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Creating a Web Site with Flash: Visual QuickProject Guide Review by P. Arden
Can't recommend it
I wanted to explore Flash from a site-building perspective, and since I've done some animation in the past -- meaning I'm already familiar with concepts like "key frames" and "tweening" -- I figured that this book would be a great way to explore the technology. I'm a great fan of the Visual Quickstart Guide series, and since "Creating a Web Site with Flash" is from a related imprint, it seemed likely that I'd be able to follow closely what they did in the book and then apply those techniques to a project I had in mind.
Fat chance. I'd read some of the earlier reviews and although several of them were negative, I imagined that being reasonably intelligent and technically savvy, I wouldn't get stuck the way the book's other readers had. Nor did I: I got stuck in entirely different but equally frustrating ways. Often I'd find myself instructed by the authors to perform a particular action, but have no way of completing it because that menu choice wasn't available. (Often it would be visible but greyed out, meaning I'd have to do something else first -- but what?)
I will admit I don't like the user interfaces that Macromedia comes up with (for Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, etc.) but that's precisely why I wanted a step-by-step guide like this one. I figured all the full-color illustrations would make it fool-proof. Unfortunately, at least least twice in the first few chapters, this fool got to the point where he just couldn't make Flash do what the authors said it should be doing. I finally stopped about half-way through in frustration, without either the demo website or any understanding of what I did wrong.
The publisher does provide chapter-by-chapter "snapshot" versions of the files you're supposed to be constructing (on its website), but I don't consider that a useful substitute for clear instruction. Sure, handholding someone through a complex application like Flash isn't an easy task, but I'm wondering whether Peachpit Press actually road-tested the book with a true novice, or just had people already familiar with Flash simply spot-check it for any obvious errors.