If you''ve ever seen an especially cool Flash effect on the web, gone straight to your trusty Flash book to find out how to do it, then turned away empty-handed--Flash Hacks is for you. This unique book offers a collection of expert Flash tips and tricks for optimization, creating interesting effects, ActionScript programming, sound and video effects, and much more--and you don''t need to be an expert to use them (although you''ll certainly look like one).With Flash technology, you can create compelling web content, expressive user interfaces, and rich applications for the Internet--all of which dramatically enhance the user experience. But Flash is not just practical, it''s a wellspring of opportunities to unleash your creativity and have fun. Flash Hacks dives straight into all that''s fun and creative about Flash, while presenting useful programming techniques and practical--although never mundane--hacks that can make your work easier.Geared to cover Flash MX, Flash MX 2004, and Flash MX Professional 2004, Flash Hacks begins with hacks on authoring, testing, and web environments. You''ll learn how to beat the Flash bloat bug, realistically simulate the web, create a JavaScript-free Flash sniffer, and hack a spellchecker for Flash. Other hacks in the book are grouped in the following areas:

Foundation Flash 8 is the book you need if you''re looking for a solid foundation in Flash 8 Basic and Flash 8 Professional.

Thousands upon thousands of designers have already learned from its previous editions and it''s easy to understand why.

The fourth edition of friends of ED''s legendary beginner Flash book, Foundation Flash 8 uses a series of structured exercises and detailed discussions to help you start your exploration of Flash. The detailed tutorial style will ensure that you retain the knowledge you gain and are able to draw upon it throughout your Flash career. Foundation Flash 8 features a running case study that evolves into a fully-functional Flash website as you work through the tutorials, so you''ll immediately see everything that you learn being used in a practical project.

This book focuses on the core skills that you need to get started working with Flash 8: understanding the interface, becoming familiar with the creative tools and their capabilities, grasping the relationships between the different components that make up a Flash movie, and getting insight into how to put all the pieces together to create your own Flash-based website.

ActionScript is the native scripting language of Flash. ActionScript knowledge is essential within the world of Flash design and development, as Flash remains a leading tool for cutting-edge interactive design and development.

ActionScript is what gives Flash its power, but with that power comes a certain level of complexity, which can be intimidating. This beginners'' book, significantly updated since the last edition, covers all of the basics of ActionScript using version 8 of Flash. The skills acquired by working through this book will enable you to move on to more advanced friends of ED books, such as Foundation PHP 5 for Flash, Foundation ActionScript Animation or Foundation XML for Flash.

This book contains all you need to understand and make use of ActionScript, and to have some fun while learning. The Foundation series teaching style is ideal if you''re a non-programmer who wants to learn Flash programming quickly and thoroughly. The authors teach the basics, and provide an all-around proficiency in ActionScript, as well as Flash components within Flash 8. You''ll gain the practical skills to build ActionScript based Flash projects, including making initial design decisions, structuring code, and testing. An ongoing case study means that by the end of the book, you''ll have constructed a cutting-edge Flash site to showcase your newly learned skills.

If you''re serious about Flash design, and if you want to push your ideas to the very limits of possibility in Flash MX, then this book and CD are your indispensable companions.

This  package combines two vital elements: the most comprehensive and in-depth reference resource for Flash MX ActionScript Rich, and practical tutorials on using ActionScript effectively in your Flash movie design. We''ve packed in 20 chapters of tutorials, hundreds of detailed reference entries, and hundreds of example FLAs and SWFs. The CD reproduces and expands the complete ActionScript dictionary, providing you with a comprehensive and portable reference tool. To gain an idea of the CD''s content, view our online demonstration. You can view all the dictionary''s entries, but only the first 30 or so are functional.

Our aim has been to make this book the best Flash MX ActionScript resource, bar none—the book that you''ll keep on your desk and never exhaust.

Some friends of ED books concentrate on more serious aspects of Flash; this one concentrates on the fun. Flash can be used for many purposes, but making visually stunning effects to impress your boss, your friends, and anyone who looks at your site is one of the most rewarding.

Friends of ED have scoured the web and the Flash community, discovering the most requested and popular Flash effects in action today. We have investigated the visual effects and actual design techniques that Flash beginners have been asking for. The visual inspiration and detailed explanations of how to recreate these effects are combined together in this book.

The eight leading designers in this full color book take these effects apart, showing you how to adapt your basic Flash knowledge to achieve results exceeding anything you thought possible. The effects stay true to the tried and tested friends of ED design-centric approach, with full exercises and explanations for each effect. Topics include: ground-breaking site navigation, a dynamic MP3 jukebox, cartoon animation, and Flash math visual effects.

All you need to use this book is a knowlegde of the Flash MX interface, and some imagination. So sit back, relax, and open up your mind to the visual potential of Flash MX.

Want to create a top-level website from scratch, but dont know where to start? Well, youve got a choice: buy this book, or buy ten others…

Creating a website in today''s environment is no longer a question of knowing about one piece of software, or one technology. To achieve the best results, you need broad knowledge on a range of topics:

Foundation Web Design is a step-by-step guide to stunning website creation. Starting with the basics, and assuming no prior knowledge, Sham Bhangal cuts through the jargon and introduces a wide range of essential skills and technologies. These combine to help you create a fully operational and graphically stunning case study website.

About the Authors:

Sham Bhangal''s unique tutorial style has found success in friends of ED Foundation titles such as Foundation ActionScript, heralded by Amazon.com as “perhaps one of the finest introductory programming books ever written.”

Tomasz Jankowski—who designed the case study site—has won numerous web design awards. His stunning artwork first appeared in our landmark title New Masters of Flash.

If you''ve ever seen an especially cool Flash effect on the web, gone straight to your trusty Flash book to find out how to do it, then turned away empty-handed--Flash Hacks is for you. This unique book offers a collection of expert Flash tips and tricks for optimization, creating interesting effects, ActionScript programming, sound and video effects, and much more--and you don''t need to be an expert to use them (although you''ll certainly look like one).With Flash technology, you can create compelling web content, expressive user interfaces, and rich applications for the Internet--all of which dramatically enhance the user experience. But Flash is not just practical, it''s a wellspring of opportunities to unleash your creativity and have fun. Flash Hacks dives straight into all that''s fun and creative about Flash, while presenting useful programming techniques and practical--although never mundane--hacks that can make your work easier.Geared to cover Flash MX, Flash MX 2004, and Flash MX Professional 2004, Flash Hacks begins with hacks on authoring, testing, and web environments. You''ll learn how to beat the Flash bloat bug, realistically simulate the web, create a JavaScript-free Flash sniffer, and hack a spellchecker for Flash. Other hacks in the book are grouped in the following areas:

Foundation Flash 8 is the book you need if you''re looking for a solid foundation in Flash 8 Basic and Flash 8 Professional.

Thousands upon thousands of designers have already learned from its previous editions and it''s easy to understand why.

The fourth edition of friends of ED''s legendary beginner Flash book, Foundation Flash 8 uses a series of structured exercises and detailed discussions to help you start your exploration of Flash. The detailed tutorial style will ensure that you retain the knowledge you gain and are able to draw upon it throughout your Flash career. Foundation Flash 8 features a running case study that evolves into a fully-functional Flash website as you work through the tutorials, so you''ll immediately see everything that you learn being used in a practical project.

This book focuses on the core skills that you need to get started working with Flash 8: understanding the interface, becoming familiar with the creative tools and their capabilities, grasping the relationships between the different components that make up a Flash movie, and getting insight into how to put all the pieces together to create your own Flash-based website.

ActionScript is the native scripting language of Flash. ActionScript knowledge is essential within the world of Flash design and development, as Flash remains a leading tool for cutting-edge interactive design and development.

ActionScript is what gives Flash its power, but with that power comes a certain level of complexity, which can be intimidating. This beginners'' book, significantly updated since the last edition, covers all of the basics of ActionScript using version 8 of Flash. The skills acquired by working through this book will enable you to move on to more advanced friends of ED books, such as Foundation PHP 5 for Flash, Foundation ActionScript Animation or Foundation XML for Flash.

This book contains all you need to understand and make use of ActionScript, and to have some fun while learning. The Foundation series teaching style is ideal if you''re a non-programmer who wants to learn Flash programming quickly and thoroughly. The authors teach the basics, and provide an all-around proficiency in ActionScript, as well as Flash components within Flash 8. You''ll gain the practical skills to build ActionScript based Flash projects, including making initial design decisions, structuring code, and testing. An ongoing case study means that by the end of the book, you''ll have constructed a cutting-edge Flash site to showcase your newly learned skills.

If you''re serious about Flash design, and if you want to push your ideas to the very limits of possibility in Flash MX, then this book and CD are your indispensable companions.

This  package combines two vital elements: the most comprehensive and in-depth reference resource for Flash MX ActionScript Rich, and practical tutorials on using ActionScript effectively in your Flash movie design. We''ve packed in 20 chapters of tutorials, hundreds of detailed reference entries, and hundreds of example FLAs and SWFs. The CD reproduces and expands the complete ActionScript dictionary, providing you with a comprehensive and portable reference tool. To gain an idea of the CD''s content, view our online demonstration. You can view all the dictionary''s entries, but only the first 30 or so are functional.

Our aim has been to make this book the best Flash MX ActionScript resource, bar none—the book that you''ll keep on your desk and never exhaust.

Some friends of ED books concentrate on more serious aspects of Flash; this one concentrates on the fun. Flash can be used for many purposes, but making visually stunning effects to impress your boss, your friends, and anyone who looks at your site is one of the most rewarding.

Friends of ED have scoured the web and the Flash community, discovering the most requested and popular Flash effects in action today. We have investigated the visual effects and actual design techniques that Flash beginners have been asking for. The visual inspiration and detailed explanations of how to recreate these effects are combined together in this book.

The eight leading designers in this full color book take these effects apart, showing you how to adapt your basic Flash knowledge to achieve results exceeding anything you thought possible. The effects stay true to the tried and tested friends of ED design-centric approach, with full exercises and explanations for each effect. Topics include: ground-breaking site navigation, a dynamic MP3 jukebox, cartoon animation, and Flash math visual effects.

All you need to use this book is a knowlegde of the Flash MX interface, and some imagination. So sit back, relax, and open up your mind to the visual potential of Flash MX.

Want to create a top-level website from scratch, but dont know where to start? Well, youve got a choice: buy this book, or buy ten others…

Creating a website in today''s environment is no longer a question of knowing about one piece of software, or one technology. To achieve the best results, you need broad knowledge on a range of topics:

Foundation Web Design is a step-by-step guide to stunning website creation. Starting with the basics, and assuming no prior knowledge, Sham Bhangal cuts through the jargon and introduces a wide range of essential skills and technologies. These combine to help you create a fully operational and graphically stunning case study website.

About the Authors:

Sham Bhangal''s unique tutorial style has found success in friends of ED Foundation titles such as Foundation ActionScript, heralded by Amazon.com as “perhaps one of the finest introductory programming books ever written.”

Tomasz Jankowski—who designed the case study site—has won numerous web design awards. His stunning artwork first appeared in our landmark title New Masters of Flash.