A practical and fun Flash book that shows readers over 60 practical techniques, solutions and cool effects to instantly use on their Website or project. The Flash Anthology makes an excellent task reference or it can be used for inspiration for future projects. The book tackles the majority of the most common building blocks for real world Flash applications-as one reviewer described "it covers everything that Flash does best". Topics covered include working with external data, debugging, animation, sound and video effects, flash forms and getting indexed by search engines. All the solutions are based on ActionScript, are completely customizable and come with suggested modifications. Examples are compatible with ActionScript 2 and Flash MX 2004.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 11 Ratings

Your 2nd Flash book!!! - 2006-02-17
Reviewer Rating:
With so many Flash books on the market, its hard to find one that will fit your needs. There are beginner books, books that teach ActionScript basics, and books that focus on animation. But there are very few if at all that show the what you can really do with it after you know the basics.

This book gives the reader a true understanding of what can be really done with Macromedia Flash. Not just animation or text effects, but the whole gambit. There really is not another book out there now that goes over this much "real-world" examples in Flash. Believe me, I have purchased over 10+ books on Macromedia Flash in the past 2 years.

It assumes the reader has a general knowledge of the basics of Flash and that's it. It starts with an explanation of ActionScript (Flash's programming language): syntax basics, naming conventions, basic commands.

Then it continues with understanding the timeline in creating navigation effects for movies. Knowing how to use the timeline is one thing, but really understanding how the timeline can be used with creating Movieclips and ActionScript takes a slightly non-linear thinking that some people have trouble getting. The author really explains in great detail how the process is done with well-written examples to help the user "get it".

The book then goes into some intermediate to advanced topics with ActionScript like creating simple script libraries that can be re-used in many of your movies you create. After that it has some great and fun examples of how ActionScript is used to create those cool animations you see on other "professional" websites. I have long wondered how the h*ll that is done. But his book tells you exactly how it is done!

Towards the end of the book it focuses on using components, getting exernal data, incorporating video and sound and creating small applications with Flash.

I love the how the book flows because it makes it easy to follow if you are reading it in order or if you want to look for a particular topic to learn.

Many people just think of Flash as just an animation or drawing tool, but Flash is much more and with this book you will know too!

This is a great book for the Flash users who knows the basics and wants to know what Flash can really do and it can be for the advanced suer who wants to know something very specific and is tired of spending hours looking on internet forums (flashkit.com) to find an example.

A great Flash book that should be part of your library no matter what your skill level.

Thinking of Buying This Book? - 2006-03-14
Reviewer Rating:
More to the point is this book relevant in the world of flash 8 here on 2006? Yes. Why? Because THere are not many books around useful to intermediate flashers, although you an be a complete actionscript beginner, use & understand this book..this is one of those helpful for intrmediate users as well to help you learn how it is that actionscript works.

Assumes basic knowlege of way around flash, the tools and workspace & stage.
OK for comlplete novice actionscripters but intermediate users have more advanced stuff like server side scripting with forms and loading external data work with here, though you better have MX@K4 pro to best utilize that chapter.
IF you want to learn actionscript this book can be a handy tool for you as you work the examples and learn how the code for each executes you can begin to let your mind open up to how you can extrapolate to use the what you learn here for other projects. What you learn in this book will help you to solidify your AS understanding and is a great help to get you on your way to actionscripting.

Things I particularly like: discussion of good flash/ bad flash, rainstorm animation,
interactive sticky notes, forms including pswd protected logins

I would recommend ths book For beginning to intermediate FLashers only and say it is NOT for those in the advanced intermediate/ advanced levels...
I'm giving it only 3 stars since it is outdated but its really still quite good if you are in that niche group

Not worh it - 2009-05-20
Reviewer Rating:
Basically a bunch of examples you can find on the internet for free. It doesn't systematically teaches you the programming fundamentals.

It's ok for a few quick solutions, but not the book you need to really learn actionscript.

Flash Anthology - 2007-10-13
Reviewer Rating:
This is a great book for simple flash animations. It explains clearly what to do and is great for a beginner.

The best solutions for common Flash problems - 2006-04-14
Reviewer Rating:
Any working with Flash MX 2004 should also work with Steven Grosvenor's THE FLASH ANTHOLOGY: COOL EFFECTS & PRACTICAL ACTIONSCRIPT: it compiles the best solutions to common Flash problems, showing how to link ActionScript to these solutions to obtain better results. Here are over sixty such solutions, with chapters covering everything from modification routines to designing and setting scenes and using sound effects and special clips.

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