Offering breakthrough video capabilities and powerful run-time effects, Macromedia Flash Professional 8 is poised to upend the Web video market, posing a serious challenge to Microsoft, RealNetworks, and Apple’s efforts in the process. Here to make sure you’re ready for it–and can start taking advantage of its creative tools, authoring power, flexibility, and rich video capabilities immediately–is the official Macromedia training for the program. Through 20-plus hours of project-based instruction, you’ll learn how to program for the enhanced Flash Player; use ActionScript to create dynamic interactivity; take advantage of new Flash 8 features like the improved script editor (which includes a visual interface), revamped library interface, and new Undo feature; and more. Simple step-by-step instructions peppered with plenty of visual aids and a CD that includes lesson files and a trial version of Flash Professional 8 leave you with a solid understanding of Flash development and the techniques required to tap your creative potential by producing dynamic, interactive content.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 26 Ratings

AWFUL...AWFUL....AWFUL!!! - 2006-11-14
Reviewer Rating:
Do not buy this book!!! I was naive to believe that because this was coming from Macromedia that it would be worth the $40+ dollars to get "Training From the Source". It wasn't!! It is hands down the worst instructional book that I have ever used and would strongly recommend that you do not waste your money.

I am a fulltime graphic designer who has used Photoshop, After Effects, Final Cut Pro, etc. for years. I am not new to web, but had very little experience with Flash. I was hoping to become more flash savy, but I don't even know if I can make it through this entire book. The author doesn't always remember to tell you what project you are opening up, doesn't call buttons in the toolbar by correct name, fails to tell you to switch from one layer to another...and in general makes the entire experience a confusing guessing game.

I'm amazed that this book was actually edited, published and then that Macromedia put thier stamp of apporval on it...wow what a disaster!!

AWFUL! - 2006-10-19
Reviewer Rating:
Did anybody proofread this book? If Macromedia had bothered to have someone unfamiliar with the book work through the exercises they would have discovered that just the first chapter has more errors than you can shake a stick at. The book refers to files on the disk that don't exist. You're told to load a file that 'you created earlier in this lesson' which has never been mentioned before. It's as though entire pages have been deleted from this book, yet the information on those pages is refered to later. After a few very frustrating hours with this book I'm ready to pitch it out the window.

This is one of the most poorly edited books that I've ever seen. Macromedia should be embarrassed to have their name on it. It is a total waste of both your money and your time.

Not the way to learn Flash 8 - 2007-11-08
Reviewer Rating:
i found this book very frustrating as when I did get something to work, I did not how to do it differently the next time. They take you down one specific path, and if you make make it through, you then did not know how or why you got there. There are much, much better dooks out there. Try the "for dummies" first.

Found an error, like the others - 2007-08-20
Reviewer Rating:
Like the other reviewers, this would have been good if not for the errors. I was working lesson 2 making a dynamic TV remote and was frustrated that it didn't work. Well, I did my own troubleshooting and found that on pg.59 they refer to a movie clip titled "cableBox_mc" when their demo file has the clip named "cableBox" and so it doesn't work. On top of that, the dynamic text field is defaulted to black text on a black background, so even after I found the first bug, the text didn't show right. Once I changed the dynamic text attributes to white text instead of black, the code worked fine. However, I am a beginner (like the other reviewers), and shouldn't need to troubleshoot my teacher's code.

Damn, I wish I'd read the reviews first! - 2007-06-26
Reviewer Rating:
Just like one of the other reviewers I was appalled to find that the files referred to in chapter 1 of the book were not on the training disk--and that the author referred to an as-yet unstarted exercise as a starting point. Well, I tried...I tried to deconstruct--to pick the files out of the finished piece, and reconstruct---but nothing worked---layers, evverything--not the right information. Do these books and training disks get revised contantly, independently, independently of one another? Or is this miserable book part of the dissolution of Macromedia as it merged with Adobe. Book sucks!

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