I got this book because, after using Adobe PhotoShop and Dreamweaver for a while, I had decided I wanted to design my pages completely in Flash. I had gotten quite a few books on DW and Photoshop and found myself performing many tasks easily after a short while. Unfortunately, I didn't get that out of Flash MX Hands On Training. THat's not to say that the book is worthless. The exercises included with the accompanying CD are good. However, I think the author focuses too much on you completing the exercises rather than explaining to you what you are doing and for what reason. THe author will take you step by step through the exercises but does not provide the proper background to actually do it without the exercises. I found myself repeating the exercises a number of times and still not getting down the basic task. That is, I couldn't do a number of the things even after having gone through the exercises because I feel the author spends too much time telling you what you have to do to complete the exercise. After going through the book and doing almost every exercise, I actually got discouraged and decided not to continue with Flash. However, I decided I would go with one of the other books out there and see what they have to offer.
Based on my experience I would have to not recommend the book.

The author has demonstrated great skill in presenting the general concepts for using Flash MX 2004. This book is excellent for the person who needs to know both how and why to do things in Flash. When you finish the book, you should have no trouble understanding how to use Flash at an intermediate level.

In regard to the writing style, very rarely did I encounter explanations that made assumptions about the reader's understanding of the hands-on process. The author knows how to use English well enough so that technical concepts are understood. Usually, many authors of most technical manuals are generally incapable of explaining a topic without utterly confusing the reader, which seems to come mostly from making assumptions. You will not encounter that in this book.

This book makes me want the next one. There are over 100 step by step instructions in this hands on training book. It begins with a discussion of the basics, covers some tech issues with PC and Mac files (most cross platform books barely acknowledge the Mac platform), and has tons of files to learn from, play with and use in your own projects. In addition, and this is a great extra, there are many movie files that show you step by step how to complete some of the trickier activities in the book. It's amazingly helpful to watch an expert walk through the steps to a lesson or tutorial, via movies of their own screens.

From the intro and the wonderful companion website, I gathered that these books are written by actual teacher/instructors, rather than computer geeks. well, they actually are computer geeks, but they also are teachers. People with the talent and skill to actually explain and teach concepts in a structured and systematic way. I think this really contributes to the success of this book. Most of the time, the author had already anticipated my questions, and answers them somewhere in the lesson itself.

The entire book is organized into sections that build upon one another, using files and designs built around a snowboarding company. Unlike other books that use a common theme or singe site/topic to illustrate points, I didn't feel like i just learned how to create one specific kind of Flash project. Each lesson helped me understand the concepts behind the steps, so i feel comfortable in taking the skills and techniques into my own projects.

Topics include the interface, drawing, animation basics, symbols, bitmap and vector creation and manipulation, buttons, video and more advanced topics like movie clips, components and forms. It even includes a section on ActionScript basics, which is invaluable to learn if you want to move on in Flash design and creation.

All in all, I highly recommend this book for anyone who either knows a little Flash, but wants more, or for a beginner to Flash creation. With easy to read, straightforward writing and specific content geared to the novice and more experienced designer alike, Flash MX 2004 Hands On Training is one heck of a volume. Like I said, I can't wait to get my hands on the next book in the series, Flash MX 2004 Advanced H.O.T. I'd be willing to bet that any of the other books in the H.O.T. series would be as effective as this one.

After finding the Macromedia training books consistently wanting in terms of their juvenile subject matter and low quality graphics, I purchased this book at a price close to $50. What a disappointment to find out that the sole subject matter used in the training content for this entire book is snowboarding - over 800 pages worth! Further, it is the type of content that could accurately be described as a young teenager's hobby project! Don't get me wrong, I'm from Colorado and I am an avid ski and snowboard fan, however, there is nothing professional about any of the graphic content of this book. It has absolutely no adult appeal or commercial applicability whatsoever. I find that I am forcing myself to slug through the banal graphics and juvenile subject matter just to learn the program. I would submit that the training methodologies are adequate, but that's not good enough to merit the price and scope of this book. I guess I have been spoiled by the Adobe Classroom in a Book series which consistently provide a varied subject matter with professional quality graphics and high quality overall design. The point here is that at this price level, I expect a book to not only show me how the program works, I expect some commercial examples of things that professionals using the product are doing with it and things I can do with it. This is the forte of the Adobe Classroom in a Book titles. This book, Flash MX 2004 HOT - is not in that league. If you're NOT a snowboarding nut, you are NOT in the target market for this book!

This is my first review- but that is because I loved this book.

I bought foundation macromedia flash MX first- hated it, I didn't understand what I was doing. I thought I would never learn Flash.

So I bought this book (recommended by a teacher)- Flash MX 2004 HOT, this is the best book for any program I've ever read. It makes you understand why you do and use certain things. I went through the first 10 chapters in 2 days because I was having such a great time learning.

It doesn't go into detail about the features of Flash MX professional though.

This is a great book for a beginner. The tutorials are easy to read and understand, they are not too long- You'll remember what you just did- how and why. It all makes sense. I didn't have a clue about buttons in the other book-and that was with their tutorials.

This book I completely understood everything.