By Jed Clampett

June 1, 2001

I thought Flash 4 Magic was great, but this version, which is a Totally different book, is in a category of it's own. But be warned, when the category listing says intermediate to Advanced, it means it. Of course that's what users at that level want. If you want a beginners book, check out Friends of Ed foundation book or the Idiots book (I hate that title) but Mr. Karlins did a great job for the beginner.

You want the meat and potatoes of Flash, this is a great book. It uses Real World projects such as managing your assets, designing a shared library, and tons of ActionScript. Is this the "pretty" stuff, no, but it sure helps you get the job done.

Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of the pretty stuff too, but with the pretty comes setting up rotation and alpha transparency, animating mouse effects, randomized arrays. There is just so much in this book, I couldn't begin to tell it all. You will even implement databases and add content to an XML document. This is a very deep book and the tough subjects are not avoided.

You will not regret investing in your future by purchasing this book. Even if you are new with ActionScript you will be able to figure it out with this book. Not to say a total novice opening Flash for the first time would be comfortable.

If you are just learning Flash and want this book, fine, but don't going around belly aching because you couldn't understand it. This is truly meant for the intermediate to advanced user. 

Copyright 2001, Jed Clampett, All Rights Reserved