Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Killer Tips [Paperback]

Shane Elliott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 24, 2003

The hottest collection of cool tips and hidden secrets for the Flash MX 2004 user who needs results fast! In today's economy, time is money. Flash MX 2004 Killer Tips is all about speed, showing users how to get more work done in less time. This book is designed to increase productivity (and even quality) by providing shortcuts, tips, and little-known tricks that will surprise even the most experienced Flash MX 2004 user. Built on the premise that "Speed Kills", readers will get faster at manipulating Flash MX 2004 and have more time to be creative in their design and their code. Author Shane Elliott has assembled almost 300 tips to help readers with creating effects and animations, ActionScript, components, optimization, and a host of other topics.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Shane Elliott

After a long career as a student of computer sciences at several universities, including North Carolina State, Elon College, and Cal State Los Angeles, Shane's curiosity and thorough training has led him in directions even he himself could not have predicted. Although he has always been very visually oriented and creative, his skills always led him toward the more technical aspects of web and new media development.

This all changed when Shane shifted focus to design while working at a broadband search company known as Rampt. Rampt broke new ground by offering a fully functional search engine, which at the time operated completely in Flash 4. Ever since his introduction to Flash 4, Shane has followed the growth of Flash as a developing product. He has worked closely with every new release and, as a result, has been honored with awards from Macromedia Site of the Day, Invision 2000, and The Bandies 2000, as well as a nomination in the Flash Forward Film Festival in New York.

Given Shane's knowledge of programming, mixed with Flash design skills and gravitational personality, it was only a matter of time before he began to teach others the relatively new art of Flash design. While teaching at Moviola and American Media Training, he realized that sharing his knowledge with others was the next step he wanted to take. Making this a priority opened doors into authoring material for the Flash MX Bible, ActionScript MX Bible, and The Flash Animator. Having written screenplays, plays, and short stories throughout his career in design, the authoring bug had bitten long ago and making the transition into writing was a natural progression. Most recently, Shane partnered with long-time friend and colleague, Robert Reinhardt, to develop an online introductory course for Flash MX that is offered at universities all over the country.

In the recent past, Shane has applied his rich mixture of skills by working with a variety of clients, such as Infiniti, Energizer, Crest National, Toyota, TBWA Chiat / Day, and Saatchi & Saatchi. He continues to broaden his experiences by developing rich web and stand-alone Flash applications for private sources and hopes to continue growing in all directions that are made available to him. If there are creative avenues to be taken, Shane will continue to find and pursue each and every one of them.

If you'd like to keep up to date with what Shane is doing, visit his web site at http://www.timberfish.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: New Riders Press (November 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735713839
• ISBN-13: 978-0735713833
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,722,388 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book, but not advanced enough for me, December 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Killer Tips (Paperback)

I've worked with Flash for years now and I'll say this. The tips in this book are certainly intended for novice to intermediate users, which I am not. Honestly, it doesn't seem like the book makes any efforts to focus on advanced users, thus I gave it 4 stars for that and the writing style which I enjoyed. The author is self-deprecating in a charming fashion. However, I can't escape the fact that the book was presented by the publisher as a book of tips for advanced users and hence my disappointment. Buy this book if you'd rate yourself from 1 to 6 of 10 on Flash knowledge, but if you're an expert there's no need.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, for the little stuff..., April 30, 2004

By 

satanhead (Culver City, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Killer Tips (Paperback)

I'm going to first preface this review by saying, if you are looking for advanced development techniques or samples of complicated physics or communication code, you will not find that in this book. People have come to expect any old book about Flash to cover anything and everything as well as provide working code samples specific to a project they may be working on at the time. This book, however, is aptly titled.
Flash MX 2004 Killer Tips has got plenty of little tidbits of information that will help to speed up your workflow, make you more familiar with the user interface, even help you out in times of crisis. The author's self-exhaling sense of humor makes the book fun to read as well.
Everyone should be able to take away something from this book, whether you are a seasoned Flash professional like myself, or a total n00b donning the self applied title of a "Flasher", there will be something in this book for you.
I'd recommend reading the Amazon sample pages if you are unsure, and if after that, you are still unsure, look for a copy to flip though at your local bookstore before purchasing on Amazon.com.
Final summation - the information inside is well worth the price.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mixed feelings but mostly like it, December 21, 2003

By 

"justinsheir" (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Killer Tips (Paperback)

I have read the other reviews as I often do and I must say that it seems they're a bit jaded or something. Yes these tips are geared toward the novice, but I found many that were quite interesting even for someone like me who has quite a bit of experience in Flash. I actually teach Flash and many of the questions I get from my students are addressed in this book. Make no mistake, the book is for new Flash people, but I for one like the style of writing (at least makes reading somewhat interesting) and the tips work well for me. There's one tip about adding an extension to variables in actionscript that forces Flash to recognize the variable as a certain type. I must say, I had no idea about this one and couldn't find it in the online help files anywhere. Anyhow, I certainly don't agree with the one stars at all, but then again I would say the book is geared more toward the novice for me, so I can't agree with the 5 stars. So I'll go with 4. Take it for what you will.