I had an inquiry the other day from a college professor in New Jersey who wants to use my book, The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3, as a text for a course he’s teaching. The only problem was he needs the book available for Kindle, Amazon’s wireless electronic reading device. So, I got in touch with my editor to ask if there are any plans to create Kindle versions of my books. The answer was, “Yes, definitely.”
Apress/friends of ED plans to release most, if not all, titles through Kindle, and Amazon has already been sent the PDF versions. It’s now just a question of how long it takes to convert them to the format Kindle uses. I imagine that could be a time-consuming process with some of my books, as they contain a lot of screenshots. However, I notice that there’s now an “I’d like to read this book on Kindle” link on the Amazon pages for my books. If you use Kindle, and would like to get any of my books in a Kindle version, I suggest you visit Amazon, and click that link. Hopefully, it should speed up the process of conversion.
August 14th, 2008
I got word from the production manager of my latest book, PHP Object-Oriented Solutions, that everything has gone to schedule, and the book shipped to the printers just before the weekend. It usually takes about three weeks after sending all the chapters and images to the printers before a book appears on the shelves in bookstores. I’m told that 18 August is now the official publication date. The eBook version should be ready about a week earlier (a link will appear on the book’s page on the friends of ED site as soon as it’s available).
I’m quite pleased with the way the book has turned out. Well, I would be, wouldn’t I? 
It’s aimed at readers who already have a good understanding of PHP, but it doesn’t assume any prior knowledge of object-oriented programming (OOP). Although the book is devoted entirely to OOP in PHP, it makes the point right from the start that OOP isn’t a replacement for everything that you have already learned, but an extra, very powerful tool to add to your skillset. (more…)
July 29th, 2008
friends of ED has created what it calls its Summer ‘08 Hotlist—seven eBooks that are being offered at 25% off the usual price. One of them is my PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy, which is currently being offered for $18.37. To benefit from the special price, you need to use the links on the friends of ED summer hotlist page. A similar deal is being offered on 30 Apress eBooks, including Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP by Quentin Zervaas. I’m roughly halfway through the book, and it’s really excellent—although you need a solid knowledge of PHP and web design before tackling it. The promotion continues till November. If only summer would last that long!
July 29th, 2008
For the past couple of weeks, online stores in the United States have been out of stock of The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP. I’ve been in touch with my publisher to find out what the problem is. Apparently, the book has proved far more popular than expected. The book is being printed for the fifth time in less than a year, and supplies should soon be back to normal. It’s also available as an eBook by going to the book’s page on the friends of ED site and clicking the “buy as eBook” link.
June 2nd, 2008
A bug in mechanism that counts down the remaining days of trial versions of most Adobe software means that any trial launched during June 2008 will expire after only one day instead of the normal 30. Access to the trial versions has already been blocked on the Adobe site, but if you have already downloaded a trial with the intention of installing it later, don’t install during June. If you do so, it will expire after one day—and you won’t be able to reinstall it on the same machine. For more information, read the FAQ on the Adobe site.
May 28th, 2008
Many people were underwhelmed—wrongly in my opinion—by the last two releases of Dreamweaver. Well, Adobe has been working for the past year on the next version (Dreamweaver CS4), and it’s taken the bold decision to release it as a public beta. Be prepared to be stunned. It’s got a new interface to give an overall feel of unity with the rest of Creative Suite, but the changes are much more than skin deep.
I have prepared a couple of video tutorials to give you a whirlwind tour of some of the main new features, which are now live on my website. In the meantime, get on over to Adobe Labs to grab your own version of the Dreamweaver CS4 public beta. (more…)
May 27th, 2008
I’ve had my head down for the past few months pounding away at my next book, PHP Object-Oriented Solutions. I put the finishing touches to the final chapter a couple of days ago, and it’s now in the hands of the friends of ED technical review and editorial process. There’s a preview of what the book contains on the foED site, and I plan to get more details up on my own site in the not too distant future.
The book is due to be published in August. The date was chosen because that’s when all support for PHP 4 officially comes to an end. The painfully slow migration to PHP 5 by hosting companies has severely hindered the adoption of object-oriented programming (OOP) among PHP developers, but I hope this book will convince readers that OOP makes for cleaner scripts that are easier to maintain. PHP Object-Oriented Solutions is aimed at readers who feel at home with basic PHP, but want to take their skills to the next level. It’s a gentle, but fast-paced introduction to the delights and mysteries of OOP.
May 3rd, 2008
The instructions in The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3 and Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8 were written before the release of Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). Revised instructions for setting up virtual hosts on Leopard can now be found in the Tutorials section of my website.
May 3rd, 2008
The URL for the Adobe online seminar about Dreamweaver CS3 that I gave in late March is rather hard to find. So, here’s a direct link. When you get to the Adobe site, you’ll be asked to login with your Adobe ID, and answer a couple of simple questions. The recording is one hour long.
Towards the end of the recording, I give out a promotional code for a 25% discount on the eBook version of The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP. The eBook is available by going to this page on the friends of ED site, and clicking the “Buy as eBook” link. Want a hint as to what the promotional code is? Well, it’s three letters followed by two numbers. The fact that the seminar was part of Adobe Developer Week 2008 should give you a “strong” clue. The code is valid until the end of April 2008.
April 18th, 2008
All this week, Adobe is running Adobe Developer Week, a series of seminars on web development. On Friday 28 March, it’s my turn to give a talk called “The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP”. If that sounds an incredibly ambitious subject for a one-hour talk, it is, but what the heck. Actually, Adobe simply decided to use the title of my book; but there’s no way I can cram the content of all 750 pages into my talk, so what I plan to do is give a little flavour of each aspect: CSS, Adobe’s version of Ajax (Spry), and PHP. I’ll be demonstrating live with Dreamweaver, showing tips and best practice techniques.
So, why not join me online at 1600 UTC (0900 PST) on Friday? To participate, you need to register on the Adobe website. Up to 2,500 can join the live presentation, and it will be available as a recording about a week later. One lucky person joining the live seminar will be chosen at random to receive a free copy of Dreamweaver CS3, Flash CS3, or Flex Builder 3. (Unfortunately, for legal reasons, the draw applies only to the US and Canada.)
March 26th, 2008
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