Errata

In the Missing CD page for this book on the O'Reilly website (http://missingmanuals.com/cds/flashcs4tmm/, referenced on page 12 in the book), the list of under the Chapter 14 - Controlling Animation there are two files that return a Not Found error when I attempted to download them:

?scenes_finished.fla - Finished example of scenes tutorial
?scenes_no_action.fla - Beginning example targetting scenes with ActionScript

There is a list of template categories given, however the only template category installed with my Flash CS4 was "Advertising".

point 2 heading reads:

"In the Options section at the bottom of the Tools panel, click the down arrow."

but should read something like:

"In the Options section at the bottom of the Tools panel, click the bottom button, the one with the little down arrow in the bottom right corner."

Incorrect figure illustration for Figure 2-12.
Same as figure 2-11 on page 65.

Under "Pencil Tool" item 4 on page 66 it states:"...draw little face, hands, and feet similar to the ones in Figure 2-12". The only problem is that Figure 2-12 is missing the face, hands and feet. (Pardon me for being so pedantic but I am an awful artist so any hints would do just fine).

The note refers to the sample code in frame_by_frame.fla.

However this sample code seems to have a few errors.

1) It has 3x layers, and layers have not been introduced yet

2) In the last frame, #20, surely the fly and fly_trail layers should have a blank keyframe (to "disappear" the fly and trail, as a "yum" event has happened :-)

Suggest changing bold from:

"Click the Scale tool in the Tools palette, and then scale the Sign so that it nearly fills the stage."

to:

"Select the sign and then click the Free Transform tool in the Tool Bar, and then scale the sign so that it nearly fills the stage."

and also the last line should perhaps refer to the "Free Transform tool" tool rather than the "Scale tool"

This operation is a bit fiddly and needs clearer instructions at the start such as the following inserted as first sentence:

"With the sign unselected, click the Select arrow from the Tool Bar and move the mouse over the path (without selecting anything)."

We then can continue with the existing text:

"The cursor shows a small curve icon..." etc. etc.

I got stuck here for a long time because I assumed I had to select the path in order to bend it, and of course if the path is selected the curved icon never appears !!

The commentary for the bottom screenshot says "Here, you can tell the frame moved to frame 30 because the keyframe and end frame indicators have disappeared from their original locations (Frames 16 and 17) and reappeared in their new locations (Frames 29 and 30)."

In the actual screenshot, the keyframe and end frame indicators have NOT disappeared from their original locations (Frames 16 and 17).

In figure 4-2 (bottom), the keyframe and end frame indicators didn't disappear from frames 16 and 17. I apologize in advance if I've misinterpreted the diagram. Thanks.

Intstruction 1. reads:

"1. Open the file multiple_layers_begin.fla"

however this file is not in the CD, (but multiple_layers.fla is)

The 3-D tool in my version of Flash CS4 Professional does not present a series of three arrows joined at a pivot point. Instead, the tool creates a red/green/blue crosshair that can be manipulated to alter the various perspectives. One cannot grasp the point of an arrow to manipulate the object as the text indicates.

Text confuses readers between symbols and instances of symbols. Here is the last sentence; I've inserted suggested changes in []'s.

"Double-clicking [an instance of] a symbol on the stage or selecting Edit->Edit in Place from the main menu or from the pop-up menu that appears when you right-click an instance on the stage all tell Flash that you want to edit in place."

Text confuses readers between symbols and instances of symbols. Here is the second sentence with the suggested changes in []'s.

"Right-click (or Control-click) [an instance of] a symbol on the stage, and then choose "Edit in New Window" from the pop-up menu."

suggested additions in []:

"[Select an instance of the symbol and] Select Edit->Edit Symbols"

as if you don't select an instance, Flash will open the symbol for the first instance it comes across, which may not be the one you want to edit....

(suggested deletions in [])

"Right-click a symbol in the list. From the pop-up menu that appears, choose Edit[, Edit in Place, or Edit in New Window. The pop-up menu lets you select exactly how you'd like view the symbol while editing.]"

the other options are not available from this pop-up, only Edit

Does this book HAVE an editor ?

Need to add a bullet point like so:

"Select an instance of the symbol and then choose Edit->Edit In Place."

"In the create New Symbole dialog box, [turn on the Graphic radio button]."

replace contents of [] with:

"select the Graphic option from the drop-down listbox"

line reads:

"The original case is used when none of the other cases match"

should read

"The "default" case is used when none of the other cases match"

The explanation of the for() loop shown includes the bullet point:

"Following the semicolon, you finally arrive at the condition that's being tested. Are there fewer than six Bearcats?"

I don't think it works to give the for() loop's index some semantics/meaning like "number of Bearcats bought" as that means the start/end condition pairs include (0,5) and (1,6) and, if these are taken to mean the number of bearcats purchased, then in each case one of the values seems wrong, e.g. we start with 0 of them (correct) but end up with 5 of them (incorrect). Or we start with 1 of them (incorrect!) and end up with 6 (correct).

I suggest dropping the last sentence of the bullet point.

the sample code listings on p463 and p464 does not match up to the code in the sample file, for example there comments in the book version but not in the file version. Also the ordering of sections is different.

This means that the line numbering in the commentary is meaningless, or worse, confusing.

list of cards and their indexes is incorrect:

list starts at card2 and says its index is 0
list should start at card1 (whose index is 0), continue to card2 (index = 1) etc.

File does not download from the main page link and is not in whole missingCD.Zip download.

I'm still trying to follow along in the book, but is a bit confusing since I'm not certain how the different scenes are set up.