Good on what it covers .. but I expected more ...

Basically this is a printed version of the Macromedia Flash 8 online Help docs .. so I was a bit disappointed that I had to pay 20 bucks for a book that should have come in the box (it's not like this is an inexpensive program) ..

That said, having printed docs does have its advantages .. so no big grief from me on that point. But if you are looking for something that you don't already have, you may want to check some other alternatives ...

What the book teaches, it does very well .. you'll get a nice overview of the basics .. and the tutorials are very easy to follow .. even does a fair job on getting what can be an intimidating foray into ActionScript.

However, there are two areas not covered I found glaring omissions ..

One .. no instruction at all on preloaders (those "movie loading" animations before the actual Flash animations) ..none .. not even a mention of their existence. Since most users of Flash will need to know how to do this .. I cannot believe there wasn't even a cursory discussion about this.

Two .. the biggest improvement to Flash 8 Professional is its video handling capabilities. Again .. nothing on this at all ... outside of the very first lesson where you are instructed to drag a video (FLV) file from the Library to the Stage .. no talk about creating FLVs (using the Video Encoder) .. nothing on imbedding or streaming .. how to best incorporate video into Flash .. nothing .. I was really shocked this wasn't covered .. even at the most rudimentary level.

Also .. no index .. another unexplainable omission ..

Again .. what it does .. it does well .. but for being the "Official Macromedia Documentation" (now Adobe) for Flash 8 .. it should have offered a lot more.

Other Reviews

• Good book for learning the basics
• Nice copy to have around
• Waste of time...don't bother picking up this book...
• Good on what it covers .. but I expected more ...