Rating: 
Summary: The closest thing to a great Flash reference
Review: Flash is one of the newest, most popular and by far most poorly documented multimedia applications around. Little has been well written on Action Scripting, or how to truly harness the power of Flash 4's new capabilities.The Flash 4 bible comes close to closing this gap in the areas of introducing the basic concepts of the Flash environment and creating movies. The section of animation is a nice addition to the book, laying down some basic concepts of animation and how to achieve some more professional looking results without a huge amount of work. The biggest disappointment is the lack of in depth Action Scripting documentation and examples. The few that are in the book, do not get into enough detail to really explain the what's, whys and how's of the actions. And also missing, is real solid examples on how to integrate Flash with JavaScript to create some truly dynamic web applications. The Flash 4 Bible is good for those needing some in depth coverage of Flash's features and benefits. Those who are looking for a quick Flash environment reference might be better off with the Visual Quickstart Guide. Those looking for serious Action Script help may need to pray for the Flash fairy to leave it under your pillow.
Rating: 
Summary: There are better Flash bibles...
Review: Frankly, as someone who does nothing but Flash work and is now teaching it, I would not recommend this book. It's basically a more expensive and slightly better organized version of the manual that comes with Flash. In a few cases where I tried to apply the information given (using forms), the info was actually faulty or incomplete and led to frustration rather than enlightenment. And this is from someone who knows action script very very well! Essentially, there are two books that stand out for me. For folks who want to learn Flash design and animation basics - Hillman Curtis' Flash Web Design is the best. For those who wish to learn action script, nothing can beat Flash 4 Magic. Both have real world examples and source files to back them up.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book but overly simplistic...
Review: I just bought this book and am an average web page designer. I was disappointed that I had to wait nearly until page 200 until I could learn how to make buttons. This book takes a much too in depth description of the toolbar before you get into the serious stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Do not look for examples or tutorials
Review: This book is great for a reference. However, if you are looking for tutorials with real examples and step by step help some books you may want to look at are Flash 4 Magic or Flash 4 - Creative Web Animation. These books offer more in the way of real examples and inspiration.
Rating:
Summary: For people who know nothing about drawing programs and Flash
Review: I have never worked with flash before in my life. I therefore chose the Flash Bible as it seems like it would explain everything in great detail(of course this is what I needed as I am a novice). After having read the book I can break the book up into three parts:(1)Learning your tools, (2) Learning the capabilities of flash, (3)Knowing what flash can do with other programs. 1- This section goes into great depth about the tools. This is very important but if you have worked on other drawing programs you will fly through these chapters(I must say that some of the chapters are very long winded). 2-The second section is what I bought the book for. It is supposed to tell you how to use flash(which it does) but lots of important things are never mentioned and little helpful tricks are never discussed. Some of the excersises are really poor. By this I mean you battle with the excises as they are not well explained(this might be a good thing -as one is forced to work out the example). 3-Latly the book goes on to explain how other programs relate to flash. This is great if you can get hold of those programs but alas I have not even heard of some of the programs so this section was useless to me. To give my overall impression: I bought the book to learn about Flash, 1third of the book I concidered helpful but that one third just never provided me with enough information. I must say though that it did give me an understanding on how to use the program and I would suggest people who have NO knowledge of drawing programs and flash should purchase this book. I must also stress the fact that I had to buy another book to help me on my journey with Flash.
Rating: 
Summary: Not enough tutorials
Review: The fact this book covers all the basics such as the what the tools do is good. But, this book brieflly covers how to make flash movies. The book could of given a few tutorials and the CD doesn't hardly have anything on it. The CD could of been packed with flash movies, instead just a few crappy movies are on it. The sections, "using flash with othe programs" is about half the book and could of been used more wisely by giving advanced tutorials.
Rating:
Summary: Good book!
Review: In spite of all the chaos surrounding "How to use Flash with other programs", I felt that it was one of the most important parts of the book! Think about it. How often are you in Premiere, Illustrator, Freehand, and Photoshop compared to Flash? My point is that you must understand how these programs relate with Flash, what works and what doesn't. Sure you will eventually figure it out through trial and error, but it's nice to know beforehand HOW and WHY something isn't working. Some programs mentioned are 3D Studio Max, Poser, Premiere 5.1, Aftereffects 4.0, Quicktime and Quicktime VR, Illustrator and Freehand. I am a short-time user with an intermediate skill level now looking for a good ActionScript book, which this book touches on, but does not explain well enough.
Rating:
Summary: If I knew now what I didn't know before...
Review: ...I would have purchased a different book. Sure, the Flash 4 Bible will teach you the tools of Flash 4, improvements over Flash 3, step-by-step instructions useful for development, and a CD filled with decent examples, however there are better Flash books available. Working against this book is the section devoted to "Using Flash with Other Programs" which could have been reduced to one chapter-sized appendix. ActionScripting could have used a section by itself, but it was briefly mentioned in about 20 pages in Chapter 15. Chapter 23, "Creating Broadcast-Quality Cartoons," could have been written into a "Flash 4 Cartooning Bible" rather than be included in a tutorial for Flash.
Rating:
Summary: Good basics, lacking in good overal website project example
Review: I am a novice user. I would have apreciated this book much more if it contained an overall website project from concept to finish. It does contain very useful information for a beginner, and that's about it.
Rating:
Summary: Burned Money
Review: I purchased 3 Macromedia products Bible books (Fireworks 3, Dreamweaver 3 and Flash 4). The structure in this particular book doesn't relate to the others. Certainly not a step by step book. It seems that the writers were using an earlier version of the software (not to say a different software), they keep confusing command names (file for edit f.e.). Not friendly, poor and incomplete examples, yet you can't say it's an advanced book.I gave up by chapter 12. If you want a headache follow the Pill technique on page 134. Which is a shame since that should be a very simple excersice. This is the worst software reference book I have ever purchased (and I buy over 8/year). Instead of printing Reader Level: "Beginning to Advanced", it should say: Writer Level:"Amateurish" . I should be asking for my money back.
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