Comments about oreilly Flash 8 Cookbook:

I have used Flash for several years and decided to scan through the first chapters 'just in case' there were things that I might find useful. In fact, I found several tips that I would not have stumbled on given my usual habits.

Although the format of this book is quite different from the earlier Lott Cookbook, it's easy to locate info, easy to follow, and provides a great foundation for Flash8.

I wouldn't approach this book as if This One Book Will Teach You Everything That You Need To Know About Flash8. That's not its purpose, and Flash8 is too big for a single manageable manual. (Lott is quite explicit about his target audience, as well as why he's taking this approach, in the Preface, BTW.)

It appears that Lott and his co-authors have taken a strategic view and tried to cover what *most* users need to know. The book is organized -- from simpler tasks to more complex tasks -- very nicely, and the index looks pretty good (indexes are hugely important for me, so that's a big factor in whether I buy or use any manual).

This book ensures that I have all the IDE elements mastered.

I'll continue to check other sources for more on developments in AS, and will plan to purchase Lott's AS Cookbook when it is available.

Personally, I bought the book for the sections on Presentations (because I need to do more of these in Flash8), and the info has been useful. I also bought it for the chapters on Mobiles, Data, and to get myself some better habits with preloaders. So far, the book has been well worth my time and money.

Comments about oreilly Flash 8 Cookbook:

I've purchased quite a few tech books over the years that call themselves "cookbooks", which generally means that the book is divided into chapters of increasingly complex projects and you learn a language or application by building real-world projects. This book is not like that. It's arranged in sections of how to use the tools in the Flash 8 IDE. Having used Flash for the past 5 years now, at least the first half of the book is useless to me, and the second half does not have any really useful Actionscript code samples that are integrated into large applications. Also, I'm a Safari member is this book is not available (as of May 12, 2006) there, which is why I purchased a hard copy. Why is this book not available there? It says Safari Enabled on the back cover. The reason I am a Safari member is so I don't have to purchase full-priced hard copies that have only a few chapters that are relevant to me.

If you're new to Flash 8 and still use the timeline and Flash drawing tools to build your movies, this is a good start, but if you're into doing most tasks with Actionscript, look somewhere else.