Adobe Flash CS4 Professional user reviews

Pros I've been a professional flash animator since Flash 4 days thru Flash 8. Had to upgrade to deal with work situation. For an animator who draws and is not interested in phony bone stuff there is NO improvement in CS4. It is a dog.

Cons 1) Work elements cannot be locked in place. Mine shifts out of wack almost everytime I save or save as!
2) Flash CS4 cannot render usable quicktime movies. Useless for youtube, etc.
3) Many tools fail to work accurately compared to earlier versions.

Summary Adobe has totally missed the boat. By attempting to ball things to all types of users they have ruined a solid animation platform. This is bloatware of the worst kind. I am very disappointed.

Pros Great quality animations, nice interface, easier Tweening than previous

Cons Line tool lines do not connect together as well as CS3, old users will have to adjust to newer interface

Summary Last December, I got Flash CS4 for a Christmas present. I was very excited because I loved using Flash CS3 which was installed at my high school's computer lab, and Macromedia Flash 8 which was installed on their library computers. I loved Flash 8 from the start. I didn't use layers, just moving, non-animated Stick figures. Later, when I used CS3, I started with layers. Well, I'm getting off topic here.
I open up the program and immediately wanted to make a clone of YouTube member TomSka's asdfmovie. I drew all the lines, but when I put the paint in, it didn't work. It wasn't until later did I realize that when I zoom in up close, you can see that it wasn't connected, so it didn't work.
Another thing I noticed was when I was going to change my framerate (I use 33fps), I couldn't find the bar at the bottom like in Flash 8 and CS3. I never looked in the Document bar when in older versions, so why would I have to look now? Apparently, because I can't find the bottom bar. Later I find that they added a new tab interface on the right where the Library is, but it doesn't have the fps showing.
A problem I also have is that I can't import my videos. Great, now what do I use to add little fun censor bars or light sabers?

Now, enough with the cons. I love the new motion tween. It's very nice to use. Now I can see where the motion is going in the same frame. Though a problem I have with it is that I can't change out of the tween in that layer unless I remove it altogether.
The rotate tool is also helpful, but I haven't found out, if possible, how to make a 3D item to rotate. For now, I'll just stick with the free transform. The bone tool, I haven't figured out what it does, but I haven't had to use it in 6 months, so it's no use to me.
All in all, it's a great program, awesome if you use the student discount (Though they might have already replaced it with CS5 in Adobe's Student area). But if you're an experienced user, don't upgrade and stick to CS3, 8, or MX.

Pros looks good. helps with what I need. full featured trial is a very good idea. I would not have bought it without it.

Cons $$$; and some things that don't work, where I need to supplement using sswif (open source) and lazlo (ditto), or they may but I may not have found it yet;
the always online stuff is pretty bad too. And that it does not run on Linux is major bad!

Summary just have to have it for professional reasons, so no buts and ifs around it.
Sure, getting it from discountmountain, let's hope it is a real thing.

Very good is the full trial. That convinced me that this is 'the' thing I need and which will solve my issues, and help me actually to add a new business diversification, could make a little thing that will make sites 'cookie-cutter' way, just add some xml files, edit controls (my controls), add artwork, off we go, the swf is never changed (unless I add another opensource effect from the tweener thing); which reminds me to mention that the tweens that come with it are pretty lame, and single level (cannot be nested). I'd expect better at $700, especially when Tweener shows how it can be done (I just add the tweener class...).
Bad is also that it is proprietary systems oriented, if it runs on a Mac then there is no reason it cannot be released for Linux!
However: summary: it's all good, and has a lot of nice stuff, for gfx, and for .swf .

This is my first flash IDE, I did not have earlier ones, and those who complain that things did change: tough! Life goes on, and progress is a thing that just happens, so live with it.