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Rating: 
Summary: A great supplement to Macromedia's On-Disc "Lessons"
Review: I can only say this book provided much needed information at just the right time for me. I just purchased Flash 3.0, read through the User Guide, visited the Macromedia Web Site, and worked through the Flash 3.0 on-disc lessons. Still, much of Flash's basics seemed obscure to me. Once I opened Darrel Plant's book--and began working through the lessons--the basics started to jell. The book covers importing vector art from other apps such as Adobe Illustrator. It does a nice job covering the Flash drawing tools (make sure to supplement this with Macromedia's on-disc tour of the drawing tools). Overlays and symbols are explained. Frames and layers are clearly covered and "tweening" examples and exercises help the reader understand Flash's animation capabilities. The book finishes with chapters about Actions (Flash and the Web, Button Effects, and Complex Actions), Sound, Delivering Movies, and a great set of Appendices covering transmission speed, HTML tag references applicable to Flash, Browser Scripting & Shockwave Flash Movies, Using Aftershock for automatically generating HTML code, etc. Sure, it may not be on par with Adobe's excellent "Classroom in a Book" series, but how books are? If you're already well versed in Flash, or gleaned all you needed from Macromedia Flash's on-disc lessons, then this book may be a disappointment. Nevertheless, this book was fun to work through and provided much needed information and guidance for this novice. Thanks, Darrel Plant for writing one of the few "tutorial oriented" books about Macromedia Flash 3.0 that I've been able to find.
Rating: 
Summary: A useless book! Don't waste your money!
Review: It's indeed an useless book for those who have the manual. Even if you don't have the manual, I suggest you can visit some online Flash tutorial sites. Cos the presentation of this book is so poor! The publisher is going to release the 3rd edition which has updated to version 4. However I have no confidence in the authors and the publisher anymore. (They don't even borther to change the book cover design in the coming edition!)
Rating:
Summary: A useless book! Don't waste your money!
Review: This book helps and really inforces the basic Flash funamentals and will get more beginners on the right track. If your lost in Flash's interface, don't know what layers are, and learn a few things about animation, this book would be a good buy for you. You'll also learn how to design a Flash movie and have it ready to launch on the Web. I found the tutorials in the book a tad on the boring side, nothing really that looks nice or too complex. On the other hand, the book goes into some HTML and using AfterShock to configure and tweak up your projects. If your want to learn about Flash, or you just got interested in Flash, I recommend this book, whether you have Flash 4, this book will be fine (aside from Flash 4's new interface). If your looking for special effects how-tos and advanced Flash design, you won't find anything too advanced or complex out of this book.
Rating:
Summary: The worst software manual I have ever read
Review: This book is so bad that it finally drove me to actually write a review. While the author probably knows what he is talking about he has absolutely no idea how to convey it to the reader. The book is boring, dull, non-linear, you get the point. There is probably worthwhile information contained somewhere within its covers but I'll be damned if I can stay awake and interested enough to find it. Too bad this book can actually turn someone new to Flash off from the excellent software it purports to teach.
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