I'm the kind of learner that can't stand reading dictionaries, I get bored instantly without trying things out myself. However, the learn in '24 hours' type of tutorial book doesn't go into enough detail for me to completely understand the material. This book combines the two; Foundation Flash MX gives you an in-depth look at the basic concepts with the latest version of Flash while walking you through some great tutorials. And as an added bonus a lot of the reading makes you laugh at times.

After having completed this book I feel that I can create entire websites in Flash, in fact the book walks you through your own website from start to finish with it's incredibley helpful 'case study'.

The momentum never stops, I'm already into the Foundation Actionscript For Flash MX and can't wait to keep getting better!

This book is decent, but could use a little improving. It's assumed that you have the software to work with as you read so for students, this might be an issue. It's a great beginner book, but I found myself getting confused because there were steps missing, or assumed, and not enough detail given for a person to complete some of the tasks. In other areas, the book over explained simple things. Blah Blah Blah!

The explanations in the book were great, and a bit better than the included Flash Tutorial, thus the 2 stars. However, if you already know some of the basics, and want to leap to more depth, you can't. The book is 100% tutorial (barely better than the tutorial that comes in Flash MX itself, so why buy the book?).

In this book, you build a sample website from start to finish. Without the earlier tutorial sections completed, you have no files to use for the later sections. This makes the book useless. I also found some of the explanations a bit hard to follow in key places (ie., "click on all the content in the lower part of the window". WHICH window? The library window? The assets window? The main screen window? The paragraph before mentions all 3). If you are a rank beginner, this book is hard to use. If you are intermediate, you cannot use it. If it included a cd with advanced tutorial files ready (which Macromedia's included tutorial already does), or used task based tutorials, it would be more helpful. As it is, this book is useless to beginners or intermediate users, and contains nothing for advanced users.

This is the book I have used to get up to speed on Flash MX, and for the most part I have been really happy with it. If you like a structured walkthrough of the features of a product, with step-by-step exercises to cement an understanding of what you are learning, this book is for you. However, I must provide a couple of caveats:

- The authors are not always good at explaining what it is you are setting out to accomplish (in terms of learning objectives). I had a couple of experiences where 1/4 of the way in, I was asking myself "What am I supposed to be learning?", but by the time I hit the end of the example, I had an "Aha! That's what they're getting at!" revelation.

- The authors teach a practice of placing ActionScript code within movie clips and buttons, which is not conducive to OOP principles and re-use. The prevailing view amongst top ActionScript developers today is to pull the code out of instances of movie clips and buttons, to drive those objects from code in the main movie timeline. So there may be some habits to unlearn after using this book

Being completely new to Flash, this was my second introductory book (the 1st being the Training from the Source Book by Chrissy Rey). I would definitely recommend it. The authors provide much more explanation to not only the topic at hand but also their examples.

I'm a CS major whose desire to learn new tools is waning, so understand that I had apprehensions about picking up another tech book to sit on my shelf. Needless to say, after going through the entire book, I have found Foundation Flash MX to be...

A great, easy-to-read book, with step-by-step examples providing solid foundation for real projects using tool, sans ActionScript.

When reading through the book, I recommend skipping the ActionScript write up, in favor of going straight to Foundation ActionScript MX, which, incidentally, makes no assumtion that you've read Foundation Flash MX.

My only minor gripe is the lack of integration between the two closely related books.

Enjoy!

If you are looking for an easy to read, comprehensive, and practical book, and you've never used FLASH before, this is it! I've read through first 13 chapters in 1 week (including computer practice time). Great on-hands exercises with very practical assignments. Best of all, it's not an "OEM software manual" - hence it's written in layman's language, so you don't get bored as easily. I like the book so much I've ordered other "Foundation" books from these guys (Friends of ED) for the rest of my MACROMEDIA MX STUDIO software.

As the name implies, this book is for beginners, so if all you want to use FLASH for is to create "static" movies with limited user interaction, than what you'll learn in this book will be plenty enough. However, if you are planning on building complete websites entirely out of FLASH, you'll need to learn Action Script - this book only gives you the basics on that.

This book delivers all it promises. You will get the foundations that will help you explore Flash MX with confidence. A user said in a previous review that the book moves to slow but thats the way it must be when building foundations about something. I found that approach very convenient when learning. The way that the exercises and the main project is inserted with the explanations helps a lot. Well it's the right book if you want to start learning Flash MX.

I have never had any experience with flash, but wanted to dive into it relatively quickly. After the first few chapters, I had an understanding of the Flash MX interface and was able to crete flawless movies. The other thing that was great about this book is that it has a case study that is at the end of each chapter that slowly helps you buid a website. It is by far the best way to learn how to create web sites in flash. Each chapter teaches you a section of Flash, and then helps you apply it to the case study website that you build. The instructions are easy to understand, and very helpful.

This book was great! I am getting ready to pick up the ActionScript book to move on.

This book is for someone who is not technically inclined, not just new to Flash MX. It moves so slow that it is hard to get into the book.

With Macromedia Flash MX installed on my computer I was ready to go...until I opened the user's manual that came with the software. UGH! But a trip to the bookstore and the purchase of Foundation Macromedia Flash MX got me rolling in the right direction.

This is not a book you sit down and read. This is a book you put on your lap and sit down with in front of the computer and practice and practice and practice. The authors assume you know nothing about Flash and take you through simple, yet concise explanations of all the screens and panels used in the creation of Flash movies. Each chapter deals with a different topic such as: Managing Content, Flash Symbols, Masking, and Tweening and has step-by-step examples to work through. As you progress through the book, your newly acquired skills are reinforced and expanded upon. There are screen shots on every page to show where you should be, and if you are doing it correctly. I found that my knowledge of JavaScript was particularly helpful for understanding the chapters on Flash's ActionScript component.

There are two things I would like to see added in the next edition. First, the index needs expanding - time and again, I found myself looking for words in the index that were not listed. Second, there are always two ways to do things in Flash - the long way and the short way. I would like to see a summary, inside the back cover, of the shortcut keys, i.e. F6 = insert Key Frame. All in all, this is an wonderful manual for learning the Flash animation software.

If you have not worked with a previous version of Flash, you will definitely need a beginners book. I recommend this book to help you build that "foundation." While it may explain procedures in an overly simple way at times, I can overlook this since a book can never be all things to all people.

It's a fact that in order to learn a procedure, a person must be told several times how to complete it, and the authors make sure to repeat steps throughout the book. Believe me, you don't want to go back in the book hunting for that simple step you've forgotten.

The book has many screen shots, which I appreciate, but the book didn't include a CD, thus the reader was directed to the publishers web site for optional support files. Was this a way to get the reader to visit their web site? Not a big deal, but I would like to have all the tools I need without seaching through a site to find them.

I was very satisfied with the book, and wouldn't hesitate to get other titles from the publisher.

This is an awesome book for Flash mx rookies, it covers the basic concepts of flash mx. This book also gives you LOTS of tutorials to do and teaches individuals some common flash effects. However, again this is just a book for noobs, don't expect you can do a 100% fancy flash site after reading this book.

This book does a great job of holding your hand and leading you into the world of Flash. The writing style keeps the more mundane subjects from getting boring.
What I didn't like:
It gets sickening how they repeat instructions so often. It's not all that bad, and most of the time it's helpful because you might have forgotten a keyboard shortcut or something. The problem is that they teach you the long way of doing something, then teach you the quick and easy way a bit later, then assume you still want to use the slow way and so repeat the old instructions from then on.
The other problem is that you don't learn ANY Actionscript until halfway through the 600+ pages. That's fine if you just want to make Flash cartoons, but if you want to make even a simple Flash website, you'll have to wait until that halfway point (when you learn how to make buttons functional). So would-be web developers might get frustrated that they learn how to animate text before they can link pages with it. It's not like it's hard to learn ... Flash MX has what might be called an "Actionscript Wizard" so that you're not even typing it in yourself. Oh well. You can't please everyone. Anyway, it's still probably the best Beginner Flash book, especially for the money.

This book could be re-titled Flash for Morons. It assumes you're not merely new to Flash, but that you have absolutely no technical experience, and very little technical aptitude.

I'm not panning the book because this approach is ideal for the introductory pages, the first several chapters. The fundamentals of Flash are indeed presented very well.

About halfway through the book, however, the approach becomes annoying. It is one thing to assume the reader has no idea what the heck is going on at the beginning of the book. It is another to assume the reader still has no idea what's going on halfway through it.

I've started ordering Friends of Ed books right and left. They know what they're talking about and know how to teach it. Overall this is a great book if you are new to Flash. Each time I read a chapter, I went out and looked at other flash sites. Each time I said, "Oh THAT'S how they did it." Now on to the critique!

There are a few points to keep in mind. This book is full of wonderful, clear tutorials that take nothing for granted. Every time my project didn't work, I went back and sure enough, I had skipped a line!. Now when I say full of tutorials, I mean, FULL. If you like to sit and read a while, you're out of luck. You won't go more than 2 pages without typing or clicking along with the examples. This is actually a good thing. =P

By the end of this book you will be able to make stunning Flash movies. Be aware however, that it only has a baby guide to ActionScript. If you're interested in the coding side of Flash, you should get a book specificly for that. Also note, because there arn't a lot of people with Flash 6 Plugin(MX) installed on their browsers yet, the Flash 5 ActionScript guides are still applicable. Anything cutting edge probably wont play in 60% of browsers anyway (per usual).

Not knowing much about flash beyond making text fade in and out, I needed a book that would take me a long way as well as start off slowly. Sometimes tutorial books can make you do the same stuff over and over. This book assumed you paid attention, yet didn't over 'test' you. Quite possibly one of the best how-to books on anything that I have read. After finishing the book last week, I am already integrating what I learned into 3 sites that I am doing for clients and look forward to what Flash MX has to offer. I was impressed enough that I will buy the book on Action Scripting by the same publisher...

Outstanding book! I went from 'Moron' to 'God' in 603 pages!
What a fun program!

The book is organized in a way that makes sense- from the basics to the more advanced aspects. The explanations of tools, etc. are straight forward. I am able to read this and follow the step-by-step procedures for the various examples without having to wonder what the authors are trying to convey(always a good sign). I have tried to use Flash for a few months, without much success beyond animation. The book helps me to more easily understand the basics of actionscript and to put scripting to use for the first time. The authors also leave out some of the handholding in some of the examples, letting me work it out on my own. Overall, an outstanding job by the authors.

Have brought this book but not through Amazon. One of the easiest to "digest" kind of book if you have been searching for one. Have finished half of the book in 3 days time and hopefully my personal webpage in my company's intranet will be up soon with the things i have learnt from it. If you are a beginner, get this book and you won't go wrong.