Rating: 
Summary: Perfect for intermediate users
Review: After completing Yeungs intro to flash book, I thought the title of this one would fit me perfectly. I was not dissappointed.
Having conquered the basics of flash, the next logical step is actionscript. Shane picks up nicely where Roseanna left off by introducing you to coding a website using actionscript. I found myself constantly nodding and saying "Now I could do the same thing by creating multiple movies but using actionscript makes it so much easier and decreases the file size significantly". He doesn't assume any prior knowledge of actionscript, and brilliantly walks you through the basics of each and every object he uses (even when the command is similiar to ones you have already used).
I don't understand how the previous guy had problems understanding the author. I am by no means brilliant when it comes to flash and I found myself skipping over a lot of his explanations because they were too detailed. And the exercises are flawless. I did have some problems working some of them out, but when I retraced my steps I found that it was my error and not Shane's (such as embedding fonts-- I followed the MAC directions when I had a PC). Another thing that guy said is that he doesn't use the LoadMovie command. I don't know how he missed the REASON why he doesn't use that command (it is now or will soon be deprecated). He clearly says this in the book and introduces you to a nice alternative (MovieClipLoader class -- Not the myMC which was just the object that was instantiated from this class). My advice to that guy is Yah Roseanna's book was great, but it's time to move on man. That was an introductory book and I know it's hard to learn new things after you have been taught one way, but this author will not lead you astray.
My only complaint is the material is dry. I mean ActionScripting just isn't as fun as tweening movies and making pretty animations but that is something that is unavoidable. Shane's writing style is refreshing and does a great deal to ease this boredom.
Rating:
Summary: This book put it all together
Review: After slogging my way through too many Flash books that start from scratch, and then trying to learn Actionscript by reading Macromedia's limp documentation, I had just about given up getting to the next level of Flash. Being the only "webguy" in our organization with lots of PHP to code doesn't leave me a lot of time to try and learn Flash.
This book put it all together. No lengthy tutorials on using the pen tool and designing pretty graphics, this book gets you right off to actually putting Flash to work on the web. I particularly appreciated the opening chapters on arganization of .swf files and the hierarchy used by the author. Actionscript is introduced gradually through the book and everything works as it should.
With this book you don't need to complete every tool that is offered. I skipped the MP3 player and Video, although I plan to go back to the video later. I was easily able to incoporate some small Flash apps I had written into the main parts of the Flash site. Most books don't give you options of using anything other than what the tutorials give you, making it hard to incorporate your own stuff.
I got through the bulk of what I needed to create a good Flash site in 4 days. However, I'll be going back and re-reading just about everything to reinforce for future projects.
One very small quibble. Although I like the author's writing style, I found the use of "smilies" in the book to be unprofessional. Leave that stuff to the internet. :)
Rating: 
Summary: Great book, but...
Review: After whizzing thru the Yeung introductory book for Flash MX I was anxious to dive into the Beyond The Basics book. The content did not let me down, it's a perfect fit for my skill level now. My only complaint is that, unlike the first H.O.T. book, some of the important training pieces are ONLY available as Quicktime movies. For instance, the chapter on building the MP3 player is great, but the step-by-step training for building the progress bar and volume control are not documented in the text, there is just a prompt to open movies on the CD. If I wanted to watch movies I would have bought a membership at lynda.com instead of buying a book! Don't be discouraged from buying the book because of this, just thought the author might read this and get a hint for next time.
Rating: 
Summary: Good...but slow
Review: I taught myself Flash using a variety of sources and I agree that finding "intermediate" books on Flash is quite difficult, so I was quite excited for this one. The instruction in the book is good and sometimes a bit too basic, but what kills me is the videos! (how many times do you need to explain the fact that the movie is running at 21fps??). I would also assume that most readers will be familiar with the concepts of cutting, pasting, creating new line breaks using return, and so forth.
Good concepts, but the explanations can be sped up quite a bit! (I've been running the movies at 2x the speed and understand him just fine).
Okay, now that that's off my chest. Good book.
Rating:
Summary: Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Beyond the Basics Hands-On Training
Review: I very like this book and wanna learning more this subject... hope u'll can help me to keep this book my own ... thx very much ...
Rating:
Summary: Its the right book for the subgect
Review: It is a great book, if you read it deeply you can learn and understand the subject - easily,
I have many Flash books and that one is so clear it took me four days to finis it include building the learning site (English is not my home language) it took me another two days to build a new site based on that book tutorial, you can see it live (it will be on-air for 2 month from august/04): http://esku.eilatinter.co.il/kc.html
Rating:
Summary: Take Flash 2004 to the Next Level!
Review: Let me just say that this book is fabulous. This is something the Flash community has needed more than it realizes! I've read a handful of books that get you started, and a handful of books that cover the most esoteric ActionScript programming possible... but there has simply not yet existed a book that covers the middle ground.For someone who knows the basics, even of an older version of Flash, this is the book you want. You learn how to make a complete, real, functional, PRO website using Flash, and you learn all of the must-know techniques that took me forever to figure out! Plus, the author teaches you the best practices for programming correctly in ActionScript 2.0, making this one of the few books to do so. All in all, I would recommend this book to nearly everyone interested in serious website development in Flash. It's a wonderful book.
Rating:
Summary: Liars
Review: Nice book on Flash, but the authors lie when they say you can use this software on Windows ME. I had tried some time ago to install Flash MX 2004 on my home computer (which uses Windows ME) and found that my operating system was not supported. The book comes with a CD with a trial version of the software. Because they state explicitly in the book that this program WILL work, I tried installing it again. No dice. The authors should have been more conscientious in checkng their facts; this doesn't give me confidence in the rest of their information.
Rating:
Summary: Great guide for 100% flash site
Review: This book is great. It takes you through the complete building of a 100% flash web site. When I was looking into how to great a complete flash site, I just couldn't find the information I needed. However, when I came across this book, it helped me understand everything.
Rating:
Summary: Macromedia Flash MX 2004 beyond the basics/hands on
Review: This is a wonderful well thought out book. The exercises were complete and worked EXACTLY as they said they would. I am an experienced Flash developer and I find this book very valuable to me and my department. The book takes you through intermediate steps on actionscript and the new cascading style sheets to be exported into Flash. Finally, a good book that talks more about true flash developing than just learning how to make a button or tweening something. This is a true book for intermediate to professional developers in Flash. You will not be sorry you bought this book.
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