Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Bible

I bought this book because it seemed comprehensive at 1000+ pages. Unfortunately, the author seemed to have a goal of writing a LONG book in mind, because even for somebody *completely* new to Flash and vector graphics as I was, I found myself questioning the neccessity of explaining practically every aspect of the interface and pretty much every nuance about the program.

For example, "to quickly erase everything in the current keyframe (even from multiple layers), double-click the Eraser tool in the Tools panel. Don't double-click on the Stage with the Eraser selected, but just double-click the Eraser button on the Tools panel. And -- poof! -- everything in the keyframe is gone." That's a random selection from the book, word for word, in which the exact same point is made several times. I also found my intelligence being insulted when opposite functions were described in equally great detail. For example, a paragraph describing what happens when you select a "plus" feature, and then the exact same paragraph but with "plus" replaced with "minus" describing the "minus" feature.

To put it into even greater perspective, the chapter "Making Your First Flash MX 2004 Project" starts on page 611. By the 250th page, I decided I'd like to actually get my feet wet and learned more by playing round with the interface for 30 minutes than I had in hours and hours of reading this gargantuan book.

If you're a beginner to Flash, pick up one of the Sams Publishing books. If you're not a beginner, don't even think about getting this book, as you'll find it as slow-paced as they come. I'm sure this book teaches you enough to get the ball rolling with your own animations and web interfaces, but there's simply no need to invest so much time into learning it the long way when plenty of other books offer the same development of skill in half the pages or less.

OK Reference Book - Not to Learn From (2/3 people found this helpful)

I bought this book intending to learn Flash from it from scratch, but I found that because its attempt to cover each topic in turn in great details that I made very slow progress. I then bought Flash MX 2004 Hands-On Training and found this a much better "teach yourself" type book. I expect later to return to the Flash MX 2004 Bible to explore some topics in greater detail.

excellent stuff! (12/12 people found this helpful)

I thought this book was very useful.
Everything was explained in layman's terms so I could go right back to basics.
I recently learnt Flash using the tutorials in the program but I just wish I had got this book instead - its much more comprehensive.
My only slight complaint is that there is no specific section covering error messages and troubleshooting. In order to troubleshoot, you need to read the section on what you are trying to do and the solution normally comes then, which is a bit of a time consuming way to do it.
All in all, a really useful book for beginners and very reasonably priced!

You need this book (46/48 people found this helpful)

If like me, you are new to Flash, you absolutely *need* this book. Itcomes with a CD which contains a full version of Flash MX 2004 (albeit fortrial use, but you can register it via the Macromedia website). This meansyou can get started straight away on some of the things the book teachesyou.
This book is laid out like the typical reference manual, with acomprehensive contents section and a useful index at the back. It featureshandy tutorials which will have you setting out your first Flash projectin no time, and loads of examples and tips.
I can't compare it to older Flash tomes, since I have just started outwith Flash MX 2004, but overall I would say the information presented isvital to anyone using Flash, whether a beginner or an expert.
It's just a shame the book isn't available in hardback, I can see I'mgoing to be using this book a lot.

Robert Reinhardt, Snow Dowd

Reader Reviews:

Far more detailed than it needs to be. (2/2 people found this helpful)

OK Reference Book - Not to Learn From (2/3 people found this helpful)

excellent stuff! (12/12 people found this helpful)

You need this book (46/48 people found this helpful)

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