Macromedia Flash 8: A Tutorial Guide

by Instructional Media Developm Macromedia and Jen DeHaan

Written and developed by the Macromedia development and documentation team, this book offers product documentation and Flash training, in a self-paced, step-by-step process. Each tutorial addresses a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0321394143
• ISBN13: 9780321394149
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Macromedia Press
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 1.09 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.2" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Nice copy to have around

I've been making websites for almost 9 years now. It started with HTML and over time expanded to include Javascript, CSS, and eventually Coldfusion. I have watched as web standards change and evolve and go through "phases". For me, Flash was one of those "phases". Everyone's seen them. Websites made with Flash just because they can be. Menu is flash. Interface is flash. The entire site was one big .swf file. I hated it. So I put off learning it for many years. Thankfully people realized some of the best websites were a combination of many of the technologies on the market; and of course Flash was one of them. I had to learn it. Macromedia FLASH 8: A Tutorial Guide is exactly what you'd expect. It's a guide to learning Flash basics, presented in a tutorial form. I knew what I was getting into it when I picked it up. What some people may not realize is that they already own this book. Open your copy of Flash 8, click on "Help" and then "Getting Started with Flash". Scroll down to the tutorial section and get started. The text you find there is almost word-for-word what you'd find in this book. Do I think that's a problem? No, not necessarily. What are the benefits of paying 30 dollars for something I can get for free? I'm a coder by nature. I'm used to having reference manuals around. Like some people, I prefer hard copies most of the time since I already spend so much time staring at text on a computer screen. To be honest, I've tried since Flash 5 to run through the tutorials and kick start the learning process. Unfortunately, between the "property inspector", the "action script" code window, the "stage", the "library" and now the tutorial window it just seemed a bit overwhelming (even with two monitors!). But having this book in front of me so that I can read the tutorial and then work it out on the computer proved to make all the difference. The book is 26 chapters and just under 300 pages. It starts with simple tasks like creating a banner, and leads up to using Actionscript to create customized applications using Flash. Personally, I felt a lot more comfortable doing the actionscript chapters than I did using the Flash GUI. Flash can be a very complicated thing to learn for some people. There's a lot of information to take in, and a lot of windows to keep track of. If you're anything like me and have been dying to learn Flash but just can't seem to find the time; this book might be for you. But if you're not a "hard copy" kind of person, just remember you can get all the information for free by using the help function built into the program.

Great STARTER Book

This book is a great starter for Flash 8 for both regular and professional versions of the program. Chapters are broken down into simple subjects which can be completed in a short period of time. This book enables a person to get acquainted with many areas of Flash and the interface. This book works with the samples that are installed automatically when Flash installs. A couple of times when I got stuck, I realized I had not followed the steps as written in the book. This book is an excellent beginner tutorial.

A good first step

The macromedia Flash 8 tutorial guide for Jay Armstrong and Jen deHaan is the official macromedia tutorial guide for Flash 8. This book is a good book for beginners to Flash 8 as it gives simple organized training examples that help understanding the program features. The book is divided into tasks starting from creating Flash-working file to using dynamic content in the Flash project. The best advantage in this book is the simplicity in delivering information, as well as the organizing and the developing of the examples.