MX

Just a note of caution:
Notice that the title Amazon lists for this book is "Mazda Miata Mx-5: Performance Portfolio 1989-1996", but the cover reads "Mazda Miata Mx-5: Performance Portfolio 1989-1997" (the difference is in the dates that are covered). There are two editions of this book, and they do have slight, but significant, differences in the contents. Although both editions are the same size (by page count), the 1997 edition adds an article or two, and deletes others. I have the 1989-96 version, and I have enjoyed reading it, but I can't help but wonder what I have been missing!

If you have any interest at all in the Miata MX-5 / Miata at all, this is a must have item on your bookshelf. Buy it.

Like Miata's? Then your love to read all the assorted articals in this book. Test drives, comparisons, and after-market reviews from the worlds most respected plublications... Road'n'Track, Car and Driver, many European Articles. Miata vs. Alfa, BMW, and the Monster V8 Miata

Five years ago I was called upon to learn Cold Fusion over a weekend before starting a new assignment. I picked up Ben Forta's original Cold Fusion book and read three or four chapters on the way home on the train, picking up the bulk of what I needed to know to do my work in a few short hours. I've done a lot of work with Cold Fusion since then, and used that book to pick up many of the finer points of the craft, including the CFPOP and CFMAIL tags which I used to build a web-based e-mail service.

The web has changed a lot since 1998, and so has Cold Fusion. That book served me well, but with all the technological advances since its publication, I needed a new book that offered coverage of all the new features in Cold Fusion, from support for Flash and XML to invocation of web services and next-generation Cold Fusion components.

Cold Fusion MX Developer's Handbook fits the bill. It provides robust coverage of Cold Fusion's basic long-standing features, but also goes into more detail about maturing technologies like WDDX and Flash Remoting and their place in Cold Fusion applications. Many of the original tags had evolved significantly since I last made use of them, and this book offers thorough explanations of their new features. When it comes to new technologies like WML and Web Services, the book includes explanations not only of Cold Fusion's support for these technologies but also overviews describing their capabilities in general terms. (WAP/WML, for example, doesn't have specialized Cold Fusion support, but the chapter on "Working with WAP and WML Clients" not only explains the intricacies of a WML application but also how to use standard Cold Fusion tags to determine whether a client is WML-capable based on request headers and set the Content-Type appropriately for the response.)

I've definitely found the right book to help me "catch-up" on Cold Fusion, but the book would still be great for neophytes seeking to learn Cold Fusion from the ground up, as well as experienced Cold Fusion developers who need a reference to the product's many new features.

Having been a full time ColdFusion Developer for nearly five years, I've had my fill of books that only offer the most shallow introductions to topics covered. This book is not one of those books - it's outstanding! There are thirteen coauthors and their combined efforts have produced an excellent resource any experienced developer should appreciate. Ramond Camden wrote the book's introduction, and, at its conclusion he wrote: "The mission of this book is to take you "outside the box" and provide the extra skills you need to be a successful ColdFusion developer in today's demanding environment." In my opinion, they fulfilled their mission!

There were numerous times over the two months I've had this book on hand that I found it very helpful. Some of the topics I particularly enjoyed so far address WDDX and XML, performance tuning, SQL and stored procedures and web services. The tips, processes and many detailed and truly useful examples have been a significant factor in elevating my skill level from the plateau it seemed I had been on.

Did I mention that the examples are actually useful? The problem I find with typical examples found in most books and online documentation is that they are so seldom of much use at all. I like examples that have some "meat on their bones," that relate to common tasks done in the real world, with comments about relevant issues born of experience.

The combined experience of the authors and the thoughtful presentation of the material is appreciated by this developer - thanks for an exceptional book, Sybex.

When I first picked up this book I had incorrectly assumed it focused on the new accessibility features in MX. This is merely a small part of what the book offers, however. Instead, it gets into the nitty gritty of what developers and designers need to consider as they build their sites in order to produce work that users can ..well, USE. I found this book addressed and offered solutions to many common problems, as well as some more interesting and subtle issues that arise during site production. My only gripe was that at times I felt that, due to the multiple-author nature of the book, certain material was retread chapter to chapter. Although each chapter offered something new, it also presented material previously addressed. Still, a very helpful book of practical theories and implementations amidst so many tutorial-based books on how to achieve cool effects.

Anyone serious about web design/development (whether you use flash or not) should read this book. It is well written and practical. Showing you how to make your web site from the users side of view instead of the designers side of view, taking into account how to make it accessible for everyone, all the little things most web developers and designers miss along the way. Giving you real life siduations on what can happen during the stages of development and wrenches thrown in during the web development process (as any web developer or designer knows all to well from clients) and how to cope with them. It shows you fantastic strategies how to cope with user importance and usuabilty during every phaze of development (even ones you would never think was important) It also shows you when it's good to use flash and when not to. This is one of the best books I've seen written yet on the usuabilty of flash. An extreme must for all web designers and developers (even for those wanting to learn it just for themselves) If more would read books like this, the internet would be alot easier place to surf. I highly recommend it.

I just received this mornin' the fresh flash book, i already own the Flash Math Creativity book, and i have to admit that this fresh flash book is a great source of inspiration for designer, or good programmers, as the Flash Math Creativity, the authors still does not explain very well what they "paste" in the book, full pages of code with // explanation if you begin do not get this book, if you have solid knowledge of actionscript so this book is for you !!! you will scratch your head while reading the book, and that is the GAME !! Even if it is, a little bit more explanation in the book would have been a pleasure that is the reason why i would give 4 stars, because some parts of the code are very hard to understand...

Finally, this book is divided into 9 parts, one for each author, each one got his own way of coding and that is funny to see how they solve different problems, they got their touch !!

So, designers, coders get this book !!!!!!!

This is a _very_ nice book. I have recently changed my field of study at my university to design and media. Lately I've been wanting to break in Flash so that I could add motion to my art. This book was perfect. I didn't need to learn how to create a tween or any actual respect of Flash really, but instead how to explore the creative potentials that permeate from Flash. It was quite incredible.

Particularly, I found the chapters on video and 3D, runtime 3D, "bezier creatures", and the set interval enticing. You should see the chapter on runtime 3D! A _full_ library of 3d code that is extremely easy to use (including incredibly insightful comments in the code). You do not need to know much math to make some crazy effects. Also the chapter on video and Flash enlightened me as I did not know of flash's capabilities in this field.

So, in the end, get this book! It is awe inspiring.

Yip, worth the pennies you're going to spend on it. It has a no-nonsense approach and gets you up and running in no time at all. It doesn't include the typical html-this-and-html-that intro chapters (that are included in virtually all the other web development-related books) and jumps away with the cardinals immediately.

It is obviously not a topical alpha-to-omega subject matter type of book - for this buy separate titles specialising in the Macromedia component you're interested in.

But if you are a hit-the-ground-running type of being, this will show you how all the Macromedia components integrate with each other and beyond. The book is definitely worth the odd 8550 square millimeters (footprint that is!) on your bookshelf. Enjoy!

Macromedia Studio MX for Dummies makes nearly the whole Studio Mx easy to understand.
When I first purchased the book, I had virtually no experience at all with any Macromedia products.
I was mainly experienced with Microsoft FrontPage and somewhat familiar with basic html.
I was really impressed by the sections on Dreamweaver and Fireworks--the book made the programs so easy to work through.
Literally within one hour, I had learned how to swap images, rollover text with flash, compress files with Fireworks' export wizard, hyperlink the build-in flash buttons in Dreamweaver, upload via FTP, etc...
The section on FlashMX is great, but if you want to go 100% flash, you'll need to buy a more in-depth book.
Within several hours, I had created a 5 page website utilizing the knowledge that I had garnered from MS MX for Dummies.
I highly recommend this book for anyone that has not utilized Macromedia products before.

Excellent book that gives its readers a basic primer of Dreamweaver MX 2004. Easy to read with examples throughout the book. At times, examples seem confusing to follow. Would have loved to see a more structured approach to the examples. Overall, great value which should give you a "bigger appetite" to learn more.

I bought this book because I usually like the "Sams Teach Yourself..." books and I wasn't disappointed. The examples are interesting and there are a lot of tips and tricks. This book gets you started from Novice to Professional pretty quickly. I love Dreamweaver!

As an instructor of Flash, I have used, since version 4, James Mohler's Flash book as a supplement to my course content. For Flash MX 2004, Mohler has kept with his consistent, user-friendly style of writing and accessible way to instruct a somewhat complicated program.

This book is jam packed full of great stuff. The illustrations are excellent and a lot of subjects are covered in detail. It goes beyond what you get in some other beginning books. It's well written and the CD has a lot of good stuff.

As someone who's pretty new to Flash, I am so happy I picked up James Mohler's book. I have learned more from this book - and I'm only part-way through - than the other books I had for MX, combined. The CD with example files has helped me immensely, and the way the book is written is definitely easy to read and easy to learn from. It seems that every time I have a question about a function or tool, if I just keep reading, the answer is on the next page!

This book is well-organized for a very beginner to learn how to use Dreamweaver, Flash, and Fireworks as a first step. Actually I enjoyed practicing Dreamweaver and Flash with this book in a way. The pictures helped me to understand what I should do. However, I think the Fireworks part is too simple. I believe that many web designers always use PaintShop, Photoshop, or Fireworks to design the surface/skin of websites at first, transfer them to Dreamweaver to finalize them and make them functional as a web site. This book does not explain how to use fireworks enough for web designs. It is not great in the last part explaining how to put Flash, Fireworks, and Dreamweaver together as a effective web site. No web designer would be satisfied with only this book.

If this book was good to keep in my shelf, and I check something in the book again, I would have put four or five stars. However, I don't feel I need to keep this book. This means that I won't review this book again. That makes me put only three stars here.

This book contains great coverage of the different applications: Flash MX, Dreamweaver MX, and Fireworks MX. It is very helpful in my classroom and my students react well to it!

I am presently using this book in my semester Web Design I class. The book is great for students to learn how to use Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks. The sample files are very helpful to use with each exercise. My students are learning a great deal!

This book has a couple of really good nuggets of information. However, like the other Reality series books, it's over crowded with talk about methodology, fake meetings, requirements gathering, and other stuff. That's fine for one book, but all three books have the same generic information over and over.

If the book concentrated specifically on working with Java in ColdFusion, it would have been much better. The book is worthwhile for the small pieces of information it offers, but be realistic with your expectations.

This book provided us with some valuable hints and suggestions that have helped guide our company's e-business. The section of the book on the E-Commerce application gave us alot of great ideas but the most helpful was the section on the Customer Relationship Managment tool (section 4). We implemented something that was very close to what was described and it appears to be a very solid long term solution.

Great concept, well written, good topic. This book takes a different
approach than other technology books. To start, 5 applications are
developed - all apps are useful and relevant. You are taken through the
whole development process, from problem to conception to development and
wrap-up. This allows you to really understand the process involved with each
application - why it was built the way it was and even where else you could
take it and how. All the good and relevant J2EE concepts are introduced to
the ColdFusion developer, not only how to use them, but why.

The code alone is worth way more than the cost of the book. I highly
recommend it for anyone who already has a basic understanding of ColdFusion
(beginners should start somewhere else first).

I am a newbie of online database appication and want to learn this technology in a short period. This book gives me a clear understanding about how Dreamweaver is working with database. I think this is the MUST book for those want to learn this technology.
The reason I give this book 4 stars is that there are some mistakes that need correction. And some description might be a little vauge without supplemental graphics.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The author is knowledgeable and presents ideas in a logical flow that is easily understood. Within days I mastered fundamental concepts of web site creation, database integration, and more. The only reasons that I did not give the book 5 stars is that the exercises were sometimes difficult to follow since the instructions are embedded within "theory" paragraphs. I would have found it much easier if the step-by-step instructions were listed more clearly (e.g. Step 1, Step 2, etc.). Additionally, the sample database files (as of 3/29/03) were not password protected, although the book instructs the reader to enter a user name and password when connecting to them. I was at my wits end trying to get the files to work until I tried the exercises leaving the user name and password blank. Then, presto!

This book does what it says effectively and efficiently. Although it appears as a rather large book, it reads very easily and is well documented visually. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it provided me with the tools necessary to getting the most out of Macromedia's Dreamweaver MX. I highly recommend it for those just getting started with this product, you won't be disappointed and it's worth every penny.