Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as it thinks it is!
Review: If you are a good user of Flash who wants to learn more about action scripts so as to become a great user then - AVOID THIS BOOK! You can find better tutes on the net.It says it will run you through a variety of tasks with the aid of examples and tutorials which would be great except for the fact that some of the example files are incorrectly named or in some cases not what they claim to be. For example - each tute claims to provide you with a "before" and "after" file (labelled "whatever_start.fla" and "whatever_finish.fla". You try the tute using the before file and if you have problems then check out the after so you can see where you went wrong. Nice idea, too bad that in some cases the after file is exactly the same as the before file. In chapter one in the very first tute the start and finish files are labeled back to front. When they get basics like that wrong alarm bells start ringing. To top it all off, it seems to me that some of the scripts they instruct you to use don't actually work! Not being an action script guru I can't be sure about that - I believe I've copied them down exactly as intstructed but nothing happens. Of course not being an expert is why I bought the book in the first place so if they aren't providing me with sufficient information to successfully complete the task then the book isn't fulfilling my expectations. Ipso facto - not a good book. This book suffers from being rushed out so as to take advantage of the market for the latest version of Flash. It could well have used better proofing in both the text and the accompanying CD-rom. A potentially very good book with unfortunately a few too many flaws. I've given it 2 stars - and that's generous.
Rating: 
Summary: Expert Programmers Only !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: If you are simply a web designer leave this book alone !!!!!!!!!!!!!! The codes will KILL YOU !!!!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: No Fluff
Review: If you're tired of how-to books that utilize examples full of fluff and stuff that you can't really use for anything, you'll find this book a welcome relief. My goal was to understand the new Action Script in Flash 5, but not merely in an academic way, I wanted something that uses "real-world" examples. Flash 5 Magic is doing just that. I say doing because there is so much meat in this thing that it'll take a while before I'll completely digest it all. I say hats-off to the Flash 5 Magic team, they've created a real winner and one that you other how-to book authors should model your next book after. At least you won't have frustrated guys like me sending you email and calling you wondering when you are going to get out of academia and into the real world.
Rating:
Summary: Finally! A Flash5 book that actually talks about Flash5!
Review: ive steadily been building my library of actionscripting books since flash5 was released. for the most part, ive been sorely disappointed by books that still include flash4 syntax or ignore the most powerful new features of flash5. luckily, this book is the first that actually seems to have been written after the authors sat down with flash5 and explored its capabilities. the book dives right into detailed, complex flash actionscripting applications that assume you already know a good deal of javascript(read: its not for beginners). it's structured around modular mini-applications of actionscripting (how to detect collisions of objects, how to integrate flash with xml content,etc) that quickly and concisely illustrate key points and provide actual examples which the actionscripter can rework and reapply. if you already know some javascript and flash and are looking to take your skills to the flash5 level, this book will make an excellent (and perhaps the ONLY) resource.
Rating:
Summary: Frustrating -Full of Mistakes, Poor Explanations, PC Centric
Review: Let me count the ways: Ever buy a book to learn from and find out that the stuff they are trying to teach you doesn't work? This is that book. Instead of accelerating your learning process this book might slow you down. The first lesson Chapter One has two files with the wrong names. In as much as you must import one, this will waste a bunch of your time. The example in Chapter 3 doesn't work even if you copy and paste the code from the finished file which does work. If you want proof try going to their website and downloading the 'fixes' they provide. You'll see Chapter 3 is completely useless. I just wasted one whole day of studying on Chapter 3. I'll still end up learning from this book but I'll spend much more time and a lot of my time will be just be wasted time. In addition (as others have pointed out) the explanations are weak. I'm cross platform (two Macs and a Homemade Athlon) as is Flash supposedly, however at least one of their examples does not work using Netscape on my Mac. The book is PC centric... I like it when People suggest other books so here is a good one although more of a beginners book: Foundation Action Script - this guy is one of the better teachers of coding.
Rating:
Summary: only good for the one interested in game design
Review: Most of the chapters are about how to create the cool games, but I want to know how to create the cool sites!
Rating:
Summary: Flash 5 Magic
Review: Most of the chapters of this book is about how to create the games. How about I just need to create a Flash website?
Rating: 
Summary: good cookbook FOR EXPERIENCEDS USERS
Review: My title spells it out. I read these other reviews and don't know whether to laugh or pity. I think this is a great book for general practice. Specifically analyzed.. the contents are of pointless bells and whistles - not very practical. As if you haven't noticed already, all these people that give bad reviews(regardless whether it's this book or another INTERMEDIATE Level book) are either newbies to flash or kinda dumb. They're impatient dummies who try to walk and run without having learned how to crawl. It explicitly states that this is a intermediate level book. Even if you are intelligent, I seriously doubt that you can learn Flash without the foundational info... especially if you don't have design background. And let me spell it out for the blind. Of course, you're going to have trouble with Flash 5 Magic Content, you haven't even studied the basics. New Rider books are usually on the mark! and rather exciting compared to other books of this nature.
Rating:
Summary: Don't forget about the ActionScript Reference Guide
Review: Remember, the boxed version of Flash 5 comes with a great ActionScript reference book--which anyone who is familiar with Flash 4 scripting should be able to put to good use once they spend some time getting dot syntax and the [awesome!] OOP-style programming that F5 now supports. It's true that Flash 5's treatment of XML could be a lot better (I have firsthand experience building a SQL/ASP/XML-driven Flash 5 site, and it's a real challenge, to be sure!), but that's a limitation of Flash 5 itself, and doesn't really relate to the sorts of workarounds that programmers have to go through in order to get XML to work with Flash (i.e. including the DTD in your XML pretty much jacks up your XML object, since older versions of the Flash 5 Player interpret the DTD as a node rather than a DTD. And watch out for whitespace in your code! The older version of the Player that's included with Flash 5--and this is what you have to use while developing, unless you plan to upload every version of your .swf files to a server and then test using an updated Player via a browser--doesn't like whitespace in the XML source files, so if you are using a PHP/ASP/etc script to dynamically create your XML, you had better make sure to parse them out or risk people with older version of the F5 Player not being able to see your data!) Flash 4 Magic was a great introduction to ActionScript, and in the time I've spent with Flash 5 Magic I think Emberton et al do a good job of pointing aspiring Flash programmers in the right direction. After all, the point is to learn to code your OWN ActionScript, not just copy & paste somebody else's code into work that you're selling to your client, right? This book will at least teach you the right habits and "mode of thought" that you need to successfully program Flash AS. The rest you will learn from ...), and by trial and error. Go for it!
Rating:
Summary: I don't get it from this book
Review: Sorry this book has a extremely confused writing style. I don't trust the 5 star reviews at all. This book must be for the way advanced but I'm not a newbie and still have a lot of trouble with it.
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