Rating:  Summary: Excellent Resource Review: Finally a really easy to use quick resource for Action Script. O'reilly's was good but, stopped at 1.0. This is an excellent book for 25 bucks and it's actually easier to use than the Help section of Flash. Buy it before they raise the price!
Rating:  Summary: Total ripp off [zero stars] Review: First of all, I am not that much of a review writer, but feel I have to add to the reviews above. I bought this book before the reviews above were written. If only I had waited. Anyway: why is this a ripp off? 1. it should have come with the software in the first place as the new help function within flash is totally unusable, and the documentation was far from complete. 2. it is full of mistakes, and the only erratum is the updated helpfunction with the software. 3. it was published at the time that even Macromedia knew that the documentation with their software was far from complete AND full of errors. Never could understand why they would repeat that unforgivable error in a book and dare ask money for it.As a sidenote: the docs with the software are updated in the meantime, so you might as well put your printer to work if you need a printed copy. Don't waste your money on this book. John
Rating:  Summary: Ask for your money back Review: I bought this book at the Macworld show, and am very disappointed to read that its full of errors, searched every forum I could find, and found that Peachpit DON'T even have an errata for this. I'm tired of trying to learn ActionScript only to discover that half the stuff written is full of sloppy mistakes. Having thumbed through it, the last 600 pages are a reproduction of the Flash Help Panel, which should have come with the software, the second 200 pages repeat the Reference book that came with Flash MX, and so we are left with 200 pages, of 6 articles by "Community Leaders" who few of the community seem to have heard of. There is no accompanying website for downloads or errata, and this book doesn't seem worth the investment.
Rating:  Summary: Not worth it Review: I bought this book because it was cheap and large, but it really doesn't have much in it worth the dollars I spent for it and the shipping. I've been though a lot of the reference, and realize it's just the same as the help, but worse because it isn't updated and still has the mistakes like some other people here mention. The articles are pretty good though, they're well written. I will give it that. But how useful they are is really quite questionable - a different book that told me how to do things I'm sure would have been more worth the cash. Plus I've never heard of these "community leaders" - where are they in the community? I make my way around, and I've only see one of these guys. So I'm really not happy, because most of this book just gives me a headache. Nothing was checked before they printed it - I'm sure that's why it was the first in the stores. All I do is continually enter their examples, test it in Flash, and then get errors. Then I have to go to the forums and lists and check and sure enough - yeah, it was an error in this book. What a waste of time!! That's why I give it a single star because so much of this book just wastes my time. Unless you already understand everything and can work out these erratas on your own, this isn't worth it.
Rating:  Summary: BE AWARE!! This book contains MAJOR script errors Review: I bought this thinking "Macromedia should knopw how to write a dictionary about their own product, right?" This book looks like went to press without even passing NEAR an editor's desk; in the first 5 references I looked up, four of them were incomplete or outright wrong. Syntax listings are written incorrectly, and I have found usage samples under code listings that just would not work, because they have been written incorrectly. Having worked with Flash for 6 years now, I was really hoping to have a nice handy reference to sit on my desk. This book is NOT it.
Rating:  Summary: Full of mistakes Review: I'm trying so many examples from this book and they're just full of mistakes. There's so much errata, there's barely a way I can really learn from this book. It is big and cheap, which is great. But that doesn't help me get my work done. The expert tutorials/essays are great, which is where the 1 star goes to. Not worth $35 though.
Rating:  Summary: This is the (included) documentation - errata and all Review: If you own Flash MX 2004 or Pro, you already have this book. This book is, word for word in most cases, the documentation that is incuded right in the Flash software. So really, there isn't too much point talking about the book because... you probably already have it. And as most of us know from the heartache it induces, it ain't too great. Now I've had to pay for it... twice. The thing I was hoping, upon this discovery, is that some tech editor went through and fixed it. Nope. The errata is still in there too. And I thought maybe some of the gaping holes in the docs were rectified. Nope! Not that either. So, based on all the mistakes and incomplete nature of the docs I really have to give this book a poor review. This book is incredibly disappointing. If you want the documentation you already own and have paid for printed out - then this is the book for you. If you, like me, think this is a waste of money despite being so cheap - save your cash for another book and don't repeat my mistake.
Rating:  Summary: Why get the hard copy when you have it built-in-Flash? Review: If you think, like me, you are going to learn how to create chunky codes by buying this book, think again. In fact, except for the articles at the beginning, most of the stuff in this book is in help section of Flash. If you open the help panel in Flash, search for whatever item in the dictionary, you will get sometimes exact descriptions what the dictionary says. Yet, it is a good reference, assuming you don't like reading off of a screen. This IS ONLY A REFERNCE. It is not going to teach you code, although they offer some sample codes depending on the feature you are looking for.
Rating:  Summary: Excellent ActionScript 2 Resource Review: It has all you need when you get in trouble with ActionScipt 2. Also at the beginning of the book you will see some very useful articles. This book is a resouce, is not going to teach anything, it will guide you through the problems you have.
Rating:  Summary: Not with someone else's barge pole... Review: Let me start off by saying that I knew before buying this book that the overwhelming majority of the material was a regurgitation of the online help information within Flash MX 2004 itself. Indeed, my main reason for buying was to have a hard copy of this information that I could plonk on my desk and refer to when necessary. The biggest issue with this book is that the reference section seems not to be indexed at all, and neither do these pages have tabbed edges. In addition, the version of the documentation this is based on is full of errors and has some gaping holes that have since been fixed in the online help documentation. All these combine to make the book completely unusable as a reference. Secondly, the articles are a complete waste fo time if you've done any basic reading up on the subject matter on the internet. You can find more helpful information on Flash MX 2004 and ActionScript 2.0 on the major Flash community sites, written by real community leaders that actually know what they're talking about. Admittedly I didn't buy the book for the articles, but had I done so I would have been severely disappointed. At such a low price, I didn't expect a lot from this book and was prepared to forgive a few minor niggles. What I've now got is a moderately expensive door stop, and I would recommend heartily that anyone thinking about buying this book think again. If I could have given this book zero stars, I would have done, so I'm now waiting for the Moock/O'Reilly book on ActionScript 2.0 and OOP, which is what I should have done in the first place.
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