Customer Reviews

Director 7 and Lingo Authorized (2nd Edition)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

macromedia's Authorized series of books are fine if you must learn by being hand-held through a series of steps throughout. Unfortunately, you miss out on the context of what you're doing if you just follow steps. A much better book, especially for the beginner, is Roberts/Gross's Director X Demystified. That book assumes that you want to learn the whys and not just the by-the-numbers hows of multimedia development. Demystified also covers Lingo in much more depth.

If you're developing a Dummy library then this book is a must have. D7 & Lingo Authorized isn't a bad bood but it's hard to figure who the target audience is...If you're a client working w/ multimedia and want a surface knowledge of this programme, then it makes sense. But if you really want to learn D7, you might as well start w/ the infinitely superior D7 Demystified. Oddly enough, though Phil Gross worked on both books, they are polar opposites. D7D is not only informative and definitive, it's also an engaging read. D7 Authorized is not very engaging, incredibly simplistic and not exactly error-free. The writing itself is so void of personality and pedantic, one will find themselves paging ahead to relieve the tedium. Even if you know absolutely nothing about D7, Demystified is a better start.

BUY this book. - Explanations are a little rough - and sometimes seem a little "cut-off". Probably a problem with me because I have no prior multimedia editing experience. General knowledge of multimedia programs similiar to this program is helpful. GOOD, easy to follow tutorials are explained. A problem I sometimes had was when I did NOT get the result that The TUTORIAL SAID i WAS SUPPOSED TO GET. Me, being such a premie, I didn't know how to trouble-shoot it. This book is still one of the best out of the 4 DIRECTOR 7 books I purchased. DO NOT BUY THE DIRECTOR 7 QUICK START guide BY PEACH-PIT IF YOU ARE NEW to director 7 ! I SPENT TOO MUCH TIME reading entire book and - LEARNED NOTHING THAT THIS BOOK DIDN'T TEACH ME IN THE FIRST few CHAPTERS!

I bought this book for a class that I was taking in Director. This was the textbook that we used in the class, and after using it, I was not satisfied.

This book consists of tutorials that you perform, which increase in difficulty as you progress. However, instead of teaching you Director and Lingo, and how to use them, this book just has you do mindless tutorials. Sure, it tries to explain a few things along the way, but for the most part, you just follow directions, and do the tutorials.

I learned a whole lot more about how to use Director and Lingo from Director 7 Demystified. It explained things in clear terms, and taught you how to USE the program, instead of just telling you what to do next for the tutorial. Demystified is also a vast reference for Director and Lingo, whereas once you go through the tutorials in this book, you will probably never come back to it.

If you are trying to learn Director, I would definitely go with Director 7 Demystified.

I give only one star because I allready got the Director 6 and Lingo Authorized (good one). The book is very good but someone must prevent buyers from buying this book if they got Director 6 and Lingo Authorized. The book is practicaly the same. If you do not have D6 book this is a good one. I personally want my money back but ....

I bought this book with no background in Director. I only know Flash. The approach of this book is a step by step tutorial. I find it useful as a newbie. However after I finished all the exercise, I still have lots of unanswer questions. For example, how to use the Shockwave Multiusers server, and how to make more complex design with lingo, etc. I then read the official manuals, documentation and Director 7 Demystified. They do answer some of my questions. I find the latter book can give me a more solid foundation of Director than this one.

I think Director 7 and Lingo Authorized is good for beginners who know nothing about this application. The step by step tutorials does help me to feel and to remember all the basic functions. This is an okay book. However for those who want to go deeper into it as well as lingo, you ought to read Director 7 Demystified too since it has a bigger section on lingo script. Macromedia is famous for its support and learning site. The official documentation is also a very good source to learn, esp. their manual on the shockwave multiusers server. I cannot find much information on this server in most Director books.

As Being new to director this book was relly well set out. It hepled me know all the basics if director a abit more. I recomend anyone to get this if you are a biginner it would realy help you out.

Like the one dissenting voice in this collection of rave reviews, i would like to point out that although this is a fair to good book for beginners, it does repeat elements in every chapter ,(representing them as new...as if the chapters were not written consequently) which in the end represents a waste of ink and paper and information for those who have shelled big bucks for this book ($90 Canadian!) However, i did like the book, it did a good job of coddling the reader through the beginning phase of using this program. I just feel a little unhappy that what with the size of this book, and cost, it didnpt impart more in the way of useful information beyond the basics. That said, if one is scared of programs such as director, and apphrehensive of thier skills regarding using a programs such as Director. This is an excellent book for a complete beginner at any type of multimedia program.

Considering the technical aspects, most books one can find in online bookstores are a must when it comes to content but just a few seem to be written to catch one's mind from cover to cover in a learning/teaching-centered continuum progressively, without "soring" the learners' good will.

This book does more than conveying step-by-step information on such a complex-at-first-sight software. It guides anybody to multimedia skill building-up, providing for both visual learners (those who need to see the pop-up menus) and those who learn by conceptualizing. So, it adapts to your way of learning besides monitoring every step you take during the process. It tells you how long you should accomplish the tasks, when you are going to learn some other features involved in a lesson and it even tells you when to save. That would be the kind of father I'd like to have.

As a Teacher of English as a Foreign Language and a real beginner learner, I sincerely advise this book to those who teach too, even if they already know everything about Director 6 and 7. This book shows computing teachers how people learn and how teachers should teach.

The CD-ROM is great and essential for the development of the course. Although I can not open the Director7 movies in Director 6, all the files are fully available and you can accomplish the projects by following what the book says: import file from the CD-ROM and do it accordingly to the instructions. Both CD and book require no improvisation for learning since everything is very well planned and put up togheter.

Well, in a nutshell, this a TEN-STAR book for both experienced Macromedia teachers and Director 6/7 wannabes. Phil does not gross anybody out with it.

Pretty good stuff for a program that is not all that intuitive...