Book Review - Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide (Hardcover)

Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide (Hardcover) by Amy Shuen (Author) delivers on its promise of providing effective strategies and a new way of thinking when it comes to using Web 2.0 tools to improve your business.

The book seems to be targeting marketing managers and business owners who rely on outside sources or other departments to research and implement these services. Amy Shuen provides a clear understanding of these concepts to those needing it.

One of the best resources of the book is the end-notes. The references that Amy cites gives the reader a great starting point to find more in depth material about specific topics.

Book Review - A Designer's Guide to Adobe InDesign and XML: Harness the Power of XML to Automate your Print and Web Workflows

A Designer's Guide to Adobe InDesign and XML: Harness the Power of XML to Automate your Print and Web Workflows (Paperback) by James J. Maivald (Author) & Cathy Palmer (Author) is a tremendous technical resource for those who need or want to learn XML and improve their efficiency within InDesign. You don't have to be a programmer or coder to make your way thru this. It's written for the graphic designer or production artist who already have intermediate experience with InDesign.

The book is project based and each chapter/project builds on the skills learned in the previous one. The book layout is well designed and easy to follow. James and Cathy have picked some real world projects for you to work on and project files are available from the peachpit website. Though you are required to register online with Peachpit to download these files. Not necessarlly a bad thing since Peachpit has a lot of great resources that are available and free.

This book is absolutely indispensable for the freelance production designer or small studio. By adding functional XML knowledge to your toolset you'll be able to take on more complicated and profitable projects.

Book Review - Adobe InDesign CS3 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques

Adobe InDesign CS3 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques (Paperback) by John Cruise (Author) & Kelly Kordes Anton (Author) is a handy book to have around for beginners and near intermediate users. The book serves its purpose in presenting specific techniques in 2 - 4 pages. As such, you learn quickly and get your work done. As an advanced user, I found about half of the book to be info I already learned from other resources, but given how inexpensive this book is, it's certainly worth having on your shelf as a quick reference.

Book Review - Real World Adobe InDesign CS3

Real World Adobe InDesign CS3 (Paperback) by Olav Martin Kvern (Author)and David Blatner (Author) is one of best InDesign reference materials to have on your shelf. It's certainly not a cover to cover read thru resource (it's 900 pages long). But those 900 pages contain the info you need to become a very proficient InDesign user. While Adobe's included documentation is very useful, RWAICS3 goes beyond that and shows you techniques that you are going to be able to use in your day to day work.