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Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Professional
Macromedia, Inc. Software Requirements for PC
· 600 MHz Pentium III or better Software Requirements for Mac
· 500 MHz PowerMac G3 or better |
Review of Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Professional
By looking at the name Macromedia Flash MX 2004, you might not think much has changed from Macromedia Flash MX released about eighteen months earlier. In this case, appearances can be deceiving as the changes are fairly significant. For me, one of the biggest hurdles to using previous versions of Flash was the large learning curve involved in creating meaningful content.
I was pleasantly surprised by the initial screen that greets you after installing (shown below). This screen presents a number of tasks that you might want to perform, provides templates to get you started, offers to walk you through a tour or lessons and even alerts you to updates that have become available. Unfortunately some of the options only work when you have a Web connection. This makes sense for downloading updates, but is frustrating when the tour and lessons are only available online.
The templates offered cover a wide variety of tasks and simplify the creation process for new or unexperienced users. I'm sure they are also helpful to existing users trying to expand into a new type of task. One of the most interesting new templates allows you to create a presentation similar to what you might have done previously in PowerPoint (shown below). But to really get the most out of this feature, you'll need to have the Professional version of Macromedia Flash MX 2004. Even with the extra cost of the Professional version, high-end PowerPoint users may want to look to Flash as a way to give their presentations even more interactivity along with easier distribution. For simple presentations and slide shows, you won't need the Pro version.
Who doesn't like speed? In that area Flash MX 2004 delivers. Files from older versions that are opened and recompiled will run faster and smooth than before. This speed also extends to the latest version of Flash Player. With these two areas of speed increases, users should find their content will run dramatically better than in the past.
When Flash was first born, it was geared mainly towards graphic artists. Over the years, more and more developers got involved. Macromedia embraced developers with this release by giving them a forms based authoring environment as an alternative to the traditional timeline. Developers are also given the ability to connect to data sources such as Web services and XML data. Unlike developing a traditional application that would be platform dependent, a flash based application could run on all platforms.
A new version of ActionScript is included that is compliant with ECMAScript 3.0. And source code can now be integrated into a source control system such as Visual SourceSafe. All of these new features geared toward development professionals make Flash MX 2004 a very attractive option.
Similarly, those who work with video will find lots of new features to like. You can export video directly to most of the leading tools such as Avid Xpress/Media Composer, Apple Final Cut Pro, Discreet Cleaner and Anystream Agility. Playback of video is greatly enhanced and encoding has a number of new options. For those who have run into limitations with file sizes, you'll now find that video can now be stored externally so that the limitations no longer exist. If you are just getting started with video, Flash supplies Streaming Media Components to make building a project much easier.
Flash users who also use Dreamweaver to build Web pages will find the integration between the two products has been improved. It is now much easier drop Flash elements into a Dreamweaver page and to preview it in a document window. You can even create simple Flash objects directly within Dreamweaver. For those following a design standard, Cascading Style Sheets can be applied to both Flash and Dreamweaver content.
The one change in Flash that is definitely not an improvement is the use of activation technology. For me, it did work flawlessly so far. So it isn't that I've run into problems that concerns me. It is the fact that reinstalling it in the future could potentially cause problems and loss of time getting the activation sorted out. I understand that software developers have to protect themselves against piracy, I just think that there has to be a better way to do it.
Overall, I think Flash MX 2004 Professional is a worthwhile upgrade to those using previous versions. And with the integration between the MX 2004 products, users should give Studio MX 2004 a serious look. Developers using other methods to create content will find a lot to like in this new release and should have Flash MX 2004 Pro on their short list of products to buy. My only caution to new users is that there is still a steep learning curve to creating high-end content. And all users will have to deal with the inclusion of activation. We can only hope that it is removed in future versions.
Do you have a product you would like to have reviewed? Send press releases to reviews@unleash.com.
Foster D. Coburn III has written six best-selling books on graphics software and is currently the Webmaster of the Graphics Unleashed Web site.
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