18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
FLASH MX 2004: At Your Fingertips; Get in, Get Out, Get ..., May 18, 2004
This review is from: Flash MX 2004 at Your Fingertips: Get In, Get Out, Get Exactly What You Need (Paperback)
Review: FLASH MX 2004: At Your Fingertips; Get in, Get Out, Get Exactly What You Need
The title of this book: FLASH MX 2004 At Your Fingertips; Get in, Get Out, Get Exactly What You Need, really says it all! The book is so well organized and tabbed that the information is truly "at your finger tips". The reader can get in, find exactly what is needed and get out quickly and easily. The problem is that you can never do that with this book! You get in, and in, and in... it's a veritable black hole that sucks you into its instructional depths and keeps you there forever. When your fingers go numb and the book accidentally closes, you realize it's the next day and your brain is about to explode with new and exciting things to try with the program. Well, that may not happen to everyone, but for computer geeks like me, watch yourself! Beginners don't be afraid, you too can be victims! This book is written for every level of user and for both PCs and MACs. The graphics and text couldn't be a better combination unless some how Sham and Jen could transport themselves into your living room to accompany their words and pictures. As applications manuals go, this one's a "keeper"- it keeps you.
FLASH MX 2004: At Your Fingertips; Get in, Get Out, Get Exactly What You Need is composed of five sections and a special inset section all about color (which is actually in color!); 1) Flash Workspace, 2) Authoring Tasks, 3) Scripting Tasks, 4) Testing and Publishing Tasks, and 5) What's New. The color section is all about panels, pickers, spaces and video color. Included with this section is a gallery that shows some really interesting examples that will challenge your understanding of design and development (deselopment - a new word for me).
A nice thing about the interface overview section is the contents outline that delineates Windows versus MAC. Right up front you have the information you need as a specific platform user. Being a MAC user, I knew right off which sections I could skip and didn't have to "double read" any of the sections pertaining to Windows users.
Quick tips and cross-references are listed in the outside page margins that give you chapter and section references for more information, alternatives and related activities. Both Windows and MAC keyboard short cuts are listed in the margins as well, saving an incredible amount of time in finding the short cut keystroke as well as referencing the short cuts at a later time.
FLASH MX 2004: At Your Fingertips; Get in, Get Out, Get Exactly What You Need is crammed full of screen shots and examples that help the reader understand what is being explained. An unusual, but extremely helpful addition to this book is the little black labels that match the text. These quickly draw the reader's eye to the area of the screen shot or graphic being discussed. There is no confusion and no guessing about what is being demonstrated or shown, or where to find the corresponding item.
I found the scripting section to be extremely helpful. While I am still not crazy about writing script, I did like the authors' explanation of scripted animation versus timeline animation and creating timeline flow with scripts. While all of the scripting components are discussed at length (button, checkbox, combobox, list, loader, numericstepper, progressbar, etc), the authors don't forget to add explanations of basic things like spell checking and creating a custom mouse pointer for the beginning user.
For those who are veteran Flash users, the new v2 components (some of which are listed above) make life in the fast developer lane just a little more efficient. FLASH MX 2004: At Your Fingertips; Get in, Get Out, Get Exactly What You Need now has enhanced import options for Adobe PDF and Illustrator files as well as enhanced supports for MP3 meta tags and runtime loading. The de-bugging panel works like a charm and can be manually changed during an SWF run session. The "What's New" Appendix provides a great chart of enhancements and where to find the corresponding information. No long dialogs about new improvements to wade through - just a simple, easy to read chart and a reference to find out more... if you want.
All in all this is a great reference book for FLASH MX 2004. Although the title says "Get In, Get Out, Get Exactly What You Need" - be forewarned. You may get in but getting out is a bit harder! And you will get much more than you need.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Reference Book!, April 15, 2004
This review is from: Flash MX 2004 at Your Fingertips: Get In, Get Out, Get Exactly What You Need (Paperback)
I absolutely LOVE the new layout in this book. Instead of having to go through pages and pages of explanation to find one specific topic, this Fingertips book is divided into specific topics, with very specific information related to what you are looking for. Using the table of contents, you can easily find what page the tip is on, go to that page, and get the specific you need for that topic. Most tips are on one or two pages. I hope this 'fingertip' idea is used in other application books! Thanks for providing this great reference book!
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