All words are written in large, childlike print, to give an impression that this book is easy to read and thus also easy to execute. But the execution instructions are not very well described. Some steps have missing photos. The book is also way too short for the kind of book it is supposed to be: visual introduction to flash for beginners. It also has no troubleshooting nor any FAQ. This edition is identical to the newer one for Flash MX 2004(ISBN: 0-321-32125-1).I do not recommend starting learning flash from this book, it is for more advanced learners.

It seems like the other people who gave this book a low rating did so because it lacked detailed info as to why some of the steps were done. Well guys, maybe you should have read the front and back cover of the book before you bought it. This book was designed to walk you step by step through the process of creating a website in Flash 8. That's what it does... sort of. The problem is (and this is the only reason I'm not rating it 5 stars) that it is RIDDLED with errors. Some of the steps just don't work and you really have to spend a lot of time figuring out where the author has screwed up.

That said, it's still a nice little primer and worth the nominal cost for beginners.

This is a good primer or refresher for Flash 8.

This book serves two purposes: (1) Acquaints the reader with fundamental Flash principles and (2) demonstrates what you can do with Flash.

The author could have made the book a lot better by writing a paragraph at the outset of each mini-lesson giving an overview of the point of the lesson and the steps.

Retention with this book is difficult because it drones from one lesson to the next in linear fashion. If the book were broken down with reference points and summary overviews, it would even be a great little reference book.

Another reviewer noted that some of the steps do not function. He is correct. It appears that there are a few instances where the author is either unclear about the steps or loses track of whether the reader is to work within a symbol or the main stage. I just hacked my way through it.

Also, Flash is such a dynamic program that the learning curve is lengthy. To learn Flash, you MUST dedicate time and effort. It gets easier once you make up your mind to make the effort.

I am very pleased by this book, because it is the only one that I have ever found that I can use to teach Flash to someone else. The books doesn't get bogged down in the technical details of the program, it just shows you how to put Flash to work for you or your client.
The book is VERY well illustrated, and the website you make is nice enough to show to other people. This compares to other Flash books that teach you all about how and why you do something in designing a website, but never demonstrate how to put it together into a worthwhile product. So you end up with a "properly" designed website that either doesn't work right or is too ugly to show to anyone else.
This book changes that. Using it, I can sit down and walk someone through the creation of a pretty AND functional website. If they want to know why something is done a certain way, I would refer them to another book, but most people really don't seem to care once they have the project completed...

I was looking to design my first Flash-based website. This book may have helped me do it... but I learned nothing in the process. It did not answer any of my "whys" or "hows" - just merely gave me step by step instruction. Furthermore, several of the steps, when followed exactly (trust me...sometimes I'd redo them 3 and 4 times to make sure) would not produce the results the book said they would. If you're looking for a more comprehensive, teach-a-man-to-fish type of book, this is not what you're looking for.