 "Very pleased" | 2010-06-16 |
| - Reviewed By Bruno Lazzari |
| Very pleased. Book in good condition and the same for the CD that came with it. Thanks |
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| "Great book for flash starters" | 2009-10-05 |
| - Reviewed By journalist from Memphis, TN |
| Even if you already have flash cs4, this book gives you the basic rules of flash, something that the more advanced books fail to mention. If you are just now getting familiar with flash, this is a great start. |
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| "Simply the Best" | 2009-06-27 |
| - Reviewed By Adult ESL Instructor from Pittsburgh, PA |
I'm 34 years old and have no animation background, HTML background, and barely the wit or the inclination to understand a complicated computer application. I very simply need to design interactive web pages for a language teaching project I have in mind, and I thought it best to start with this outdated version of Flash.
And so, for a song, I bought this book. I also bought Foundation Flash MX 2004. And others. To date, I have bought nine books on Flash.
This book made a beginning possible for me.
Flash MX 2004 H-O-T will take you from zero, and I do mean zero, to a place where you can function independently in Flash MX 2004. The exercises are well-written, the editing is far better than is usual in books of this nature, and the writing is clear and well-organized.
All in all, it accomplishes its teaching purpose better than anyt of Flash book I have bought, and it does it better by a mile.
Of course, there are things you need to be aware of.
1. Do not buy this book without the CD. The CD is an integral part of this volume, and you can't find the files anywhere else.
2. If your usual error-threshold in computer-instructional books is like mine, you usually look at something twice and assume that there's an editing error or a printer's error involved. Not in this book. You need to be dead sure before you assume that the team that put this one together screwed up. I have only found five minor errors in this book.
3. The projects detailed throughout the book are linked to snowboarding. I am not a rich-kid-sports enthusiast, and I found the topic insipid from time to time. However, I am well aware that a book like this needs an action-filled activity to keep it from getting monotonous.
4. Five or six of the later exercises, where details of ActionScript 2.0 are explained, hurry through exercise descriptions without really helping a novice programmer such as myself understand exactly why I'm doing what I'm doing. At some point, the cost involved in producing the volume and the usual demands of much of the anticipated market of more advanced Flashies in 2004 looking to get up to speed on a new version, seems to have dictated that the advanced exercises get trimmed of excessive explanation. Yes, you can repeat the exercises, but it's a letdown.
5. Rosanna Yeung's writing style features a number of cutesy-poo interjections including but not limited to such gems as, "Awesome!" and "Sweet!" not to mention chatty advice to take a break and exhortations challenging my stamina. These stylistic features do not improve this volume.
6. If you jump right into each chapter's tutorials and skip the introductory explanation sections that explain panels and settings that lead each chapter, you're going to get stuck in the middle of the chapter because you won't know how to find a button or checkbox or whatnot that was detailed in the introductory sections.
7. The chapters are not of equal length, so if you set day-to-day quantitative goals instead of time goals for yourself as an autonomous learner, you're going to have to deal with finishing later chapters slower than earlier chapters.
8. Buy a good, clean copy. You will use this book as a reference volume for a long, long time. The paper can take highlighting, but the binding is not designed to last forever, and it's difficult to repair, as I have found from first-hand experience.
I am already sure that the six dollars I spent for this book is the most profitable educational bargain I have ever taken advantage of. |
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 "Not Quite As In Depth As I Wanted" | 2008-12-29 |
| - Reviewed By Mr. Manican from Myrtle Beach, SC USA |
| This is interesting if you just want to learn the basics. There are few practical applications of flash in this book. If you can get past this you will realize this book is well written and an excellent guide for the beginner of Flash MX 2004. |
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| "Great for Beginners" | 2007-12-08 |
| - Reviewed By Been There Done That from Gillett AR. |
| This is really an absolute must for beginners. I am 76 and have been using computers for a few years and wanted to learn doing web sites. I just wish they had a book like this to learm Dreamweaver and it would have been easy to learn. When I went to learn Flash it was easy and all I can say is WOW. You can learn Flash easily with this book. If you really want to learn Flash and you are a beginner this is the book. |
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| "Best of its kind" | 2007-09-02 |
| - Reviewed By Trouser Roller from Travelling |
| I've learned a whole raft of software by following the lessons in assorted books, but I must say this one topped the lot. I'm reasonably savvy at website work (I use Dreamweaver and Fireworks) and wanted to introduce some animation on our website, so it's time to begin learning Flash. This book is incredibly easy to follow (tells you what it's going to tell you, then tells you, and then tells you what it told you), puts everything in the right sequence, and gives context or big-picture explanations exactly when they're needed. Outstanding. |
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