Get a Lynda.com subscription. It’s much more efficient to alt-tab between the app and a video than to try and read through tutorial books. They also avoid problems with inaccuracies caused by text not being well-updated for new versions because it’s much easier for video editors to catch mistakes; if something the author is discussing doesn’t really work, it’s pretty obvious in a movie.

Creative Techs is giving a 10-week free online Flash course. I'm giving it a go, as I really don't know enough about the web department. I tried one of their one session webinars before, and found it interesting and useful.

http://creativetechs.com/tipsblog/free-10-week-flash-course/

I haven't seen the Lynda.com videos on that website, but on the strength of their Hands On Training books, which I used to teach myself Flash, the videos are probably a good way to go.

(By the way, with the books, you get a CD or DVD containing the files you need for the exercises, plus some video content, too.)

The Adobe Classroom in a book series is good. There are books on Flash, Dreamweaver, and ActionScript (Flash programming). I went through the latter, in order to get up to speed on AS 3.0, which is very different from the old 2.0.

The books are sometimes boring, but they have detailed step-by-step instructions that ensure that you learn all the basics of the program.

I also second the Linda.com suggestion.

A useful web HTML/CSS book that I'd recommend is "CSS Mastery" by Andy Budd. It has very useful examples and does a good job of breaking things down. Granted this is not Dreamweaver or Flash related. But you really should learn the fundamentals before figuring out which tool to use...

And learn ActionScript 3 if you're serious about Flash. It will be tough (it's like learning a new language, with grammar and all) but it's the way to go. The Flash help files can be useful in this regard, with code and examples that you can learn from.

Good luck!

thanks everyone. much appreciated.

Flash is limiting unless you know AS3, and AS3 is a pretty big jump if you're just starting out programming. And with HTML5 on the horizon, by the time you get your chops who knows where Adobe will be in this space (still not on the iPhone I bet).

If I were you I'd go the Ajax route and get up to speed with JavaScript/jQuery & HTML/CSS. It's been gaining momentum since the new generation of browsers contain very fast JavaScript engines. It's also the "open web" so you can at least take some comfort in knowing it will be supported by the major browsers.