Adobe(R) Acrobat(R) 5.0 Classroom in a Book

Rating:
Summary: Worse than Useless
Review: Acrobat 5 is a great product, but Adobe has done a lousy job of communicating its many valuable features and how to use it. Totally unstructured and unintelligible, this book is an example of what happens when computer programmers attempt to communicate in English.

I recently participated in an Acrobat focus group made up of people who use the product in their daily work. Everyone agreed that it's very useful in a wide range of applications, but they all had real difficulties learning how to use it. This book only adds to the problem.

Rating:
Summary: UGH!!
Review: After plodding through many chapters of this book, I am totally exasperated. Not only was the book fraught with errors, but the information was, at best, inadequate. I am an indexer and a Mac user. You cannot create an index in OS X and that is not documented in the book. It is apparent that the authors, Adobe staff, never tested the instructions for the lessons on OS X. in addition, there are too many "check online for information about xxxx" references. If i wanted the information online, I would not have purchased a book. The waste of money is small compared to the waste of my time. One star is definitely a high rating for this book.

Rating:
Summary: Adobe Acrobat 5.0 Classroom in A Book
Review: I am an Adobe Certified Expert in Acrobat 5.0 and an Instructor. Acrobat one of the most versatile programs ever developed. AA5CIB has helpful exercises for essentially any use of the program. If you can not attend a course taught by someone that works extensively with the product, this is the next best way to learn the product.

Rating:
Summary: Good to get certified.
Review: I would not necessarily recommend this book to someone breaking into the world of Web Design. While it does cover in depth the wide range of tools in GoLive, it doesn't explain which ones you would want to use when. Classroom in a Book can teach the basics, but the skill of knowing how to design, and what is appropriate compared to what is over the top, or browser incompatible are glossed over.

There is still an excellent use of this book. Adobe offers a certification program for most of its programs, including GoLive. The questions that are asked in the Certification are in many cases addressed in the Classroom in a Book. For the user who knows GoLive fairly well and wants certification, this book is essential. The chapters cover those small odds and ends you didn't know GoLive could do. The questions at each chapter end make for a great study guide for the A.C.E.

Rating:
Summary: My first return.
Review: I'd never returned a book before, but this one certainly deserved the extra milage. The book plodded along (maybe because of the classroom approach), but what finally convinced me to return it was Page 290, "Creating eBooks". After ONE page of self-evident information, the very last paragraph says, "For more information on designing and creating eBooks, See How to Create Adobe PDF files for eBooks ... available online ......." The problem of course is that a book that lists for [money] should furnish the information. But what got the book its second pair of walking legs is that the referenced book isn't available... Probably doesn't exist at all. Pick another one. You can spend your money better.

Rating:
Summary: A great book for both novices and intermediate Acrobat users
Review: Let me just start by saying, that this book is great! I myself was a novice on Adobe Acrobat and mostly just used it to do simple pdf-conversion through distiller. Reading this book answered all of my questions that had build up through time. Along side I learned a lot of new stuff and cool tricks to do simple tasks in smarter ways.
The only weak spot, from my point of oppinion, is a weak chapter concerning colourmanagement and prepress, but I figure, that guys who really need that sort of info, wouldn't read this book. All in all a very good bye!

Rating:
Summary: Good introductory book. But some limitations.
Review: Rating reflects book's overall very good statute given clear, enjoyable, efficient organization and writting combined with moderate price and numerous examples included with the CD-ROM. These strengths are however offset by its limited scope, its introductory level, its lack of critical analyses and its somewhat boring follow-step-by-step approach.

* * *

Classroom in a book is here because Adobe online 'help' is so poorly organized, so redundant and confusing that is makes it hardly useable. (Adobe has also to sell its books!)

This book, like all other 'Classroom in a book' is very clear, well designed, easy to understand and follow. It gives very pratical guidance through lessons whose elements are on the CD-ROM. With it, all essential elements for web design (entering text, creating tables, inserting pics etc.) are immediately accessible.

However, this book is introductory level only. Besides, it gives only answers to how to perform essential elements, i.e. descriptive approach, and doesn't discuss issues or indicates the best solution (critical, value-added approach).

Rating:
Summary: Very Informative!
Review: This was a great buy. I've learned a lot in just the 1st 70 pages. It paid for itself!