How to Use This Book

This book consists of six sections. The first section focuses on an introduction to the Studio suite as a whole and the other five are devoted to each of the five individual programs that make up the suite.

The first step toward using this book effectively is to read the chapters in Part I. These chapters familiarize you with the common elements that span the Studio applications and give details about additional software that might be helpful as you use the book.

After that, you can either read the book from front to back or choose the application you would like to focus on first. I would suggest the first approach because the flow of the book is similar to the workflow that is commonly encountered in projects where you are asked to diagram out a site, create the underlying graphics, develop rich media, and then pull it all together into a static or dynamic website. By reading the chapters in order, you get an understanding of not only what you can do with each individual program, but the workflow involved in developing a website from scratch and how each program can work with the others to accomplish the end result.

If, however, you choose to dive into a specific section, you'll be happy to know that you can complete each section and the accompanying exercise without having finished the prior sections. Any files that you need to complete a section exercise can be found on the companion website, so simply download the appropriate files and you're off to the races.

In addition, I will be maintaining additional reference information on the companion website for the book at website at http://www.xhorizon.com/retroscycles, so feel free to stop by and check those out.

Conventions Used in This Book

Throughout the book, you are going to find text that is formatted in various ways to indicate code, new features, or information that you should pay special attention to.

Pay close attention to the use of italics throughout the text. Italicized words or phrases indicate the definition of a new phrase or term , so you might see a sentence such as "A path consists of one or more connected segments." Understanding the language of graphic, rich media, and web development is an important part of working with the Studio suite. Terms such as keyframes, server behaviors, slices, and snippets might not mean much to you now, but after you have completed the book they will have become part of your technical vocabulary.

Initial caps indicate words that appear in the user interface, such as menu items, dialog boxes, or commands. An example might be a sentence such as "Click the OK button to close the New CSS Style dialog box." Because New CSS Style is capitalized, you should be interacting with a box that is identified onscreen as "New CSS Style."

Any instances of code used in the book are formatted in a special font so they are easily identifiable. Instances of code in languages such as HTML, ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML), ActionScript, or JavaScript will look like this:

<p align="Right">Welcome To My Website</p>

Inside blocks of code, italicized words indicate actual code that you need to substitute with your own information. So, using the preceding example, you might see this:

<p align="Right">Welcome To

Your Name

's Site</p>

Throughout the book, specific naming conventions are used to clearly label specific objects. For instance, a text field might be labeled tfFirstName . If you are new to graphic, rich media, or web design and have not established programming conventions such as these, pay close attention to the way it is done in this book because it could help you understand the importance of following conventions.

In addition, when dealing with the code snippets provided in the book, it is very important the you pay close attention to the capitalization of your code. Certain languages such as JavaScript and VB.NET are case sensitive, so varFirstName and VarFirstName would reference totally different objects. Of all the requests for support with regard to the various books I have authored , capitalization is the most frequent issue.

Finally, be on the lookout for tips, cautions , notes, and cross-reference sections. Each one has a special indicator and can save you time and energy by helping you avoid pitfalls or pointing out additional resources. The sections can be identified as follows :

Tip

Tips contain insights and techniques that will help you use Studio MX more effectively.

Note

Notes contain extra information or alternative techniques for performing tasks that will enhance your current understanding of the topic.

Caution

Cautions warn you of potential "gotcha" issues.