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Total Training for Macromedia Dreamweaver 8
Review Date: July 15, 2006
Reviewed By: Jeremy Hanke
Product Reviewed: Total Training for Dreamweaver 8
Understanding how to design an intelligent web page is extremely necessary if you want to get your film noticed and recognized. I can't tell you how many potential viewers and distributors will completely pass on your film if its web site isn't designed well. A lot of folks assume that good design requires flash and lots of whiz-bang effects, but, in reality, some of the most effective designs are the simplest. This doesn't mean that adding some flash elements or video clips to your site can't help it, as well, but if you don't understand the web design basics first, those extra elements are sort of like putting some cool hydraulics and a nitro booster into a badly built car—it's going to look like crap, it's not going to work right, and whoever tries to use it will probably get flattened or burned to a crisp!
Total Training for Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 will teach you the basics of web design so that you can make professional looking sites. It touches on everything from graphic layout and rollover buttons to complex behaviors and dynamic site design, so you'll get a lot more than just the basics of site design by the time you get done. As a ten year veteran web designer myself, I can honestly say that I wish that between 60% and 70% of the folks who have websites on the Internet would take this course and learn from it. I learned some additional tricks myself and was re-reminded of some techniques that I had put on the shelf when they first came out due to the limited browser support of the time.
While anyone can use this series and get something out of it, it is most designed for a range of users that starts with those who are completely unfamiliar with web design and Dreamweaver and goes through to those who are at an Intermediate experience level with both web design and Dreamweaver. If you're already very experienced with web design and Dreamweaver, then you might want to get the Masters Collection: Total Training for Advanced Dreamweaver® 8, which is also hosted by Janine Warner, and is about half the price of this set.
For the most part, the Quicktime-based interface is well-honed from Total Training. The main playback software is installed on the computer, giving the program added abilities to bookmark favorite lessons and pull up an easy to navigate chapter list. The actual playback of the lessons is then accomplished directly from the DVDs, which allows you to not have to download the entire video contents of the DVDs onto your hard drive. Additionally, the discs included downloaded files that you will use to create your websites, which can be downloaded at the same time as the main installation of the series, for extreme ease of use.
As I may have mentioned in some of my other Total Training reviews, there are some key features missing from the Total Training interface. For example, you can't resize your screen to any size you want. You must instead size it to full screen, 100%, or 50%. While these options may seem like a lot, they were insufficient in many monitor sizes if you want to run the training and work on the program at the same time. This is even more of an issue because the program has no option for keeping the training screen on top.
With that said, let's break down the specifics of Total Training for Macromedia Dreamweaver 8.
Understandability
Janine Warner is very easy to understand and she proceeds at a very easy to follow pace. This is especially helpful for folks who are new to web design, as this prevents things from ever getting overwhelming.
Depth of Information
The depth of information in this series is pretty wide, with nearly half of the training being devoted to folks who are seriously new to web design and Dreamweaver. While this is a bit excessive if you're already familiar with the program, she gets into deeper and more complex lessons like Behaviors and Cascading Style Sheets and to really complex concepts like the basics of building database-driven Dynamic Websites in the second disc.
There was lots of mention of different types of scripting in the training, but no mention of how to use Dreamweaver 8's fairly large arsenal of scripting options. Even though this series is based for the beginner to intermediate user, I would have liked to have seen a little bit of exploration into the scripting interface of Dreamweaver 8. A couple of basic scripts would have been very nice indeed.
Attention Captivation
Janine Warner has probably one of the most soothing voices in all of training to date, which is usually a bad thing. Usually soothing means “likely to put you to sleep”, yet somehow her voice does not. Most similar in timber and cadence to the voice of national radio host Delilah, Janine's voice manages to be compelling underneath its smoothly soothing nature—not unlike the audio equivalent of a double-shot latté. As such, it's not very difficult to stay alert with her teaching, even when she's covering things you're already familiar with.
Reusability
The amount of web design basics and more complex elements of web design that are packed into this series will definitely get some re-use as you strive to become better at representing yourself and your films over the web. Some things that are covered may be of no earthly use to you when you first start out, but might be something that you grow into as time goes on or as a new film needs a different style of website.
Value vs. Cost
While $199 may seem like it's bit on the steep side considering that you're only getting a little over 10 hours of training, the amount that's covered that's going to be very alien to most filmmakers is worth it. A very wise investment if you're not already very familiar with the basics of web design or Dreamweaver 8.
Overall Comment
This is a really great introduction to web design and Dreamweaver for Beginning to Intermediate users. And you really couldn't find a more soothing trainer to teach you the ropes than Janine Warner. Any filmmaker who wants to represent his film well on the web and be taken seriously by potential distributors would do well to pick up this training.
View original at www.mircofilmmaker.com
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