When I review a new edition of a book which I have previously reviewed, I look for new information that I feel should have been added to the book. In the case of this book by David Morris, the website project is the same but much has been added to keep up with the new Flash^R features. Morris has done a great job of choosing which of the new features and techniques will be most useful to his audience. So what new information has been added to this edition of Creating a Web Site with Flash CS4?

As mentioned above, the project website is a newer, updated version of the original project. The author uses many supporting screenshots to reinforce the step-by-step instructions as he walks you through building the website. Of course, he begins with a tour of the new Flash interface and introduces the new features that you will use during the project such as the Edit Bar and Motion Editor.

Beginning the project, you start by building the background for the website using the Flash drawing tools including the new graphic primitives and 9-slice scaling. Next, you use Text tools to add static text and hyperlinks. Moving on, you learn the new steps for importing graphics into Flash from other programs such as Photoshop^R. Morris discusses the new dialog box and object options for layers and objects when importing Illustrator^R files. You use layers and the Library to organize your assets. You add a mask layer and edit masked objects to add the finishing touch to the background.

The website structure is still organized along the Timeline, as in previous editions. And, as before, you build your own interactive buttons with Button Symbols. When its time to program the buttons, the code is updated for ActionScript 3. When building the animation for the website, you use the new Motion Presets for shape tweens and 3D rotation and the Motion Editor for fine tuning your animation. The website photo gallery is updated to use XML and UI Components and the dynamic text is now formatted by CSS. You will also learn how to use Flash form and video components. Finally, you set up the HTML and SWF settings for publishing your website.

David Morris has been a website and graphic designer for many years. He was product manager for Macromedia Fireworks^R and Freehand^R, as well as part of the Fireworks development team.