Rating: 
Summary: Finally a book that describes tell targets meaningfully
Review: I have been researching web sites as well as purchased books trying to find information that explains the uses of action commands with Macromedia's Flash 4. Well here it is folks. In less than 30 minutes I have a better grasp of the 'tell target' than months of research. This book is a must for any intermediate flash user that wants to expand their trade beyond the basic interaction of Flash. The authors go into detailed explanation of how action scripts work. It's about time we see this type of publication that we never get from Macromedia. Thanks and hats off to the authors.
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Summary: It is truly a bible =)
Review: I've just got this book too!" I was pretty excited when it finally came into my front porch. This book is totally awesome, I do have to admit they do go into detail about everything, even the dang stroke pen hehe. This does lack some tutorials but I'm just thinking it just gives you an idea what Macromedia Flash 4 is and what it can handle. I do plan to buy "Flash 4 Magic" because of their tutorials. A book with tutorials and a book with inside details is a great combination! Having both books will lead you to a great flash site! Promise!
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly Thorough Resource
Review: I finally got my hands on this book. It does an excellent job of presenting all the in's and out's of Flash 4. The book is logically organized and easily usable by beginners and advanced users alike. The knowledge in this book and on the CD makes it a MUST HAVE for any serious flash developers. I would also recommend "Flash 4 Magic", for higher end developers.
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Summary: Among the best Flash books
Review: I have got to admit that I learned more from J. Scott Hamlin's Flash 4 Magic, but this is a great book. Like Flash 4 Magic, this tomb doesn't spend lots of time telling how to make rectangles, but it does tell you how to active script and other things that you won't find in the Flash 4 manual. If you're new to Flash, I suggest reading the Macromedia Flash manual that comes with the program to learn the basics and then read this book. And if you're already an advanced Flasher, I would buy Flash 4 Magic and if you want to buy another book, I would get this one. I have both books and use them constantly. You can't go wrong if you buy both.
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Summary: The only comprehensive and exhaustive Flash 4 reference.
Review: About a year ago, when we started this project, we went to the bookstores looking for anything on Flash. Back then Flash books weren't readily available. So we went online and ordered both books that were in print at the time. To our dismay, we found that neither of them afforded much of an alternative to the manual that ships with the program. We wrote this book because we couldn't find a book that does the program justice. We were encouraged to write it because so many Flash users informed us that they were "desperate" to have this book. We believe that we have remedied the problem. We're confident that the Flash 4 Bible is the most comprehensive and exhaustive reference on Flash, as you'll see when you peruse the sample Table of Contents at the end of this statement. This is a user-friendly, in-depth book that will serve both the web novice and the accomplished web master. The Flash 4 Bible will help you to get started on your first day with the program and will still be a valuable resource when you've attained mastery of the program. When you are looking for clues on how to integrate Flash with other programs so that you can deliver unique and compelling content in the Flash format, you'll know where to turn. Flash isn't a simple program anymore. You can think of Flash as a editor, an animation machine, and a scripting engine...all rolled into one. In the Flash 4 Bible, we dissect these components of Flash and explain how each component of the program works with the others. But the Flash 4 Bible offers you so much more than a documentation of the features of the program. It also delves into the many ways that Flash can be used in concert with other programs to create high-quality multimedia-everything from 3D animations to complex interactivity between Flash and Director movies. Since Flash is rarely used as the complete content creator for interactive presentations, we thought readers would be interested in how Flash fits into a workflow for interactive multimedia development. Furthermore, in the transition between versions 3 and 4, Flash has evolved into a powerful application and the feature set of Flash movies has been greatly expanded. Once the domain of Flash's dynamic server component, Generator, now Flash movies can communicate directly with server-side scripts and programs. Sounds can be encoded as MP3 audio, for high-quality music on the web at the smallest file sizes. Finally, the Flash interface looks and feels like other Macromedia products, with more tool options and docking windows. Third-party developers are creating applications that output to the Flash movie format, .SWF files. Flash is poised to be THE central application for generating hot, low-bandwidth, interactive content for delivery over the web. So, even if you already know Flash, we're pretty sure that this book will show you more that a thing or two about Flash and it's linkage to a broad array of other applications. We've gone to great lengths to ensure that our lessons, examples, and explanations are based in reality (not that the web is real!). To accomplish this, we invited some of the top names in the Flash industry to lend us their tips and techniques so that you could benefit from their years of expertise. To ensure that the Flash Bible would be as technically accurate as possible, we enlisted the aid of Paul Mendigochea (Flasher.net), Chrissy Rea (Flashlite.net), Colin Moock (Moock.org), Bill Turner (Turnertoons.com), Justin Jamieson (mediumLarge.com), and many others. Not only did these individuals double-check our work, but they also contributed tutorials to the book. Here's an abbreviated Table of Contents to give you an inkling of the thoroughness of the Flash 4 Bible. INTRODUCTION PART I - Mastering Flash Framework Chapter 4 Menus, Palettes, Settings, and Preferences Chapter 5 Getting Flash Help PART II - Creating Flash Graphics Chapter 6 Drawing in Flash Chapter 7 Using Media with Flash Artwork Chapter 8 Animating with Flash PART III - Sound Planning Chapter 10 Understanding Sound for Flash Chapter 11 Controlling Sounds in Flash Chapter 12 Optimizing Flash Sound for Export PART Gaining Advanced Control Over Your Movies Chapter 15 Programming Flash with Actionscript Chapter 16 Revving-Up Flash Generator PART V - Using Flash with Other Programs Chapter 17 Working with Raster Graphics (Photoshop, Fireworks, LivePicture) Chapter 18 Working with Vector Graphics (Freehand, Illustrator, Streamline) Chapter 19 Working with Audio Applications (SoundEdit 16 (Mac), SoundForge 4.5(PC), Peak (Mac), DECK II (Mac), Acid Pro (PC), Rebirth (Mac/PC) ) Chapter 20 Working with 3D Graphics (Introduction to 3D Modeling, Simulating 3D with Flash Artwork, Using Adobe Dimensions to Create 3D Objects, Animating Figures with MetaCreations Poser, Exporting Animations from Kinetix 3D Studio Max) Chapter 21 Working with QuickTime Chapter 22 Creating Full-Motion Video in Flash Chapter 23 Creating Broadcast Quality Cartoons Chapter 24 Working with Authoring Applications (General - HTML & WYSIWYG Apps, Dreamweaver, Director) PART VI - Distributing Flash Movies Chapter 25 Exporting Shockwave Flash Movies Chapter 26 Structuring Flash Content (Writing Markup for Flash, Browser Compatibility, Using Flash with JavaScript and DHTML) Chapter 27 Using Players and Projectors APPENDIX -- Contact Information for Authors & Contributors
Rating: 
Summary: Oops....
Review: Have worked earlier with Flash 3, although still being at an advanced novice level, I expected great things from the Flash 4 Bible when I purchased it to further my knowledge. Unfortunately, what I found was entirely too much generalized information at the beginning of the book...and tutorials where steps were missed entirely, as well as other tutorials which gave incorrect information. For instance, one tutorial instructed the user to select a previously-created button while in a movie clip screen, and then access Modify/Instance. Unfortunately, Modify/Instance was not available from that screen, but was greyed out, and it required one to return to the main screen to access. In the same tutorial, the author neglected one step entirely. I found the missing step entirely by accident, simply by playing with radio buttons to see what function each accomplished. I suppose this wouldn't be too much of a nuisance, if one had all the time in the world to sit and just click on options until one worked. However, in the real world, most of us don't have that sort of time or patience. Needless to say, my money was wasted on this book.
Rating: 
Summary: No Payoff.
Review: It's like reading the manual really, really slowly. After weeding through the basic stuff, which can't be helped nowadays, you only find more generalized, basic information. I expected a lot more coming from a lot of the leaders in the flash industry. Granted there were some great chapters, generally by contributing authors, but even these were available sooner online. I think perhaps, this book chose to be too broad in covering every aspect of flash, which led to having to skim over certain areas that users at my level find most crucial. For a beginner who is put off by the manual for whatever reason, this is a great book. For someone who has already taken on flash, this book will become tiresome. Had this book arrived at the release of Flash 4, then it certainly would've faired better, at least with me. 3 stars because it's valuable to some and not to others. Hope the Flash 5 bible can surpass the already provided documentation for Flash 5.
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Summary: Better than the training manuals
Review: Macromedia is not known for having great training material. In fact, the Flash online subculture provides better insight than the program manuals. With this in mind the Flash 4 Bible does a good job at teaching you the basics of Flash. This book falls flat when it comes to ActionScripts (but so do most Flash books). You will not become an expert in Flash from this book. To do that you will need Hillman Curtis' "Flash Web Design" (the best Flash book I have ever seen). For the new Flash user, or someone who enjoys the format of these series of books, Flash 4 Bible is a good reference tool.
Rating:
Summary: Best Used For Reference
Review: This book provides an overview of using Flash, not a tutorial. While the book does cover a great many topics, it does not provide much in the way of meaningful step-by-step examples. Therefore, the book resides more in the reference camp--one you should keep by your desk when you hit those "forgetful" moments with Flash.
One element that does work in this book's favor is the lack of many good treatments on this topic. So, if you were looking to learn Flash I would buy this book in addition to one focused on step-by-step examples, like Flash 4 Magic.
Rating:
Summary: There are better Flash bibles...
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.
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