Rating: 
Summary: From 0 to 60 in just a few chapters!
Review: I've started ordering Friends of Ed books right and left. They know what they're talking about and know how to teach it. Overall this is a great book if you are new to Flash. Each time I read a chapter, I went out and looked at other flash sites. Each time I said, "Oh THAT'S how they did it." Now on to the critique!There are a few points to keep in mind. This book is full of wonderful, clear tutorials that take nothing for granted. Every time my project didn't work, I went back and sure enough, I had skipped a line!. Now when I say full of tutorials, I mean, FULL. If you like to sit and read a while, you're out of luck. You won't go more than 2 pages without typing or clicking along with the examples. This is actually a good thing. =P By the end of this book you will be able to make stunning Flash movies. Be aware however, that it only has a baby guide to ActionScript. If you're interested in the coding side of Flash, you should get a book specificly for that. Also note, because there arn't a lot of people with Flash 6 Plugin(MX) installed on their browsers yet, the Flash 5 ActionScript guides are still applicable. Anything cutting edge probably wont play in 60% of browsers anyway (per usual).
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding! Best beginner book for FLASH MX!
Review: If you are looking for an easy to read, comprehensive, and practical book, and you've never used FLASH before, this is it! I've read through first 13 chapters in 1 week (including computer practice time). Great on-hands exercises with very practical assignments. Best of all, it's not an "OEM software manual" - hence it's written in layman's language, so you don't get bored as easily. I like the book so much I've ordered other "Foundation" books from these guys (Friends of ED) for the rest of my MACROMEDIA MX STUDIO software. As the name implies, this book is for beginners, so if all you want to use FLASH for is to create "static" movies with limited user interaction, than what you'll learn in this book will be plenty enough. However, if you are planning on building complete websites entirely out of FLASH, you'll need to learn Action Script - this book only gives you the basics on that.
Rating: 
Summary: A must for the Flash beginner...
Review: If you have not worked with a previous version of Flash, you will definitely need a beginners book. I recommend this book to help you build that "foundation." While it may explain procedures in an overly simple way at times, I can overlook this since a book can never be all things to all people. It's a fact that in order to learn a procedure, a person must be told several times how to complete it, and the authors make sure to repeat steps throughout the book. Believe me, you don't want to go back in the book hunting for that simple step you've forgotten. The book has many screen shots, which I appreciate, but the book didn't include a CD, thus the reader was directed to the publishers web site for optional support files. Was this a way to get the reader to visit their web site? Not a big deal, but I would like to have all the tools I need without seaching through a site to find them. I was very satisfied with the book, and wouldn't hesitate to get other titles from the publisher.
Rating:
Summary: Very clearly written...excellent start
Review: Not knowing much about flash beyond making text fade in and out, I needed a book that would take me a long way as well as start off slowly. Sometimes tutorial books can make you do the same stuff over and over. This book assumed you paid attention, yet didn't over 'test' you. Quite possibly one of the best how-to books on anything that I have read. After finishing the book last week, I am already integrating what I learned into 3 sites that I am doing for clients and look forward to what Flash MX has to offer. I was impressed enough that I will buy the book on Action Scripting by the same publisher...
Rating:
Summary: God bless "Friend's of Ed"!
Review: Outstanding book! I went from 'Moron' to 'God' in 603 pages!
What a fun program!
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional, concise, and understandable
Review: The book is organized in a way that makes sense- from the basics to the more advanced aspects. The explanations of tools, etc. are straight forward. I am able to read this and follow the step-by-step procedures for the various examples without having to wonder what the authors are trying to convey(always a good sign). I have tried to use Flash for a few months, without much success beyond animation. The book helps me to more easily understand the basics of actionscript and to put scripting to use for the first time. The authors also leave out some of the handholding in some of the examples, letting me work it out on my own. Overall, an outstanding job by the authors.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for the impatient
Review: The explanations in the book were great, and a bit better than the included Flash Tutorial, thus the 2 stars. However, if you already know some of the basics, and want to leap to more depth, you can't. The book is 100% tutorial (barely better than the tutorial that comes in Flash MX itself, so why buy the book?). In this book, you build a sample website from start to finish. Without the earlier tutorial sections completed, you have no files to use for the later sections. This makes the book useless. I also found some of the explanations a bit hard to follow in key places (ie., "click on all the content in the lower part of the window". WHICH window? The library window? The assets window? The main screen window? The paragraph before mentions all 3). If you are a rank beginner, this book is hard to use. If you are intermediate, you cannot use it. If it included a cd with advanced tutorial files ready (which Macromedia's included tutorial already does), or used task based tutorials, it would be more helpful. As it is, this book is useless to beginners or intermediate users, and contains nothing for advanced users.
Rating:
Summary: To much example, not enough reference
Review: The foundation books feel like my sons preschool class. Very fluffy, project oriented reading, but useless as a reference. Just get to the point and show me how to do it! There's a balance between example and reference that make tutorial books valuable, this book and other "Foundation" or "Friends of Ed" books I've bought or looked at weigh in too heavy on the example side and the "how do I do this" part is mucked up in the mire of examples. If you have NO flash experience what so ever, then this might (might) be for you, but if you've decided to finally get to learning the details of flash and start getting something out of it, then perhaps the Flash MX Bible would be a better choice, that was my choice and I'm much happier with it. My choice for ActionScript is Macromedias' Advanced Flash MX Actionscripting. It's not really advanced, but it is very clear and gets to the point.
Rating:
Summary: Humble Beginnings
Review: The reasons that the other reviewers found as cause for complaint about this book are the very qualities that I needed: Bite-sized lessons and lots of explanation. These are the things that were missing in my other Flash MX tutorial book (Flash MX Training from the source) that got me really stumped! I don't mind this humble approach at all. I didn't expect Foundation Flash MX to take me to the details of Action Script or other technical stuff or turn me into a guru like some of your guys. (In my dreams!) That would be work enough for other books and very propitious events like the next ice Age. Just like in baseball, I just needed to swing my bat, hit the ball right, get on the first base and be ready for the next run. Exactly what Foundation Flash MX does for me. I recommend this book to those who are learning on their own and can't seem to come to grips with the software.
Rating: 
Summary: for the true novice.
Review: This book could be re-titled Flash for Morons. It assumes you're not merely new to Flash, but that you have absolutely no technical experience, and very little technical aptitude. I'm not panning the book because this approach is ideal for the introductory pages, the first several chapters. The fundamentals of Flash are indeed presented very well. About halfway through the book, however, the approach becomes annoying. It is one thing to assume the reader has no idea what the heck is going on at the beginning of the book. It is another to assume the reader still has no idea what's going on halfway through it.
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