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(More customer reviews)With Flash 5 (which is at the time of writing in beta only), Macromedia appears to have attempted to further bridge the gap between its original primitive proprietary functionality (in its previous life as FutureSplash) and the overall Macromedia interface; this gap has in the past often impeded usability and defied intuition. The most robust overhaul has been made on the behaviours and actions... it is much easier to tailor Flash to do what you want without having to rely solely on readymade (and often generic) functions embedded within Flash. This of course makes it that much more difficult to get the ball rolling for novice users, but for more advanced users this will open a world of opportunity. In this way it is somewhat similar to Director in the way it manages operations/functions; you can insert pre-fab functionality or develop your own, dependent upon your skill level.
The drawing tools have been changed to incorporate vector tools, with a Bezier pen tool that will make any Flash user's life much easier. It is no longer so crucial to have a drawing program open as you work, although these tools are still not quite up to the standards set by FreeHand and Illustrator.
One nice aspect of the changes made to the interface of the application are that it neither adheres strictly to the FreeHand system nor is totally different... by this I mean that those comfortable with FreeHand or Illustrator will both be able to use the new interface with relative ease. Say goodbye to the awful, cumbersome application that was Flash 4. There are many more options for floating palettes that permit a greater ease of editing and doing things on the fly, whereas before Flash usually required dragging down menus and calling up dialog boxes.
Whether or not Flash 5's improvements will make it an optimal work environment remains to be seen; I've only scratched the surface of the application, because, after all, the surface is what is most immediately different. Certainly there are going to be hindrances and bugs under that surface, but hopefully they will be few and far between.
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Macromedia's Flash 5 brings substantial changes and improvements to this dominant player in the Web animation tools arena. A new and customizable interface and improved scripting are the most notable of the new features. These, among other enhancements, make this upgrade almost essential to any serious designer. Flash 5 now uses Macromedia's standard interface library, making Flash look more like other Macromedia products. Almost all commands can be accessed through onscreen dockable tabbed windows (palettes), which can be docked to each other or torn off and placed elsewhere on the screen. This means that layouts can be named, saved, and recalled, depending on the kind of work being done or a particular designer's working style. Keystroke commands can be customized as well, allowing for the designer to tailor the feel of the program. The most important "under-the-hood" change is the revamping of ActionScript, Flash's internal scripting and interactive language. ActionScript is now more like Java than ever, making it easy for coders to shuttle between the two. The Movie Explorer window is another important new feature. This allows developers to view the entire contents of a project in a hierarchy where edits and search-and-replace functions can take place. The pen tool has, finally, been improved as well. It now behaves more like a Bezier drawing tool found in programs such as Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia's own FreeHand. Speaking of FreeHand, Flash 5's integration with FreeHand is now tight as a drum, too.
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