Web Books

McGovern illustrates strategies for creating more impactful web content without boring the reader to death. The advice is practical, easy to follow, and timely. I have been very satisfied with this purchase.

Gerry McGovern's "Killer Web Content" *seems* to be a primer about writing "killer content." And it is. He talks about simple ideas (e.g., "killer, not filler," or, on the Net, "in self-service mode, people go on gut instinct") in simple sentences, with lots of words in red so you get the idea. Then you put those ideas all together and think about them. And *then* you start looking at websites created from the grad school universe by professionals, all too often FOR PROFESSIONALS, that leave you - us - Everyman - frustrated or even amused (and that is not the intent). Ah, the epiphany: you realize that too many people are getting paid too much money when they have no idea how to talk to us: the folks who are surfing at 2AM in hotel rooms, trying to learn something for tomorrow's presentation to the Executive Committee. Obviously McGovern has practiced medicine: you listen to the patient, and the patient will tell you what the problem is. You listen to the customer, and the customer will tell you what she needs to hear. You listen to your children, etc.

Of course, the devil is in the details. Would that there were a standard operating procedure to ferret out the words that each of us wants to hear. Then we could fire Sales and Marketing - all they do is get us folks in Technology and Operations into trouble, right? Nope, says McGovern, you have to talk to people, relate to them, listen to them, hear what they say, abstract the content, try it out on your site. Each word is a hypothesis: true or false. Does it work? Does it bring people? You measure, you re-frame, you redesign, you re-relate. Surely it must be easier than this! All Jeff Bezos did is slap some stuff onto a website, and look at him! Right? McGovern just smiles, probably lifts a Guinness - he hints at his pleasure in Ireland - and, secure in the knowledge that you'll reread his book, just goes on about his business, writing and consulting.

Oh, it seems so simple. Oh, it's not really that complicated. Oh, it is so, so worthwhile. Read the book carefully.

David Block MD, PhD
Editor & Publisher, "The RoadeWarrior: every consultant's ezine"
www.roadewarrior.com
david@roadewarrior.com

I purchased this book specifically to read more about the process for researching usability issues. I am not a market researcher, but I am a web developer who understands SEO, basic usability issues and general web practices. I found this book to be well-written, simple to understand and it provides a pretty good map for researching your web audience. I have actually read it twice now, finding even more the second time around.

I highly recommend this book, I still use it as a resource as I learn more about market research, something I don't particularly care for, but that is essential to my success as a brand manager and web developer.

Gerry is a genius.

I work for a Fortune 500 company and was first introduced to Gerry McGovern through one of his workshops that my company was hosting. I really connected with Gerry's passion for both the customer's perspective, as well as his message to get the fundamentals right. Armed with his book Killer Web Content, I left the workshop inspired with new ideas for solving some of the UX issues we were having with our Careers website (strategic business tool for talent recruiting).

I started to read his book the next week and learned enough useful information with each chapter that I finished it. I got a lot of value from some of the techniques described in Killer Web Content. I appreciated the information specific to generating good content using "Carewords" in the right way and at the right time. I also learned from this book that the web user is a different animal than traditional application users. Gerry has a good handle on the machinations that drive this new information hunter's behavior.

I can honestly say that I've quoted Gerry's work in UX meetings dozens of times since first attending his workshop. Since December, I've given away three copies of Killer Web Content to other UX professionals. All 3 have given it rave reviews! In addition to attending one of his live workshops (absolutely awesome!), I HIGHLY recommend getting this book!

The book is a good read with a lot of useful information about content design and production. Don't expect a detailed tutorial, it aims rather to show you what is important and what approach you should take.

What I liked
- rich information about user behaviours regarding content consumptions (debunks some myths)
- eye-opener findings (did you know that the word 'special offers' is preferred to the word 'deal' when people are asked though when searching, they use the word 'deal'? etc.)
- clear examples and reasoning that can help you in situations when you have to convince clients about some fundamental content issues

What I did not like
- if you have been following Gerry's newsletters as I did, well, you already know most of what the book is about
- there are some chapters that did not tell me really anything (one is about some very rudimentary SEO, another about the importance of blogging)
- the design of the print: there are complete pages written in bold red letters, some pages look like this is the first Powerpoint presentation with an ISBN number

This book is so great - I bought this a long time ago, back when I was first learning HTML. I can't tell you what a great resource it was for me. I learned so much, so fast from this book. It really is a simple, straightforward guide to HTML and it actually teaches you a lot about what you are doing so that you can learn and apply these concepts to your own projects. It's a guide that beginners should definitely turn to, but is great for people who aren't just beginners as well because it has tons of cool stuff that you can learn even if you do know a bit about HTML. Plus it would be a great reference guide while building a website for yourself or for someone else. And another great highlight of this book is that its not skimpy or condescending like some of those 'for dummies' books.

Started recently with showing interest in the HTML language. It became clear that in the huge amount of books covering this subject, I was keen on getting something simple, easy to understand and a very handy reference guide. I belive that with this book, it cannot be made any simpler!! Even for non IT minded persons.

The book covers all, from starting a web page, building CCS, what and how JavaScript is working (did not had a clue what it was) up to special features that can make your web-site just that more interesting.
Even now, as a reference guide, it is just what I needed.

The visually part of it - if somebody is not known with the "Teach yourself visually" series - is so clear, the results are showing.
Later I have bought the Dreamweaver MX 2004 from the same series. Even though Dreamweaver is pretty clear in itself, I still come back to this book for some handy tips and how to do.

Worthwile? I do think so!

Great for beginners to intermediate users. Clear instructions, great color graphics, simple but fundamental instructions, powerful in its simplicity. Mouth-wateringly good! Grab this.

Following the advice of the others on this page I duly purchased this book. I can now safely say it will be my LAST time following the general concensus! What is WITH you people?
A photographer/grafik designer by trade, specialising in print-based media I have never done web-based work (other than actually designing pages and buttons in Illustrator - and then having someone else doing the converting, assembly etc.) so I decided to buy a book and have a go. To get straight to the point this book is a piece of crap for the following reasons. 1) (despite professing otherwise) It is totally incoherent, and follows a very illogical progression pattern. 2) The grafiks are so sadly outdated and amateur-ish I cringed every time I opened the book. 3) It fails to empower the reader to move freely and thus visualise their own ideas. 4) It is VERY incomprehensive. 5) It is very hard to navigate, has no real index, no thumb tags etc.
It is like a 'Big Mac' - it looks yummy and filling and when you take a bite it SEEMS to fill you up, but soon you are hungry for more REAL FOOD. My advice? Go for a less disturbingly 'visual' format that provides you with the building blocks to build your own house.

Although I consider myself fairly computer savvy, I know absolutely nothing about webpage development. Until now. With this book, I was able to create professional looking webpages in literally, minutes. This is my first and only book I've purchased about creating webpages. I can't say that other books aren't as useful, but I can say, that this step-by-step approach, is fool-proof. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in creating webpages, with little or no prior knowledge of webpage development.

The others have said it all. This is truly a five star book, full of useful content. By now you should be in no doubt - buy it!

I just read this book on 04/2001, and considering that this book was published on 99 it feels a bit old, but although it treats Flash on its version 3, is gives you an amazing background information, also the optimization section for animated gifs is amazing. I just wish i read this book on 99' I would be Hillman Curtis 2, i would've save me lots of learning. Great for Flash foundations. This for sure was the THE HIT back on 99'.

J.Scott Hamlin is on the cutting edge of Web graphics design and his book Effective Web Animation offers a new look and fresh approach to incorporating animated imagery. According to Hamlin serious Web graphics design goes far beyond the simple GIF animations of poorer quality and performance that just about anyone can create. Image size, color quality, interactivity, accompanying audio, and faster delivery over the Internet are factors that have led to new Web animation technologies. Are we ready to face them?

Hamlin lays a foundation for Web animation on the professional level for serious minded Web designers who must face new graphic design consideration demands. Hamlin offers detailed instruction involving the use of JavaScript, Photoshop, and Macromedia Flash and the results are phenomenal. This book contains many well-planned and beautifully designed graphic images and the tips and advanced techniques necessary to create comparable results. The accompanying CD features sample code, animations, demoware, and tutorials for further instruction opportunities.

Web animation is making a comeback and Web graphics design has become serious business. Hamlin's contribution in the form of this book is essential for those designers who want to graduate to a higher level of Web design mastery and income. Clients are wising up to the many Web technologies available to them and are becoming more discerning about how they spend their advertising dollars. Don't be left behind. Consider animating your Web creations today. This is must reading!

Having already worked for a number of years with the Internet I was hoping this book would provide me with such information as "Advanced Techniques for the Web" (as the books sub-title states). What I found though was the book is a fantastic resource for anyone who is a complete beginner right up to intermediate web developer.

I was expecting detailed information on java scripting and Flash scripting however found that the book goes not much further than, for example, the handbooks and tutorials of Flash 4 and Dreamweaver 2.

If you are an experienced web designer/developer with a solid grounding in the internet and are looking for more than basic java scripting and flash scripting, this book may prove to be too basic. With this all said, this is a valuable book and many colleagues who newer to the web are gaining much benefit from information in this book.

5 stars for beginner - intermediate skill level

3 stars for advanced skill level

This is one great book! Picking it up and setting down in my usual lazy chair to read I quickly got a feel for how easy this book was to read. With beautiful pictures and easy to follow examples I quickly found it to be one of my favorite graphics books. This book covers almost everything you need to know about web animation, and best of all, it grows with you! As your skills get better the book explains more. From Gif89 animations to all out power house Flash animations that will make your site to die for! I loved every bit!

Frog and Toad where helpachful to eatchather.There storys where creatav.I like Frog best.He teaches Toad alot of things.Frog and Toad spend all year together.

Frog and Toad All Year continues in the delightful and thoughtful tradition of Arnold Lobel's books. It has stories for each season and as always they are deceptively simple but actually full of love, truth, good values, and humour. My daughter's, 3 and 5, love them.

Frog And Toad All Year


Hi, if you are a fan of Arnold Lobel's books, and you have not read Frog And Toad All Year, then you might want to read it.

If you like ice cream, then you should read page's 30-42. It is about Frog and Toad sitting by a pond Frog wishing for something sweet like ice cream. Toad thinks that is a great idea, so he gets some but before he can make it back it melts. They both go and get more ice cream. But instead of going back, they sit under a tree by the store. I like this chapter is because of the ice cream melting.

I liked this book because of the lessons like the lesson in chapter Ice Cream and the lesson is never travel with ice cream on a hot summer day.

If you are scared of being alone, well, you might pick Frog and Toad All Year by Arnold Lobel. Find out if Toad will ever learn how to be alone.

In the beginning, Toad was so nervous to be alone in the sled. So Frog was behind him. There was a big bump and Frog fell out. Toad was still on the sled. And he went by himself all the way to the bottom. Toad learned that being alone is not that bad, and you don't have to be scared.

If you like this book you might pick others in the series. There is Frog and Toad are Friends and Days with Frog and Toad.

I was at a wedding where the minister was a very good friend of both the bride and the groom. When it came to the part of the service where the minister imparts words of wisdom, he started to read the Frog and Toad story of "The Surprise." It is all about how one October when the leaves had fallen from the trees Frog decides to go to Toad's house to surprise his friend by raking up all the leaves on his lawn and Toad decides to go to Frog's house and do the same thing. The minister read the story, showing the surprised groom the pictures, and when he finished the story he explained how it was all about thinking of somebody else before you think of yourself. All I was thinking is that I have to get my hands on this story.

"The Surprise" is the fourth of the five stories that make up "Frog and Toad All Year," a Level 2 (Reading with help) "I Can Read Book." The stories begin and end with winter, starting off with "Down the Hill" as the two friends go sledding and end with "Christmas Eve." In between Toad finds that Spring is waiting around "The Corner" and buys some "Ice Cream" cones for he and his friend to enjoy, before it is time to rake the leaves. Lobel's stories have an exquisite simplicity that should really resonant with young readers. I know that frogs and toads are both amphibians, but I had to look up the biological differences: toads have brown skin that is dry and leathery because of convergent adaptation to drier climates and environments than frogs. So there is a reason why frogs are green and toads are brown. What that means to kids is not evidence of convergent adaptation, but rather than Frog and Toad are alike and yet different. In the end what is most important is that they are friends. Whether you think of yourself as a frog or a toad, you still need a friend and friendship is what these stories are all about.

"Frog and Toad All Year" was originally published in 1976, the fourth of Lobel's collections of stories about these characters. It follows "[[Frog and Toad Are Friends" (1970), "Frog and Toad Together" (1971), and comes before "Days with Frog and Toad." Each has five stories and if I think this one is the best it may just be because it was the first one I happened to read. If you have the soundtrack to "A Year with Frog and Toad," the musical adapted from Lobel's charming stories, you will find that three of these stories end up in Act II. "The Surprise" becomes "He'll Never Know," "Down the Hill" retains its title, and "Christmas Eve" becomes "Merry Almost Christmas." I mention all this because once your young reader reads one of these books they are going to want to read the rest, and when they find out that there are only four books you might need something else to keep them happy and the musical is out there to be enjoyed as well.

I am sure if you glance at the rest of the reviews you will be more than tempted to buy this book. Well, you should! Kerman's way of introducing the LOGIC behind actionScript is phenomenal. This books should help pave the way for you to grasp the logic behind actionScript. Why not 5 stars then? Well, I thought there would be more practical examples than the book included. Definitely worth the money!

I'm sorry I bought this book!
Because it's so good!
And now the MX version is out,
but I already have the Flash 5 one!
Anybody wants to buy it off me,
so I can get the new issue?
;-)

This is the first book I've read by Phillip Kerman. I will now go hunt for his next one - or all of them, to be honest! This book doesn't learn You any Flash or design, but it gives You everything You need to know about actionscripting. Tastefully presented and easy to read. If You are the perfect object oriented programmer - You could skip some chapters, but if You're just an "almost" perfect programer in object oriented languages - this book will give You the last skills that makes You perfect! Yes it really does not only cover actionscripting - it gives You a visual and very educational lesson in object oriented programing.

Wow!

This is a GREAT book for the graphic/web designer wanting to learn actionscript. I own or have read many others that don't cover the basics or the thought processes behind writing in a scripting language. Most books on this topic started out over my head with little explaination and were accompanied by buggy and/or old code. With clear and consice writing, Philip uses the first half of the book to fully explain programming concepts as they pertain to scripting in Flash, and then follows up with examples of how to implement these ideas.

I can't say enough about how far this book has taken me into the scripting world. Kudos to Kerman.

If you're looking for a book with lots of pictures and fluff this is not the book for you.
But if you're actually interested in learning to program ActionScript this is the first and only book you should buy.

Phillip Kerman explains everything in a clear understandable way and approaches the ideas of good programming as opposed to bad as well as the actual language itself. This alone will save you hours of re-doing what you've already done. Phillip gets you thinking like a programmer (a fairly new concept to a lot of designers trying to make their Flash more interactive.) Learn to design completely independent re-usable interfaces so that not only are you developing advanced interactive web-applications, you're also building a library of sample re-usable building blocks that you can re-use over and over.

Even if you're new to the language, take some tutorials online to get the basics and then buy this book. Read it and do the tutorials in it and soon you will be programming like a professional in no time. This is the best book on ActionScripting period! and I own 16 books on Flash Development!

The book was great and all but (sigh) why does it always talk about Kara more? And i didnt like when she was able to go to avalon what about Adriannne or Emily? they deserve it more!! Anyway it was about them defeating the sorceress( Kara and Adrianne), (Emily) and destoring blackfire, healing the mistwolves and healing Aldenmore. I hope the next 6 book in the new series waan't talk about Kara more like she is not goood of a character.

This is one of my favorite books but it broke my heart. this author has a special gift of making a character in a book dear to you but she took away
one of those charecters later she will return this charecter but the feeling for the charecter will never quite be the same.

KEEP THIS IN MIND,

avalon heartbreak

This was definatly my favorite Avalon book. It is so exciting and full of adventure. Sure, Kara was mentioned alot, but I thought it was so cool anyway. After a firemental comes for Adrianne, Kara, and Emily, they have to go to Aldenmor to stop the Dark Sorceress. It was full of surprises right to the end when they find the mistwolves. This was a thrilling adventure all the way through, even though one of my favorite characters Stormbringer, makes a painful sacrifice...

The fight for Aldenmor is finally drawing to a close. Join Emily, Adriane, Kara, and their magical animal friends as they jump through portals and rescue the mistwolf pack from the Dark Sorceress. Adriane and Stormbringer, her bonded Mistwolf, find Dreamer, an orphaned pup who is a gifted magic tracker. Storm disappears while holding the pack in mist form and Adriane grows depressed in the long run. Kara and Lyra, a winged leopard, find AvAlon and restore Aldenmor to its original beauty. Emily, in the mean time, is with Ozzie, an elf trapped in a ferret's body, in an elf village where Black Fire has poisoned the villagers and their livestock. Emily heals them and advances in her magic skills. This is an awesome book that teenage magic lovers would enjoy.

AvAlon: Trial by Fire is part of an amazing series by Rachel Roberts. Adriane and Stormbringer, the main characters, are my favorites. I hated the Dark Sorceress though. This book has made me a magic fan for good. I loved Trial by Fire.

I must say it wasn't the best in the series and it wasn't the worst, it was perfect. I am a BIG fan of the avalon series so right away when it was out I so bought it. Anyways now with the story which is basically what we are supposed to type about, Emily, Adriane, and Kara now finally have to destroy black fire... and all have a major part to fufill(i may have spelled it wrong!lol) the prophcey and compelets their destiny. First of all Adrianne has to deal with the dark sorceress with Lyra as Storm turns into mist to save all the mistwolves from these crystals stored with Blackfire! She totally saves the day but... there was a huge price to pay for that. Kara well we find out more about her and she gets once again in this spellsinging spell and is in the sorceress cluthes. Basically the sorceress captures Kara to make her open these portals with fairy map given to her by firemental, to get the unicorn. But eventually the unicorn rescues her and she sadly goes to Avalon which is UNFAIR they all had should, not to mention gets her unicorn jewel!!! Well the magor thing, Emily has to destory blackfire, break the crysatls that contain the mistwolves and most of all heal the mistwolves with blackfire but has help with Zach and later the mages. Well I shouldn't really say they ALL complete their destiny since in book 4 heart of avalon Emily compeletes anpther of her destiny as well so she has to heal avalon later. It was an excellent ending and ALL AVALON FANS SHOULD READ IT NOW!!!!!!!

I often play with Nigerian scammers though not to the extent that the author does. Some of his responses to the scammers email are really funny. A lot like the annals of "The Porcine Princess".

There are some hilarious pages in this book, some that had me crying and unable to speak. If the author had a little more variety it would have been a great book, but it did seem to repeat its formula in the responses to the email scams after a while.

A laugh-riot from start to finish--the funniest book I've read in years.

This was one of the funniest books I have enjoyed in a long, long time. The content is fun and light and makes for an easy read. There were times I had tears in my eyes and pain in my stomach from laughing so hard. It's an excellent book for when you need a break from this mad, mad, world.

It's one of those purchases you won't regret.

Highly recommended!

The Publishers Weekly review above is on the money, in that this book is gleefully offensive.

I'm fine with that.

If you're fine with that as well, this book will make you snort with laughter at inappropriate times. Do not read while sitting in bed next to your sleeping spouse. She will eventually punch you in the chest for waking her up.

It'll be worth the bruise.

I read this book a few years back. This was a great reference book and starting point if you are just getting into internet marketing. It's a fast read you can pick up and start applying some of the recommendations right away.

This is my first review on Amazon. I recently purchased the book Advertise, Promote and Market Your Business or Website by Bruce C. Brown. As a professional artist, my chosen profession is extremely competitive and I've found many artists who have been running successful businesses for many years, which puts a new artist at a big disadvantage. I found this book very user friendly for someone who doesn't have a degree/experience in marketing or seo, but needs to become more marketing and internet savvy.

My favorite sections are:
Generating More Trafic to Your Website
Search Engine Optimization

I found many helpful tips in these two sections. The only suggestion I would make for improving the book would be more resources added and many more case studies.

Any comments or critiiques of this review are welcome via email from my website.
Regards,
Pam Miller
Miller Modern Art
http://www.millermodernart.com

My mother does a lot of research online and is a very active member of places like YouTube, etc. She's been interested in marketing some of her own creative work online and this seemed to be the perfect guide. Although she has found out some of the info contained in this book on her own, this organizes the info all in one place and makes it easily accessible. She seemed very pleased with the book and says it will make her online life much easier.

A well written very informative book, very helpful for someone just starting out. For myself I didn't find a whole lot of new information but I would have loved to have read this when I was first setting up my website.

How to Use the Internet to Advertise, Promote and Market Your Business or Web Site -- With Little or No Money is the winner of multiple book awards:

The National 2007 Indie Excellence Book Awards Business Finalist: How to Use the Internet to Advertise, Promote and Market Your Business or Web Site -- With Little or No Money by Bruce C. Brown

2007 Independent Publisher Book Awards Computer/Internet Bronze: How to Use the Internet to Advertise, Promote and Market Your Business or Web Site -- With Little or No Money by Bruce C. Brown

ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards Finalist: How to Use the Internet to Advertise, Promote and Market Your Business or Web Site -- With Little or No Money by Bruce C. Brown

USA Best Books Awards 2007 Business: Marketing & Advertising Finalist: How to Use the Internet to Advertise, Promote and Market Your Business or Web Site -- With Little or No Money by Bruce C. Brown

Library Journal: Best Business Book 2006 Marketing/Branding: How to Use the Internet to Advertise, Promote and Market Your Business or Web Site -- With Little or No Money by Bruce C. Brow

This book should be considered required reading for anyone designing and developing sites.

Most of the websites online do not follow the practices outlined in this book and would be better off if they did.

The book is filled with clear examples and shows bad content and then the ways to improve it.

Great book!

From the moment I started reading this well-constructed, excellently researched book, I couldn't put it down and wanted to know more. The pages are reader-friendly, and lots of good examples make all the author's advice come to life on the page. "Letting Go of the Words" clarifies so many gray areas of writing for the web. I highly recommend this book to anyone who ever has to write anything that will appear on the web, and also to designers who are responsble for setting up websites. Once you read this book, you won't be able to look at any website in the same way again.

This is one of the best books you can buy if you creating a website, looking for ideas on how to make your site better or just need simple easy to implement ideas. Ginny has created an easy way to focus on your "audience" make any site practicle with simple solutions. Tips and trick that any one can do without functionality. This is a best value!

This book is an absolute must read for anyone who develops websites. Ginny Redish provides great examples of web pages and how the visitor is affected by the arrangement of the content. I love the way she presents a website user and allows you to "think" like a visitor.

I'm a big fan of technical communication texts. This book is exceptional, and stands apart from others in many ways:

- Many technical communication texts repeat the same rote guidelines. Although this book does not ignore the "classic" rules (e.g., "Write in inverted pyramid style"; "Use space effectively"), many of the rules are unexpected or even contrarian (e.g., "Use a sans-serif font"; "Long lists are o.k. for familiar items"). All rules are backed by examples that demonstrate their effectiveness.
- The book provides clear examples of real-world Web content, including many "before" and "after" images that demonstrate the book's principles.
- The production of the book is excellent. The color printing and rich layout help to make the book attractive and approachable.

Although the focus of this book is Web communication, the rules, principles, and guidelines are relevant to any form of written communication. The number of examples and diversity of the book's guidelines make this an ideal text for technical communicators and Web content developers of all levels of experience and proficiency.

I have actually used this reference for years as needed for ActionScript. I still had a good use for this text in ensuring compatibility with Flash MX until the lack of features became too overwhelming. This is in the face of newer versions of Flash such as CS3 (9.0) that use ActionScript 2.0/3.0. All in all, this book was wonderful until the release of Flash 8.

Because of the new Filters that have come out with Flash 8.0 and the features of ActionScript 2.0 to support these and other enhancements, I would instead recommend Flash 8 ActionScript Bible if one is concerned with cross-compatibility in their ActionScript code and wishes to still be able to use AS with newer features such as Filters (but not as new as Transitions or other CS3 exclusive features - for that, I'd recommend ActionScript 3.0 Bible or something similar).

As far as who I could possibly recommend this book for: It's good for somebody who is still working with Flash MX 2004 and below to Flash 5 (much of the text is compatible with Flash 5), however, I don't know that there are many of those sorts of individuals.

This book is a great resource for when you're looking for that specific line of code. Its terrible to read from front to back, but its an excellent way to find exactly what you're looking for. Its so much code, it'll make your eyes bleed.

One of the few comprehensive actionsctipt titles on the market. The first half of the book boasts a large variety of tutorials and examples that skillfully lead the reader through both the syntax and use of actionscript. Personally I found the text clear and practical. The chapters on OOP were of particular value as they went beyond actionscript basics into application, bordering on philosophical.

The second half is an invaluable reference of the entire actionscript dictionary with a comprehensive CD full of .fla example files and bonus chapters on the XML Object. As a qualified teacher I found it hard to fault the methodology employed by the various authors.

Well worth the purchase.

I am a former programming teacher and I have a style to teach my students the most UNDERSTANDABLE way to do something not just how to do it. This text/reference achieves that purpose. If you have an understanding of Flash (which you should have before getting into scripting see Weinman books) then this book will serve you well. There are other books on scripting - great books - such as Moock's books but they are more so for the programmer. This book is for the novelist programmer that desires to learn about action scripting.

5 stars if you know Flash well.
1 star if you haven't had any experience with it at all.

I was a beginner once, who couldn't figure out Flash at all. I'd like to help you build a bridge between where you may be now, as a beginner, to where you may find yourself aspiring to go.

If your only experience with Flash is to have seen the many wonderful and breathtaking Flash movies on the Internet and just had a look at the authoring tool, I strongly recommend that you leave this book until much later. It has its place in the learning curve but it isn't, in my opinion, the first book to see.

There are understandings to possess that this book doesn't cover sufficiently well enough for those whose minds work in particular ways. This is a programming book, for using the phenomenon of programming to create great design and animations. Whilst the focus is on design, you aren't using the design tools on the interface. With this book, you are using the Actionscript language and you have to have a logical mind for this activity (as well as keeping your strong creative one).

I began my steep learning curve with Flash by watching others and watching video tutorials, especially those by George Pierson. In this way, I can ask questions that are tailored for me and I get tailored responses. Books aren't always able to do so well here.

What is great about this book is the MX Actionscript reference in it and the seemingly well designed theory tutorials. I can't find a fault with the reference. The theory is quite good. In the reference, all Flash MX commands are covered. There are examples of how to use them, but the coverage may not be enough for some. Brill. Just BRILL. I can be excited but because I can follow Actionscript.

Approach this book when you are successfully making Flash movies on your own. Yes, on your own. For me, this book is an aid for when I am going to where I haven't gone to before. It helps me make judgements on ideas I get.