as in your own house. This book really "speaks to reader".

This book is for a hobbyist Photographer wanting to learn more or someone that is looking to go Pro.

Chapter 1
One thing that caught my eye is the first chapter was the attention to the "cooler" features, such as: Camera Raw, Adobe Bridge and Actions which all contribute to your overall workflow enhancement.

Chapter 2 and 3
Explaining organization skills which are required to manage your photos from shoot to shoot. Some of these skills consist of Metadata which is for "tagging" your images. Obviously once you have loaded your RAW files you would want to edit/adjust them and after this chapter you will be able to. In the last part of this chapter you are introduced to the DNG format for archiving your Camera RAW files in an easy to transport format that removes all of the inconsistencies in the various RAW file formats. Of course once you have all of these wonderful photos you probably want to show them off and with all the different delivery methods PDF Slideshow, Email, Web etc it is very easy.

Chapter 4
Going back to editing your images you are walked through the process of Fine-Tuning your images with some tips/tricks that you won't find explained in greater detail anywhere else. You can copy settings and modifications with the Bridge to allow bulk updates with only a few clicks.

Chapter 5 and 6
Non-destructive editing is a new feature to Photoshop and harnesses quite a bit of power and prior to reading this book I never really found a good explanation of the various advancements. I know I could read the help file but I find that to be too technical in some cases and occasionally very hard to find the answer I am looking for. One of those "hard to find" features was the Color Range with an adequate description. You will also see ways to use the Pen Tool for selections, thats right it isn't only for paths. Another benefit to non-destructible editing is adjustment layers where you basically make all color, tone, curves and level modifications on a separate layer leaving the original untouched.

Chapter 7 and 8
The final step in your image editing workflow would be fixing camera/light deficiencies. Some of which would be sharpness, lens problems, and shadow issues just to name a few. Not much description needed for these 2 chapters but they are necessary to your final output.

Chapter 9
Building composite images is a powerful way to create a scene that never existed and after reading this chapter you will be able to create those popular images found in so many ads and websites. You will also see how to warp an image to apply it to an article of clothing and create a believable piece.

Chapter 10
No book would be complete without showing you cool ways to dress up your images or create powerful final results and this book is no exception. You will learn how to Blur, Color and apply filters to your images to create unique pieces. The level of detail in this section will not leave you asking questions.

Chapter 11 and 12
Outputting your images to the web and how to create physical prints to show off to your friends or colleagues. The web is a powerful tool and displaying your images online is one way to guarantee exposure. Although in order to truly use this technology to its full potential you need to understand the downsides and best case optimization methods. Another way to distribute your pieces is to print them out and in this chapter you will learn how to choose the specified output for each media, how to preview your work and finally what the ICC Profiles are and how to use them.

Chapter 13
If you go Pro you will want your images printed in larger format and in larger quantities, but to do this you must understand the offset printing process. Of course just like the previous topics this book clearly explains that process without leaving out a single detail, all the way down to the preferred format that should be sent to your service center.

Chapter 14 and 15
Once you have 3500 images from a single shoot you quickly realize how important automation is. You can use actions which work pretty well but take an action into a Batch processor and you will be sipping margaritas on the beach while Photoshop crunches away at your images. The problem is you won't be able to if you don't read these chapters, so you know what to do. Maybe scripting isn't your thing, no problem, you will get a firsthand look at Dr. Russell Brown's *-A-Matic plugins that offer captioning, merging and placing your files quickly and painlessly.

Final Thoughts
After reading through this book I found myself following a more defined workflow that benefitted me in a few ways. The first and most important being organization and the ability to "recover" that really important shoot from 4 months ago. The other was being able to rapidly turn around clients work. Like I said in the beginning this book really is for a hobbyist or a pro, no matter what everyone will learn something.

I'd give it more stars if I were only looking for a good guide to establishing a workflow as a digital photographer. This book contains the essential elements to develop your digital workflow.

I am taking digital photography classes, and this book was recommended. You can quickly look up what you are trying to accomplish, and have a step by step guide on how to try to achieve your desired outcome. It seems to be a more simplified book compared to the others ones I have looked at. It has been a good tool, so far.

Being new to photography and using CS2, this has been a great referance guide and learning tool. Easy to follow steps for the novice Photoshop user and photographer. Being a rookie sports shooter, the need of a quick and easy workflow is esential - getting 300-400 photos reviewed, edited and cleaned up to place on website ordering in 24 hours after an event. The steps outline have reduced the time of my workflow in to a quarter of the time before using the steps in the book. Editing tips are fantastic, and have helped me improve the number of "keepers" to have available. It's already paid for itself in editing photos I thought would not be sellable.

Excellent book to learn about all the new features of Dreamweaver CS3. I had the MX 2004 version but just upgraded. The changes are phenomenal. Excellent book in a great line of Sam's books.

I have read quite a few Dreamweaver books and this one by far is the easiest to follow. It has broken down steps in a way that gets straight to the point of what you need to do to build a site.

The back of this book, which arrived today, says "User Level: Beginning" and they are right. Wish Amazon's description of the book would have said that. I can see why the book's style would appeal to beginners, but with much Front Page experience, I needed at least an intermediate text. Less on the basics (like relative vs. absolute paths)and much more on style sheets, tables, etc. Also missing (not even in the Index) was any mention of "Contribute" a new Adobe tool designed to be used by non-programmers to maintain Dreamweaver-built websites.

So the book goes back and I will order something tougher.

I found this book to be very helpful and informative. I'm new to Dreamweaver CS-3 and I found that this book really covers the basics of Dreamweaver and Web design and gets into some of the more advanced features. After reading this book I've really gotten a grasp of Dreamweaver. I find that it is especially a good resource in conjunction with the online seminars from Adobe.

Sam's Teach yourself Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 in 24 hours, is a comprehensive book that covers virtually everything you will need to know about the program. I initially chose this book because I had limited experience with Dreamweaver and wanted to be able to learn the fundamentals very quickly. One quick note about the titles of these books. Sam's Teach Yourself in 24 hours series is a bit misleading in the sense that it doesn't actually mean you could pick up the book one night and be an expert the next. O.K. well sort of...The Sam's Teach Yourself in 24 hours series of books are composed of 24, one-hour lessons that cumulatively help the user to learn a particular software program.

If you don't like learning theory or "why" something works then Sam's Teach Yourself Dreamweaver CS3 in 24 hours may not be the best kind of book for you. It is not the kind of book you can peruse on the weekend or take on a trip to help ramp up your skills. As an inexperienced Dreamweaver user, I found that I couldn't just go to the table of contents and select a section that sounded interesting. I felt like I had to start at the beginning and work my way through each chapter.

I am a Dreamweaver novice but an intermediate user of html, xhtml, and css so the beginning of this book was not as useful for me as say someone with no experience at all. This book would probably best suit someone without any web development experience at all. A small knowledge is certainly not detrimental but it forced me to skim the beginning and I felt myself wanted to "do" something.

This book doesn't have as many practice exercises as I would prefer. If you are someone who enjoys an included CD/DVD or at least a website with practice files then this book may not be the best for you. The book does suggest that you learn some fundamentals of web design/development by opening a pre-existing website. This task would certainly be helpful for the novice and is a good way to learn many CS3 features.

As someone who has used these type of training manual books before I felt that the greatest assets that this book had several strengths including: 1) Comprehensive and Detailed Explanations, 2) A good amount of screen shots, 3) Content Is Well Organized.

The weaknesses of this particular book include: 1) It is entirely black and white, 2) It is much too comprehensive for an intermediate user, 3) lacks an accompanying exercise files.

I would recommend this book to someone with absolutely NO web design, web development, or Dreamweaver experience. I would also recommend they begin on page 1 and work their way through incrementally as the book is intended. Give yourself 24 Days and do a one hour lesson a day. That would be a great way to get through each of the lessons and thoroughly learn Dreamweaver CS3.

Nate

This was a So so book for the beginner and not as organized as Classroom in a book. I was a bit disappointed as a beginner.

After reading some of the reviews here I was afraid I'd made a poor choice because I had picked up this book in a store, but that couldn't be farther from the truth! The book is really easy to follow, laid out logically and the steps worked perfectly for me. Could it be that maybe some readers are new to computers and just don't understand the basics? Anyway, I created a Website using GoLive templates and couldn't be happier. All I have to do is update the template and Poof! my whole site is updated, too. Thanks to this book I learned this and lots of other great tricks. I especially like some of the tips in the book that relate to the Web in general. I like it. Anyway, that's my input. Hope it helps and thanks for listening.

I found this book to be a very good introduction to Web design using Golive 6. The lessons are short but well presented, they are fast, and they can be used immediately to my own practice projects. Although the GoLive interface seemed so unassuming when you first open the program, it can get filled up quickly once you begin working. The authors made sure that you don't get lost amidst the plethora of palletes. There is also the confidence that I am reading the work of competent Golive designers who can actually communicate what they know and teach an unknown audience cleverly. Sam's formula, if I may venture a guess works well for this book: plain English, competent authors, short but lively presentation and an exciting software. In only a few hours, I was already making my own web pages and amazed my friends. This book is a very good start in Web design using Golive 6. It is one of my best and most useful books!

This is an excellent book for getting up to speed quickly on GL 6. I would not call it for the advanced user, but it's excellent for beginners or intermediates with Golive. The tutorials are clear and concise, and the book is exactly what it advertises itself to be - it gets right to the point.

I wish there was also a good advanced book on GoLive that covered using scripting such as Java and CSS and dynamic content in detail, unfortunately there are none yet that are any good. Maybe Sams can do that too? But for beginners or intermediates with GL 6 who want to start using the software today, this is the book to get!

I had never used GoLive before and was kind of freaked out when I first opened the program. Then I went to an Adobe seminar and one of the authors of this book was a presenter. He was really excellent and knowledgeable, so I decided to buy the book. I'm glad I did! I've now created two Websites and am starting my third. This time I'm getting paid! I know I still have a lot to learn, but this book got me up and running FAST. The best thing about GoLive is the way it works with my Photoshop files. If you haven't used this yet, check out the convert to banner trick!!!! Saves you tons of time!!!!!

I was very disappointed with this book. I bought it after reading a few reviews and recommendations from NAPP. It seems to me it isn't any much more than the manual revisited with a few extra details. I was hoping for some innovation and some interesting things that I might have stirred into my pot of knowledge, but I found I was reading a lot on basic tool function. It's a manual at best. It is too text bookie, and too long and drawn out over simple things. I got to about the 18th chapter, and put it down. I don't think there is anything that I'd use. I feel sorry that the message is so down as the things that I've read are accurate in the book. I just don't feel the investment came out to be worth it very well.

The blurb on the back cover claims this will be "the only Photoshop 7 book you need." In truth, it is probably the one book on Photoshop 7 you will never need.

It is superficial in every aspect. For example, it devotes less than a page of text to working with Quick Masks and not much more to the Extract function. Adjustment Layers get three paragraphs.

This is the second utterly disappointing book I've seen which is highly lauded by Scott Kelby, President, National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Kelby's turned out several useful collections of Photoshop tips, but his recommendations make me dubious of him and his association.

Overall, Using Adobe Photoshop 7 is useless.

Jerry

I'm a web designer, Illustrator teacher, author of beginner level Illustrator books, and quasi-graphic artist. This is my favorite Illustrator book - except for mine:).

When I reviewed the version 9 edition of this book, I noted that while somtimes Que's Special Edition Using series tends be too encyclopedic, you NEED an encyclopedic reference for Illustrator. Nobody is going to explore every feature, effect, and tool, so professional designers and teachers need an accurate and complete a-z guide handy.

I've got a half dozen books, but after repeated comparisson, I find I pull SE Using AI 10 off my shelf much more than any other guide to Illustrator. The basic value of this book lies in the clear explanations of any feature you need to look up.

The artwork in the book is still utilitarian - clearly demonstrating features, but not providing much in the way of creative spark. And the the 4-color gallery section doesn't add much in my opinion - especially without any annotation. But so what? This is a reference book for experts, not a design book or a hybrid of the two.

My main beef with this edition is the frustratingly bad layout of the index. A book like this needs a comprehensive and comprehensable index. This index is complete, but whoever decided to save a couple bucks by cramming the content into 3 columns, and not putting headings (as opposed to the many subheadings and long lists of sub-sub headings) in boldface made the book nearly unusable. Hopefully we'll see a much better index layout in the next edition.

While the coverage of Illustrator is complete, Special Edition Using Adobe Illustrator X is most suited for the graphics professional who has at least some working knowledge of the software. In the course of covering Illustrator, Peter Bauer will draw special attention to new features including: Full Mac OS X coverage; new drawing capabilities: grids, lines, arcs, compound-shape enhancements, Flare tool; Enhanced Web features: symbols, slicing, dynamic data-driven graphics, enhanced Flash and SVG support; improved effects: warping and envelope distortion, Liquify tools; and increased productivity: new Magic Wand selection tool, dynamic data-driven graphics, improved interoperability with other Adobe products, asset management, scripting. Special Edition Using Illustrator X also has several appendices that serve as a quick guide to all of Illustrator's tools, palettes, and menus. User Level: Intermediate - Advanced, 784 pages.

Adobe Photoshop is simply the best image-editing software currently available and is the choice of preference for millions of graphic artists worldwide. Its breadth of features and raw power to manipulate any type of image has made it the recognized standard. New graphic artists need to learn Photoshop, while established professionals need to keep their skill sets current with every new revision. Collaboratively written by Adopbe Photoshop experts Peter Bauer and Jeff Foster, Special Edition Using Adobe Photoshop 7 includes all the new features of Photoshop 7 including: Macintosh OS X compliances (native mode and carbonized); an integrated image management system; an improved painting engine for both PC and Mac versions; a more advanced web workflow capability; and added editing features. User Level: Intermediate-to-Advanced, 1008 pages.

Good overall but too basic even for me who has virtually no experience with the Adobe suite. There are numerous editing mistakes as well. In one chapter the entire last half was missing the supporting screenshots.

This book is perfect for beginning photoshoppers etc. all the important adobe programs are included (7 programs in contrary to the 6 in 1 the that the picture claims). I had photoshop classes a few years ago so it was good to refresh my memory. I had never worked with indesign or the other adobe programs but luckely it is not hard to figure out. The book does include some good tips but sometimes help of others is needed. Thank god for google :)!
I do recommend this book if you are a beginner like I am. It points you in the right direction. But if you want to create print ready documents a higher level of knowledge is required. But with a lot of patience and energy you'll get a long way with help of this book.

Are you kidding me! I spend $400 for a Kindle then get a $3 discount off the paperback version? No way!

I've finally plunked down a few bills and bought the suite. The CS3 is phenomenal, by the way. My only problem is, is that with the exception of some older versions of Photoshop and a couple of projects with Illustrator, this suite is essentially a whole new program.

After reading the reviews below, I decided to borrow this book from the library just to be sure it was worth the effort to buy. After a couple of weeks of going through various chapters, I bought the book from Amazon.

Just to be sure, this is a book for beginners and moderate users of the CS3. There are two other books that I bought "How to Cheat in Flash CS3" and "WOW, The Adobe Illustrator CS3 book" because both offer step by step illustrated examples and on CD-rom. But neither offers an expansive explanation of the use of the tools as The Dummies version. And, we talking close to 100 pages on this subject alone.

The Dummies is about 800 pages and is separated by each of the CS3 Design Suite programs. Also, authors Jennifer and Chris Smith, do a great job of interconnecting the different softwares.

If theres a downside to this, it's this: the book is printed on stock paper barely heavier than newsprint. The cover creases very easily, everything within the cover pages is in b/w. This point does prove a bit disconcerting as your eyes tends to skip over the printed tables. If you had the tables in color, it would reinforce the lesson the authors were attempting to get across. And, last but not least, the Dummies collection does not come with a cd-rom.

The Dummies for CS3 does what it sets out to do: provide reference material for those who have the CS3 Design suite. Period. And, it does it well. It is not flashy as the other books I just mentioned but to get started in learning about this terrific suite, this should be your first stop.

And, for what it offers, it is a heck of a lot cheaper than taking a class.

We agree with the previous reviewer that mentioned the "lack of detail" in this text. This book may be useful for absolute beginners; however, we would NOT recommend it to those of us whom want a good reference text on Adobe's most powerful programs.

The Creative Suite 3 MAMMOTH is virtually impossible to discuss within a limited number of pages; not to mention that this book attempts to reference SEVEN giant programs in one book. If studying for an exam, we would recommend Cliffnotes; however, this book affords great limits to the rest of us! Better texts or alternative resources and tutorials should be considered.

I bought this based on the description here on Amazon, and I have to say, I was not disappointed. Many of the 3D and rounded effects that I been using (with as many as 8 various filters) are here, in "1-Click" simplicity. I scan the book until I find the effect I am striving for, and apply that filter. It's just that easy. Some required a little tweaking to get the correct color for my projects, but it was SO EASY.

I am not a graphic artist, so this book is a relief to me, saving me long hours of experimentation and trial and error. I rec. this book highly.

Why only 4 stars? Of the 900 filters in the book, about 25-30% are web/website applications, which I do not use. Other than that, I liked it a lot.

Jack Davis not only delivers incredibly useful and creative ideas for us, but translates the moves into steps easy enough for a newbie to follow and acheive great results, but witty and interesting enough for us old pros out here to stay interested and intrigued. He delivers the most useful set of actions, styles and patterns I've seen to date on the CD. Buy the book. You'll be doing yourself a favor.

If you haven't added one of Jack Davis' WOW! books to your digital art library, you should consider the latest One-Click-WOW! for Photoshop CS2. It's packed with preset styles and effects for every task you might have. What is a preset? Basically, it is a special effect or group of effects (style), such as a drop shadow, that already has the options set for you. After you install the presets from the CD, they will appear with the other presets in the Styles Palette. All you need to do is apply these ready-made presets to your image. In his WOW-Styles Tutorial which is included in the book, Davis gives you all the information you need to apply and customize the 900+ presets in Adobe Photoshop and ImageReady. He explains the mystery of using layers and clipping masks, changing the resolution, brush size and scale of the presets as well as how to customize the WOW! presets and save the changes as a new style to your own Styles Library.

To help you decide which preset is best for your needs, the book contains a full-color gallery of the presets applied to various types of images from photos to text. On the CD, there are over 300+ layer styles and custom shapes such as frames and panels that you can apply to your photographs or digital art. For your webpages, there are 150 button styles for creating static web buttons in Photoshop. In ImageReady, you can choose from 50+ rollover styles, with accompanying JavaScript, to create that popular rollover button effect. You can even preview the rollover effect in your web browser. Also included are gradients and seamless tiles for your backgrounds, many natural media brushes, pattern stamps, crop and marquee selection presets, and tools to help you fix your photographs.

The one thing I found disappointing was that some of the presets are repeated from previous versions of Davis' WOW! books. Jack Davis is a well known digital designer, photographer and author. He is also part of the NAPP Dream Team.

Jack Davis' ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS2 ONE-CLICK WOW! is based on a cd-rom which packs in over 900 of the time-saving enhancement solutions contained in the workbook ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS2 ONE-CLICK WOW! From working with the shapes gallery and tinting photos to WOW custom overlays for framing and their differences, ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS2 users will find the WOW manual packed with important tools for quick, pro results.

If you have Photoshop, this book and CD are excellent value for your money. The CD with the Styles, Actions, Presets will make you productive right away. The book guides you on using all the tools on the CD.

Excellent, lots of Wow factor.