Flash CS3 for Dummies product reviews

I admit to being totally NOT at ease when it comes to using Flash, but as with all things, you have to dive in there and force yourself to get your head around it, if you want to really learn it...

...and that's where this book really came in handy!

OK, so it's NOT a comprehensive, all-encompassing manual that explains all the finer points of how to make everything from a simple spinning button to a full-on flash-laden web application... Adobe's own product manual doesn't even do that, being, as it is, packed full of "Go see the online helpfiles for more details, and destroy your bandwidth allocation for the month by having to download/stream massive movie tutorials" links. This book does however take you through all the basics, with a few simple 'cherries on top' and a lot of implied options that you can work out for yourself as you become more comfortable with Flash.

Being a multimedia boffin myself, I started off with an idea to build a simple little mp3 player... play/pause/stop buttons, a little progress meter bar, and a simple pre-defined mp3 to start with... I found the official manual to be awful and clunky, full of NO ideas, just links to the online video library... so it was time to pop this book open and see what it could do to help me... the answer... not much more... but it did lead me off towards an entirely new project that will, eventually, become my new online personal website, looking like something that evolved from a cross between lego and a Borg Workstation. -evil giggles-

I had so much fun reading this, that I completely forgot about my microplayer, and it wasn't until *4 days later* that I moved the book off my desk and rediscovered my notes! Trust me when I say "That tells me a lot about this book!" Not only is it informative, it's inspirational, educational, and most of all, reasonably easy to use and grasp the concepts therein.

Overall, for beginners wanting to get a quick 'thumbnail overview' of the features and functionality of Flash, this is a great option. Sure, there are other tutorial books out there, but after browsing a couple of the bigger bookshops in Wellington and reading through many of them, this one is by far the most user-friendly format around... even if we don't like to admit we are, in some context... dummies.