Flash CS3: The Missing Manual (Paperback)

~ E. A. Vander Veer (Author), (Author)
Key Phrases: property inspector, flash file, script assist, Flash Player, Publish Settings, Play Intro (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Flash CS3 is the premier tool for creating web animations and interactive web sites, can be intimidating to learn. This entertaining reference tutorial provides a reader-friendly animation primer and a guided tour of all the program's tools and capabilities. Beginners will learn to use the software in no time, and experienced users will quickly take their skills to the next level. The book gives Flash users of all levels hands-on instructions to help them master:

• Special effects
• Morphing
• Adding audio and video
• Introducing interactivity
• And much more

With Flash CS3: The Missing Manual you'll be able to turn an idea into a Flash animation, tutorial, or movie. This book will help you create online tutorials, training materials and full-blown presentations. It also teaches design principles throughout and helps you avoid elements that can distract or annoy an audience.

This is the first new release of Flash since Adobe bought Macromedia, which means that it's the first version that will integrate easily with other Adobe products. It's a whole new ballgame when it comes to Flash, and Flash CS3: The Missing Manual offers you complete and objective coverage. It's the perfect companion to this powerful software.

About the Author

Christopher Grover lives in Fairfax, California with his wife and two daughters. Chris received degrees in Creative Writing and Film from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. He's worked as a technical writer, advertising copywriter and product publicist for more than 25 years. His freelance articles have been published in a variety of magazines from Fine Homebuilding to CD-ROM World. Chris's latest project is launching Bolinas Road Creative, an agency that helps small businesses promote their products and services. He's also the author of Word 2007: The Missing Manual and Word 2007 for Starters: The Missing Manual.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Pogue Press; 1 edition (May 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596510446
• ISBN-13: 978-0596510442
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #172,007 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This item is part of The O'Reilly Missing Manuals Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mostly A Well Thought-Out Guide, June 8, 2007

By	Noah Dziobecki - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

More than most other creative programs, Flash requires learning a vast amount of information in order to use. As a beginning- and intermediate-level instructor of Flash, I am constantly searching for new ways of organizing and presenting this information that are quick, simple, and effective. Flash CS3: The Missing Manual is written for beginners, especially creative beginners, and approaches the learning of Flash differently from other books I have seen by organizing its Parts and Chapters more by overlying concepts, rather than the specific technologies and techniques used in the program. The authors realize -- correctly, I think -- that people learning Flash tend to want to accomplish something with it, and instead of organizing this book around concepts like Motion/Shape Tweening or MovieClips, which mean little or nothing to a beginner, they have given us chapters like "Animating Your Drawings" and "Interacting with Your Audience."

Besides its intelligent organization, Flash CS3: TMM contains all of the features I expect of a good-quality educational book: clear and concise language, screenshots (both Mac and Windows), tips and tricks, workarounds to common problems, and example source files (accessible from a Web site, rather than an enclosed CD-ROM). Perhaps the biggest strength of this book is the discussion of the "intangibles" behind any successful Flash project: planning, storyboarding, research, and critical thinking. The authors periodically take a step back from the hands-on, computer-program-using tutorials to ask us to stop and think about what we are trying to accomplish with our animation (or whatever we are working on). While not directly related to the learning of Flash, these insights are crucial to learning how to create quality Flash projects.

In terms of learning how to create quality Flash, the book could be greatly improved by not urging of the use of Scenes and teaching the placement of ActionScript code directly on objects (Buttons and MovieClips). Both practices have been discouraged for years by the Flash Industry and run contrary to the official Adobe Flash Best Practices ([...]). These methods may be the quickest and easiest ways to get things done in the short run, but ultimately set people up for confusion and trouble later on as they progress in learning Flash. Better to take the time teaching the "proper" methods from the outset.

If you adhere to Adobe Flash Best Practices, you should be able to benefit from reading Flash CS3: The Missing Manual. Most of all, its unique organization of information and its discussion of the conceptual and planning foundation required before starting any Flash project. Its "Menu by Menu" appendix alone -- which defines each and every menu item in Flash and reveals their Mac and Windows keyboard shortcuts -- is priceless to any beginning or intermediate Flash user.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Disappointment, December 16, 2007

By	zeppocat "Kate" (Saint Paul, MN) - See all my reviews

Generally you can count on "The Missing Manual" to provide what you need to learn a software package quickly. In this case, however, I didn't get anything I needed, and a lot I didn't need.

I already own FlashCS3 Professional Advanced, the Visual Quickpro Guide, and am very happy with it. As a reference book, it's well-organized and thorough, aimed as much at the Interactive Designer as the Animator. But what it lacks are tutorials that can get me up to speed quickly on new features and shifting paradigms, in an application that has changed radically since moving from Macromedia to Adobe.

Having been very happy with the great tutorials in the Dreamweaver CS3 Missing Manual, I went ahead and purchased the Flash volume.

I should have looked more closely before I bought, instead of relying on my experience of The Missing Manual series. There is not a single tutorial in this book! It is far less thorough and sophisticated than the Dreamweaver volume, with most of the pages being devoted to very basic step-by-steps, mostly on drawing and animating tools. Less than 100 pages on adding interactivity, and not even a single chapter devoted to learning and using Action Script. Finally, there are 60-some pages on testing, debugging and publishing, which might be of limited value to me.

If you're looking for a book that will quickly get you up to pro speed on a pro application, I'd say that -- unlike the Dreamweaver CS3 Missing Manual -- this ain't it.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good guide on the latest version of Flash, June 29, 2007

By	calvinnme "Texan refugee" (Fredericksburg, Va) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

Flash CS3 contains upgraded capabilities for integrating animations into other Adobe products. Flash CS3 also incorporates ActionScript 3.0 and the new XML engine into the popular authoring tool. This book shows you how to work with Flash CS3 by using small groups of instructions for each task at hand. The book begins getting you started launching Flash, creating your own drawings, and transforming them into moving animations. Part two of the book gets you involved in the detailed skills required to get your frames and layers in place. Once you learn how to reorganize your animation by rearranging frames on the Timeline, you learn how to manipulate color and add special effects, and finally how to incorporate non-Flash files of all kinds into your animation. Part three is a crash course on interactivity including a short section on ActionScript that is just enough to get you started. Part four is on testing strategies and delivery methods for your animation.

Each chapter usually involves plenty of screen shots of the application with step-by-step instructions on how to get to the various menus and screens. Among the instructions there are useful tips on shortcuts, and other boxes that include questions you might have and answers to those questions. The book manages to be pretty comprehensive on the subject of Flash CS3 without being confusing or getting bogged down in details. The notes and and asides are kept in separate color boxes to keep them apart from the actual "lesson" the chapter is trying to teach. Overall I found the book quite helpful. The following is the detailed table of contents:

Introduction
Part One: Creating a Flash Animation
Chapter 1. Getting Around Flash
Starting Flash
A Tour of the Flash Desktop
Toolbars
Panels
The Timeline
The Flash CS3 Test Drive
Opening a Flash File

Chapter 2. Creating Simple Drawings
Planning Pays Off
Preparing to Draw
Creating Original Artwork
Copying and Pasting Drawn Objects
Adding Color

Chapter 3. Animating Your Drawings
Frame-by-Frame Animation
Adding Layers to Your Animation
Animating Automatically (Tweening)

Part Two: Advanced Drawing and Animation
Chapter 4. Organizing Frames and Layers
Working with Frames
Adding Content to Multiple Layers
Viewing Layers
Working with Layers
Organizing Layers

Chapter 5. Advanced Drawing and Coloring
Selecting Graphic Elements
Manipulating Graphic Elements
Adding Text to Your Drawing
Advanced Color and Fills
Creating Custom Colors
Saving Color Swatches
Importing a Custom Color Palette
Copying Color with the Eyedropper

Chapter 6. Adding Special Effects
Built-in Timeline Effects
Spotlight Effect Using Mask Layers

Chapter 7. Reusable Flash: Symbols and Templates
Symbols and Instances
Templates

Chapter 8. Incorporating Non-Flash Media Files
Incorporating Graphics
Incorporating Sound
Incorporating Video

Part Three: Adding Interactivity
Chapter 9. Automating Flash with ActionScript
How ActionScript Works
Adding an Action
Adding a Prebuilt Behavior

Chapter 10. Controlling Animation
Slowing Down (or Speeding Up) Animation
Organizing an Animation
Looping a Series of Frames
Reversing a Series of Frames

Chapter 11. Interacting with Your Audience
Dynamic Text
Input Text
Tying Actions to Events

Chapter 12. Components for Interactivity
The Built-in Components
Adding Components
Customizing Components
Finding Additional Components

Part Four: Delivering Your Animation to Its Audience
Chapter 13. Testing and Debugging
Testing Strategies
Testing on the Stage
Testing in Flash Player
Testing Inside a Web Page
Testing Download Time
The Art of Debugging

Chapter 14. Publishing and Exporting
Optimizing Flash Documents
Publishing Your Animations
Exporting Flash to Other Formats

Part Five: Appendixes
Appendix A. Installation and Help
Appendix B. Flash CS3, Menu by Menu