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Rating: 
Summary: Thorough book, helpful author
Review: I was thilled with this book. It has clear instructions with great color pictures that show you exactly what you should be doing and how it should look. I learned my way around Premiere so quickly I was surprised at myself. All "teach yourself" books should be this easy to use!I had no problems opening any files for this software - even the .mpgs (which Mac supports if all the software is installed correctly). And, although there is one set of files missing from the CD, I contacted the author and she was quick to help me. I had the necessary files within a couple of hours. I think this is one of the best books out there on Premiere. An excellent buy and read.
Rating: 
Summary: Baker's book is not for the novice.
Review: If you're new to Premiere 6.5 I suggest getting Sam's Teach Yourself in 24 hours as it's much more complete and takes you by the hand from starting right into learning how to do DVD authoring and making the DVD on DVDitLE which comes with Premiere. Donna Baker's book if full of pretty pics and I got it after getting some experience with .. even so I couldn't do the 'confidence builder' tutorial at the beginning of the book as the instructions were not clear enough. She also like A/B editing and tells you to set up Premiere 6.5 that way AFTER you've done the first tutorial project...and of course it's too late to make that change in setup. There is a workaround that, but Baker doesn't even tell you what it is! I must admit that she has some interesting projects and hints and I did learn, but thank God I didn't start with this book or I would have given up months ago. By the way I can't understand why Sam's book is the only one that covers ALL aspects of working with Premiere right to the final MPEG2 steps of doing DVD's...all the others leave the novice hanging up there in the air. Premiere is a difficult software and not very user friendly - be prepared for a long learning curve and a fast growing appreciation for all the time and work necessary in film editing.
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: It's interesting that people take the time to write reviews (and post them
twice) without taking a couple of minutes to look for solutions. I had
problems with some of the files in the book as well, and it was tracked down
to the fact that Premiere was preinstalled on my computer by the
manufacturer without having files installed that open all the file formats. Did you bother looking on the author's Web site? If you did, you would find
a complete list of all the files in other formats you can download and use
if the ones on the CD don't work on your particular computer.
Rating:
Summary: Do not rely on the CD for the tutorial
Review: Not only are the confidence builder files missing, but a number of the source files used in the tutorial are in mpeg format, which cannot be used as source files with MACs (unless you purchase Quicktime Pro which is an additional $29.99) or with Windows if you don't have a capture card that supports mpeg-2. (see the Adobe 6.5 help site at http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/29ad2.htm )
After going back and forth with technical support on the book for three weeks, they've determined I need a different capture card on my computer. I determined that the CD is useless! I have no idea why they would use source files that cannot be imported using Adobe Premiere 6.5 in a coursebook on learning Adobe Premiere 6.5. It was incredibly frustrating! If you do not wish to walk through the projects on the CD, I'm sure the book is useful, but if you actually want to go through the course, make sure you have Windows and a capture card that supports mpeg-2.
Rating: 
Summary: Great concept, poorly edited
Review: Ok, I saw this book and thought it would be great. For $50 I figured not a bad investment, get a finished product at the end. I encountered many, many issues in this book! Many of the tutorials were wrong, and they didn't seem to follow the previous steps. Tracks out of place, forgot to tell you to do one thing, mispelled words, etc. I emailed the publisher and they were very gracious, offered me either another product or a refund. I took the refund. It's too bad too, this book had potential. And, I see these same issues crop up in the Premiere Pro book by Baker as well. Maybe someone should offer them the "Editing Text for Dummies"!
Rating:
Summary: no your not crazy
Review: the cd dosent work!!!!.I spent hours trying to do the first session but it just doesnt happen.The cd is useless you cant down load files,go vegas 4.0
Rating:
Summary: Author wasn't too interested in being wrong
Review: This book could be a great step by step book. But so far I havn't gone past the first part of the book. Why? Because the first tutorial had a complete folder missing from the cd.. I had to download it from the publisher's website. Then later on I ran into a problem with a tutorial having mpg's on the cd. But being on a mac I found out that you can't import mpg's in A.P.6.5 (mac), but the author just kept saying that it was on my end. She is contacting the publishers about it but it was a real hassle for me. She works on Windows and has a mac person check her work, but didn't keep close tabs on him. Thus allowing him to get away with mpgs only files which are useless to me being on a mac. It really got to be a major debate with her. She actually gave me the link to Adobe's website were the information mentioned that you can't import mpg files in A.P 6.5 as is. But after constanly emailing her to read her own link she gave me, I gave up hoping that she would reply that she read it. Beware, but because it is a new book, and people like me who layed the foundation of trying to get rid of the bugs, you may have something worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: Thorough book, helpful author
Review: This is the best book I have ever seen or read on Premiere. It is a superb text. Let me state firstly that I had used Premiere 6.0 before reading this book, but when I upgraded to 6.5 I decided to look for a text that would give me a better model of Premiere than my hacking with it had done. Since I have a few dozen DV tapes I was less interested in the CD contents than in applying the lessons to work I had on hand. If you have touched on early versions of Premiere, and want to consolidate your skills on 6.5 then this book is simply superb. I would go so far as to suggest throwing out other Premiere texts and sticking with this one. Firstly, this is a book designed with the reader in mind. Every screen action and effect is clearly defined. Small red buttons show clickable areas and blue buttons indicate off screen actions or effects. Secondly, the layout is excellent, with the primary focus being on screenshots supported by textual descriptions. All the treacks are brought into use and shown, so you get a real flavour of the Premiere as a powerful editor. Thirdly, the lesson plans are well-paced and challenging. The tasks are meaningful and their purpose is made clear at the beginning of each section. Moreover, each section has a time component (90 minutes). Finally, the author is realistic about Premiere, and empahsises her own use and experiences in corporate video production. As an XP user, I would recommend this book as an excellent example of a good pedagogical style. Maybe Mac people have different experiences. The missing CD contents are a problem and doesn't speak highly of quality control at some point in the process. However, taken as a whole offering for Windows users, this is an outstanding book.
Rating:
Summary: A really excellent learning text
Review: This is the best book I have ever seen or read on Premiere. It is a superb text. Let me state firstly that I had used Premiere 6.0 before reading this book, but when I upgraded to 6.5 I decided to look for a text that would give me a better model of Premiere than my hacking with it had done. Since I have a few dozen DV tapes I was less interested in the CD contents than in applying the lessons to work I had on hand. If you have touched on early versions of Premiere, and want to consolidate your skills on 6.5 then this book is simply superb. I would go so far as to suggest throwing out other Premiere texts and sticking with this one. Firstly, this is a book designed with the reader in mind. Every screen action and effect is clearly defined. Small red buttons show clickable areas and blue buttons indicate off screen actions or effects. Secondly, the layout is excellent, with the primary focus being on screenshots supported by textual descriptions. All the treacks are brought into use and shown, so you get a real flavour of the Premiere as a powerful editor. Thirdly, the lesson plans are well-paced and challenging. The tasks are meaningful and their purpose is made clear at the beginning of each section. Moreover, each section has a time component (90 minutes). Finally, the author is realistic about Premiere, and empahsises her own use and experiences in corporate video production. As an XP user, I would recommend this book as an excellent example of a good pedagogical style. Maybe Mac people have different experiences. The missing CD contents are a problem and doesn't speak highly of quality control at some point in the process. However, taken as a whole offering for Windows users, this is an outstanding book.
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