Foundation Flash 8 is the book you need if you're looking for a solid foundation in Flash 8 Basic and Flash 8 Professional.

Thousands upon thousands of designers have already learned from its previous editions and it's easy to understand why.

The fourth edition of friends of ED's legendary beginner Flash book, Foundation Flash 8 uses a series of structured exercises and detailed discussions to help you start your exploration of Flash. The detailed tutorial style will ensure that you retain the knowledge you gain and are able to draw upon it throughout your Flash career. Foundation Flash 8 features a running case study that evolves into a fully-functional Flash website as you work through the tutorials, so you'll immediately see everything that you learn being used in a practical project.

This book focuses on the core skills that you need to get started working with Flash 8: understanding the interface, becoming familiar with the creative tools and their capabilities, grasping the relationships between the different components that make up a Flash movie, and getting insight into how to put all the pieces together to create your own Flash-based website.

Flash X is the new version of Macromedia's Flash. Sham's book goes through all of the basics of Flash X, including a brief but informative tour of the interface

This is a classic beginner's book, aimed at complete beginners to the subject, and aiming to take readers up to a competent level with the technology. They can then move on to more advanced foED books such as "Foundation PHP 5 for Flash", and "Flash User Interface Design" to satisfy their continuing quest for knowledge.