Macromedia Director 8 and Lingo Authorized by Phil Gross and published by Macromedia Press in association with Peachpit Press is an excellent tutorial book on Director 8 and Lingo. This book starts out on an elementary level and grows as it progresses.

The first half deals basically with the elements that comprise Macromedia Director 8 and the second half with Lingo and more advanced and specialized topics. The lessons are very well written and structured. They are very easy to follow and not at all confusing. Each Lesson has a completed version and contains all the media necessary. The illustration underneath is a condensed view of the material for lesson 5.

Thirty chapters comprise the book. Each lesson builds on the previous lessons and will refer back to elements learned in former lessons. After completing the first half of the book, I created a small movie as an Introduction to my art work.

After I created a second movie using selections I created in Adobe Photoshop, I realized that the discussion on importing and using graphics was not complete enough and I had to do a lot of digging and experimenting on my own to be able to place selections and make the area surrounding them transparent.

The second half of the book presents the intricacies of the Lingo language in such a manner that they are easy to understand because one lesson builds on the next. In addition, each module is small enough that by the time you are finished, you can go and duplicate it on your own, and, thus, cement it.

I highly recommend this book. Even though Director 8.5 has been released, I believe that this book is an excellent standard and will not soon be eclipsed. It gives one the foundation to progress into the new additions to Director 8.5.

In addition, look for my review of Macromedia Director 8.5.