Easy First Steps To Using VWD

To many people this book will be very helpful because it fills a very useful purpose in a particular niche market.

One of the much trumpeted advantages of ASP.NET 2.0 is that the amount of code required to produce useful, usable basic applications has been dramatically reduced. Combining that with the whole mountain of new and easy-to-use features via the Visual Web developer 2005 Express Edition (VWD for short), it becomes possible to create starter applications with almost no code of your own.

This book is based on that ability. It homes in on those built-in features that enable complete novices to create basic websites. It covers all the basics, including Master Pages, CSS Styles, Themes, Navigation, validation, some of the ASP.NET controls, and a short SQL Server crash course.

Two CDs are bundled with the book. The first contains a copy of VWD itself and the second CD contains a range of video tutorials from the LearnVisualStudioNet site plus some useful links to videos from Wintellect and various other online resources.

This book is aimed at readers with no previous experience of creating web pages or developing web sites.
Its advantage is that it sticks firmly to the "low road" in that the author hasn't felt the need to (in his own words) " ... wander off into irrelevant product comparisons or advanced topics ..."

If you are a beginner in this field and want to get a feel for the basics of creating web pages and websites before delving into the more complex areas of .NET coding then this relatively small, relatively inexpensive book should meet that need perfectly.

Of course, it is unlikely to be your only web development book if you plan to move beyond the very basic projects, but what it does cover it covers very comprehensively and very clearly. Again, the author is totally clear in what he sets out to do. He says: "Another key ingredient of this book is its coverage of things that most other resources assume you already know. In fact it's Okay if you don't already know
them. Everybody has to start somewhere and website development is tricky enough without having to fight a feeling of being left out. You won't get 'Sorry, you didn't learn our secret language umpteen years ago when we did so you can't play."' Here, just about everyone gets to play."

My verdict: For its target audience it succeeds admirably in its aim to help beginners build dynamic data-driven web sites.

Other Reviews

• Beginning - then you need this book
• Excellent. This Program is Worth Looking At.
• Very good in content
• Easy First Steps To Using VWD