Unlock the power of Flash and bring gorgeous animations to life onscreen. It's easy with Flash CS4: The Missing Manual. You'll start creating animations in the first chapter, and will learn to produce effective, well-planned visuals that get your message across. This entertaining new edition includes a complete primer on animation, a guided tour of the program's tools, lots of new illustrations, and more details on working with video. Beginners will learn to use the software in no time, and experienced Flash designers will improve their skills. Expanded and revised to cover the new version of Flash, every chapter in this book provides step-by-step tutorials to help you:

• Learn to draw objects, animate them, and integrate your own audio and video files

• Add interactivity, use special effects, learn morphing, and much more

• Check your work with the book's online example files and completed animations

• Discover new Flash toolkits and features such as Frameless Animation

• Use every timesaving aspect of Flash CS4, such as Library objects and Symbols

• Learn how to automate your drawings and animations with ActionScript 3.0

With this book, absolutely no programming is necessary to get started with Flash CS4. Flash CS4: The Missing Manual explains in jargon-free English exactly what you need to know to use Flash effectively, while avoiding common pitfalls, right from the start.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 5 Ratings

FINALLY, a book that gets it.... - 2009-03-12
Reviewer Rating:
I wish all how-to guides were written like the Missing Manual series. They really approach things from the perspective of a user who is new to the program and wants to get the meat of how it works, but isn't familiar or comfortable with the setup and how everything in the program flows yet. I GET Flash after this book, and now it seems like 'why didn't someone just say it this way in the first place????' The Actionscript section in here is GREAT for someone who is new to Actionscript. It doesn't just dive in and bog you down in terms and theories right away, it uses several good analogies the average person can relate to in explain what Actionscript is and what it does and then gets into more details (I am sure true Actionscript junkies would say their overview was very basic, but for someone new to the language, I felt it was just right)- If you had to get one book to help you work with Flash, I would say make it this one. There are some 'flashier' visually more pretty books out there, but they leave alot of the explanation unsaid unfortunately. This book doesn't

A disgrace to the missing manual series - 2009-03-28
Reviewer Rating:
I hate to give this review as it may impact the missing manual series in a negative way. Dreamweaver CS4 was the very best self help book I have ever read and then came flash CS4 the missing manual. I was so very disappointed. The two books are like night and day, totally opposite.
The author in Flash CS4 The Missing Manual goes on about nothing, I have reached page 165 and have learned very little. It is full of mistakes and very much disorganized too. The mistakes are not just typos, and are too numerous to report for the errata on the website. Because of all the mistakes, I found myself wasting a lot of time trying to figure things out. On the other hand with the Dreamwever CS4 Missing Manual, it was so well written I was going through an average of seventy five pages a day of study.
I have spot read four other missing manuals which I have already bought and so far the ones written by David Sawyer Mcfarland and Mathew Macdonald seem to be outstanding. In the future I will avoid any books written by Chris Grover, he does not do justice to the creator of the missing manual series David Pogue.

Missing manuals fill in the blanks - 2009-04-14
Reviewer Rating:
I have several books from the Missing Manual series and I have not been disappointed with anyone of them. Flash CS4: The Missing Manual, and the others in the series I purchased, have all been well written, easy to follow and loaded with information to allow for the immediate use of whatever product they are instructing the reader. I use to purchase the lynda.com series of instructional books (which is also a top-notch series), but I now prefer, and look for, the title Missing Manual whenever I need an instructional book no matter that I may have documentation (online or bookform) that came with the software. The Missing Manual truely fills in the blanks!

This Flash CS4 Missing Manual is not missing anything. - 2009-07-31
Reviewer Rating:
I don't read any of these books! No, I study them page by page and work through all of the examples. That's the only way to do it if you want to learn. By far and away, Flash CS4, The Missing Manual, has it all. Best organized, great examples and touches important subjects that the others do not. It's all in there, from creating Storyboards, targeting viewers, the new Motion Editor, advanced drawing techniques, using Scenes in detail, IK bones, Sound, Video, useful Action Script examples and lots more. If you want to get up to speed then this is the book. This Flash CS4 Missing Manual is not missing anything.

Average at Best - 2009-05-02
Reviewer Rating:
Let's see. I have an old Flash 8 Missing Manual. The content here is about 90% the same, using the same examples, barely scratching the surface as in the past. What I hate most about "missing manuals" is their need to use case examples instead of just giving us the straight poop. I don't want to do examples; I want to work on my stuff. That's what a manual should be. I'll take a course (in a book or otherwise) if I want to work on examples.

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