Flash CS4: The Missing Manual,   ISBN:9780596522940

Customer Rating: 

Much of the missing manual series is good. But this one has more then a few flat out errors and omissions, advice on how to use the program that is wrong. In addition it was not proofread very well. Ridiculous stuff like "See the box on page 193 for details". Well that's written on page 193 and the box isn't on that page. Yikes! The author refers to some tools with the wrong name at times, calling the Free Transform Tool the Scale Tool. Yeah ok I got what he meant, but I mean come on. Early on in the book he uses in his explanations topics which have not yet been covered. Then there's idiocy like this: Shift Drag the end of the timeline: Has no effect on property keyframes. Okay, he's talking about removing frames here and leaving a Motion Tween intact and in place. Yes this does work, but .... he just used an example wherein you'd use this action to remove frames off the end. Well if you do this and you Shift Drag back in the timeline it removes the property keyframes you've dragged over. So of course it has an effect on these frames! Then this: Clicking anywhere on the tween selects the entire tween and moves the playhead to the frame of that tween. I does select the entire tween but it doesn't move to the frame on the playhead. There's instances where he does things like giving the keyboard shortcut for one action, and the in the next sentence fails to give it for the next related action and instead says only to use the menu command. This should always be consistent.

Ok I grant you he may have been on a windows machine when he wrote this and I use a Mac. I'll further grant you he may have written this on a Beta version. But this book suffers from the person who wrote it being too familiar with the program when he's explaining it, bad proofreading and sloppy editing. The publisher should have sat some complete novices down in front of a computer with the text in hand and have them run through it. I always make notes in manuals when something isn't clear or is documented wrong and this one has lots of notes. The other books in this series, and I have 4, do not.

Customer Rating: 

I don't read any of these books! No, I study them page by page and work through all of the examples. That's the only way to do it if you want to learn. By far and away, Flash CS4, The Missing Manual, has it all. Best organized, great examples and touches important subjects that the others do not. It's all in there, from creating Storyboards, targeting viewers, the new Motion Editor, advanced drawing techniques, using Scenes in detail, IK bones, Sound, Video, useful Action Script examples and lots more. If you want to get up to speed then this is the book. This Flash CS4 Missing Manual is not missing anything.

Customer Rating: 

Let's see. I have an old Flash 8 Missing Manual. The content here is about 90% the same, using the same examples, barely scratching the surface as in the past. What I hate most about "missing manuals" is their need to use case examples instead of just giving us the straight poop. I don't want to do examples; I want to work on my stuff. That's what a manual should be. I'll take a course (in a book or otherwise) if I want to work on examples.

Customer Rating: 

I have several books from the Missing Manual series and I have not been disappointed with anyone of them. Flash CS4: The Missing Manual, and the others in the series I purchased, have all been well written, easy to follow and loaded with information to allow for the immediate use of whatever product they are instructing the reader. I use to purchase the lynda.com series of instructional books (which is also a top-notch series), but I now prefer, and look for, the title Missing Manual whenever I need an instructional book no matter that I may have documentation (online or bookform) that came with the software. The Missing Manual truely fills in the blanks!

Customer Rating: 

I hate to give this review as it may impact the missing manual series in a negative way. Dreamweaver CS4 was the very best self help book I have ever read and then came flash CS4 the missing manual. I was so very disappointed. The two books are like night and day, totally opposite.
The author in Flash CS4 The Missing Manual goes on about nothing, I have reached page 165 and have learned very little. It is full of mistakes and very much disorganized too. The mistakes are not just typos, and are too numerous to report for the errata on the website. Because of all the mistakes, I found myself wasting a lot of time trying to figure things out. On the other hand with the Dreamwever CS4 Missing Manual, it was so well written I was going through an average of seventy five pages a day of study.
I have spot read four other missing manuals which I have already bought and so far the ones written by David Sawyer Mcfarland and Mathew Macdonald seem to be outstanding. In the future I will avoid any books written by Chris Grover, he does not do justice to the creator of the missing manual series David Pogue.