Customer Reviews

Macromedia Flash MX 2004: Training from the Source

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

It is hard for me to criticize this book, because the example project is practical and interesting. The directions are pretty straightfoward, giving users a good command of working with 1. layers and 2. media assets like video clips and graphics.
However, this book is not the best for complete Flash beginners for several reasons. First, for complete beginners the Flash work environment is very complicated. My experience with Dreamweaver, Photoshop and HTML carried over only marginally to Flash. The book takes a very plodding approach to acquainting new users to how Flash "works." 120 pages into the book, I felt like I still had no clue WHY the directions were telling me to do certain things. For example, why do I have to put labels on the timeline? Why do I have to switch between different editing modes? etc.
The book is not very well edited, and the instructions themselves could be clearer. For example, the paraphrased step and the instructions that follow it often muddle the point of what you are doing.
For a better understanding of the "what's" and "why's" of Flash, I reccomend the Sam's Teach Yourself book on the subject. It is a better global view of the Flash authoring environment so that beginners can start projects with a better understanding of what you can accheive with Flash. Reviewers seem to enjoy it a lot. Following a better introduction to Flash, I will return to deHaan's book and will likely get more out of it.

As I expected from most "training from the source" books, it covers most of the basic ingredients in flash; hence, it is comprehensive for beginners and intermediate users. However, as mentioned in some other reviews, the instructions are not consistent. The numbered sentences in bold often give the reader an overview of what one is about to do, even if they sound like they are giving the reader the actual instructions (correcting this redundancy may shorten the book, and lower the price!). The succeeding sentences then give step-by-step instructions on what to actually do. In some instances, however, the sentences in bold were the instructions themselves. Consistency would have made everything clearer. Moreover, some explanations and instructions were a little vague--which file, layer, or frame was I supposed to be working on? At other times, library or stage items were missing after being asked to open a particular file. It was quite confusing. I honestly think the book needs a 2nd edition.

I am now editing my earlier review (below). I have revisited this book after completing training in Dreamweaver, and am now therefore more familiar with the look and logic behind these Macromedia applications. Because of my previous training, I am now able to follow the lessons - and am finding the book useful. However - I still feel this book suffers from extremely poor editing. It often directs you to click on menus or select tools that it has not yet introduced. A beginner would have no idea what to do...

Previous review:

I have used the Adobe "Classroom in a Book" series to learn Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. and found the texts to be fairly interesting, useful, and easy to follow. I bought "Macromedia Flash MX 2004 : Training from the Source" expecting something similar, and could not have been more disappointed.

It's extremely dull, POORLY edited, and most importantly, nearly impossible to follow. I gave up in the second chapter.

According to the credits, this book did have an editor and a technical editor, but I find that difficult to believe.

I got this book because it was I think one of the first ones out there. Sometimes that worries me about computer books because you know they were written on testing software that isn't complete, which can mean the book has a lot of problems. That didn't seem to be the case here though, apart from some minor issues like typos and stuff.

This book had a lot more in it than I expected. I have seen other tutorial books that only cover Flash and really basic ActionScript. But this book had a LOT in it for a beginner book, and a ton of ActionScript! And by the end it all made sense to me, which I was surprised about. If you are considering getting this book, I really recommend it. You will be taught in an excellent way, easy to follow and understand plus there is supporting material.

I just finished working through this book on the holidays, and it is very easy to follow along and I learned a lot more about Flash in the end. I'm surprised in how much was covered in the 500ish pages, and it has made me less nervous about using Flash in my company. But I'm very impressed with how easy it was made and how much the website you build has in it. I expected to have a tough time because I don't know anything, but I made my way through with no problems. I even emailed with some extra questions and got an answer the next day. I have some of the older macromedia training from the source books on different programs, and this one follows the same format which I like. If you don't mind big long tutorials, then I recommend this book. The only reason I subtract a star is because I think the chapter on ActionScript was too long to be a single chapter, and it would be better in shorter amounts for the readers.

The book made for easy reading, and I was able to knock it out in just a few days. The biggest problem I had was the inconsistent way of how the step by step instructions work. At the beginning of each step, they have a "summary" of what you are going to do in bold, then it proceeds to give detailed instructions on how to do it. For the most part, this holds true, but sometimes, the instructions picked up from the bold part, having expected you to have performed that already??? Also found several invalid references to variables.. and other mistakes, such as telling you to add labels to specific frames, before telling you to add keyframes at those positions. It had the feel of a step by step book, that nobody bothered taking the time to test before publishing. Other than that, it was an okay book, and had a realistic in depth example to work with and build upon.

This book seems like a great fit into my learning curve. I really like how easy it is to follow along with and tells me exactly what to do. I'm using regular Flash MX, so I'm happy that I can use the book without upgrading like the other couple books I bought. I hate not being able to follow along and get all confused just to find out I have the wrong Flash or something. I'm only about 3/4 way through the book, but I am very happy with how things are working out. You start out by learning the easy things like graphics, simple animation and so forth and progress through to easy ActionScript, do some things with it and now I'm going through the harder ActionScript. That is intuitive to me, which compels me to write the review. This book is perfect for me starting out with Flash for the first time because I was just plain confused trying to find online tutorials that never spelled it out clearly, and the other books I have that are pretty confusing to try and find what you need. Good work! I finally feel like I'm learning something.

If you are used to Adobe CLASS IN A BOOK series, you will like the way this book walks you through examples. This book has great supplement(CD) and examples but it was really hard for me to understand things. I hope author revise this book carefully and make it more understandable on next edition. I don't want to recommend this book to any beginners.

I cant give this book 1 star because I did learn a few things from it, however having said that I learnt a lot more by 'customising' the exercises and playing with the various tools myself as I went through.

The other reviewers are quite correct in that there has been no proof-reading or technical editing of this book whatsoever.The mistakes are plentiful and unless you have enough knowledge of Flash, are complete showstoppers.One example I can think of is that you are instructed to create a folder for the catalog swf's and call it catalog.Yet when you are instructed to set the source swf in the catalog page to load into the loader, you are told to type in catalog.fla Having put all of those files in a subfolder (as instructed), it wont work unless the path you type is catalog/catalog.fla. Simple example I know but there are enough of these things going on through the book to make it really frustrating. I had some actionscript that wouldnt work so I had a look at the completed file on the CD...well knock me down if there isnt actionscript missing from the book!!

The funny thing is that even when I tried to preview the books completed example files off of the CD, I STILL got error messages that required debugging which means that you are on your own if you want to complete the book from start to finish.

Anyway, this book was a majorly flawed disappointment and waste of a nights drinking money. The framework is there and with great content correctly proof read, with consistency applied throughout, it could have been excellent. I have used other TFS books and they have been excellent, the Fireworks one in particular was a great starting point for me. This book has tarnished the perception I had of the series and having read the reviews for the Actionscript TFS I am loathe to buy another one....

This was my second book in the Training From the Source series. Although not much of a confidence builder at first, this book turned out to be worth the month it took me to get through all the information and exercises (mostly on my weekends). It goes over the different aspects and program capabilities in an on-the-job-training approach. There were times when I got a bit frustrated but it only lasted until a couple pages later where things would for the most part tie in. Beyond the general tutorials and function definitions, the author did a really good job of providing examples and gave some pretty good ideas on how to continue with Flash into my own websites, which is rare. Flash is a complex program I think, and this book did a great job of taking it apart and putting it back together in a stylish website with movie clips, video and sound.