When you create a video in Flash, you can save it in FLV file format - the file format used by YouTube.

There’s a commonly cited statistic that nine out of 10 Flash designers use Photoshop, and three out of four use Illustrator. It’s no surprise, therefore, that following Adobe’s acquisition of Macromedia, at the top of every multimedia developer’s wish list was better integration with Adobe’s existing products.

The most obvious signs of Flash’s Adobe-fication are the palettes (alternately called panels), such as Layers, Align, Swatches, and Library, that Adobe had added to the interface in most other CS3 apps, and the ability to collapse these palettes down to small square icons. There are also some Adobe-style tools in the Flash toolkit: Cursors, shortcuts, and modifier keys are the same as those you’d use in Photoshop for adding, deleting, and converting anchor points. Slightly less obvious are some new primitive tools that let you create easily reconfigurable rectangles and ovals - you’ll need to play with them for a while to find a use for them. Adobe has also ripped out Flash’s old drawing engine and replaced it with Illustrator’s to ensure that artwork remains the same as you move it between Flash and Illustrator.

Flash CS3’s new interface enhancements are to be welcomed (even by old Flash hands used to the Macromedia way) because they can save you both time and space. Adobe hasn’t chucked any of Flash’s trademarks, such as its Timeline or Stage. And being able to use tools from Illustrator and Photoshop in Flash is a huge bonus. Flash was never as good for creating artwork as animating it.

Which brings us to the next bit of integration: importing files. Bringing Illustrator and Photoshop files into Flash documents is now a lot more reliable. Using the Import function brings up a dialog box that specifies in almost mind-numbing detail the layers in the file you’ve selected. You can then choose which layers to import; whether to import them as Flash layers or not; the size to import them at; whether to import text as editable, bitmap, or vector outlines; and placement.

Flash, of course, is all about multimedia; the app’s Timeline and the ActionScript programming language give it its real power. While the Timeline has always been easy to use, ActionScript has been the real barrier for designers who are unwilling to turn themselves into programmers. One of the big improvements in Flash CS3 is the ability to convert the Timeline between animations to ActionScript 3.0. This means you can animate visually and then convert the animation into editable code, ready for handing over to a programmer.

Said programmers are also going to be happy with the ActionScript debugger in Flash CS3 (the same as can be found in Flex Builder 2), which lets them step through properties to find bugs. It’s still not as powerful as a top-end integrated development environment, but there’s far less guesswork involved.

Flash beginners will be pleased by the set of prebuilt skinnable components, such as buttons, progress bars, and checkboxes. Rather than having to write code to modify components, you can just double-click a component state and draw. This prebuilt set of components also includes video objects. Improvements to Flash’s video output and encoding tools are pretty minimal in CS3, so don’t buy it expecting a revolution in quality. But there is a new Export function that converts Flash movies to QuickTime format.

All in all, there’s an excellent selection of tools: easier code and design generation that finally make it possible to get something useful out of Flash without an extensive training course; improved creation and workflow tools; and a better programming environment for old pros. And of course, we must mention for Intel-based Mac owners that Flash is running at native speeds that translate into a promotion to Universal binary status.

The bottom line. At $699, Flash CS3 is a little pricey for new users, but the $199 upgrade is a bargain. If multimedia is your thing, Flash CS3 is the way to go.

COMPANY: Adobe
CONTACT: www.adobe.com
PRICE: $699 a la carte, $199 upgrade, available in five CS3 bundles ($999 to $2,499)
REQUIREMENTS: G4, G5, or multicore Intel processor; Mac OS 10.4.8 or later; 512MB RAM
Improved interface. Prebuilt components for beginners. Debugging tool for fixing code. Good Photoshop and Illustrator integration. Better drawing tools. Universal binary.
No real video improvements.