What s New in Flash 8

What's New in Flash 8

Most of the improvements you see in Flash 8 compared to the previous version (Flash MX 2004) have to do with performancealways a good thing. But in addition, Macromedia also added a few usability tweaks, as well as a couple of new image-editing features.

Here's a short list of the differences in Flash 8 compared to Flash MX 2004:

• Improved performance . Improvements include better text anti-aliasing (smoother-looking text) and the ability to cache movie clips as bitmaps at runtime (and so cut down on playback time for super-complex vector graphics, which you learn about in Chapter 2). The big news: Macromedia added a new, faster, more efficient video codec , or video compression algorithm to Flash Player 8, which comes with both Flash Basic 8 and Flash Professional 8 as well as most Web browsers and operating systems (see the box on Section 3.1). A more efficient codec means improved download and playback of any video clips you add to your animations.

• Improved interface . In Flash 8, you can drag a text block's resize handle and drag to expand it, which is simpler than having to resize the text block using the Property Inspector the way you had to in Flash MX 2004. A new drop-down list in the Flash 8 Library panel shows all other open libraries, making it easier to exchange imported media files and symbols between Flash documents. And scripting help is back in the form of the Scripting Assist mode. If you're running a Mac, you'll appreciate that the Mac version of Flash 8 lets you see all your open Flash documents in a single tabbed window, similar to the way you work with multiple documents in Flash when you're running Windows.

• New image editing features . Flash 8 introduces object drawing mode (Chapter 2), which lets you tell Flash whether you want it to treat shapes and their outlines as a unit (the way most people think of them) or separately. Flash 8 also lets you add sharp, mitered corners to rectangular objects. And Flash Professional 8 includes additional graphics effects (see the previous page).

• Improved support for video editing (Flash Professional 8 only ). Both the Video Exporter and Video Encoder (see Section 3.2) let you compress video clips using the new and improved codecOn2 Technologies' VP6in addition to the Sorenson Spark codec supported in Flash MX 2004. New video alpha channel support lets you layer video clips using various alpha (transparency) settings.