Flash 5 or MX is ok, but i'm looking for two different types of books:

1) A Broadstroke howto covering beginner to whatever, but not necessarily an indepth reference. This is to hopefully help me get up to speed ASAP.

2) A detail oriented in-depth reference, such as maybe Flash 5 (MX) Bible?

It's a little while since I read any books on Flash so I'm not up to date with MX, but certainly for Flash 5 up until about a year ago Friends of Ed did a whole range of books that were well thought of, for beginners and upwards. I imagine they're still updating that series.

Once you get past the basics of Flash and using Actionscript see if you can get your hands on a copy of the New Masters of Flash books. These contain examples of techniques used by some of the Flash gurus and they're really very good.

Thanks for the info Bob. The only Friends of Ed books I could find was one for Photoshop and an Out-of-Print for Livemotion - you wouldn't happen to have an ISBN would you?

Sure, but keep in mind that these are for Flash 5:

Foundation ActionScript
Friends of Ed
ISBN 1-903450-32-2

New Masters of Flash
Friends of Ed
ISBN 1-903450-03-9

New Master of Flash (The 2002 Annual)
Friends of Ed
ISBN 1-903450-36-5

Also, this was the best of it's kind for Flash 5 ActionScript:

ActionScript, the Definitive Guide
O'Reilly
ISBN 1-56592-852-0

Friends of Ed are at:
http://www.friendsofed.com/

O'Reilly at:
http://www.oreilly.com

What is your overall goal with Flash? Even if you get a book on application development with Flash, they tend to cover the basics of Flash. Also it's less boring. Some Flash books are just too basic (you spend drawing circles and squares for the first five chapters). If you already have some background in a graphics program, even an authoring program like Dreamweaver, it will seam somewhat redundant. I think you'd rather learn the basics while learning something else, like XML, which Flash MX does a better job with.

Like Bob, I think ActionScript, the Definitive Guide O'Reilly is a good book. I have it (for version 5) and make good use of it. I've never been too fond of O'Reilly books, except their references.

In my experience, the Friends of Ed books are ok. I have three of their books (ActionScript, ActionScript Studio, and ColdFusion for Flash) which are ok, but the pace might seem a bit slow, for these books anyways... just my 2 cents.

If you want to develop Flash games, these two books rule:

Macromedia Flash MX Game Design Demystified (ISBN: 0201770210)
Flash Games Studio (ISBN: 1903450675)

Thanks Bob & inscissor

Bob, I'll keep the list in mind as I select MX oriented materials. I "had" to make a snap purchase today to have *something* to read while at work, so I picked up Foundations of Flash MX - while skimming through the book on the cashier's line I noticed that it was a "Friends of Ed book!"

inscissor i'll be starting w/producing internal interactive training modules (these would be accessible via intranet, but not necessarily be stand alone webpages), move on to web publishing centric materials such as splash screens, intros and ancillary movies, then move onto more complex endeavors...games? that would be a very interesting goal, and i'm sure if i can weedle company time/spend my own in going in that direction i would use a more appropriate prog as you mentioned. does Director use ActionScript? it seemed to be stressed in a coupla books i browsed prior to selecting the Foundations of Flash MX - which, btw, does seem to be a bit plodish, and definitely oriented towards flash movies rather than what i need initially, but i like that it's taking me right from the basics; look for a review in May or so.

Thanks again guys, much appreciated.

Director uses Lingo. Remember how I compared it to Logo? http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread113.html

It's been more than a year since Macromedia has initiated a campaign to move Flash usage from movies (skip intros) to GUIs for web applications. It was funny seeing Kevin Lynch's (CEO of Macromedia) reaction when he asked how many people use it for GUIs. Not that many. Mostly prefer to use traditional HTML/CSS/JavaScript. Too encourage that, Flash MX now comes with premade components (drop down boxes, textboxes, buttons, and other cool stuff), which is kind of cool. If you want to see some cool components, check out:

http://www.flashcomponents.net/

yes i do, einstein, but all bcs it uses Lingo doesnt preclude it from runnin ActionScript as well!!!

btw, thanks for http://www.flashcomponents.net/

I'm inscissor, you're einstein... einstein. Ok ok, yours has an "a," big whoop.

I wasn't sure if you remembered or asked for the sake or asking again, or what. I just answered. I wasn't trying to be a smart alec. But hey, sometimes we do things twice... like how many times have you looked at your watch for the time, then a second later, looked at it again?

LOL, yeah, but i was being 1! thanks anyway