I'm very disappointed in this book. It gives several ways to do one thing and they don't work. It leaves out information and is unclear. I knew Flash 4 before I started, but was unable to follow this. I would not recommend this book.

We used this book as a textbook for a second flash course in our multimedia program and overall I would have to say that this book is an excellent introduction to some more advanced techniques in flash mx 2004. I especially like the short tutorial approach that these books use - quick and handy. My only beef is that there isn't anything solid on components or xml, so that is why I say it is an introduction to more advanced topics. Topics like creating your own pull-down menus using tweening and actionscript (not components), attaching sounds, and stuff that requires using export for actionscript. If you are not sure what I am talking about then this is probably the book for you! Otherwise maybe consider something like "Flash MX 2004 actionscript" by Macromedia press.

I develop web applications (PHP, MySQL and some Javascript) for
our company and I was looking for an Actionscript 2.0 book after
reading "Show Me! Macromedia Flash MX 2004"from Que. I bought
this book because of the great reviews here. Am I disappointed?

Well, the content is good but the instructions are somewhat
repetitive. I was used to other books showing the code first,
then explaining what it does and moving on from there without
repeating previous instructions.

This book handholds its readers like they're babies (I don't
want to use the word "dummies") and this book could have been
halved if it didn't treat its readers as such. I mean how many
times do the authors have to say, "Select the first frame of the
root Timeline, and open the Actions panel" or "Create a new line
after your last line of code from the preceding task". There
are other texts repeated this way. It wastes space that could
have been used for other tips (i.e. real and faked physics for
advanced animation).

If I were a non-programmer, this books scores 5 but since I'm
not I'd have to say its a 4. Personally, it could be 4.5 but I'd
have to take the 0.5 for the repetitive instructions.

If know you know how to program already, I suggest you look for
other Actionscript 2.0 books here that rates 5 (I'm sorry I
can't recommend any as this is my first Actionscript 2 book but
not the last one I hope).

Chun and Garraffo did an excellent job in creating a book that could be used in and out of a classroom setting. It is also a great reference tool if you need to brush up on something you once learned. Having come from a marketing background, this book is very easy to understand and can truly teach someone how to develop an entire Flash site.

Out of 4 books that I purchased to learn Flash, this is certainly the one with the most attractive format -- the formatting of screen shots and text in the "Visual QuickPro" range is superb. I wish all books were as readable as this one. These books read well chapter-by-chapter, but are also very useful as a reference. The balance and quality of Windows and Mac screen shots is also very good.

My minor criticisms are:
- Obviously, the book isn't as comprehensive as the Flash MX ActionScript Bible by Robert Reinhardt. So as a reference, I like having this other book handy as well;
- The book doesn't always mention whether features are only available in Flash Player 7. For example, there is no mention that the ContextMenu class which is nicely described in chapter 4 requires Flash Player 7 to work.

Overall, this book offers excellent value for money.

I've just built my first flash website after watching "Learning Macromedia Flash MX 2004" by Lynda.com and wanted to learn more about Flash. Saw this book on Amazon and bought it. It's probably the best educational book I've ever read: straight to the point, almost every tip was a tip that you knew mattered. The lessons are numbered step by step and don't drag you off into "help me I'm bored land." An excersise files CD is definitely a plus. That's pretty much it. I won't say I'm an advanced "Flash Guy" after reading this book, but I'm much more comfortable with what I'm doing now. I've gotten two more sites built, a bunch of friends who want me to build them a site, and a wedding site(for a friend) to build - hmmmm maybe this hobby could end up being something more?

Absolute beginners to the world of Flash MX 2004 have many choices, but the selection thins out once you advance beyond the basics. Doorstop-sized reference books for ActionScript are often of limited help, because they tell you what a particular line of code will do, but they don't reveal the situations in which the code is useful. Authors Chun and Garraffo have extracted the elements of ActionScript that are most important to the intermediate Flash developer, and explained them in the context of specific objectives.

This book covers the essentials of interactivity, nested timelines, and advanced animation that are probably on your to-do list if you are a advanced beginner-intermediate Flash developer. Many of these principles are less than intuitive at first, and the authors have done a superb job of breaking down each task into a series of repeatable steps.

The examples given in the book are detailed enough to illustrate each point, but short enough to digest within a few minutes. (I am often exasperated by computer books that require the reader to wade through a lengthy tutorial in order to locate a single technique.)

At more than 600 pages, this book will also satisfy those readers who believe that a computer book MUST be a doorstop in order to be worth buying. There is a lot of content here, and the instruction assembled by Chun and Garraffo is well worth the price of the book.

It's an amazing book, unlike other books it does not beat around the bush. It takes you to another level. I found this book very helpful and took me from a beginner level to an intermediary level. It cleared concepts so clearly that I now I feel comfortable working with advance codes and try making changed to existing one. That just spells out how comfortable I am now to try new things. 2 thumbs up!!!

First let me start off by saying that I have been a Java developer for about 5 years now. Flash's Actionscript has always been a clunky code as far as I'm concerned, and I had no want or need to learn actionscript, up until a few months ago. Thank god for Macromedia and their evolution to ECMAScript 4, or should I say amazing similarities to it. I was faced with a series of projects at my company and creating Flash files for different versions of the Flash player was one of them. So writing the code in the new AS2.0 was cake, and I was so happy. Then I heard we needed to export it in Flash 5... UGH! A few friends bought this bought for Flash MX and said there was problems with some of it. I am used to the Quickpro's and figured I'd give it a try. Thank you so much to the authors for your extremely detailed thorough tasks. You have made my learning curve into AS1.0 and AS2.0 so easy. This book will certainly have real estate on my desk at all times. Bravo to the authors!!!

By the way, my friend who told me the book had errors compared it to his copy (for Flash MX) and it is totally different now, no problems with anything....

As a Flash user with a background in print design I have been looking for a book to unlock some of the mysteries of ActionScripting! After a long perusal of the book section I chose this book. I am pleased to report that my choice was wise. This book is well written and explains the reasons behind the scripting. It also contains the source code for all the tutorials which is a help.

And now the great part...
I was working on the "Detecting Download Progress of External Images and Movies" tutorial and encountered a problem with the finished preloader which would not work. I checked the Peachpit Press website for errata on this book but found nothing. As a last resort I emailed Russell Chun and he responded!
He gave me the answer to my problem which was to do with the FlashPlayer not supporting Local Loading of SWF files using the MovieClipLoader command.
My thanks to Russell Chun!!! If you are new to Flash or want to increase your actionscripting knowledge buy this book!!!