Rating: 
Summary: Something for everyone
Review: Flash Bible is not just a book about Flash 4, but IS the book on Flash 4. Keeping pace with internet industry is tough enough if your a web designer, but if your a writer for a internet software manuel then your job is even tougher. This book details the information that the "quick" books have to leave off. For the beginner the first quarter of the book emphasis what is needed to get your flash site started. For the advanced users there are some great new and exciting things to learn (especially if your a reviewer) if you take the time and read some of the great advanced scripting techniques used by the authors and associates. All in all a great reference material book for those advanced users. and super material for the beginner if combined with the peachtree Flash 4 quickstart guide.
Rating:
Summary: The Flash4 Bible
Review: I have been looking for a book to supplement the Flash4 documentation available on the actual program.I am new to computer graphics, although, I have done much website editing and graphics editing-by-the-seat-of-my-pants. I was looking for a reference work that would pull it altogether. I came to Amazon.com to see what was available and went to my bookstore to look at the actual book and was very pleased. I was suprised at the tone of the negative reviews of this book. This book is very good for beginners to the animation world as well as to the world of Flash4. We all have to start somewhere and this book is a great place to start. And it "grows" well with you. This book, for me will become a great reference guide. If you are considering purchasing this book and are new to Flash, I wouldn't pay much mind to the negative reviews posted here recently. If you're like me you will appreciate this book because it does not assume that you landed on the planet a full-blown graphics-computer expert. And does it in a HUMANE way. This book is thorough and deep and will prove to be a useful reference over the long term.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow!
Review: This is the best Flash book I've seen so far (I haven't seen Flash4 Magic though I hear its good). Anyone familar with the Bible series knows that it is not a tutorial based book, but an indepth reference book. The Flash Manual often gives you a list of tools and short discription (if that, look at the section on ActionScripts if you don't belive me). The Flash4 Bible goes through each tool or feature and explains what it does, how to use it, tips on using it with other features, and cautions on potenial pitfalls. What more could you want? This book even has a full section on ActionScripts, that's FOUR Chapters! I wouldn't recommend this book for someone trying to learn the basics, but for anyone serious about learning Flash, it's a most have.
Rating: 
Summary: Gives the word Bible a bad name
Review: How did this book get passed anyone? Let alone the editors; let alone IDG? A bible serries book usually has more info than most books. But this book is just a collection of bits and parts -- without going into depth in any area. While there are some cool lessons on the CD, the rest of it appears to be thrown together at the last minute. I'm sorry I wasted my money on this one. I hope no one else does.
Rating: 
Summary: Weak. Avoid this one.
Review: Unless you're looking for another reference to sit there and get dusty along with your flash 4 user's guide, don't waste your money. This guide's top down approach lacks any depth or educational value. Its basically a rehashing of a reference guide here. You'll find little to no tutorial value if you're looking to learn. Stick with web based education until a real "bible" comes out.
Rating:
Summary: creativity can't be taught
Review: To the guy who said "It's weakness is that it doesn't showyou how to create cool things": A book can't tell you how to"create cool things" it can only tell you how to use the program, which this one does very well (I've been using Flash since version 2 and have read every book I've seen here on it, and this is one of the best references). Creating "cool things" requires imagination, creativity and skill, things which you don't get from a book.
Rating:
Summary: waste of money!
Review: This book is no value for who wants to learn Flash, even thoughyou are a beginner.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for those who want to create flash with FLASH
Review: This book is a good 30,000 foot overview of Flash, but I was quite disappointed that there was alot of bones, but no meat to sink my teeth into. If you are looking for something that will give you a good overview of Flash and what it can do, this may be ok, but if you want something that will teach you the innerworkings and help you create "flashy" Flash sites... go elsewhere
Rating:
Summary: A good reference that was rushed
Review: My main problem is the rushed quality. Case in point, look at the opening page of Chpt 8. It list Masking after Guide Layers. Guess what? It's not there. Other sections refer to this as well in Chpt 8 but it's missing. No section on Masking at all, anywhere in the book. Plus a no-frills CD-Rom and an unimpressive color page insert section. Could have been better.
Rating:
Summary: Underwhelmed and Underimpressed
Review: On the positive side, this is a well-written and well-edited book. On the negative side, this book does not contain any info you cannot find for free on the Web. Free Web tutorials as well as the Flash 4 User Manual will give you 90% of the info in this book. I thought the CD-ROM would contain cool examples and templates, but to my dismay the examples on the CD-ROM were very, very unimpressive. For such a powerful program and for such impressive sites that can be created with the program, the book does not even do justice to the program. I recommend the Macromedia-sponsored Flash 4 training courses. The course materials are better than this book. They actually show you how do create movies and scenes that work together. Also, forget about San Jose State University's Flash 4 classes. They stink! Looking for version 2.0 of the Bible to be much better in terms of content!
| 
