Essential Flash 5 For Web Professionals

Rating:
Summary: Basically for simple instruction, some bonus material
Review: Here's the skinny on my rating:

The Pros: 1.Flash 5 for Web Professionals is simple and easy to read (ie. the author doesn't assume that you are a flash guru or a uber-techie). 2.The sections on flash plug-in detection and preloading are invaluable (some other more in-depth books forget about plug-in detection) 3. It explains the stuff you need in order to get started with a flash applications such as tweening, simple animated buttons, timelines, and sound--and it isn't the size of the Bible. 4. Publishing chapter is very helpful and easy to understand. 5. It has a 'live' website for you to see the lessons that you learned in action.

The Cons: 1. The insturctions regarding flash tools and effects are very basic (as in you will not know how everything works and how to do all that cool stuff one sees on icebox.com). 2. It is not aimed at the web professional, but towards the beginner and therefore never gets into the truly complicated, flashy and impressive stuff needed for high-end sites such as e-commerce sites, sites with database integration, and sites using movie-clip/draggable windows-type inspired navigation. 3. The site that you construct using this book and the 'live' website version of the book are truly--asthetically speaking--hideous and not inspiring in the creative department to say the least (but, hey, no one can make you be creative).

After weighing the pros and cons, I gave this book a 4 because of what it DID do for me that I found not explained as simply in better titles (such as Foundation Flash 5). I found the publishing chapter to be very helpful and even found use for the 'previous/next' button actionscripting explained in the book.

While certainly not the best Flash book out there, if you are a web professional then maybe this would get 3 stars and Foundation Flash 5 is far better for beginners, this book does deliver some worthy content for (the price).

Rating:
Summary: Conquering the Curve
Review: I actually thought this book was pretty good. I have never used flash but I learned to do a simple animation within an hour. I know there is a lot more to learn than this book offers but this book seems like its catered to beginners who want to get there feet wet...really wet!

Rating:
Summary: Fun book
Review: I actually thought this book was pretty good. I have never used flash but I learned to do a simple animation within an hour. I know there is a lot more to learn than this book offers but this book seems like its catered to beginners who want to get there feet wet...really wet!

Rating:
Summary: Ok
Review: I am still looking for that perfect reference book. I guess there is no such thing in any computer related subject. They either skim over an area or avoid it all together. This is another one of those. Granted its only 225 pages, and is quite helpful to those that are beginners. I want a book I can grow with not a beginner book.

Rating:
Summary: Not for me.....
Review: I thought this book would assume more knowledge of the user being that it says it's for web professionals. I thought it might get into database stuff and etc, but it didn't. I knew it would start very basic but was hoping it would delve deeper. It maintains anlevel that is rather basic. I would only recomend this book to someone who is new to flash.

Rating:
Summary: Pass this bookk by
Review: I would not suggest this book for my worst enemy. It is possibly the worst Flash book available. It is useless as a learning tool and as a reference book. A prime candidate for the recycle bin.

Rating:
Summary: Conquering the Curve
Review: Some learning curves are so high that it takes a TON of concentrated effort to become proficient. I bought this book a year ago and it was a GREAT starting point.

I know consider myself an expert, having read and absorbed the whole Flash 5 Bible, and more...but I never would have understood the BIBLE had I not worked through this book. It's one of those things that WHILE you're learning...you don't understand, but then afterwards...you're like OH! I GOT IT!

It's a pretty neat book. The only thing I don't like about it is that there is no cd...the files had to be downloaded, which was a pain as I learned Flash on my laptop...but still...

DEFINATELY A GOOD BOOK TO GET YOU STARTED