Rating: 
Summary: Not sure what they are trying to pass off as advanced here
Review: I'm just over halfway through this book and have yet to see anything "advanced"... reading the reviews and little blurbs about this book and how advanced it was supposed to be, I picked it up. Much to my dismay the first 100 pages or so are complete newbie review. You go over mouse events and movie events and such... on my very first movie I was doing this kind of stuff with ease.. this is not advanced material, and any "advanced" user does not need to be told this... we know what an on(rollOver) mouse event does. If you do NOT know what this is then you shouldn't be buying an advanced book anyway.The examples in this book are great though.. great tutorals and such. I'm the type of person that has to read every page of a book I buy because I feel like I am ripping myself off if I don't. That, and maybe that one page I skip holds some new technique that has managed to elude me. I realize that any advanced book has to be dumbed down a bit to include a broader portion of the flash knowledge spectrum and to increase the appeal of the book to more users to increase sales. However, this book that is supposed to be specifically for advanced users goes way beyond that. Going by this book's implied definition of an advanced user, I was an advanced user literally one week after I first started using flash. Fully, the first 1/3 of the book is geared towards beginners or low intermediates (thats being generous to book and critisizing the skill of a low intermediate)... if you factor in a few more pages to include the first half of the book then you are looking at intermediate skill at best... Upon buying this book I felt I was an upper intermediate level designer, and an intermediate level actionscripter. Unfortunatly, I can say I've learned nothing new in this first half of this "advanced" book. Now, as many times as this book has pegged itself as an "advanced" book, I shouldn't have to wait until the final 2-3 chapters of the book to get to the advanced material. Talking about mouse events is NOT an advanced topic. It is a newbie topic. Advanced users are the people who are out there doing sites, applications, and such... not the people struggling and saying to themselves, "if I could only figure out what the (onEnterFrame) means." Now, having said that, it is quite possible you might learn a trick or two about efficiency in this first half of the book, but I doubt and intermed. would learn anything new. [Money] is a pretty penny to spend on that trick you could have picked up from the internet for free... The most advanced topic covered in the first half of this book is loading a movie into another movie.. which... as you know if your anything near intermediate, is not an advanced topic either.. However, I'm giving this book 2 stars on this HOPES that it will get better... I've thumbed through to the end of the book and sadly I haven't really seen anything that advanced in there yet either.. but my hope remains alive. This book WOULD get 1 star, (as I don't believe it is advanced by any stretch of the imagination) but the authors do an excellent job in presentation of the material (for whatever skill level), an excellent job in explanation of concepts, and they stick to the book being about actionscript... I have ran across no portion of the book dealing with design and thats good because the book is for actionscripting. I'm giving this book 2 stars right now because anyone that has made a site or two, or jeez, anyone that has worked a tutorial in which you had to make a button, has fully 40-50% of this book under their belt. Like I said, I'm intermediate at actionscripting and over half of this book is stuff I went over in my first month's use of flash. I will gladly augment this review should concepts change to an "advanced" level.. but with over half the book completed, I don't see how this book could garner over 3 stars from me. Props to the author for excellent explanation and presentation. Boo to you for poor content selection.
Rating: 
Summary: This one paid for itself.
Review: I've been working with Flash for 3 years, and i originally came from the art/animation side of things. I've been doing basic A.S. o-plenty, but with MX, i took it upon myself to go full steam ahead so as not to get out-foxed by Gen Z. Through this book, i've really begun to use Flash in much more interesting ways on the project i'm now on. Working in A.S. has started to even feel creative. As Flash/ A.S. has evolved into a powerful kind of O-O design tool, and the feature set has expanded, it has become even more crucial to understand the nuances of the program. The authors do a very good job of including the details, as well as teaching guiding design principles. If you are looking to take advantage of the full range of possiblities included in Flash MX, this book does the trick. When you really start to handle content dynamically, it feels like you've moved from a horse and buggy to an SR-71! (yes, i am a geek!). I orginially bought this book for one of our interns, and now we can't seem to settle on who's desk it belongs on....
Rating:
Summary: 5 stars for this baby - and I don't write reviews
Review: Makar and Franklin are obviously the ones to call when FLASHKIT, the Macromedia boards and the WWWAC list don't do the trick. This book provides insights that I couldn't find anywhere else. I've been toying around with MX for a while but have spent far too much time mumbling to myself because no one could tell me how to make the most of it. Everyone I work with has been pouring over Makar's book in order to figure out how to use the latest version. I now feel like I'm ahead of the curve. Strong recommendation! My favorite is 'Therapy Chat'.
Rating: 
Summary: same as new rider books but a little more practical
Review: i like its method in instructing actionscript.. by hands on.
but i found the content somewhat redundant to some of my studies executed with new rider books. didn't really learn anything particularly new, maybe it's b/c i've studied actionscript b4. but as for actionscript novices, this book should be very fitting. there's goods and bads to this book. the goods - the tutorials seem more practical rather than being of pointless bells and whistles nature. the bads - it's not as lively or exciting as new rider cookbooks, some might find it slightly boring. so, what should you do? if you're new to actionscript, you should get this book. let me give you a little background to flash mx as well, since this review is supposed to be helpful. flash mx, despite it's renovated interface, is really the same software as flash 5. the only true benefits i found useful is the ease with which you can import videos and components(formerly smart clips). if you don't need to use any of these features, no need to upgrade.
Rating:
Summary: Great Flash MX book to learn
Review: Out of the few books on Flash MX out now this is by far the best one(as of 5-20-02). The tutorials are nicely paced, great explanation, and easy to follow. Unless you're a super programmer in actionscripting already, this book contain many small details and new tricks to be learned. All goodies and no fillers, this book is worth the money!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Resource for Flash Developers!!
Review: I develop Flash websites, presentations, and eLearning applications for a living. This book has an amazing amount of information to help me learn new and better ways to work with Flash. It also shows how to build useful real-world applications in a step by step way and breaks applications down into understandable concepts. I highly recommend this book to anyone who works with Flash for a living or is planning too!
Rating:
Summary: An essential read for ANYBODY interested in Actionscript...
Review: Having dabbled with Flash since version 4, it's only of late that I've decided to make a real go of it. Having not really made a great deal of progress with Actionscripting, I decided this 'From the Source' book might be worth a look. What a great buy. I've found the examples easy to follow and have started to really get to grips with Actionscript through this book. The way the examples work is that you begin with a Fla that has no coding added, then you go through it adding the code. This works particularly well, as it saves you time messing around creating graphic symbols/movieclips and lets you get down to some serious coding. I honestly do rate this book above any other Actionscripting books. I also think it would be a useful read for somebody making the transition from Flash 5 to MX. Top quality!
Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: I have been working in Flash for many years now and this book has proved to me that you can always learn something new. Filled with many interesting tips tricks, this book has helped me expand my knowledge of Flash MX and it capabilities. From building dynamic flash applications to to streaming MP3's, this book covers it all. If you want to expand your knowledge of the program and its native actionscript, look no further. Well laid-out, well written and great real world example files to work with.
Rating:
Summary: very good primer for flash 5 --> flash mx
Review: if you are new to flash 5 or flash mx, you are going to really enjoy this book. the projects are well thought out and talked to in in easy to understand language. Concepts are explained, and the code for the projects is very clean. I would suggest those starting out, and even some of those who are moving along quickly learning, buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Suprisingly Good Book!
Review: At first, I was a little skeptical about this book. But, after I began to go through it in depth, I was impressed. The chapters on using event handlers and objects are both insightful and useful. Much of the information presented in this book is directly applicable to the real world. I'm only a little better then a novice Flash developer and while some of the contents are too advanced for me, I was able to get a great deal from this book. The discussion on how to communicate with a server is really interesting and something I know I will be able to use myself. The chapter talking about shared objects was particularly good and the example code was quite helpful. As I learn more, I am sure I will be able to continue to use this book into the future. I was also very impressed with the little chat application. That's something I always thought would be way beyond me, but I was able to see how it worked and I know I can build my own now. All in all, I would recommend this book to any new or even experienced Flash developers who are aspiring to be more.
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