Flash

Published by Sybex...

ISBN: 0-7821-4180-3

I would give this package 5 stars, it certainly works for me anyway.

This is another in the new line of learning-made-simple using the Sybex "Savvy" line of books. Having the CDROM based on the book "Flash MX Savvy" added to the package has made this even better.

I have already reviewed this book and found it to be excellent.....

Once opened in your CD player, you can just leave it running while carrying on working in Flash, even after you have put the book down.

It provides a very good source of easily understood information and walk-throughs. These are broken into 7 categories for easy learning.

1. Creating visuals steps you through the basic steps of animating and is further broken down into different aspects of selection, grouping etc.

2. Animation comes next and this introduces the concepts of working with timelines and movie clips.

3. Intro to ActionScripting is really useful as this is what can make or break an animation and allow interactivity with your movie.

4. ActionScript for interactivity takes your basic skills in ActionScript to new levels, and like al the sections has been further broken down into another 5 sub sections.

5. Working with audio is really useful as this has been a problem, or at least difficult to do in the past. MX makes this easier, but understanding what to do is a great help.

6. Using other tools helps understand how to integrate Flash into Director, Freehand, audio software and 3D.

7. Publishing Flash is next, and this, once again is an important aspect when file size and bandwidth are concerned.

8. The referenced section contains what you expect from it, plus it has all the keyboard shortcuts.

9. Lastly there is the Hands On section and this is where you get to practice your skills, aided by video of the lessons/

Most of the descriptions are in slide show format using screen shots, which is supported by sound where applicable, and the lessons are step-through if you don't want to watch the whole thing.

There are some special video sections, using Flash, that take you through making some movies using the familiarity that you have built up using the preceding lessons. By all means look at these early on, but they will not have the impact that will come after stepping through the rest of the manual.

As a learning tool for those who do better by using visuals and sound, sooner than reading a manual, this is definitely the way to go. Obviously the slide shows don't contain the same amount of information as the book, but they do make you click on things so you learn to work in a sensible order, and then a lot of the written work makes a bit more sense.

Teaching is really about being shown how to do something, and then following explained principles to find out how to do anything associated with that process. Books on their own are great, even with the CD-ROMS that are included, but I feel that it isn't the same as this type of learning.

For a start, the CDROM attached to a book is just a set of lessons, and it is easy to skip past stuff when you don't understand, but this CDROM is done in such a way as to make sense of what you are doing quickly. It is just like having a help file open with interactive pictures instead of just words.

Once you learn where to find the answers, you don't have many problems that you can't solve, and that is where the strength of this package lies.

You may only need a small part of the jigsaw to solve the whole thing, and with the 700 page book added, then you don't need to look much further for any answers.

Bottom Line.

As the complete learning tool, and help and assistance for problem solving, you will really need to go a long way to find a better package.

I firmly believe that this is the way that good manuals for software will have to be produced from now on. As long as the book is good for it's purpose, and the quality of the CDROM is kept up, then there is a market for this sort of package.

Once a book has been written, then the making of something like this is not that difficult, as it uses screen shots that apply to the book. Therein lies it's strength. If the screen shots don't work, then the book doesn't either, and in this case they both go together really well.

Tim Skyrme...

You can sit and watch tutorial movies...and then try out the techniques you just watched - all within the CDs learning environment. Its a perfect tool for those who learn software by watching things being done - instead of just reading about the techniques.

Flash MX Learning Studio is worth its weight in gold! Buy it and you'll see.

Harry Stoner began his career as part of the failed attempt to free Cuba in the 1960's. Set in Southern Florida, home of the Southern Cross and the life enhancing "flash of emerald" at sunset for those lucky enough to catch it, Harry Stoner returns from his present assignment in Virginia to help his daughter with a "problem." That problem turns out to be her husband Lou's relatives, who have added drug trafficking to their import/export business. Lou has stumbled upon the "goods," and now his Uncle Lastero is threatening his life unless he joins in with the family "business." That business turns into money for guns, and Stoner finds himself in the middle of a plot to detonate a nuclear bomb, as well as being the object of the terrorists' hatred. Harry himself has unwitting been the target of terrorists, whose attempt to kill him resulted in the death of his wife, Lynn. To catch the terrorists and save his daughter and husband from danger, he must return to his military training, old friends, and keen thinking of a survivor:

"When he's been really working, not just clerking, Stoner had squirreled away the old identities, depositing small amounts of money in the scattered accounts and making charges against the cards, keeping everything legit. Back then he'd thought toward the future. He had almost let those days slip away. He thought back. When was the last time he had used the bank card? The expiration date came up next month. He had let the old days slide way back in his memory."

A Flash Of Emerald is a hard-hitting, exciting spy game story with lots of subplots, intense and charismatic characters, and enough action to glue the reader to the book. Harry Stoner is a larger-than-life character who singlehandedly takes on a Florida drug ring and a terrorist group at the same time. Taylor lends his considerable expertise to the story to give the reader insight into just what the military does to keep the bad guys out and to police their own. A great read!

Shelley Glodowski
Reviewer

The index-like answer to the questions "What is life?" "What is its true nature and purpose?", which are a greatest manifestation of the Names of Ever-Living and Giver of Life, is this:
Life is:
• the most important aim of the universe;
• and its greatest result;
• and its most brilliant light;
• and its subtlest leaven;
• and its distilled essence;
• and its most perfect fruit;
• and its most elevated perfection;
• and its finest beauty;
• and its most beautiful adornment;
• and the secret of its undividedness;
• and the bond of its unity;
• and the source of its perfections;
• and in regard to art and nature, a most wondrous being endowed with spirit;
• and a miraculous reality which makes the tiniest creature like a universe;
• and in addition to its being the means of the universe being situated in a tiny animate creature, and its showing a sort of index of the huge universe in the creature, it is a most extraordinary miracle of Divine power which connects the animate creature to most beings and makes it a tiny universe;
• and it is a wondrous Divine art which enlarges a tiny part to being the greatest whole and makes a particular like a universal or world, and shows that in regard to dominicality the universe is an indivisible whole or universal that cannot be broken into parts and which accepts no participation;
• and it is the most brilliant, the most decisive, the most perfect of proofs testifying to the necessary existence of the Ever-Living and Self-Subsistent One; and among Divine artefacts is the lightest and most apparent, and the most valuable and the most abundant, and the purest, most shining, and most meaningful embroidery of dominical art;
• and it is a graceful, refined, delicate manifestation of Divine mercy which makes other beings serve itself;
• and it is a most comprehensive mirror of the Divine attributes;
• and it is a wonder of dominical creation comprising the manifestations of numerous Most Beautiful Names like Merciful, Provider, Compassionate, Munificent, and All-Wise, which subjects to itself many truths like sustenance, wisdom, grace, and mercy, and is the source and origin of all the senses like sight, hearing, and touch;
• and life is a transformation-machine in the vast workshop of the universe which continuously cleanses everywhere, purifies, allows progress, and illuminates. And living bodies, the dwellings of life, are guest-houses, schools, barracks for instructing and illuminating the caravans of particles, enabling them to perform their duties. Quite simply the Ever-Living Self-Subsistent One makes subtle this dark, transient, lowly world, illuminates it and gives it a sort of permanence, preparing it to go to another, everlasting world;
• and life's two faces, that is, its inner and outer faces, are both shining, elevated, and without dirt or defect. It is an exceptional creature on which apparent causes have not been placed, veiling the disposal of power, in order to show clearly that it has emerged directly without veil or means from the hand of dominical power;
• and the reality of life looks to the six pillars of belief, proving them in meaning and indirectly. That is to say, it is a luminous truth which looks to and proves
• both the necessary existence of the Necessarily Existent One and His eternal life,
• and the realm of the Hereafter and everlasting life,
• and the existence of the angels,
• and the other pillars of belief.
• Also, just as life is the purest essence of the universe, distilled from all of it, so is it a mighty mystery yielding thanks, worship, praise, and love, the most important Divine purposes in the universe and most important results of the world's creation.

specific questions about Islam are also resolved in The Flashes.

Bayram selam

Morgan tells a story from the heart about the extraordiary, almost mythic relationship, between herself and the first love of her life, Jim - who in many ways somehow calls to mind visions of James Dean, Jim Morrison, and many another who's lights shone a little too brightly for this world, all rolled into one. But it is so much more than just 'their' story. It is also a story about the strength and tenacity of Morgan's own spirit. Her courage in being able to extricate herself from a destructive relationship, fight for her daughter, and follow the course of real love - wherever it may lead.

And where it leads is both sad and hopeful. A testament to the endurance of true love and its' continuance even when it's 'protaganists' have moved on to 'other dimensions'. It's both beautiful and uplifting, but be warned - it's DEFINITELY a ten hankie job!!! For anyone who lived through the late sixties and early seventies, even retrospectively, it's also a glorious wallow in the nostalgia of an age where people still dared dream, and believed they could change the world with love and hope alone! Read this often enough, and we might all begin to remember that we probably still can! And as well as all that, it's wonderfully evocative of both 'period' and 'place' to boot. I guarantee, you'll really feel like you're right there with her. Well I did anyway! It's a beautiful book. I'd highly recommend it.

I'd certainly recomend this book. This is going to make a great 'chickflick'. It would get a hanky rating of 10, I wept with hapiness when Morning and Heaven are reunited, and with sadness as Morning lost her Prince.
Don't miss out on this.

The book is divided into three sections - one for each of the programs - and projects from one program are used in the other programs. There's just enough difference between the program interfaces to confuse you, but Ms. Evans has done an excellent job in clarifying them.

I especially enjoyed the rotating fishing lure exersize in the Flash section. I've wanted to do that effect for a long time, and her explanation got me through quickly and easily.

All in all, the book really will help you if you are putting up a website and haven't done a lot of graphic work before. The integration of these three programs is important, and the author did an excellent job in teaching. I recommend it heartily!

The Fireworks section is quite extensive since all the examples rightfully are designed in or a major part of them are designed in Fireworks where they are then cut up, interactivity added (except for the Flash examples) and then exported.

The FreeHand section deals with primarily the tools that differ from Fireworks and things like perspecive, contour blends and bleneding. The blending feature allows you to do a shape tween type of effect and then use it in Fireworks for animation. Then there is extensive tips and tricks for preparing FreeHand files for use in Flash.

The Flash section is great fun and extremely useful. The entire section deals with ActionScripting projects, the author doesn't try to teach you Flash but useful ways to use it in conjunction to the other two programs. The projects such as the puzzle teaches more than it may appear on the surface. Sure, you may not need a puzzle, but it was a great way to demonstrate how to load movies that replace prior ones versus loading movies to a new level. This is just one example. There is also a jukebox that has four pieces of music (included) that uses a trick to load very quickly. A product display that rotates a full 360 degrees, a banner ad that allows you to print a brochure from within Flash and a banner ad that uses the color feature of Flash. There are more projects in this section.

Even though Dreamweaver isn't in the title of this book, it wasn't left out of the mix. There is an Appendix which takes an entire Fireworks design and places the images in DW and adds the behaviors, CSS Style Sheets in DW. There is also a section on adding FW pop-up menus in DW.

There are some great contributors that added value to this book as well. What I liked is they added VALUE not just their names. For instance, Hillman Curtis did a nice introductory piece on, "Motion is the Message" imparting some of his wisdom to us. There is also an entire interface given to us from Eyeland Studio that we can use and modify (with instructions on how)and banner ads from Figleaf Software.

All in all, I don't think you'll be disapointed in this book. I walked away with much more than I expected. This review took much longer to do than anticipated because the book is almost 500 pages (480) and is packed. Not only did I learn the strong points of each program but how to work more efficiently as well.

By the way, my friend who told me the book had errors compared it to his copy (for Flash MX) and it is totally different now, no problems with anything....

And now the great part...
I was working on the "Detecting Download Progress of External Images and Movies" tutorial and encountered a problem with the finished preloader which would not work. I checked the Peachpit Press website for errata on this book but found nothing. As a last resort I emailed Russell Chun and he responded!
He gave me the answer to my problem which was to do with the FlashPlayer not supporting Local Loading of SWF files using the MovieClipLoader command.
My thanks to Russell Chun!!! If you are new to Flash or want to increase your actionscripting knowledge buy this book!!!