Flash MX Express

In some quarters of the web design community, Flash is still seen as a great animation tool, but its other nature as a fully-fledged web application environment is barely comprehended. In other quarters, designers are still using Flash in the most basic way, as a straight-through animation tool, but simple scripting that might nicely spice up an animation remains a mystery, and even tweens are a worry. For too long in Flash's early days there were too few, in fact almost no, books about it. Then the long drought became a flood, and there are hundreds now. I am not complaining - the era when those who had puzzled out some obscure mystery were keen to show it off but refused to explain it was a frustrating one. But now, when a designer wanders into a big city bookshop and claps eyes on all those big thick books on Flash, whose titles link Flash with daunting words like Applications and ActionScript, eyes are apt to glaze over to mutterings of "later, later, one day...." What has been badly needed is an easy introduction to the latest version of Flash, written with clarity and respect, amply illustrated, structured so readers can easily dip in and out to grab some pearl of wisdom that can be applied to the job in hand, and that invites repeated perusal. What we needed has now arrived, and Macromedia Flash MX Express is it. Designers are visual people, and they need their books well illustrated with screenshots and examples. Flash MX Express includes so many that it has a 2-column layout - one for text and one for images. Illustrations are annotated and captioned where necessary, and there is a reasonable balance between screenshots made on Mac and Windows computers. An error common in those big thick Flash books is the authors making too many guesses about their readers, skipping over crucial steps on the assumption that "it's obvious, isn't it?" Cych, Mace and Rhodes do not do that there, covering every step of the way through each exercise. You really can jump in and out, grabbing only what you need that day. The authors then gently introduce that designers' bogeyman, ActionScript, two-thirds the way through, and follow it with introductions into components and video, both new with Flash MX. Macromedia Flash MX Express is one of the best introductions into Flash MX for those new to Flash or who know they have been underusing its immense capabilities and want to dig deeper now. I hope that Friends of ED uses the same editorial team to write further-Express style Flash books in future.

This book can teach authors and publishers as much about producing quality learning references as it can teach you about FLASH MX. Great for the beginner. This book doesn't waste your time with hand holding excersises that take forever to complete. At 333pages you'll be up to speed in no time. Each page is 2 columns one column text the other pictures. So it could be said that this book is actually 116 pages as apposed to the other 400 - 700 page volumes available on FLASH. Get it and Get it today. This book is the only book I would recomend for beginners along with a couple of hours on [the website].