Offering breakthrough video capabilities and powerful run-time effects, Macromedia Flash Professional 8 is poised to upend the Web video market, posing a serious challenge to Microsoft, RealNetworks, and Apple’s efforts in the process. Here to make sure you’re ready for it–and can start taking advantage of its creative tools, authoring power, flexibility, and rich video capabilities immediately–is the official Macromedia training for the program. Through 20-plus hours of project-based instruction, you’ll learn how to program for the enhanced Flash Player; use ActionScript to create dynamic interactivity; take advantage of new Flash 8 features like the improved script editor (which includes a visual interface), revamped library interface, and new Undo feature; and more. Simple step-by-step instructions peppered with plenty of visual aids and a CD that includes lesson files and a trial version of Flash Professional 8 leave you with a solid understanding of Flash development and the techniques required to tap your creative potential by producing dynamic, interactive content.

Offering breakthrough video capabilities and powerful run-time effects, Macromedia Flash Professional 8 is poised to upend the Web video market, posing a serious challenge to Microsoft, RealNetworks, and Apple’s efforts in the process. Here to make sure you’re ready for it—and can start taking advantage of its creative tools, authoring power, flexibility, and rich video capabilities immediately—is the official Macromedia training for the program. Through 20-plus hours of project-based instruction, you’ll learn how to program for the enhanced Flash Player; use ActionScript to create dynamic interactivity; take advantage of new Flash 8 features like the improved script editor (which includes a visual interface), revamped library interface, and new Undo feature; and more. Simple step-by-step instructions peppered with plenty of visual aids and a CD that includes lesson files and a trial version of Flash Professional 8 leave you with a solid understanding of Flash development and the techniques required to tap your creative potential by producing dynamic, interactive content.     

Not the way to learn Flash 8
i found this book very frustrating as when I did get something to work, I did not how to do it differently the next time. They take you down one specific path, and if you make make it through, you then did not know how or why you got there. There are much, much better dooks out there. Try the "for dummies" first.

Found an error, like the others
Like the other reviewers, this would have been good if not for the errors. I was working lesson 2 making a dynamic TV remote and was frustrated that it didn’t work. Well, I did my own troubleshooting and found that on pg.59 they refer to a movie clip titled "cableBox_mc" when their demo file has the clip named "cableBox" and so it doesn’t work. On top of that, the dynamic text field is defaulted to black text on a black background, so even after I found the first bug, the text didn’t show right. Once I changed the dynamic text attributes to white text instead of black, the code worked fine. However, I am a beginner (like the other reviewers), and shouldn’t need to troubleshoot my teacher’s code.

Damn, I wish I’d read the reviews first!
Just like one of the other reviewers I was appalled to find that the files referred to in chapter 1 of the book were not on the training disk--and that the author referred to an as-yet unstarted exercise as a starting point. Well, I tried...I tried to deconstruct--to pick the files out of the finished piece, and reconstruct---but nothing worked---layers, evverything--not the right information. Do these books and training disks get revised contantly, independently, independently of one another? Or is this miserable book part of the dissolution of Macromedia as it merged with Adobe. Book sucks!

AWFUL...AWFUL....AWFUL!!!
Do not buy this book!!! I was naive to believe that because this was coming from Macromedia that it would be worth the $40+ dollars to get "Training From the Source". It wasn’t!! It is hands down the worst instructional book that I have ever used and would strongly recommend that you do not waste your money.

I am a fulltime graphic designer who has used Photoshop, After Effects, Final Cut Pro, etc. for years. I am not new to web, but had very little experience with Flash. I was hoping to become more flash savy, but I don’t even know if I can make it through this entire book. The author doesn’t always remember to tell you what project you are opening up, doesn’t call buttons in the toolbar by correct name, fails to tell you to switch from one layer to another...and in general makes the entire experience a confusing guessing game.

I’m amazed that this book was actually edited, published and then that Macromedia put thier stamp of apporval on it...wow what a disaster!!

AWFUL!
Did anybody proofread this book? If Macromedia had bothered to have someone unfamiliar with the book work through the exercises they would have discovered that just the first chapter has more errors than you can shake a stick at. The book refers to files on the disk that don’t exist. You’re told to load a file that ’you created earlier in this lesson’ which has never been mentioned before. It’s as though entire pages have been deleted from this book, yet the information on those pages is refered to later. After a few very frustrating hours with this book I’m ready to pitch it out the window.

This is one of the most poorly edited books that I’ve ever seen. Macromedia should be embarrassed to have their name on it. It is a total waste of both your money and your time.

Try another training manual
The examples that the manual goes through is not applicable to using flash for website design. The examples in the book are more gear towards creating a flash application. I wish I didn’t spend money on this.

Not bad, but not great either
I do have to say I expected more from the "mouth" of Macromedia but it did have some tips that where useful. However the QA team must have been asleep on this book editing because there are numerous path errors, missing descriptions, broken code and I also believe the book was translated or at least it would seem that way.

I would only suggest this book if you are "tip hunting" and don’t plan to learn the program from scratch, because this book makes the program seem impossible to learn when in fact it really isn’t.

Don’t waste your money!
This book isn’t really worth buying - if you’re new to Flash, then just take the tutorials that ship with the programme, which adequately explain the Flash interface, tweening, masks, library etc....the only useful nuggets, which aren’t explained in the tutorials are to do with treatment of vectors, bitmaps, video and optimisation techiques. Furthermore, 1 chapter on actionscript is a joke - far too brief and uninformative to be really useful - just buy Colin Moocks, Actionscript - A definitive guide and you’re sorted.....

Not the best choice
If you are looking for clear instruction in Flash, this is not the best choice. This book is filled with errors from the start. I’m so surprised that a book subtitled "Training from the source" could be so terrible. It’s almost as if the book was written, but never edited for problems.

Complete Garbage
This is the worst training manual I have ever seen. What the hell happened?

Ghastly book...
Never have I used, or tried to use, a book that has so many errors in it. Did they cut and paste an older version of the book, or Frankenstein a few books together to make this thing?

There are three pages of errata at the publishers web site. The entire book has one screw-up through out! Spelling errors, missing words, odd jumps of skill. Even with the errata, I am still finding errors!

I hope the guys didn’t get paid much to ’write’ this thing. It makes me wonder if this book was translated from some other language into English...

For those stuck with this book, here is the URL for the errata: http://www.peachpit.com/content/images/0321384032/errata/errata.pdf

And you have to rate this book to post a comment. Hence one star...

Training from what source??????
I was really eager to see what Macromedia Press would release for Flash 8.

This book is terrible. Here are the reasons why I think it is:

First, the author should mention in the preface that it assumes that you have previous experience using Flash or read a Flash 8 book.

Albeit the Professional version of Flash provides additional development features...Actionscript should not be covered in the second chapter.

I understood what was being presented because I have worked with actionscript in the past.

I really feel sorry for the poor person who buys this book with no prior Flash experience or exposure who think or hope they might learn something from this book. I also don’t know if anyone with experience also could gain any benefit from reading this material.

The order in which the topics are presented is way off base.
Makes no sense whatsoever.

The progression should be to cover the basics of the interface, key advanced features, flash topics (animation, tweens, text, video, audio, etc) and then when the user has gained a reasonable amount of confidence using this already complex rogram....throw actionscript into the mix.

I really wish Amazon would consider implementing the zero rating option because this book surely deserves it.

junk!
I am a flash beginner and right now I am in the middle of chapter 2 of the book. I must say that I am already quite frustrated with the lack of details and errors. I have been following step by step with the examples but when i get to the end, things aren’t the same as the final example. Thinking that I was messing up, I would go through the steps again just to see if I missed something. Well, after reading the other reviews, it is obvious that there are some serious problems with this book. Not so sure i want to use this to learn how to create flash movies incorrectly! Don’t waste your money!

If you know Flash, this is good for you
One thing I am still not sure of with the whole Adobe - Macromedia merger is the status of Macromedia Press. Their books are essential to any professional. When my Studio 8 came in the mail, the first thing I noticed was that there was no book inside. This book becomes paramount to now helping me through the changes with 8 with respect to Flash and it should for you too - especially if you like to thumb paper rather than scroll PDF’s.

Ok so lets look at the guts of this book. At over 512 pages there is a lot covered here. As usual the basics are all covered. I suspect that since there was no book that shipped, they anticipate you buying this one and plodding through. Half the book to me was old school stuff with the exception of explainations as to where things are located in this release, or new ways to achieve familiar things, so def peruse and absorb what’s there. Chapter 7 and above make this book worth the entry price.

The tutorials are straight forward and are great learning tools - especially in the more esoteric topics like actionscripting and video, though i felt the Publishing chapter really could be shorted to just one page.

Has some good content, but errors ruin the learning process.
I own many other "Training from the Source" book for Studio 8, and I definitely will say this is the poorest written one of the series. Do not be discouraged by this book, all of the others are great, but this author just has so many errors, and the editor somehow let them all pass.

I’m not even through the first chapter and have found numerous errors. This isn’t including poorly written examples, I can piece those out. These are complete errors like adding a layer named "Top" twice in one project, and having the second perform absolutely no function. I am second guessing going all the way through this book, so I figure I would write my review now. Save your money and either spend it on another company’s book or wait for a second edition. I agree on a re-release and replacement for everyone who has bought the book.
I gave this book 2 stars because, although unlikely, it may possibly get better.

Great companion to this book is site with errata by its author
The author’s online site for this book at http://www.tomontheweb3.ca includes detailed errata for each chapter as well as additional resources. Together they make a much stronger learning tool than the book by itself.

really like the tutorial aspects!!!
All though there are errors, check the errata www.tomontheweb3.com!! Never touched flash before, and I now have a n understanding of the basic concepts plus good example to build off. If you want to learn by doing this is the book for you, just read the errata, and work through the examples. When I couldnt get something to work, it was always MY mistake, not the books.

Not to buy this book if you still have a choice.
*I read the introduction and chapter #1 and see that I should not waste my time to read further and get more confused.

* Not cover "Flash Slide Presentation", "Flash Form Application", "Creating JSFL"

* Instructional steps are hard to follow. Example, Chapter #1, page 17, steps 1., 2., 3., are not connected.

* Not a well-written training book.

Reality check?
It seems to me that some folks are being a tad harsh. I bought this book AFTER going through the "on board" tutorial AND the Macromedia Flash 8: A Tutorial Guide. As mentioned in a previous review, this is NOT a "bootstrap" introduction to Flash 8!

Being experienced with a broad range of development tools (but brand new to the Flash tools) the errors I found in the book were frustrating obstacles, but NOT show stoppers. Most of them just took a few minutes of consideration or experimentation to get past. Yes, Martha, there are a lot of errors and it’s really aggrivating.

On the other hand, Green and Chilcott have BOTH been very forthcoming and quickly responded to my every query. They have been anxious to explain and guide me through the things I couldn’t figure out for myself. It seems to me that they got sandbagged by a technical editor who just did not do the job and are somewhat the victims, here. (My perception.)

My mid-range score is for the erratta; NOT the content. Don’t give up on the book. There is a wealth of good stuff in there that gave me a real appreciation for the power and potential of Flash 8. Green and Chilcott put some real meat in there that I can sink my teeth into. I’ve already built two animations that will be a terrific way to illustrate complex power plant processes. (I am a power plant simulator instructor.) Our operators and maintenance folks will get the benefit of understanding, based upon, in part, what I learned from this book.

Check the erratta on the web site and keep on going. The reward is worth the effort. Frankly, I look forward to their next book. I think they’ll be more careful with the final editing and the result will be excellent. Now, if they DO revise/re-issue this book, offering a free copy to original purchasers would be a good way to apologize for the problems in this one.

NOT for beginners
This book requires some previous knowledge of Flash as it says in the introduction of the book. This important piece of information is not on the Amazon page. I am a total beginner and am lost by page 7. I also ran into the error early on about a file I was supposed to have created. I’m a bit wary of the Training from the source series now. I used the "Dummies" series to get up to speed on Dreamweaver and may go to the Dummies for Flash 8.

There is errata
Personally I have found this book to be an excellent attempt to guide newbies through a very complex piece of software. I’m not an expert in flash, but I’m not quite a beginner either, so while I can see where some of the other users in this list are coming from, frankly I think they are being a little harsh.

Where the book succeeds brilliantly is in its explanation of complex material in a way that gets people up and running in no time flat. Usually you would have to wade through reams of books and tutorials just to properly get into topics such as video publishing and programmatic animation, but this book does a good job of getting the user learning the material quickly. The book is not intended for advanced users; it is intended to introduce certain topics and give an overview of what flash can do in a very practical way.

Where it falls down occasionally is in the details. I emailed the author with my concerns, and he was very open to answering my questions and guiding me to the errata, which I am told is being continuously updated.

Errata is currently available at the book companion site at http://www.tomontheweb3.ca

Click on the chapters link, pick a chapter and the errata are at the bottom of each chapter page. I’ve had success at getting some of the more difficult exercises to work after looking over the errata. For the rest, I’m told it’s being worked on and will be up shortly.

I have had good experiences with other Macromedia Press books, and this book, although it could stand some improvement, does not in any way diminish my respect for the series.

Flash Certified Training
We use a different book and add many of our own examples to our Flash classes. As a former Macromedia employee and trainer and now the owner/instructor the Multimedia Resource Group, an Authorized Flash training center in Silicon Valley, we provide you with all the information you need to learn Flash quickly and effectively, and free follow up tech-support.
Please contact us for discounted prices on our Flash training.
training@multigroup.com
Thanks.

I wish that I checked this out before I bought.
I can’t believe that Macromedia allowed this book to be published under it’s LOGO.
You can’t get a listing of Eratta from Peachpit or Green himself.

Training would be effective if it weren’t for the errors....
This book is full of errors, errors that an editing team should have caught. Errors include directing you to use files that its claims you have created but have not and refering to file paths that are completely wrong. I am only through half of the book and luckily the first half has been mostly review of things I learned with previous versions of Flash, if I was a total beginner I think the errors in the book would have really impeaped my progress. That said I am scared of doing the next half of the book because it is stuff that I am not too familiar with and the errors will probaly screw me. Macromedia needs to reedit this and offer all of us who already brought the book a exchange program. Where as before I really trusted books from the Training From the Source series, I feel a little wary about buying more, and I really want to get the Actionscript 2.0 book.

Terrible, Terrible, Terrible!!!
It’s because of too many books like this one that it’s been taking me years to learn this already complex program. Apparently I’m not the only person who feels this way.

I was going to wait until at least halfway through the book, to be fair, before panning it, but the effort of trying to learn Flash combined with the effort of trying to determine what these authors meant to write has gotten me quite angry at this point. I’m no Flash expert (again, thanks to Macromedia Press), but I’ve retained enough to know that you don’t use the F5 key to create a keyframe, as the author claims on page 109. And this is a mere paragraph after you were told to use that very key to create a blank frame.

The bad news began in Chapter One, page 17, step 1, where it tells you to open a file that you already created. Never happened. You are instructed to add files to the library; unfortunately all the files (which were provided on the accompanying CD) are grayed out and you can’t do diddly with them. You are asked several times to reference files located in the chapter folder you are working on; these files are in fact located in a totally separate folder called "Media". Page 105; you are shown a screen shot of the grid editing window ..... author describes how to open the guide editor, but oops, there’s another (the same) screen shot of the grid editor! Oh my, how did THAT get there?

These guys are gonna teach me Actionscript?? I don’t think so.

It’s pretty sad when you’re trying to learn from a book, and by the fourth chapter you can’t believe half of what you’re reading. I had a Training from the Source book on Studio 8 pre-ordered, but now I have canceled it, and will surely never buy another title in this series in the future.

A lesson hard-learned.

Don’t buy this book
Amazingly enough, I have learned some things from this book. But that’s because I’m already familiar with Flash Actionscript. Here’s the problem with this book. It’s as if the authors wrote a decent book, then they dropped all of the pages off a balcony. The pages weren’t numbered, so they just put them back any old way.

For example, they give you some exercises that involve Actionscripting. The scripts are somewhat sophisticated, involving x and y coordinates, variables, etc. After they show you the code they say, "this one is pretty straight forward...", and then provide a very brief explanation. If you’re a beginner to Actionscripting, you need more than that. But this is what really gets me. Several chapters later, they tell you that they are going to teach you how to animate with Actionscript. Now they act like you’re a total beginner, and explain the basics, things that you already put into use several chapters back. The order is completely out of whack.

Besides that, sometimes they have the wrong diagram in the wrong place or the code is written incorrectly or files are missing on the CD. I was getting so irritated today working with the book that I had to stop and write a review. I’m surprised that Macromedia allowed their name on this book.

Not good
I have purchased and read a great number of computer books over the years and have never had a major complaint I thought worthy of voicing or posting publicly. Albeit, I certainly could and should have praised many of them. Some books better than others in organization, presentation, or clarity of subject mater. Always, in general, I felt the contributing authors, indexers, and all parties that work hard on computer manuals/books did a good job. But this book was worth dropping by and leaving 3 stars short of 5.

I just read the review given prior to this one. Like her, I was sitting on my couch getting so irritated with the author I felt a need to drop it and come in here and complain. I have never purchased an Official Macromedia press book. I never will again either. (Although, I have two on order which makes me cringe ).

I am only 75 pages into this book. I have run across many instances where a word is missing, a sentence was repeated, or a simple concept was presented in an overly complicated fashion. Sub sections will begin with statements referring to work/lessons that have not yet occurred: For instance, at the start of a new lesson he begins with... "During this lesson you spent a lot of time learning how to play with data inside the flash movie." No such time was spent at that point in the book dealing with any type of data whatsoever.

References to files on the CD do not exist. Or rather, through some investigation you will find that the files do exist, just in a completely different folder on the CD than the text refers to.

Tips sometimes introduce new terms without explanation of what they are. Generally, a tip clarifies something-it doesn’t introduce something new with no definition.

Some references to "figures" to present code are cluttered Screen shots rather than a focused frame of the code only. I had to get a magnifying glass out to read the code in the window in the figure. Sloppy and unnecessary.

At one point in the book he indicates that "x is out of the scope of this book" four times within about 7 sentences. Where x is the same subject.

I am very familiar with programming and OOP concepts. I feel for anyone reading the second chapter that is new to scripting/programming concepts.

I will continue this book and amend this "review/rant" if it gets any better. But, I would certainly steer clear of this book and seek out another resource.

It’s a draft.

Ammendment: Actually, i am reading a ColdFusion Construction Kit book from Macromedia in tandem with this book. So, I was in error when I indicated this is my first Macromedia Press book. That book stands in stark contrast to this one. It is VERY well written, organized, and is hard to believe its from the same company/press...

Should never have made it out of the QA Lab!
Sheeesh. I am fairly adept at manual-ese, but there’s no way I was going to be able to parse this book. There are so many errors and poor practices in here that the errata addendum would be about half as long as the book itself.

I bought the book becuase I generally trust the publisher’s work, but this is a real pimple on Peachpit’s catalog. They’re going to have to start over from scratch on this one.