Description:
Although the title suggests that this book is for serious pros, Essential Flash 4 is actually an easy-to-read and accessible tutorial guide. Aimed at experienced Web designers looking to use Flash in real-world situations, it describes, in deceptive simplicity, everything you need to know to get started with Macromedia's Web page animation tool. Beginning with easy chapters that immediately have you creating text and graphics, the book launches into the steps needed to create practical Web pages. Although Flash is--among other things--an animation tool, the author shows how Flash can be used for Web page design and navigation. The small size of a Flash file, and its ability to include links and audio, makes it ideal for almost any kind of Web graphics and navigation scheme. Flash is a tool built for interactive animation, and this is covered well in chapters 2 and 3 ("Animating the Page" and "Making the Page Interactive"). The book also describes animating shapes, keyframes, buttons, and sound effects in simple tutorials that take you through the process without weighing you down in complexity. Of all seven chapters, "Publishing to the Web" had to be the most valuable. Learning to animate with Flash is something covered well in this book, but there is more to building Flash animations: namely, proper delivery of the file to the viewer. This chapter covers issues concerning which resolution to use, which Flash version to use (for compatibility reasons), preloading, optimizing, and detecting the Flash plug-in on the viewer's computer. It's unfortunate the publisher didn't include a CD-ROM. All of the tutorials must be typed in (a great way to learn perhaps), and this can severely limit the number of examples new users have access to. There is, however, a Web site hosted by the publisher from which the tutorials can be downloaded. For Web professionals new to using Flash, Essential Flash 4 serves well as a handy guide that wastes no time getting you up to speed on this powerful animation tool. --Mike Caputo
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