Flash 5.0 Disappointment !!!

[SwishY]

Boy I just downloaded the Flash 5.0 trial. When I opened it up, to my dismay it looked more like Adobe Photoshop than Macromedia Flash. What ever happened to “user friendliness”? The working stage area and menu looks like a Greek tragedy. It will take the full 30 days just to figure out where everything is in this mess, let alone use the program. Macromedia desperately needs to open up a dictionary now, and learn the word ergonomics !!!

[GMF ™]

Hmmm... I realy enjoy it . If you know how to handle Flash 4 this shouldn´t be a big problem keep playing with it.

[SwishY]

I'm sure once a person is done 'decoding' and rearranging everything it is fine, but it is also evident that they want to give the appearance of "Photoshop", which it is not. Flash needs to stop trying to imitating and be more of a leader like it was before. I'll stick with Swish for now

[Markp.com]

Yep.. I have both versions of flash.

Flash 5 seems to have been rushed out... the only improvements seem to be the actionscript thing and the code itself...

The drawing tools are crap! I can't even use my graphics tablet in flash 5....

Its just a waste of time for serious designers!

[SwishY]

What ?

No Graphics tablet ?

Even more reason to be disapointed

[Markp.com]

It works... just doesn't work well...

If you want to draw anything with any level of detail... its just crap! Sluggish and horrible!

[Naldoman]

Originally posted by Markp.com
The drawing tools are crap! I can't even use my graphics tablet in flash 5....

I believe I told you a while back I was gonna check out the Flash 5 drawing tools, but I still haven't got to it yet. I finally downloaded the trial last week, but I haven't installed it---I've been messing with some projects in Flash 4, and I'm just not ready to devote sufficient time to play with the trial yet.

My apologies.

[riceraver]

Sooo... I should keep my Flash 5??
Is it possible to have both Flash 4 and 5 installed on my computer at the same time?

[Pope de Flash]

I would say keep it, its going to be where people are going to be developing the future sites. So may as well get over the diffrences and changes and embrace them. It is a better flow once you get use to it. Regards, Bill

[Dowenger]

to tell you the truth, I haven't even taken the software out of the box. I don't want to be so disapointed that I will regret buying it...I have heard that it is not a patch on 4. I think that I just might stick with my $99 verson of 4, and send 5 back....
what should I do??? I am so confued....
I have a source at macromedia, and according to him, they are still using 4 for their own site...is that a sign that its not good?
Graham

[Xerxes]

Download the trial...if you don't like it...take it back.

[ImaginAsiaN]

I have both flash4 and 5 on my system...Flash 5 is getting toooo complex and confusing now...too much menu, scripts, panels, etc. The timeline is weird now too. Although i figure out finally where are the flash 4 features are..it was still too much... not meant for first time flash ...

I agree with those that said its more for programmers then designers. Much of the new features are scriptings...for designers, its worthless and waste of space and not to mention..more panel and confusion...

flash 5 is becoming more like director..with all its panels.

Flash 4 is more user friendly than flash 5.

[mad clown]

5 is slower. and i hate not being able to hit ctrl k to align and the just the enter button to align the same way way i had before (now i have to click the stupid align button).

but it is far freer than 4. panels suck, but hit tab to hide them all when you don't need them. and assign keyboard shortcuts to open them when you want them. then they become the greatest.

[Cion]

It took me a week to get adjusted, but now I am ambi-dexteritous so to speak. I can use flash 4 and 5 with ease.

[Stickman]

Is it possible to have both Flash 4 and 5 installed on my computer at the same time?

Yes it is -- in fact I have Flash 3, 4 and 5 installed on the three PCs that I use and haven't had a single problem.

As for Flash5 being better/worse than 4 -- well, I guess it's different and it will take time to adjust to that. Granted, the drawing tools haven't been improved much but then, they didn't really change between Flash 3 and Flash 4.

For me, two things make Flash 5 a joy to use compared to Flash 4 -- the actionscript editing window (I hate coding in F4's tiny box!) and the debugger (which is a bit flaky but when it works, is indispensable). I won't move over to Flash5 'permanently' for a few months yet -- I have to admit to being a little concerned about backwards compatibility, so I'm waiting a while -- but I experiment with it whenever I can.

[flashmonk]

In general I like Flash5, of course you need three monitors to work with it but then it's great(if it doesn't crash your computer ).

There's one thing I really hate - how the hell - sorry - mean why did they change the math syntax equality, in if-clauses it's no longer = but == , = defines a variable !even if it stands in an if-clause! that means all my old works I opened in Flash5 (that's great too once opened-never use Flash4 again!)
did no longer work,because things like this -if (e4=1) then blablab- did no longer ask for the value of variable e4 but did define e4=1 !! That's stupid ! I needed about 5 days (in money about 4000$ ) to get behind this!!
uaaaaahhh!!!!!!

[gingerswirl]

flash 5 layout sucks

[robmckeown]

Originally posted by SwishY
I'm sure once a person is done 'decoding' and rearranging everything it is fine, but it is also evident that they want to give the appearance of "Photoshop", which it is not. Flash needs to stop trying to imitating and be more of a leader like it was before. I'll stick with Swish for now

I think you are underestimating the power of the action script thing. For serious scripting and logic, Flash 5 is a big improvement.

[flea]

it took a while to get used to Flash 5 from Flash 4, but remember, Flash 5 is almost completely cutomizable.

From the short-cut key feature and the adjustable timeline, everything can be custom fitted just to you.

I was forced by my company to use Flash 5, so I had to learn it. I love it and would never go back.

I can't beleive that MM uses Flash 4 still on their site. They must not use AS very much!!

[Kraken]

After customizing the palettes, I can work so much faster. The text palette is a big improvement (now you can see the entire font name), and the actionscripting improvements are an order of magnitude above 4. Just being able to define your own functions and use the math object and the capability to import XML data, not to mention simple HTML, just make it peachy! I hate going back to work in 4 now...

cheers,
Rich