Introduction

Adobe Flash is software with multiple personalities. It’s an animation program that’s used not only to make small things move on computer screens, but also to create many of the full-length cartoons you see on TV. It’s a multimedia authoring environment that combines text, photographs, sound, animation, and video into projects that may be artistic, entertaining, informative, or all three. It’s a software development platform that allows programmers to create the powerful but easy-to-use applications that you see all over the Web. It’s a friendly, intuitive program that was originally designed for anyone to use, but has evolved into a complex, professional-level tool for seasoned designers and developers.

No single book can cover all those facets thoroughly, and this book isn’t even going to try. We won’t describe every feature or tell you what each keystroke and menu item does; you can get that information just as easily from the Help files that come with Flash. What we will do is introduce you, by means of clear explanations and carefully selected examples, to 100 fundamental skills that will allow you to work productively in Flash. Once you see how Flash “thinks” and how it approaches tasks, learning to use its multiple features and options becomes much easier.

Chapters 1 through 9 constitute a complete book on their own. If you’re interested in animation and multimedia, those chapters are all you’ll need. If you want to move toward more interactive, user-focused projects, go on to chapters 10 and 11, which acquaint you with the versatile programming language called ActionScript.

Each chapter includes techniques of varying levels of difficulty. If you’re new to Flash, you’ll probably want to go through them in order. If you already have experience in Flash or related programs, feel free to skip around and pick up what you need. Scattered throughout, you’ll find notes and sidebars that you may find interesting and occasionally amusing. As I tell the students in my Flash classes, “If you’re not having fun, you’re not doing it right.”