Review of Inside Flash (With CD-ROM) [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

Inside Flash is a wonderful book! I am amazed at how thorough it is, while being friendly and easy to understand. This book is an excellent choice for anyone who is new to Flash, but is also complete enough to be a valuable resource to experienced Flash users.

The author understands which aspects of Flash web designers need to know, and has done an excellent job of teaching those aspects. I've read a number of Flash books, and some explain various features of Flash, but leave the reader wondering how to use those features in real life web design. This book is a real world book. Each chapter teaches excellent techniques that can be used right away. It teaches basic techniques, but also teaches many exciting, advanced techniques.

Without listing the entire table of contents, some of the best sections include: Text Effects, Transitions, Character Animation, Sound, Menu Systems, Interface Techniques (drag and drop, custom cursors, sliders, scrolling text window, etc.), Web based learning applications and XML. And it teaches all of these in an enjoyable, easy to understand manner.

I am glad to have this book on my shelf. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn Flash or needs to advance his or her current Flash skills. To the author I say "Well done!"

Product Description

Inside Flash 5 is hands-on, tutorial-based instruction on how to use Flash that goes several steps further than perceived competitors and provides more advanced-level instruction, including a quarter of the book on ActionScript. Inside Flash 5 shows the program's functionality from a practical, project-based, best-practices approach; the book teaches how to get results using the tool, rather than simply reviewing the functionality of each button on the interface. Chapters begin with preview goals, feature complete and practical projects that are designed to further the skill-sets of working professionals and serious students, utilize sidebar information sections that add context to the general discussion, and finish with review material that helps many readers buttress what they've just learned.

From the Publisher
The first comprehensive Flash book that recognizes this one true thing: There exists a core of knowledge that everyone-Flash designers AND Flash developers-needs to know.

What's the difference between a programmer and a creative? With Flash, that's a damn good question...

It's a unique book. A unique approach. To a unique technology. Coders and creatives both drawn equally to this thing called Flash. Each riffing in different directions off the same tool.

Inside Flash is aimed at two very different audiences: artists and programmers. We know we can't turn the artists into hard-core programmers or the programmers into gifted artists, but if both groups use this book, we definitely can bring about a meeting of the minds. The more each group understands how the other thinks, the better chance each has of leveraging the true power of Flash 5. Development in Flash has truly become a collaborative effort; Inside Flash recognizes that fact, and the authors--a uniquely talented combination of designers and developers, all dancing in the trenches every day--do a tremendous job of reflecting where Flash development is headed, rather than where it's been...

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