CATEGORY

Adobe GoLive 5.0 Classroom in a Book deftly guides the new user through the intricacies of Web design using Adobe's Web authoring package. The Classroom in a Book series itself has become a standard against which others are judged, and this addition to the series is no exception.

With a CD-ROM containing all of the project and media files, and each of the dozen or so chapters written in a concise and clear manner, the book makes it easy for users new to GoLive to climb the learning curve and gain a high level of proficiency in a relatively short period of time. Most chapters have been updated to showcase the new features of version 5.

There are over 12 chapters covering a range of topics: from application basics and how to preview work in a real Web browser; through the basics of Web design, the use of tables and frames, forms and cascading style sheets; and on to global management of large Web sites. The more experienced Web designer will probably not find much new information here, but an experienced designer new to GoLive will appreciate this resource.

Each chapter ends with a series of review questions and answers, and each chapter builds on the chapters that came before, making the book suitable for a formal training environment as well as users learning on their own. The only drawback is the lack of a demo version of GoLive on the CD. It is available on Adobe's site, but why not save someone the trouble of downloading it?

There are few areas of computer technology as dynamic and competitive as Web design software. Standards are anything but, plug-ins proliferate, and even the core coding language, HTML, is constantly evolving. Designers must maintain a constant state of training and learning, and any software publisher who maintains a solid educational program wins the hearts of their customers. Fortunately, we have the Classroom in a Book series to help keep us ahead of the wave. --Mike Caputo