The addition of a graphlike 'easing' tool lets you control the animation speed, the rotation, and the scale of objects-essential for making motion look more natural. The new FlashType text-rendering engine delivers better antialiasing for more elegant text, similar to that of Adobe ClearType fonts are smooth even at small sizes and are easier to adjust. And like Dreamweaver 8, you can collapse the menus to save screen real estate.įlash 8 Professional adds new control over filters and effects while objects are on the stage. Flash 8 includes a better-organized preferences dialog, more storage space on the desktop for objects not currently in use, and better-organized libraries. New to Flash 8 are separate Undo functions for objects and documents, as well as the ability to customize the work space by rearranging and naming panels.

Once installed, the Flash 8 interface retains the intuitive look and feel of previous releases, including a timeline across the top, a viewing stage in the middle, tool icons along the left side, with various menus along the bottom and the right edge. You can also buy Flash Professional 8 packaged with the Macromedia Studio 8 suite for about a thousand dollars or upgrade for less from a previous version of Studio.Īlthough it has a 190MB footprint, installation of Flash 8 (including the Flash Player) required only a few painless minutes in our tests. Hobbyists wanting to put Flash content on their personal Web pages should opt for Flash Basic, although it lacks the more alluring new features offered by the more expensive Flash Professional 8.

Flash authors should warm to the numerous work-flow and design-tool improvements, including new runtime blend modes, filters and effects, support for alpha-channel video, and a rebuilt video codec to shrink file size and playback time. This Flash upgrade facilitates an evolution in the animated Web experience, and it's a must-have for serious site developers. Macromedia Flash 8 gives designers a platform to create cartoons, videos, and games that make Web sites dance and sing, and it does so with ease.

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