Tom Green, David Stiller friends of ED, Paperback, Published July 2007, 600 pages, ISBN 159059861X
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Read an excerpt: Chapter 6: Text in Flash CS3       Excerpt provided courtesy of friends of ED. Copyright © friends of ED, an Apress Company. Written permission from the publisher is required for any use of this material.

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• Graphics and Multimedia : Adobe Creative Suite 3
• Graphics and Multimedia : Animation
• Graphics and Multimedia : Flash

• friends of ED

Flash is one of the most engaging and innovative, and versatile technologies available—allowing the creation of pretty much anything from simple slideshows, animated banners and icons and cartoons, to Rich Internet Applications, Interactive videos, and dynamic user interfaces for web sites, kiosks, or DVDs. The possibilities are endless, except that now, it just got better.

In 2007, Adobe released Flash CS3, which boasts a whole host of new features, including fully customizable workspace, full ActionScript 3.0 support, a PSD importer, a tween-to-code animation converter, and much more.

And this book is all you'll need to learn Flash CS3 from the ground up, or learn about all these new features, if you already have previous Flash experience—Flash experts Tom Green and David Stiller take you step-by-step through all facets of Flash CS3, with the emphasis firmly on good design techniques that you use in your own projects.

* Learn Flash design from the ground up, or just get to grips with the new features, with a series of step by step tutorials.
* Provides an easy introduction to ActionScript 3.0 coding, but the focus is mainly kept on design.
* Learn from the experts—written by renowned Flash designers Tom Green and David Stiller.

What you’ll learn

* The ins and outs of the Flash CS3 interface
* How to use all of Flash CS3's essential features, such as text, graphics, and animation
* How to use video and sound effectively in Flash
* The basics of ActionScript 3.0
* Building Flash user interfaces rapidly using components.
* How to populate a Flash movie with dynamic data such as XML.
* The Basics of creating Flash Lite applications (Flash for mobile devices)
* Using Cascading Style Sheets with Flash
* Optimizing and publishing your Flash movies

Who is this book for?

This book is for both beginners who want a solid grounding in Flash CS3, and designers with previous Flash experience, who want to get up to speed with the new features.

Table of Contents

* Chapter 1: Learning the Flash CS3 Professional
* Chapter 2: Graphics in Flash CS3
* Chapter 3: Symbols and Libraries
* Chapter 4: ActionScript Basics
* Chapter 5: Audio in Flash CS3
* Chapter 6 Text in Flash CS3
* Chapter 7: Animation in Flash CS3
* Chapter 8: Video in Flash
* Chapter 9: Using the Flash UI Components to Build Interfaces
* Chapter 10: CSS and Flash
* Chapter 11: Dynamic Data (XML) and Flash
* Chapter 12: Going Mobile in Flash
* Chapter 13: Optimizing Flash Movies
* Chapter 14: Publishing Flash Movies

About the Authors

Tom is currently Professor of Interactive Media in the School of Media Studies at Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning in Toronto, Canada. He has written 4 previous books on Macromedia technologies, and many articles for numerous magazines and web sites, including the MX Developers Journal, Community MX, and Computer arts. Lastly, he has spoken at over 20 conferences internationally, including FITC, MX North, Digital Design World, TODCON, and SparkEurope.

David is a career multimedia programmer/designer whose portfolio includes NASA, Adobe, and major US automotive and boat manufacturers. He likes anaglyph 3D photography, finely crafted wooden game boards, Library of Congress field recordings, and Turkish coffee. David is self-taught and gets a kick out of sharing "aha!" moments with others through consultation, mentoring, and regular contributions to the Adobe Flash and ActionScript forums. He is a resident author at Community MX, a web development training site geared toward Adobe products. David lives in Virginia with his amazing wife, Dawn, and his beguiling daughter, Meridian.

Jan 22, 2008     Clayton Wilchowy (cwilchowy@yahoo.ca) from Winnipeg, Manitoba
A staple for Flash developers, new and old
Nothing quite as fun as reading a technical manual; and hangnails are okay too when you really think about it...right? Its supposed to be wrong on both counts, but if you trudge through Foundation Flash CS3 for Designers, well I think youll find that trudging is very much the wrong word. This is an excellent book for those just starting to use Flash and is also a great primer for seasoned veterans to get acquainted with the many great improvements that have come along in this latest version of Adobe Flash.

I dont come at Flash with a light backgroundhave been using it as an animator, and moreso an ActionScript developer, for the past ten years now. Yet going through each chapter I almost always found something new to glean. It kept my interest, and even produced a laugh on more than one occasion.

Foundation Flash CS3 is written from the perspective of two dedicated developers who want to keep interested themselves, which helps them hit just the right audience. They pepper in the right balance of instruction and aside comments tossing in a very healthy helping of code samples for you to write and test on the fly (which I greatly appreciated). Being experienced with Flash my goal was to reacquaint from the ground up, to make sure I didnt miss any of the new features. What I got out of it was exactly that. Yet throughout my reading/testing I kept wondering how a beginner might take in all of its insights. Id rightly guess that there would be a low glaze over factorwith paced reading, and going through the samples (and re-going though if need be) someone new to flash would springboard into understanding!

Okay, a bit excited at the end of that paragraphbut the book justifies it, so take that as a serious endorsement. Who is this book not for? Well, it is definitely light on the fundamental shift in understanding between AS2 code and AS3. For developers whose true goal is learning AS3 specifically, you will want to seek out something else. At the same time this book understands its spot. Its called Foundation Flash CS3 for Designers, after all :p Yetand this is a big positive yetbecause of all the ActionScript samples it is a great practice ground to acquaint yourself with the newer syntax. In short- not heavy on the theory, but a good deal of practice. As a developer making the leap to AS3, I enjoyed it for that aspectespecially when the practical exercises are fun to read; complete with pop-web-culture references including pixyland.org, the Tron Guy, and more!

Now weve established this is a great book that is both appropriate for those just getting into Flash now, and seasoned refreshers. Theres the punchy writing, great balance between theory and practical. Only one little typo that I could find (broke the code in an example, but was easy to catch and fix). I felt like it was an Astro-boy-esque easter egg, where youve got to make the small correction yourself. Wont spoil the surprise thoughyou find it ;)

Any further comments? Well, its long550 pages of book keyed to one version of Flash (CS3), so for the amount of time it takes to go through, well you hope that CS4 doesnt make things fully obsolete. But who ever didnt buy a book because it was too long! Even for those pressed for time, its something you can pick up and use as a reference, or glean from the chapters you find relevant. In example, the timeline interface hasnt chanced oh-so-much, so I was able to blaze through the Animation chapter, however I found a particular interest and education to the Audio chapter (color me noob; was my first time working with a SoundChannel object. You make a full MP3 player interface on page 224!). Its lighter on the theory heavy on getting a full understanding and usage out of the Adobe Flash API (even a full section on mobile development process) and is creative enough to perhaps suggest a new idea or two in how a developer might use Flash differently.

Issues? Well, the book came from the US (all the way to Ca-na-na-da) so when it finally arrived in the mail, wellno sample CD. Guess theres a risk of getting books and media with the word flash predominantly in the title, cross the border. However I guessed that I could go to the publishers website (Friends of Ed) and grab the source; and I guessed right. Easy as pie.

Overall, I was more impressed than I thought I would be! Recommended as a once-through and resource (no, it wont just sit on your shelf afterwards) for anyone developing or animating in Flash CS3.

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