Macromedia Flash MX Upgrade Essentials [Paperback]

Sham Bhangal (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1903450764 | ISBN-13: 978-1903450765 | Publication Date: April 2002 | Edition: 1

This is the book for you if you've been using Flash 5 for a while and are making the switch to Macromedia Flash MX: it's designed to help you get the maximum benefit from Flash MX at the maximum speed. It focuses on what's new and what's important, describing the new features, demonstrating how to use them, and discussing what they mean in the bigger Flash MX/web design perspective.

Flash MX is a seriously powerful tool with a wealth of features, including a new interface, mightily reinforced ActionScript capabilities, enhanced video and multimedia support, accessibility and usability elements, and a formidable object-based programming paradigm that might change the way you think about Flash and ActionScript.

Sham Bhangal, best-selling author of Foundation Flash 5 and Foundation ActionScript, and a contributor to many books on Flash and ActionScript design, was invited to work closely on the Flash MX beta development program. In Flash MX Upgrade Essentials, Sham takes the reader on a power user's trip through the seriously cool areas of the MX release and shows what awesome potential lies within.

Concentrating on new and upgraded features, this book assumes you are comfortable and competent with Flash 5. By the end of this book, you will be fully familiar with all the fundamentals of Flash MX, and ready to start exploring the new technical and creative avenues it has opened up. Flash MX Upgrade Essentials offers the most efficient way of getting up-to-speed with version 5 of Flash.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

If you've been using Flash 5 and you're making the step up to Macromedia Flash MX, then this is the book for you: it's designed to help you get the maximum benefit from Flash MX in the minimum time. It focuses on what's new and what's important, describing the new and enhanced features, demonstrating how to use them effectively, and discussing what they really mean in the wider Flash MX/web design perspective.

Flash MX is a seriously powerful tool with a wealth of new features, including a new interface, heavily reinforced ActionScript capabilities, enhanced video and multimedia support, accessibility and usability elements, and a formidable object-based programming paradigm that could change the way you think about Flash and ActionScript.

About the Author

Sham Bhangal has worked on books in new media for five years, during which time he has authored and co-authored numerous friends of ED books, including critically acclaimed, award-winning, and bestselling titles like Foundation Flash, New Masters of Flash, Flash MX Upgrade Essentials, Flash MX Most Wanted, and the Flash MX Designer's ActionScript Reference. He has considerable working experience with Macromedia and Adobe products, as well as other general web design technologies (such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.). In addition to speaking appearances at FlashForward, the biggest Macromedia Flash developer conference, Sham has also been a beta tester for Macromedia and Discreet products for a number of years.

Product Details

• Paperback: 430 pages
• Publisher: friendsofED; 1 edition (April 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1903450764
• ISBN-13: 978-1903450765
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,879,241 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For once, a book that does what it says on the box!, April 10, 2002

By 

Stina Ullenhag (Uppsala) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Macromedia Flash MX Upgrade Essentials (Paperback)

I don't often review the books i buy, but i was inspired by the previous review which gives a bit of an inaccurate picture in my opinion. I know Flash 5 pretty well, and i have a number of 'Beginners' books so there's no way i wanted to go over a lot of old stuff that i've already read a thousand times. That's why i bought into this whole 'upgrade' concept, and i think any of the pros looking for an early start to MX will do the same. OK, I only got it last week but it's keeping me real busy. Even some of the simple stuff, like pinning scripts and using shared objects, i know would have taken me forever to figure out so i'm really happy with this book. There's also a constant flow of examples throughout, which is exactly what i like. Right now i'm reading how to build advanced components, it's pretty heavy stuff, but the author's language is ideal (for my level at least) and even seems to make it interesting!! With reference to the Macromedia site i can't see any new features of MX that this book misses out. I know there are a couple of other MX books out there too, but if this book represents an 'attempt to get something to market quickly', it looks to me like a pretty successful one to me. Wow, i feel like i've justified my $$$ now!

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good... but not great...., April 26, 2002

By 

Flash_Nut - See all my reviews

This review is from: Macromedia Flash MX Upgrade Essentials (Paperback)

Sham is the author or the co-author on about 85% of the flash books I own... I'd have to say his way of explaining things is great. The only thing that irritated me about this book is that Sham continually rambles on about the new menu docking feature in Flash MX... You hear about it in chapter one... and then chapter two... I then skipped ahead to chapter 5 to read about the new actionscript features... and what's the first thing Sham starts talking about? Docking the actionscript panel... 'ohhh lets see.. you can put it over here.. or over here... ohh.. how about over here... yay!'..... My other complaint of the book is that it seems a little "dumbed down" for a book thats supposed to be for people with a pretty solid understanding of flash 5... Sham sometimes takes 3-4 paragraphs to desribe what could ultimately be said in 1 or two... Buy the book if you know flash 5 fairly well and plan to upgrade..(the reviewer that gave this book 2 stars because the book seems to be 'geared to those that already knew flash 5' needs to read what the book is about before makes future purchases... it says right on the book that its for people with solid background in flash 5... I had flash mx 4-5 days before I had this book and didn't notice about 75% of the new features because they are subtle and you might miss them if someone doesn't tell you they are there... Overall Sham is prolly my fav flash author still... he explains things great... and as this is the first MX book really written, I rate this 4 out of 5 mainly because I got tired of hearing about docking over and over and over again.... If you are a newbie to flash 5 and planning to upgrade to MX, don't buy this book. You really have no need to read about 'what's new' in MX if you didn't know what was in flash 5. Instead buy a flash MX newbie book and save yourself $.... Otherwise, this book promised to get me into flash mx as quickly as possible and I felt it delivered on that promise. I'm nearly done with the book and I'd to say it was worth the money to get up to speed on a great new version of flash

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book saved me time & $$!!!!, June 8, 2002

By 

Cal McGaugh - See all my reviews

This review is from: Macromedia Flash MX Upgrade Essentials (Paperback)

This book is more than worth the price (even without the 30% discount!)

I totally disagree with the negative reviews. Sham is a very
good writer, and makes learning Flash a fun experience. His book is geared to anyone who has a working knowledge of Flash5, and just wants to get up to speed on MX, and he states that
plainly.

This book is invaluble in exploring all the new features of MX.
I'm verrrry happy with it!

Thanks, Sham, and Friends of Ed for producing great Flash books! Keep it up, mates =)