Dreamweaver CS3 Simulations now online

One of the great features in my last couple of editions of the Dreamweaver Bible have been the "simulations" that walk you through the many common Dreamweaver operations from collapsing and moving code to integrating Spry data sets. The simulations were created using Adobe Captivate, by one of the foremost experts in the program Mark Fletcher - who also happens to be a co-worker of mine at WebAssist and a very good friend.

If you're just getting up to speed with Dreamweaver, these simulations (along with the practice files included in the CD-ROM) can act as a complete training course - and if you just need a reminder on how something is done, you can go right to that technique. Because they are interactive - meaning you perform each action in the Dreamweaver environment - they tend to be more effective than ordinary tutorials. Most people find that, as they've actually done it once rather than just read about it, their muscle memory kicks in when they do it for real and they retain the details better.

So that more people can benefit from these, I've posted the simulations included in the Dreamweaver CS3 Bible CD-ROM for all to view online. You can find them here on my site. If you've already got the book but haven't had a chance to check them out, I urge you to do so. If you don't have the Dreamweaver CS3 Bible, it's a good way to see - interactively - what it has to offer.

Best - Joe

Building a PHP Event Reg System

I've got a new article in the Adobe Developer Connection: Creating an event registration application in PHP. This is actually the first of two articles and covers setting up the public facing portion of such a system; part 2, describes the administrative site set-up. I've a third article on working with PHP in Dreamweaver as well which details how to set up newsletter subscribe and unsubscribe that should be along in the next month or so.

Copy / Paste from Fireworks

In the latest release, Photoshop and Dreamweaver opened up a line of integration, primarily through the clipboard: you copy a selection in Photoshop and paste it in Dreamweaver - which opens up the Image Preview dialog box so you can optimize and save the image. Turns out they implemented the same functionality for Fireworks and Dreamweaver, but forgot to tell anyone :-).

While I much prefer to export JPG, GIF or PNG files from Fireworks and then using the more robust DW/FW roundtrip features, I have to admit the copy/paste route is a nice alternative technique to have in your tool chest.

DW + PS sittin' in a tree...

One of the most notable—and most desperately desired—features of Dreamweaver CS3 is the ability to work smoothly with Photoshop. While not as robust as the round-trip Dreamweaver/Fireworks workflow, the DW/PS connection is pretty darn cool. I've written a brief article about how to use Dreamweaver and Photoshop together with WebAssist's SiteAssist. The techniques described can be easily applied to any graphics back-and-forth, but I just thought the SiteAssist tie-in was so sweet, I couldn't resist.

Amazon time-warp reviews

Ah well, win some, lose some. Although I was able to get the first book out on Dreamweaver CS3 up on Amazon, they managed to link a slew of earlier reviews to the catalog page, thus confusing everyone. The 11 reviews referenced are all from the very first book in the series, circa 1998-99. While I appreciate the time-capsule perspective, it's a mistake--and one Amazon will hopefully correct sooner than later.

Dreamweaver CS3 Bible lives!

I'm extremely happy to announce that the Dreamweaver CS3 Bible is now available. This is the first time in--oh, ever--that I've managed to complete the book in a somewhat timely fashion.

The book covers all the changes in CS3 with a full chapter devoted to Spry and big sections on the integration of Adobe Photoshop, Bridge and Fireworks. Mark Fletcher did a fantastic job on the interactive tutorials that accompany the book which he built using Adobe Captivate 2.