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The top 5 new features in Flash CS3

blogs.zdnet.com — After digging into Flash CS3 a bit and talking with Richard Galvan, the new technical product manager for Flash, I've come up with 5 new features that will help both developers and designers and WHO are new to the CS3 version. Flash gained a lot from the Adobe-Macromedia merger, and this first version should give people using Flash a lot of things.

Who dugg this? Made popular Apr 9, 2007

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  • LoungeActx, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19Wow...it took a while, but we're finally getting some good info on Flash CS3. I think this is a bigger release than the Photoshop CS3, in terms of actual changes and additions. I can't wait for the tighter integration between Illustrator and Photoshop with Flash. I can't wait to get my hands on it.
  • dsignr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15As a Flash and Photoshop user for years, I can't say that I'm blown away by the new "features". To me, these features should have already been expected. It's not a huge shock that Adobe would integrate their main flagship (PhotoShop) with Macromedia's (Flash).

    What I'd like to see is Photoshop's integration with Dreamweaver. Instead of sliced tables, lets see autogenerated css files with matching divs.
  • akupila, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Top feature to Flash CS3? Actionscript 3
  • ElectricGrandpa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6The biggest feature in Flash CS3 is AS3 support. Everything else is just icing on the cake.
  • geoken, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"Still no mention of a usable keyframe editor."

    What's wrong with the keyframe editor? Click a keyframe, then edit the objects on the canvas. What else do you want?
  • neut, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Why not just link to the Features straight from Adobe? Blogs are overrated. All Flash DEVs registered with Adobe should have received the email last week ...

    http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/introducing_flash_cs3.html
    Video: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/videos/new_flash_cs3/index.html
    Video: http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/features/
  • smee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5exactly what I was thinking. Improved skinning components? Ya, that's ok. It really wasn't that hard before. But AS3 is a tremendous improvement and the one that will make the biggest difference on developers, not copying motion tweens.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I am digging this because it's been seeming like CS3 is ONLY Photoshop from the coverage it's been getting.

    Of course it's not, but I'd love to see some more info on Flash and Dreamweaver CS3.
  • coldphoenix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Really, what's the purpose of that comment, in relation to this article?
  • MrSpontaneous, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I think Adobe is smarter than that. From what I see in the screenshot, things seem to be in the same place - just laid out differently. The learning curve on this won't be bad.
  • geoken, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5What new interface? It looks identical. Drawing tools on the left, Stage, timeline, property inspector and actionscript panel in the middle and all other windows on the right. I'm looking at the screenshot and the UI layout is identical to Flash 8. The only obvious difference is that the drawing tool panel has been shrunk from 2 columns to 1 column.

    To all the people saying they are scared off by the 'new' interface, do you guys currently use Flash?
  • kgraphik, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Nice to see my icons being used there.

    For those interested: http://www.koregraphik.com/downloads/adobe-cs3/
  • bpwagner, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I teach middle school kids Flash (5th through 8th grade). My only comment is this... The kids absolutly love Flash BUT they cannot do it at home. We have a school license, but the kids cannot afford to buy Flash just to play with. Imagine talking your parents into buying a $200 program when you are 12 years old! MY ADVICE TO ADOBE: give away a simple Flash version (like Visual Basic Express), perhaps without action script. There is a whole generation of new flash animators ready to LEARN YOUR PROGRAM! Please Digg this comment... Make Adobe notice...
  • chess007, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5to web developers: It may be news to you, but most people don't like setting through a 2 - 5 minute load time flash intro. In fact, they'll leave before it loads. This has been a public service announcement.
  • ajchavar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i've used it, layout is essentially the same.
  • msodrew, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Can't wait for this just for native mac intel support. Have been rebooting into Windows for months now whenever I wanted to do any serious flash dev. PSD support sounds ridiculously awesome.
  • there, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2 CS3 products so far have been mostly related to a new port for Vista and consolidating Macromedia/Adobe products.

    i.e. all fluff...very little substance.

    As a long time Adobe AND Macromedia user I'm giving Adobe the benefit of the doubt for now but fair warning to anyone from Adobe listening out there.. I am disappointed in CS3 lineup and expect plenty of new features in CS4.

    MS isn't much of an innovator but in the past year they seem to be taking the bull by the horns with Expression. I have to grudgingly say its pretty fricken impressive. I have a great deal of time invested in Adobe products but there are things in Expression Interactive I can do in minutes right now......which would take me ages to do in Flash (3D wise).

    Don't rest on your laurels Adobe. You need to keep up with the Jones. Flex is great... Apollo sounds as if it has plenty of potential... but I want 3D in Flash already. If not Flash than a new Adobe browser plugin that is somewhat familiar to ECMA/Actionscript script syntax and whose API and IDE match Flash to minimize the effort of learning it..




  • reevolutn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2finally, im sick of running flash in compatibility mode in vista
  • parkerault, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yeah, I've been using Flex for the last 6 months or so and AS3 is light years ahead of AS2, but it's going to cause a lot of flash developers some serious headaches if they don't already have a solid understanding of object oriented design patterns. I think Adobe is doing amazing things with the creative suite, but as ActionScript becomes more complicated it loses some of its appeal over Java for designers and casual web developers.
  • kris33, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yes, the whole Premium Design Suite was leaked a couple of days ago. It is only leaked for OS X though :)

    Fireworks CS3 was leaked just a moment ago.
  • geoken, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Agreed. If anyone wants to see the power of AS3 google "Papervision 3d"
  • championchap, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Duno about you guys, but the interface change puts me right off it!
    Im sure ill get used to it, but ive always hated photoshops interface.. and sort of loved Flashes.
    Well, hated Adobes and loved Macromedias i guess is right.

    Ill no doubt give it a go, but euugh! Brown alert!
  • mfearby, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Grammar Police Alert: Yes, I think he means "WHICH" (and preferably without capital letters, which look rather crass).
  • BritishGolgo13, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm a designer/developer at work and at home as a hobby and these new changes aren't really that great. The UI change seems to be minimal and may prove to be useful, but as for the other 4 features, they're not nearly as huge as Flash 8's rendering engine overhaul with the addition of movie clip effects. Would be better if they let you apply filters to graphics and buttons as well IMO.
  • reevolutn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1nvm
  • ngmcs8203, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2@dsignr

    It's getting there. Just being able to drag and drop PSDs and having Dreamweaver ask you what file type and compression setting you would like is a big step forward. Being able to take an InDesign and "import" it into a CSS layout is a nice touch. Maybe by CS4 they'll build Web sites for you, but as for right now we as Web designers will still need to stay up on standard coding practices (which can't be a bad thing).
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2flash works best in windows, but firefox doesnt typically crash because of flash..In fact, I wonder what experiences you've had that make you consider flash to be the culprit of forefox crashing. On a mac, however, flash performance is still mediocre at best (its better on Intel but still not what it should be natively)
  • ryanstewart, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1kgraphik, you made those! Nice!! I found them on some crazy slovenian site, but didn't have any idea where they came from. I'll start attributing them from now on!
  • Diganta, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@geoken

    "Then get rid of your webcam."

    Not an option when its built into the monitor, but you're missing the point.
  • oldhat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I hope Adobe updates the UI in Audition, too. (aka Cool Edit)

    I love the UI update that they did for Premiere Pro 2...more of that, please.
  • CaptShmo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2It seems like the photoshop support for flash is going to lead to a lot of super-bloated flash files; I hope the import has some crazy filesize optimization attached to it so this feature is actually useful.
  • kris33, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I have been using Flash CS3 for the last couple of days and it is really an improvement.

    (it is leaked if you didn't know)
  • LoungeActx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm in Flash and Photoshop all day at work, and while Photoshop integration isn't exactly needed (because of bitmap versus vector) it does make it nice to template things out now in Photoshop and then go into Flash and match the template. The Illustrator integration is MUCH needed though. Although, Flash and Freehand worked really well together, Illustrator was alway a pain to get it right. And AS3 is going to tie everything together, I just have to take the time to learn the slightly new syntax.
  • kgraphik, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If I had the typeface Adobe used to make their icons, mine would be closer to the original. Unfortunately, Adobe hasn't released it. Fingers crossed though.
  • geoken, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Flash works better in FF for me (I'm running Vista). IE7 has a few issues with Flash/Javascript that FF doesn't. The worst one right now is that IE flashes my alternate HTML content for about a second before hiding it and showing the proper flash content. FF goes straight to the Flash content. It looks alot more professional.
  • geoken, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Then get rid of your webcam. There are significantly easier ways for a hacker to gain control of your webcam than using flash.

  • sibhod, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1maybe i'm one of the few that actually likes the new adobe logos, but compared to the originals you're type isn't nearly as tight, the round corners,bevels, and drop shadows smack of trendy 2.0 style, and your acrobat logo is way off.

    I'm not saying they're terrible by any means, but if you're going to 'remix' the original icons, atleast keep what makes the originals great.
  • captainchris, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i've been trying out cs3 for the past few days, and as far as the interface goes, i'm not impressed. dreamweaver still has the old interface, exposé on mac on all cs3 apps is very buggy, and there many inconsistencies between the programs. key combinations have been changed for no reason (flash: F9 for actions was is now opt+F9, and F9 does nothing at all).

    i hope the leaked version isn't the final, because from what i see it still needs some work.
  • captainchris, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1on second note, if a kid that age is that interested and determined to use flash, then he'd rob it off kazaa like i did when i was younger.
  • geoken, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Read up on AS3. The improvements in Flash 8 will be dwarfed by AS3.
  • ronaldpoi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@kgraphik: They should have hired you... your icons are WAY better than Adobe's...
  • mutwirik, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Haven't been WOWed yet...
  • nicemandan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0The 5 minute load problem with Flash CS3 on XP seems to be linked to csrss.exe, which also causes my Acrobat Reader 8 to crash and causes problems when I access Google News through Firefox. Scanned my system for viruses/malware, but it's clean. Still trying to work out how to fix it!
  • championchap, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1What the ***** are you on about?
    Flash 5 - 8 have all been basically the same!
  • faouzi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Certainly the Flash CS3 is very good and important, but we cant not say that the new product is so revolutionary
  • Diganta, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1What I want to see in Flash player plug-in on the consumer end, is the ability to change preferences to turn off looping and stop auto play. Currently the advertisers have control of my webpage experience instead of the me. Flash videos are even worse when you have 25 to 50 tabs
    opened. It sucks the CPU speed and RAM out of your computer, making web browsing a less than optimal experience. This has been especially true trend over the past two years.

    Then there is the ability for Flash to tie into your webcam, which I dislike. It is off by default, but I'm never comfortable with that (potential) tie in. Which one day could have a clever hacker turn on the video from the Flash player.
  • nicemandan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Fixed the problem I mentioned above. I had some weird font stuff in my system.ini file. I removed that and everything (Flash CS3, Acrobat Reader 8, FireFox, etc) now works fine.
  • skellener, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1***** the new features, did they finally fix EPS export? I mean now that Adobe owns it, c'mon! Didn't Adobe invent EPS ??
  • floydman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+01. Import Photoshop Files
    Wow...i have been waiting for that for a very long time...
    I wonder though if detects layers and their properties, and whether you can have control over them...that would be neat
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0@rssej

    WHAT?!
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