Foundation Macromedia Flash MX

Rating:
Summary: The perfect book for beginners
Review: This book delivers all it promises. You will get the foundations that will help you explore Flash MX with confidence. A user said in a previous review that the book moves to slow but thats the way it must be when building foundations about something. I found that approach very convenient when learning. The way that the exercises and the main project is inserted with the explanations helps a lot. Well it's the right book if you want to start learning Flash MX.

Rating:
Summary: Good start.
Review: This book does a great job of holding your hand and leading you into the world of Flash. The writing style keeps the more mundane subjects from getting boring.
What I didn't like:
It gets sickening how they repeat instructions so often. It's not all that bad, and most of the time it's helpful because you might have forgotten a keyboard shortcut or something. The problem is that they teach you the long way of doing something, then teach you the quick and easy way a bit later, then assume you still want to use the slow way and so repeat the old instructions from then on.
The other problem is that you don't learn ANY Actionscript until halfway through the 600+ pages. That's fine if you just want to make Flash cartoons, but if you want to make even a simple Flash website, you'll have to wait until that halfway point (when you learn how to make buttons functional). So would-be web developers might get frustrated that they learn how to animate text before they can link pages with it. It's not like it's hard to learn ... Flash MX has what might be called an "Actionscript Wizard" so that you're not even typing it in yourself. Oh well. You can't please everyone. Anyway, it's still probably the best Beginner Flash book, especially for the money.

Rating:
Summary: Takes a bit of effort to go through, but real solid...
Review: This book is a VERY GOOD BOOK for those needing solid grounding in Macromedia Flash MX. It's so good that buying this one book replaces all the other books on the shelf to get solid grounding with how to use Flash. The language is easy to understand, without jargon that clogs your brain and tire you out before they get to the point.

If you're like me, you probably suffer from attention deficit disorder that is the trademark of the digital generation. Things come at you so fast, technologies popping up at you at speed of thought, and before you know it a new version of the software that promises miracles is out.

You will learn all you need to build a website in Flash MX and have a new career waiting for you, if you're any talented in aesthetic design, but there is a catch; If and only if you are patient enough to sit through the entire thing. It took me months to get to Chapter 11, and that's not even the end yet. The first 6 chapters went through easily, but then I always have stamina problems going through really thick, technical books. I probably have about 6 more chapters to go, and although it has taken me this long and will take a bit more of my time, I found some Flash MX books a waste of my money.

I have about 10 books on Flash MX in various forms, and this one is by far the best investment. Most books out there are robbing you in broad daylight, giving you a shaky foundation with so much jargon that it confuses you. Don't bother with the other beginner's books and buy this one instead. It will give you real skills, a real case study, and even some real-world Flash MX web development extras.

Rating:
Summary: Not so balanced
Review: This book is decent, but could use a little improving. It's assumed that you have the software to work with as you read so for students, this might be an issue. It's a great beginner book, but I found myself getting confused because there were steps missing, or assumed, and not enough detail given for a person to complete some of the tasks. In other areas, the book over explained simple things. Blah Blah Blah!

Rating:
Summary: Moves to slow
Review: This book is for someone who is not technically inclined, not just new to Flash MX. It moves so slow that it is hard to get into the book.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book, with a couple of caveats...
Review: This is the book I have used to get up to speed on Flash MX, and for the most part I have been really happy with it. If you like a structured walkthrough of the features of a product, with step-by-step exercises to cement an understanding of what you are learning, this book is for you. However, I must provide a couple of caveats:

- The authors are not always good at explaining what it is you are setting out to accomplish (in terms of learning objectives). I had a couple of experiences where 1/4 of the way in, I was asking myself "What am I supposed to be learning?", but by the time I hit the end of the example, I had an "Aha! That's what they're getting at!" revelation.

- The authors teach a practice of placing ActionScript code within movie clips and buttons, which is not conducive to OOP principles and re-use. The prevailing view amongst top ActionScript developers today is to pull the code out of instances of movie clips and buttons, to drive those objects from code in the main movie timeline. So there may be some habits to unlearn after using this book

Rating:
Summary: A Winner!
Review: With Macromedia Flash MX installed on my computer I was ready to go...until I opened the user's manual that came with the software. UGH! But a trip to the bookstore and the purchase of Foundation Macromedia Flash MX got me rolling in the right direction.

This is not a book you sit down and read. This is a book you put on your lap and sit down with in front of the computer and practice and practice and practice. The authors assume you know nothing about Flash and take you through simple, yet concise explanations of all the screens and panels used in the creation of Flash movies. Each chapter deals with a different topic such as: Managing Content, Flash Symbols, Masking, and Tweening and has step-by-step examples to work through. As you progress through the book, your newly acquired skills are reinforced and expanded upon. There are screen shots on every page to show where you should be, and if you are doing it correctly. I found that my knowledge of JavaScript was particularly helpful for understanding the chapters on Flash's ActionScript component.

There are two things I would like to see added in the next edition. First, the index needs expanding - time and again, I found myself looking for words in the index that were not listed. Second, there are always two ways to do things in Flash - the long way and the short way. I would like to see a summary, inside the back cover, of the shortcut keys, i.e. F6 = insert Key Frame. All in all, this is an wonderful manual for learning the Flash animation software.