Book Review of:
Director 7 Demystified 

Life being very short, and the quiet hours of it few, we ought to waste none of them in reading valueless books.

My review of Director 7 Demystified is written from the perspective of a beginner. About all that I knew before I opened Director 7 for the first time was that I had seen the logos "Made with Macromedia" and "Shockwave" on some pretty snazzy, interactive Web sites. When I first clicked on File | New and saw the extremely elaborate interface, I knew I would need a guide — preferably one that would take me by the hand and explain the "how to" in step by step fashion and well as the underlying "why and when do I want to." Demystified does both. 

The 1184 pages in this 5.5-pound tome are divided into three separate books: Director Basics, Digging Deeper, and Special Topics. Director Basics got me up to speed with a minimum of frustration. Actually, the only frustration was my husband’s, as he wondered whether any dinner would appear on the table many an evening; I was too busy bouncing multi-colored "marbles" across the computer screen and "hitting" some mannequin named Swifty with an eight-ball, who responded by unemotionally saying "ouch. . .ouch. . .ouch." It became almost addictive to have actually created something! 

And it gets better. While Director Basics introduces what seems to me a rather sophisticated level of graphics manipulation and animation to achieve – along with an introduction to Shock-wave – some dazzling results, Digging Deeper delves into Director’s computer language: Lingo. Here, authors Roberts and Gross really shine, as they set up simple mental pictures in the reader’s mind to explain what could be a real killer of a topic. With their metaphors of factories producing both gold coins and holiday cheese logs, I was finally able to understand the underlying concept of object-oriented programming — a term I have been struggling for several years to grasp. Digging Deeper also provides more advanced instruction in Shockwave. With this teaching method, learning Lingo is virtually painless. The included CD (inside back cover) includes Lingo-scripted movies in open code, non-protected form. 

I’m not there yet, but it looks like book three, Special Topics, should satisfy advanced users. Step-by-step development of an alien invader-type game is featured, as are tips for maximizing the multimedia elements of Director, memory management tools, graphics optimizers, sound and digital video management. 

The reference section in the appendices includes a Lingo lexicon and code reference, a directory of third-party add-ons, keyboard shortcut list, and glossary of terms that don’t appear in your ordinary day-to-day conversations. There’s also the obligatory CD, mentioned already for its examples of professional-level Lingo scripting, which also includes special effects and music files – royalty-free and ready for use in multimedia productions. Lastly, there’s a Web site: www.demystify.com, for even more "how tos." 

In our local bookstores, I did not find any discount on the suggested price of $49.99 plus tax for Director 7 Demystified. However, on the Web, using www.pricescan.com as a starting point, I found several suppliers’ prices ranging from a low of $34.09 (standard ground shipping included) to $61.95 (UPS Next Day shipping included). 

Now, if only we could get Roberts and Gross to demystify other aspects of computing in such a competent and lively way!