Rating: 
Summary: A cut above the rest!
Review: Don't judge this book by its cover, even do it's one of the worst in its kind. I read many Flash books trying to learn more about ActionScripting not just how to edit a color or adding links. For that purpose it became an excellent source of information, with guided examples for the non-expert but neither dummy
Rating: 
Summary: Don't judge this book by its cover
Review: Don't judge this book by its cover, even do it's one of the worst in its kind. I read many Flash books trying to learn more about ActionScripting not just how to edit a color or adding links. For that purpose it became an excellent source of information, with guided examples for the non-expert but neither dummy
Rating:
Summary: Flash your knowledge
Review: Good thing about this author is that he is a proper teacher of Computer Graphics at Purdu University. He knows the Graphics related issues. He has choosen a very good approach to teach the concepts of Flash. He has explained every thing and its underlying reasoning which makes your concepts very strong. After learning Flash from this book, I am able to easily use other macromedia tool like dreamweaver. Because timeline's concept is almost the same. Similary Adobe' Livemotion which uses almost the same methodology of developing flash animations.In nutshell, this book is Good for those who have 'why' element about the things they are learning. This book is excellent for developing foundations of Flash 4.0 very strong.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but not great
Review: I found this book to be "good but not great". It is a useful "second step" to further understanding Flash 4 after you have read Ulrich's "Flash for Windows and Macintosh" in the Visual Quick Start Guide series. However, on a number of instances the tutorial files wouldn't open (I have a PC)and on occasion it seemed that the step by step exercises would miss a crucial piece of information to allow one to follow along accurately. Also, on some occasions the author wouldn't tell you how to do a certain step he instructs you to do and often there is given no commentary as to why you are doing something in the exercise. You are often just instructed to do certain steps without knowing why. Again, overall this is a good book, but it seems that the author may have gotton most of his feedback from those who were already more advanced students of graphics and animation and could pick up better the gray areas in book where he is not clear.
Rating: 
Summary: this book was terrible
Review: I tend to think that the people who have been writing great reviews about this book are friends of the author or maybe the author himself. This is the worst book on Flash I have ever read. The examples are horrible - it seems as though the author does not have much experience himself with Flash so he could not include many good examples. If you want to purchase a great book on Flash get 'Flash 4 Creative Web Animation' or the 'Flash 4 Bible', both excelent books. Steve
Rating:
Summary: Good but not great
Review: I won't retype what all these other reviews have already stated - I'll simply agree that this book has it all and is the best computer book I've ever used. It is clear, informative, and complete. Mohler starts every section with great introductions, provides excellent excercises (and, a rarity in comp books, actually explains references he makes to other chapters, excersises and tools), and also provides lots of "real-life tricks of the trade" and follow-up with related projects and links. It's hard to impress on others the superbness of this book if you are looking to learn Flash. I cannot wait till his next one (on any topic!!).
Rating:
Summary: A must have
Review: Let me first start off by saying that I am a PC user(I am stating this because in the reviews I see a mac user had problems with the execises.) This book takes you from grassroot levels all the way to the top. 1) It starts off by explaining the basic tools. If one has worked with Flash or other drawing programs you fly through these chapters. 2)It then moves on to explain the ins-and-outs of Flash4. 3)Finally the last two chapters explain the programming side of Flash4, namely ActionScripts and how to use FS Commands. So what makes this book excellent.... The autor - James L. Mohler(Great Work - I take my hat off to him). He gives more than enough excersises, explaining step for step what to do. I never once felt lost or confused as the completed excersise is on the CD.After each chapter he gives you reference materials which you can go and do extra "home work". He never seems satisfied in just explaining the basics and often puts a little effort in by giving you tricks and tips on how to do things. The only thing that I can hope for now is that he will bring out an advanced book Focusing on the ActionScripts and FSCommands. I also hope that he will bring out a book in flash5. James well done.
Rating:
Summary: A must have
Review: Let me first start off by saying that I am a PC user(I am stating this because in the reviews I see a mac user had problems with the execises.) This book takes you from grassroot levels all the way to the top. 1) It starts off by explaining the basic tools. If one has worked with Flash or other drawing programs you fly through these chapters. 2)It then moves on to explain the ins-and-outs of Flash4. 3)Finally the last two chapters explain the programming side of Flash4, namely ActionScripts and how to use FS Commands. So what makes this book excellent.... The autor - James L. Mohler(Great Work - I take my hat off to him). He gives more than enough excersises, explaining step for step what to do. I never once felt lost or confused as the completed excersise is on the CD.After each chapter he gives you reference materials which you can go and do extra "home work". He never seems satisfied in just explaining the basics and often puts a little effort in by giving you tricks and tips on how to do things. The only thing that I can hope for now is that he will bring out an advanced book Focusing on the ActionScripts and FSCommands. I also hope that he will bring out a book in flash5. James well done.
Rating:
Summary: This book was a terrible dissappointment!
Review: The author includes hundreds of lame work along type exercises which don't explain how flash works. Also, many very important topics are not fully covered such as how to execute a movie from a button. And some of the examples like how to create a drop down menu don't even work! Every time I was trying to implement a new component of flash, I ended up searching the internet flash resourse directories for the answers because the book just didn't contain any! I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book excellent support files
Review: The fact that Mohler is a teacher really comes through. Unlike so many books i read which are rewrites of the manual this one really shines through: Everything is throughly tested and the book files continue to be updated at the web site. If i had anything bad to say it is that the book is thin on action script (though it is the best out there)but he explains it well. I hope he does an advanced book on focusing on action script i will certainly buy it.
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