I'm not a good resource for acquiring learning resources. Most of what I've learned is the result of the battlefield... Chances are I started out much like you are doing now... learning code evolved over time. But here's a brief lesson that might help (?)
Let's say you create a button symbol. Since it is a button, it is already a self animating object that will react to mouse interactions, but only visually at this stage. The first thing you need to do to make it useful code-wise is to assign it a unique instance name. So you drag a copy of it out to the stage from the library, and while it's still selected, you enter that unique instance name for it in the Properties panel... let's say you name it "btn1"
In AS3, to make a button work with code, you need to add an event listener for it. You might need to add a few (for different events, like rollover, rollout, clicking it, but for now we'll just say you want to be able to click it to get a web page to open. In the timeline that holds that button, in a separate actions layer that you create, in a frame numbered the same as where that button exists, you would add the event listener:
btn1.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, btn1Click);
That line of code contains the following:
buttonInstanceName . displayObjectMethod (eventClass . eventType, eventHandlerFunction);
The name of the unique function for processing the clicking of that button was already defined at the end of the event listener assignment, so now you just have to write that function out:
function btn1Click(evt:MouseEvent):void {
var url:String = "http://www.awebsite.com/awebpage.html";
var req:URLRequest = new URLRequest(url);
navigateToURL(req);
}
Here's some of what's involved there:
evt:MouseEvent - the event listeners throws an argument automatically which the function must be set up to receive. In this case I have given that argument a variable name of evt, though I could have chosen anything.
:void - this defines the class of the value that the function will return. In this case, the function does not return anything, so "void" is used. If it did return a value, you would see a line containing "return xyz"; in the function (where xyz is not literal, it simply represents the variable or value being returned)
The normal code to open a web page contains three distinct elements, the url, the request, and the command to get the page, so I have shown them as three separate lines.
In AS3, in strict mode, it is necessary to identify the types/classes of the variables being created, which is why you see :String, :MouseEvent, etc... showing up everywhere.
I know that's probably clear as mud in the explanation, but hopefully it will shed some light on what you're working with.
Now, to create another button with a unique function for it, you could just drag another copy of it from the library, give it a unique name, say btn2, copy/paste the code from btn1 and replace "btn1" with "btn2" in that copied code, adding a new url for the page that button will open.
Someone may come along with some helpful info regarding books. While I've never utilized it myself, I've seen www.Lynda.com recommneded here quite often as a good place to learn coding.
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