★★★★★ 3
This book is aimed directly at professional web designers and is build around Adobe CS6. It can be helpful, but...
Format: Paperback
Preface - I have a lot of experience making webpages and sites, but my experience is very dated (I haven't played with actual web programming in more than a decade). Many things have changed since I was building websites - including the standardization of HTML 5 and the widespread use of CSS.
Since I am rebuilding a number of personal webpages - as well as my commercial site - my wife bought me this book to help me catch up on the new technology.
Pluses -
1) The book does a really good job of giving a decent overview of the new technologies I need to learn. Like most "Dummies" books, it is easy to read and follow the instructions and information.
2) The book is aimed at actual web designers and while I am not a professional designer, the tips and tricks laid out in this book are very helpful.
3) I am not sure that someone completely new to website construction would get as much out of it as I did - there are a lot of assumptions made by the author about the reader's grasp of certain web technologies. That said, I think someone new to web design could probably still figure out what is being said.
Negatives -
1) This book is aimed at someone looking to become a professional web designer. It is NOT a low level book and covers many things that a personal website designer is not likely to need. Given the fairly low price of the book, that isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it isn't presented that way in the advertisements for the book.
2 (and this is the biggie...) The book is built around using a VERY expensive piece of software - Adobe Creative Suite cs6. This software runs ~$1,000. This makes sense if you are trying to become a professional web designer, but for someone at home just doing a website for themselves, it is WAY out of most people's price range. You don't need that software to learn the lessons in the book, but it is heavily slanted for that piece of software. Most of the screenshots are aimed at the Adobe software. I am using a fairly decent piece of software, but I will need to get a book on that particular software to try to do some of the things the book talks about.
I found the book helpful, but flawed for anyone NOT getting into professional web design.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2017