[.ca] Macromedia Flash MX 2004 ActionScript 2.0 Dictionary (ISBN 0321228413)

Worth the cheap price:
While most of this book is the same material that comes with Flash in the help panel, there are also several articles in the beginning of the book. Of these articles, there were a couple that were REALLY good, changing the way I think about programming in Flash. A few of the other articles however seemed to be of less quality and not well thought out. Either way for the things I learned, it was certainly worth the cost.

Total ripp off \ozero stars\c:
First of all, I am not that much of a review writer, but feel I have to add to the reviews above. I bought this book before the reviews above were written. If only I had waited. Anyway: why is this a ripp off? 1. it should have come with the software in the first place as the new help function within flash is totally unusable, and the documentation was far from complete. 2. it is full of mistakes, and the only erratum is the updated helpfunction with the software. 3. it was published at the time that even Macromedia knew that the documentation with their software was far from complete AND full of errors. Never could understand why they would repeat that unforgivable error in a book and dare ask money for it. As a sidenote: the docs with the software are updated in the meantime, so you might as well put your printer to work if you need a printed copy. Don't waste your money on this book. John

Lots of room for improvement:
This tome is basically two books mashed together. The first being a set of Flash articles while the second is THE actual Actionscript 2.0 dictionary. While seemingly through, when you actually need to use it the index will fail you and you will need to look either at the dictionary table of contents (starting on page 411) or thumb through the second half of the book. Note: You won't find much information on any of the various components that come with Flash. This is a purely Actionscript 2.0 dictionary. Another area that is missing is any details concerning the professional features of Flash MX 2004 like slides and forms. The two good things about this book are that it is relatively inexpensive and there are numerous examples.

Excellent Resource:
Finally a really easy to use quick resource for Action Script. O'reilly's was good but, stopped at 1.0. This is an excellent book for 25 bucks and it's actually easier to use than the Help section of Flash. Buy it before they raise the price!

Comprehensiv dictionary:
As its name states this is an ActionScript dictionary. It is devided in several parts being the last one the dictionary. The other parts will help you know what for is ActionScript and Flash and how to make AcitonScript work in your animations. You should have a good knowledge of Flash in order to understand and implement the contents of the book. Do not expect to find complete examples to run in Flash directly. Instead you will find short ones that help you understand and feel the power of ActionScript. If you work with ActionScript this dictionary must be on your desk at any time to know exactly what you are doing and how it is made. It is not very expensive and very helpful.