Ready to take your Flash knowledge to the next level? Then Macromedia Flash MX Advanced for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickPro Guide is your ticket. Designed for professionals like yourself-users who have mastered the basics of Flash but need help with the advanced animation techniques and ActionScripting--this guide is a must-have for graphic designers, Web animators, game programmers, interface designers, and multimedia pros.

In this volume, veteran Flash instructor Russell Chun eschews "cool effects" and case studies for an approach that emphasizes methodology and problem-solving. Using the task-based format that readers have come to expect from this popular series, Russell has divided the text into three primary sections: animation, navigation, and interactivity. The guide covers all of Flash's new features, including the revamped user interface, brand-new commands, and added drawing and text tools. Plus, you'll find plenty of screen shots and visual aids to reinforce the text. With Flash MX Advanced for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickPro Guide by your side, you'll soon find yourself thinking--maybe even dreaming--in Flash.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 9 Ratings

The Pits by Peachpit - 2003-03-22
Reviewer Rating:

OK...Cool - but??? - 2003-08-27
Reviewer Rating:
I am about done with all of the examples in this book...and...Yeah it's definitely a mixed bag on this one! Overall, this is a good book for coders wanting to move from basic AS (gotoAndPlay(etc..);) - to "real" coding (streaming MP3's with volume and balance controls). But...man is this book inconsistent! For one example the author will have you place the code for a function for a button on the first frame of the main timeline - where it should be "per Mr. Moock" - then in the next example he'll tell you to place a function directly on a button itself. Huh? And speaking of the MP3 player - why do you need to write a fully "OOP-compliant" volume control when nothing else in the book even metions OOP? I replaced 5 lines of code for that little sucker with 1 line of code.

That said, however, I haven't had any problems with the example code in the book (other than my own typos and brain cramps - but that's my own problem). As for the CD I ignored it as usual. I always make my own graphics and type every example in a book myself, even if only to learn my own "favorite mistakes."

I would highly recommend this book if you use it along with Colin Moock's AS book. This book has what his lacks - lots of simple straightforward coding examples. I only got through half of Moock's book before I started "Flash Advanced" (all theory and no application is, well, pretty pointless) - but the half I read of Moock's book has allowed me to make sense of the scattershot approach of this book (and to recode all the examples so that they can be placed on the main timeline where they belong). I have since bought, and begun, the Actionscript Cookbook, and that book would seem a logical next step - the final section of it builds full applications.

Bottom line: Hey - no book is perfect. This is an OK book for intermediate coders that is dying to be a great book. Is there an editor in the house???

Needs fixing up.... - 2003-04-19
Reviewer Rating:
This book is good as a general reference but has so many mistakes in it that the code generally can't be trusted to do the job...you'll have to tweak it to get it to work. This was pretty annoying as was the author's complete lack of any information as how to contact him about all the mistakes (and no web page on Peachpit correcting them either). He also tended to give very convoluted solutions to very simple tasks such as closing windows from within Flash with javascript. All examples in the book could not have been tested before it was published, it was definitely bad and surprising editing from Peachpit whose books are generally great. All that said, it is probably still worth getting as a reference book. When you have problems with the code, there will often be a simpler or modified solution on Google groups to help you out. Hopefully, Peachpit will edit and test this book more thoroughly before rushing it out for its next release.

Great book! - 2005-07-27
Reviewer Rating:
One of the best books around. You'll get more than your money's worth!

I agree with the 1-star reviewers - 2003-05-13
Reviewer Rating:
Read their reviews. I skipped ahead and wanted to learn "Chapter 6: Managing Outside Communication", and I found details left out in the two examples that I looked at but now I'm skeptical about the rest of the book. I bought this book hoping to learn some advanced features but in the end, I'm returning it. Not surprisingly, I see a lot of other people selling their edition which tells you that something's wrong.

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