Others say...

"Dreamweaver"
This book was okay, but it seemed to be basic things you could learn just by looking around a little bit. I was hoping for more indepth things to help me in my confusing class taught by someone who mumbles and can't speak English. Instead, I found myself still basically teaching myself. I recommend this book for any new beginner, someone who has trouble finding things on their own. It was helpful in some ways, but was not everything I was looking for.

"Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 Hands-On Training"
I am taking a web design class at City College of San Francisco : Developing websites using Macromedia 8. The text book used in this class is this book. I have found this book extremely helpful to understand the lecture given by the instructor in the class.

After having worked on a few charpters in this book, I have an impression that this book may even help those people who do not have time to take a class to learn about developing and designing a web page by solely using this book because of its Hands-On-Training feature. My experiences of working on this book tell me that the first two chapters are essential for successfully working on this book and the users of this book should spend more time on the first two chapters.

"Great starter guide"
I'm new to Dreamweaver and found this an excellent place to start. The tutorials are easy to follow and the book is clearly written.

"The best DW book ever"
This is not reference book but it's a great quick start to the program. All exercises are divided by chapters, so you have to do #1 through the end to complete and cannot start halfway in the chapter. This book was very easy to use for me because of familiarity with other graphic layout programs and interfaces, so you should obtain some other manual if it looks mind boggling. Basically throughout the book you are "building" a website for a pseudo company that sells tea and tea things. But you are given files in each chapter missing only the things that you need to learn instead of starting out with a blank page each time. Also you are asked to do things multiple ways either in the interface or what is technically appropriate (Page properties vs CSS). Great intro to CSS, it takes a few chapters after completing the CSS chapter to really get the hang of it: you even get to learn how to build a nice rollover navigation. The videos are great too, they show some additional techniques.

"Easy to follow along book and cd combo"
I was taking an entry-level course on DW 8 at the community college and they listed this book as the required text book. I have no idea why, because the instructor never referred to it and just did his own thing. But I have learned more from the book on my own than I did from the class. Of special merit are the video tutorials that come on the cd. As you complete the exercises in each chapter, there is supplementary related material presented in video form on the cd.

The only problem is that you learn to build the particular tea-selling website that is being built in the book. While 75% of the materials is either applicable or of possible interest, there is still this 25% gap of knowledge that leaves you stranded when you are faced with the prospect of staring at a blank project of your own and putting your own content in it. I may know how to insert the file that the author created from his folder to his page, but how do I create my own file to insert in my own page?

[..]

There is no substitute for hands-on experience, and I have obviously not been gifted with intuitive knowledge of web principles. I constantly manage to get myself into situations where what I do just plain doesn't work, but no book (or library of books) can prepare you for the challenges you will face trying to implement your own ideas in the real world. But this one comes fairly close.