Whether you've just finished working through Katherine Ulrich's Flash 5 for Windows and Macintosh, or have taken another route to Flash 5 competence, this book is aimed at you. Russell Chan is looking for anyone who has "mastered the basics of tweening and [is] ready to move on to more complex tasks involving video, masking, dynamic sound control, or movie-clip collision detection".

Flash 5 Advanced for Windows and Macintosh is organised into five sections covering advanced animation, ActionScript, navigation and timelines, transforming graphics and sound and information handling. Each chapter builds on what's gone before as the book deals with progressively more complex techniques, though that needn't stop you dipping in further back if, for example, you are itching to know how to do clever stuff with sound.

Chan gets stuck in right from the start with strategies for building complex animation from simpler parts. The logical structure of the chapters encourages you to fast forward if you feel you are ahead of the rest of the class. The numbered tasks (rarely more than six steps) together with frequent tips makes it a simple matter to locate a technique, try it, then apply it to whatever you are working on.

Flash 5 Advanced for Windows and Macintosh isn't full of stunning animation. If you want to be impressed by what it's possible to do with Flash you'd be better off with New Masters of Flash. But for a thorough and comprehensive tutorial that doubles as an accessible reference it hits the right level for those ready to hone their Flash authoring skills. --Ken McMahon