Finding the perfect learning tool for Flash is a daunting task to any novice web developer. One can find help in a number of ways through books, friends and private tutors. These methods are great but not often readily available, nor cheap! The best and cheapest way to learn anything from the basics of flash to the secrets of the trade is a Flash Tutorial. Think of the Flash Tutorial as a mini lesson that teaches a specific part of the flash.

Flash Tutorials come in many levels of difficulty and quality. Developers don’t publish their tutorials according to an established curriculum, they simple publish whatever they please or think will be useful. That makes finding the correct Flash Tutorial difficult. Many times the tutorial is too vague and the information is difficult to understand. Conversely, the concepts could be easy to understand but entirely useless in the real world. If a person will examine the quality of the tutorial before they work through it, they will be able to avoid a lot of unnecessary frustration. When selecting a Flash Tutorial, look for these three criteria: examples, clarity, and usefulness.

Examples

When looking for a Flash Tutorial, be sure that it has examples to go with it. Examples are actual snippets of code that actually demonstrate the principles taught in the tutorial. If the source code is downloadable as an example file for you to look at and run, that is even better. Look for examples that are easy to follow and demonstrate clearly the principle being taught. There is nothing more frustrating than finding the perfect tutorial and not having the perfect example to work from.

Clarity

Find Flash Tutorials that are clear and easy to understand. If a flash dictionary is needed, then the tutorial is not worth your time. Tutorials should be written clearly and concisely. It is best when the author has put links to the definition of, or clarifies a difficult word. Generally, it is also helpful when the tutorial has visuals. That being said, not all visuals are effective. The visuals should clarify and not confuse.

Usefulness

Above all tutorials should be useful. They should teach things that can actually be used. It is great when the tutorial teaches how to effectively use the feature in a real-life situation. A good Flash Tutorial will be adaptable. The user should be able to take the examples and adapt them to their application without having to entirely redo the process. Finally, the tutorial should teach the entire concept. This can be in one lesson or in many lessons, but it should teach everything the user needs to know to implement that concept.

When looking for tutorials remember that it must have example, it must be clear and it must be useful. If you’re a basic user start searching for “Basic Flash Tutorials”. As you get more advanced, search for specific topics such as character creation or Flash shape tweening. Remember, the first tutorial that comes up on the search isn’t always the best. They have to be sifted through until the really good ones are found.

Justin Grover is a client account specialist for 10xMarketing – More Visitors –More Buyers –More Revenue, if you would like to see some excellent Flash tutorials please visit Cartoon Solutions.