Rating: 
Summary: The best Flash 5 ActionScript reference I've seen yet.
Review: I read this book on a flight from Singapore to Sydney. I couldn't put it down... Why? Well, finally, after reading plenty of material on Flash I found a book I could get some clear and detailed information from about ActionScript and the Flash 5 development environment.When I got home to San Mateo I applied what I had read to my current Flash project and things have really taken off for me from there. There are some great features including an ActionScript Object Macro-organizer, a pull-out Quick-key reference guide and excellent studies/examples on the CD. If you are looking for a book to take you above the "graphic designer" level, this Flash book might be a great place for you to start, but I highly recommend that you get a good grasp of JavaScript first.
Rating:
Summary: Great auther
Review: I recently completed a Web Design Certificate class at a local Technology University. The instructor used Professor Mohler's book and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn Flash 5. First, Professor Mohler's style of writing is easy to understand and he provides precise explanations in each chapter as new concepts are introduced. The included CDROM is a great tool and should be stored away for safe keeping. All the exercises in the book are included on the disk and these really helped to solidify the topic. Not to mention a nifty little loading bar that can be "borrowed" and tweaked for future use (Thank You Professor!). The chapter on Action Scripting provides coding novices, like me, a great introduction to coding concepts. I've taken Fortran and Pascal classes in the past and Professor Mohler has helped me, for the first time, understand if statements (no small feat I might add). Finally, the pages on adding actions to buttons and symbols has become dogeared as it provides a terrific step by step guide for adding interactivity to any movie and website. When I started my class and was handed this book I was very intimidated. I had read several other books, trying in vain to learn Flash on my own. This book, by itself, can teach you Flash. Once you finish Professor Mohler's book you, like me, will feel as I do, that Flash 5 is not so complicated and is actually a lot of fun to use.
Rating:
Summary: Great Learning Tool For Flash 5
Review: I recently completed a Web Design Certificate class at a local Technology University. The instructor used Professor Mohler's book and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn Flash 5. First, Professor Mohler's style of writing is easy to understand and he provides precise explanations in each chapter as new concepts are introduced. The included CDROM is a great tool and should be stored away for safe keeping. All the exercises in the book are included on the disk and these really helped to solidify the topic. Not to mention a nifty little loading bar that can be "borrowed" and tweaked for future use (Thank You Professor!). The chapter on Action Scripting provides coding novices, like me, a great introduction to coding concepts. I've taken Fortran and Pascal classes in the past and Professor Mohler has helped me, for the first time, understand if statements (no small feat I might add). Finally, the pages on adding actions to buttons and symbols has become dogeared as it provides a terrific step by step guide for adding interactivity to any movie and website. When I started my class and was handed this book I was very intimidated. I had read several other books, trying in vain to learn Flash on my own. This book, by itself, can teach you Flash. Once you finish Professor Mohler's book you, like me, will feel as I do, that Flash 5 is not so complicated and is actually a lot of fun to use.
Rating: 
Summary: Worthless
Review: I was in his Flash 5 course here at Purdue, and his book is almost as useless as his mullet-driven lectures. In both he drones on about totally irrelevant theories, while barely even talking about how to truly accomplish something useful in the real world...i Highly recommend the Flash 5 Bible over this book. Or you could just run through the help files, that's how i was forced to learn.
If you're learning Flash 5 to be able to build a website, then don't buy this book...he seems to spend his time building Memory Games and Card Decks rather than a useful website example.
Don't even get me started on the content of his exams...
buy another book, or learn it on your own
Rating:
Summary: If You Are Serious About Learning Flash 5
Review: I would not consider myself a dumb person but have tried numerous ways (books, a multimedia CD and a class) to learn Flash and this has proven the most effective. What is different about this is that it has plenty of tutorials (accessed by the accompanying CD) that force you to learn the intricacies of Flash as you work through them. I am only on the fourth chapter but already I am most comfortable with the interface etc. Ive bought plenty of books all of which I have returned and researched plenty others and once I sat down at my computer with it this has proven to be the best. You definitely have to have patience working through all the examples but thats why I say if you are serious about Flash this is defnitely the best way to go. Have fun.
Rating: 
Summary: different cover, same contents
Review: If you have already bought a copy for Flash 4.0, don't ever pick up this book. What you'll get is what you already have gotten. Try an Actionscripting book instead.
Rating:
Summary: Refuting the [person] from my dept. at Purdue University
Review: In response to what the kid from Indiana (studying at Purdue) wrote, I would like to clarify his ... comments. These are times where I don't really like the whole "freedom of speech" idea... because it gives people like him the chance to throw mud at an extremely professional and intellectual author.
Yes, the book does not deal with how to make a "pretty" web site. Yes, the book has memory games that don't apply to real life. Yes, it rants about theory. And THANK GOD for that! I don't want to learn how to make pretty pictures, or cool gizmos in Flash. You can find that kind [junk] on [other websites]. What I want to learn is how Flash works, how Actionscript works and what drives such a powerful application. And, with due respect to my peer, James's book does great justice to explaining the beauty that lies within Flash 5. He is one of the first people who embraced Flash in the academic arena, and has made some pretty incredible applications in Flash. I have been through his classes, and they are by far the best classes offered in my department. ... I look forward to Jamie's next book. It's on advanced actionscript, and he's writing it with one of my friends from the dept. They're both FLASH GODS! :) The opinion of one sore [person] won't ever change that fact.
Rating: 
Summary: A good book for animation
Review: It is a good book for anybody looking for getting a good hold on animation which is explained meticulously
Rating: 
Summary: This book is a workhorse
Review: Jim Mohler is a professor,who clearly knows how to teach. He moves seamlessly between explaining Flash 5 concepts to precise tutorials. Few books describe the "how to" of Flash as clearly as this one. This book's a serious resource and I recommend it highly.
Rating:
Summary: Flash 5 - Graphics, Animation & Interactivity -
Review: No wonder this book is in such high demand! I have just gotten this book a few days ago and I haven't been able to put it down. This book is a great resource and the CD-ROM exercises have been very helpful. I think the best thing about this book is the actual responses from the author (James Mohler), can you believe that, "Is like having the professor on-line". Stay tuned; I'll give the final review at the completion of my reading and emails.
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