MX

There are more than a few valuable ColdFusion books on the market but, in my opinion, they suffer from their "hands down" approach that makes them very well suited for the beginners but, at the same time, often fails to deliver what experienced developers really need. So, if you already have some decent experience with ColdFusion or web developing in general (no matter the language), give yourself a favor and get a copy of Brooks-Bilson's book. The author delivers a well-structured, systematic reference to ColdFusion; just what a developer needs to get the job done, also a handy reference to keep near the keyboard. A special mention is due to the fact that this is the only book that covers version 6.1.

The examples Rob uses are simple when possible and complex when necessary. The exercises he uses are explained in great details and contain many tips and techniques that will surely make you a better developer. This update brings you up to speed on the new features in CFMX and shows a few things using Flash MX remoting which was a big plus for me. The book also gives a great overview and reference guide for ColdFusion MX. In my opinion, now that ColdFusion is the defacto "Web Programming Language", this book is a vital purchase for all web professionals using CFMX and other Macromedia Web Technologies. I recommend this book without any reservation as it is one of the best technical books I have read so far.

The examples Rob uses are simple when possible and complex when necessary. The exercises he uses are explained in great details and contain many tips and techniques that will surely make you a better developer.

This update brings you up to speed on the new features in CFMX and shows a few things using Flash MX remoting which was a big plus for me. The book also gives a great overview and reference guide for ColdFusion MX.

In my opinion, now that ColdFusion is the defacto "Web Programming Language", this book is a vital purchase for all web professionals using CFMX and other Macromedia Web Technologies.

I recommend this book without any reservation as it is one of the best technical books I have read so far.

What a well-written book! There is a real skill required when writing a technical book to educate someone on a complex application and Mssrs. Waltrall and Herber have it! I started about a week and half ago and am now on Page 225, starting from the beginning and feel I have a very good handle on using Flash . .this is a testament to the authors and from someone who is not all that technical! Anyway, would recommend this book to anyone and want to thank the authors for an excellent job!

Yup, Flash MX 2004 Savvy is a great book for all levels of Flash users - from the most raw newbie to the moderately experienced flasher...and everyone in between. It covers a wealth of Flash topics ranging from the most simple to the complex. It also covers to "out of the box" kinds of topics like Flash and Pocket PC, Flash and Director, and Flash and Dreamweaver. Its also got an incredible comprehensive section on Flash and audio...which, in my opinion, is one of the strongest reasons to buy the book (there are so few books about Flash and audio out there). The bottom line is that I can't say enough good things about this book. I hope that whenever the next version of Flash comes out (knock on wood that it will be awhile away), these authors write another book...because I'll be first in line to buy it.

I bought the last edition of this book and was incredibly pleased. It was everything a beginner Flash user needed to get up to speed on the program. Now, being a far more expereinced Flash user, I still went out and bought this new eiditon as soon as it hit the shelves. It is still the most useful Flash book that I own.

I think the thing that I like the most about the book is not so much the actual core Flash coverage (and there is a lot of that - everything from basic animation to fairly sophisticated ActionScript), but the non-traditional Flash topics: like Flash & Director, 3D Flash, Flash & Freehand (which is a bonus chapter on the book's CD), Flash & Audio Applicaitons, Flash & Pocket PC, etc. There is a lot in the this book that you'll have to search through a lot of other Flash books to find.

On top of all of the great topics, the authors have a wonderful bablance between instruction and hands on tutorials. At the end of each section, there is a legnth project tutorial (called Hands On) that lets you take what you've learned and apply it to a real project. This is an incredible balance that you aren't going to find in many Flash books.

Finally, and this is something that not a lot of people think about when they are buying a computer book is the quality. The book is printed on really high quality paper. I know this sounds silly, but a top of the other really big Flash books (Flash Bible, etc.) are printed on paper which is one step above newsprint).

An excellent Flash book. It goes through every aspect of the production process, from writing the script to exporting to videotape. It tells you how to prepare your Flash animations the right way, and provides information on the correct project size, frame rate, title & action safe guides, etc. for broadcast. This information is invaluable if you ever intend to submit your Flash animation to a festival or studio, and you have to export your movie out to videotape. I also found the interviews with seasoned Flash animators to be very insightful. You will not regret buying this book.

If you're a traditional animator or a web-based flash animator (all levels), "Flash MX Design for TV and Video" IS the definitive guide to taking your flash animation to video, television and DVD. Not only is this book chock full of animation techniques, it also explores working with sound, flash video capabilities and limitations, visual storytelling and cross-purposing, the process of designing your project with a variety of delivery options in mind. This book is a must-have for every serious Flash Animator seeking to take their flash stories to the next level. We are proud to recommend it to our FlashTV members.

Nicholas Da Silva, ...

Its just a mater time before more quality content shifts from the workstations to the living rooms of the world. This is the definitive guide on bridging Flash content for the Web to Television. A truly indespensible reference for any Flash professional wanting to make the transition.
Janet Galore and Todd Kelsey lay it all out clearly and write in an easy to read style that doesn't skimp on details. The entire book is laden with terrific artwork and helpful screen grabs that support the text. Very undaunting for the visually inclined.
The sections on video exporting, and postproduction effects was particularly eye opening. this section alone cleared a lot uncertainty for me.
While this book won't make the reader a better Flash animator/designer, it most definately will make any level Animator or designer a more informed artist. It will open a lot of doors personaly and in the hands of a talented, creative person, change the ever evolving face of the Flash community indelibly.

I'm an assoc. prof. of New Testament currently working to produce an interactive web workbook for teaching/learning skills for New Testament interpretation. I want to give students practice developing close reading skills rather than ask them simply to drill content. For a couple of years, I have had a dream for such a site, and I felt sure it was buildable, but didn't know how. I care enough about how the interactions work and the relationship of content to design that I wanted to design the interactions myself if possible. Yet I didn't know anything but a little Dreamweaver and its CourseBuilder extension.

Working my way through a copy of Macromedia MX eLearning is changing all that. Wow! The book teaches how to develop interactions in Dreamweaver and Flash as well as offering several chapters on putting ColdFusion to work in eLearning. Each chapter includes a fine combination of hands-on work and explanation for why we are being asked to do what we're doing, especially at those places where some task is counter-intuitive. The book is also free of mistakes, typos and muddled language, a welcome plus when so many computer books seem to have been rushed to press without having been edited or proofed.

Bardzell's book is giving me two things: (1) hands on work with the software that introduces and reinforces learning without devolving into busywork and (2) a model for developing materials (like the book itself) that teach effectively from a distance. A+

This is an excellent book where you learn how to integrate ColdFusion MX, Dreamweaver MX, and Flash MX by building interactive learning applications. The exercises are explained in great details and contain many tips and techniques especially for Dreamweaver and Flash. The newer aspects of interacting ColdFusion MX with Flash MX are not covered, but for those of us still using ColdFusion 5 there is a good coverage of LoadVars. I recommend this book without any reservation as it is one of the best technical books I have read so far.

Jeffrey Bardzell's book is intelligently written with plenty easy-to-understand examples. He engages, inspires, and motivates learners throughout. His Dante's Inferno project makes learning fun. He breaks subject matter down into comprehendible pieces, using Aristotelian logic in places. This guy knows what he's doing. Of several computer books that I have purchased over the years, this is the first time I have written a review. You can learn eLearning and website design, and this book will teach you how-even if you are a motivated beginner, technical type, or humanities person-this book is suited for most everyone.

Some tips were a little mediocre, but for the most part a great collection of tips. These killer tips books seem to be mostly for novice users of programs, and in this case that remains true, but since I'm a novice in Dreamweaver, I loved the information contained within.

I buy many (ok, maybe TOO many!) web design and programming books every month. Most aren't worth the high cost of computer books these days, but Macromedia Dreamweaver MX Killer Tips by Joseph Lowery and Angela C. Buraglia is worth the money. The book is filled with wonderful and useful tips for the Dreamweaver MX user. Yes, some of the tips are basic items you would find in a normal users guide, but some are worth the price of the book alone! Save time AND money if you do any serious web development with Dreamweaver MX and get this book!

Title: Dreamweaver MX Killer Tips
Reviewer: Brad Halstead

An awesome 'Killer Tips' compilation from Joseph Lowery and Angela Buraglia (the authors). The authors have done well, presenting the materials in a friendly & mildly humorous way which will tickle the fancy of some for sure. This completely unique Dreamweaver MX book is aptly named and contains over 289 (plus or minus a few) productivity tips and secrets organized into suitable categories and contain just the meat with none of the 'Where's the beef?'.. it's all meat, hold the potatoes!

The 'Killer Tips' categories include Interface Tips; Power CSS Tips; The Best Table Tips; Browser Compatibility Tips, Advanced Layout Tips; Templates, Library and Production Tips; Dreamweaver Tip Variety Pack; Application Building Tips; Cool Coding Tips & Customization and Extensibility Tips. Each Category containing at least 25 power packed tips.

What will these 'Killer Tips' do for you? They won't teach you Dreamweaver MX for certain, but they will teach you how to become more productive using it, from keyboard shortcuts to extending, it's all here.

Who's this book for? This book is for anyone making any use of Dreamweaver MX at all, from complete newbie to the experienced power user.. we can all learn something from this book (even if you're not interested in extension developing or a power user)!

You should have this one near your desk for sure when you're finding yourself repeating the same mouse clicks over and over again, 3 or 4 menu's deep or can't remember how to access the Easter Egg in the Property inspector and so much more...

A great read!

5 stars if you know Flash well.
1 star if you haven't had any experience with it at all.

I was a beginner once, who couldn't figure out Flash at all. I'd like to help you build a bridge between where you may be now, as a beginner, to where you may find yourself aspiring to go.

If your only experience with Flash is to have seen the many wonderful and breathtaking Flash movies on the Internet and just had a look at the authoring tool, I strongly recommend that you leave this book until much later. It has its place in the learning curve but it isn't, in my opinion, the first book to see.

There are understandings to possess that this book doesn't cover sufficiently well enough for those whose minds work in particular ways. This is a programming book, for using the phenomenon of programming to create great design and animations. Whilst the focus is on design, you aren't using the design tools on the interface. With this book, you are using the Actionscript language and you have to have a logical mind for this activity (as well as keeping your strong creative one).

I began my steep learning curve with Flash by watching others and watching video tutorials, especially those by George Pierson. In this way, I can ask questions that are tailored for me and I get tailored responses. Books aren't always able to do so well here.

What is great about this book is the MX Actionscript reference in it and the seemingly well designed theory tutorials. I can't find a fault with the reference. The theory is quite good. In the reference, all Flash MX commands are covered. There are examples of how to use them, but the coverage may not be enough for some. Brill. Just BRILL. I can be excited but because I can follow Actionscript.

Approach this book when you are successfully making Flash movies on your own. Yes, on your own. For me, this book is an aid for when I am going to where I haven't gone to before. It helps me make judgements on ideas I get.

I just bought this book about a month ago. I have experience in C, C++, Java, and Assembly Language programming. I've been messing around with flash mx for awhile and I wanted to get into actionscript. In my opinion, if you have experience in any programming language this book will really help you get into actionscript. It has alot of tutorials that let you see the structure of how things are related. Using flash's methods(functions), creating instances, and dot notation referencing. I would say that it doesn't lead you on any long creation projects. It's alot of one or two pages and done examples. Good for beginning and bad for deep insight. The thing that I think will make this book end up being a great purchase for a first actionscript book is the complete a.s. dictionary in the back. It has a complete def. of every method and how it is used in the back of the book. That is something that will always be good as reference no matter what you are doing. If you have no experience in coding this book should still be able to help you. It's been awhile since I started coding so it's a little harder for me to judge on that note. Pretty good book though.

things needed more of:
xml tutorials, deeper web design creation

I thought this would be a reference. Well guess what, I was wrong. This is a reference in the back half, but a How-To in the front half. I'd say, skip every other ActionScript book till you buy this one. If I'd known this would have tutorials in the first half (yes the first 400 or so pages are tutorials), I wouldn't have bought some of the other ones I have. Combined with the CD content, this book is a great first book for the intermediate animator moving into scripting. And, it will stay usefull for as long as you are using Flash MX. Between this book and the O'Reilly book "ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition" by Colin Moock, you'll have all you really need. Then you can buy the specialized stuff on games or UI or whatever.

This is an excellent book, not just because its from a Canadian author. I picked the book up about a year ago but never gave it much chance. I finally decided that I wanted to learn Flash so I began to go through the book. In 5 days I finished the entire book and I learnt so much from this books style. Instead of the way alot of books are written, where you work on a project and apply a bunch of techniques to it, this book shows you all the functions and where they apply to without all the hassle of having to create a big project to learn new concepts. Excellent book for people who are new to Flash.

This book is perfect for beginners who are just starting out. You will learn Flash MX through step-by-step visual instructions. The book is excellently organized and has perfect chapters as you move on. By the end you will grasp all the great things you can do in Flash MX. It is an excellent way to jump in to ActionScript. Every lesson has a screenshot of Flash MX and show clear steps. So, get this book and see what this book can do for you.

This book is really easy to understand and easy to go about it. If you are a newbie and need some hints on "how to do", this is the book you need. Pretty simple, efficient and pack with a punch. For me, it was breeze and just to refresh things I had learned from past versions, yet I had never put it to use until now. If you are like me, and you want to know what is new on flash mx version. Be ready to breeze through, but if you are newbie. Be ready to dig in deep.

Si no conoces flash, y eres desarrollador de aplicaciones tipo (VB, delphi, etc) este es el un gran libro para iniciar

las explicaciones y los ejemplos estan de acuerdo al tipo de usuario que necesita este libro..."usuario nuevos en flash"

I'm thrilled to no end that I bought this book! As a ColdFusion developer, I have been wanting to add a Flash front end to my apps for months. But between timelines and tweens, I just couldn't justify the time to learn Flash. When Flash MX Professional 2004 was released, I took another look. I downloaded the trial copy and started playing around with it and was able to create something rather quickly. So I bought the product. At that time, the books were few and far between. Some online tutorials existed, but didn't seem to be in line with what I was trying to do.

I preorded this book based on the Author's previous writings with Ben Forta in regards to ColdFusion. The day it arrived I started reading it from page 1, which is something I rarely do...usually I just look in the contents or the index to find something specific that I am looking for. Before I was finished with the first chapter, I knew that it was written just for me! This book is for developers that want to create rich, data-driven internet applications without the fuss and muss of using the Flash timeline! It has a great mix of background explanations and hands-on projects to get you started right away. I've recommended this book over and over in the online forums that I subscribe to, and haven't had a dissatisfied person yet!

This book is a really good investment for everybody who wants to go deep into Flash MX 2004 Pro. Nate included real examples, with really good information. You need some good coffe at nigths to follow each exercise but at the end the investment time is worthly. 3 kind of applications for 3 kind of servers... amazing example of a really good book, ( If you find some bugs Nate give you quicky answer.... Just be carefull with the Access database configuration ).

Flash MX is a program where one cannot just poke around and expect results. If you have never come in contact with layers or symbols in other graphics or vector programs, Flash is perhaps very a diffucult program to get used to.

This book guides you from a person who knows nothing about flash to a beginner. Trust me, this book only touches the surface in Flash simply becuase it offers almost nothing in the subject of ActionScripting. And that is why I would only recommend this book to absolute beginners.

For instance the actionscripting chapters only detail on gotoAndPlay(), startDrag() and onClipEvent(enterFrame) handlers (or whatever you call them) If you want to learn about dynamic event handlers or functions or prototypes, look elsewhere.

Putting that aside, this book is written and structured very well. The first few chapters offer an introduction to drawing while the middle of the book is devoted to animating. The last few chapters are about actionscripting and optimizing. Philip Kerman is offering a book that allows a serious Flash programmer to start a wonderful career/hobby.

I started to get interested in Flash, not because of its vector art angle for the web, but for its ability to produce high quality web presentations for any platform: think Java as art. I'm very comfortable with CorelDraw and Illustrator, so picking up the drawing tools of Flash was second nature. However, it's the programming side of Flash that has me beat. I admit it, I'm a visual/word guy, not a logical programming nerd. But, to do Flash right you have to learn the nuts and bolts as well as the Action Scripting (Flash's programming language). I'm hear to say that one Phillip Kerman has done himself proud. He's produced the best Flash MX intro tutorial I've found. I tried lots of books from the library before I actually bought this one, thank goodness. This book will guide you through the introductory steps as well the later Action Scripting with a gentle hand. The only complaint I have is that he doesn't quite explain in sufficient detail why you're performing a certain task. For example, I stumbled over why you had to create a symbol within a symbol to achieve a rotating wheel until I pondered on it for a while. It's not obvious why, but eventually you'll find it is accessible. So, do yourself a favor if you're a Flash wannabe, get this book.

If you're a novice and trying to decide what would be the best Flash MX book to own, this would be the one. Right off the bat, he has you with your first simple animation. Then, you're hooked! Also makes a fine reference book too!

From my experience with other "Training from the source" books put out by Macromedia Press, I had some high expectations for this book. It did not disappoint!

The author takes you through upgrading a fictional news site from standard HTML to an XHTML Dyanmic website. The two server languages that are used in this book are ASP and Coldfusion. For each sample of code in the book, the author provides you with BOTH code examples. Very nice!

I consider myself an intermediate level web designer, with a little knowledge on ASP and Coldfusion. This book has definitely help me understand why Dyanmic sites are going to replace standard HTML code. Although it is not bogged down with serious coding, it covers the most commonly used dyanmic procedures.

I do recommmend buying the regular Dreamweaver MX "Training from the source" book first if you are a beginner. Overall, this book is worth every penny!

Excellent book. I have taken advantage of these reviews for years now, I love Amazon for this feature. It is time for me to finally give back to you all.

I had a little html and asp, but I wanted to learn the best practices and techniques of ASP quickly. I needed it yesterday like always. This book allowed me to utilize Dreamweaver to its fullest and also create my own asp code to access my SQL Server 2000 data. I even implemented some of their page ideas into my site to save some time. The order that they teach the different skills is perfect, they build on each other and make it very simple and fun to do (that isnt easy with asp). I now use asp in all my pages on my site. I wish they had one of these for ASP.NET for my next step. The only complaint would be that it is a short book, but well worth it. This is a great beginner and intermediate book.

Great book. I've struggled through explanations of Dreamweaver asp pages and database interactions in a number of books and was never satisfied with what I was learning. I always felt they were making it overly complex. Now, after working through this book, I feel justified. They were making it overly complex ... and Bardzell makes it easy.