Book Review:
Macromedia Flash MX 2004: Magic
Reviewer: Cliff Hollis
Publisher: New Riders; available at PeachPit Press, published: 2004 ($26.99 est.retail price)
Authors: Michelangelo Capraro, Duncan McAlester, Eric Bianchi, Chad Corbin, Aria Danika, Andreas Heim, Robert Hoekman, Todd Marks, Bill Spencer, James Williamson
Review Formatted and Edited by: Mike Dixon (6/11/04)

Magic is fun to watch and even more fun to discover and uncover its secrets. This book's title is called Flash MX 2004: Magic, but unfortunately, it, too, kept its secrets well hidden.

Macromedia’s Flash MX 2004 is a program of incredible power and complexity. There are more books on the subject than Windows system updates. The book is well presented and attractive. The subjects listed are both alluring and inviting. The projects were a cut above the standard Flash techniques that are usually demonstrated. Here we move beyond the basic tweening shapes from balls to squares and basic animations. Instead we get how to create a cascading style sheet, interactive video filmstrip integrated into a web site, and other more complex effects. The finished lessons make you want to work and finish the lessons.

Having promoting the good things in this book, the bad must follow. This book is considered to be on the intermediate level. I can’t see how this is possible. I have considered myself slightly beyond beginner level with Macromedia products but this book was way beyond anything I have ever seen. I have tried several how-to books but this was like no other. One lesson in particular showed an awesome effect I had never seen on any web site or CD but when I went to duplicate the effect I would had to write 122 lines of code: not HTML, but Flash code.

One of the great features in Flash MX 2004 is the ease of coding with action scripting. Flash MX 2004 allows you to insert this action scripting with a pull down menu system. The book overlooked this feature and had you do it by hand. This is a great way to learn but only if you understand what you are writing. I typed the code and, of course, the tutorial did not work. To make things worse, no explanation was given about what was wrong in the code I had just typed. I was unable to get a handle on any of the tutorials as it related to coding with action scripts. One lesson required that you write the Quaternion Class to rotate objects in the scene. I saw this and certainly felt out of my class (there was a definition of the this word later in the chapter to be fair).

This was a disappointing book to try to use, coming from the standpoint of an intermediate user. The topics were great but the execution was flawed. If you approach this book from anything but an experienced user you will be disappointed as well. If you are well beyond beginner level, you may get more out of this how-to manual.