Anyone who has sat in front of Flash as a novice knows how frightening Flash can be to learn, because basically Flash is not like anything else. Fast forward to 2008 and the introduction of Adobe Flash Professional CS4, version number 10 of this unique authoring tool, and we see some major changes to the way Flash works.

Flash Professional CS4 offers an essentially different approach to animation by replacing frame-based tweening with object-based tweening, and in one fell swoop, the mystery drops away and it's now just easier to work through. It's simple, select a shape, draw the shape, create a tween, move the shape around in the timespan that appears and instantly create an animation. Those in between steps you had to create yourself are gone. That's progress.

Of course, Flash has had an interface facelift (along with the rest of the Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection) and if you're an experienced Flash user you might just like what you see. The main visual for me is the relocation of the Properties panel to the vertical docker opening up room at the bottom of the screen for the timeline, where it potentially should have been all along.

Flash Professional CS4 also has some new design tools like 3D Translation and 3D Rotation, Bones, and Deco. 3D Translation and Rotation will manipulate objects in near-3D space with the same ease of resizing an image in Photoshop. Bones is for inverse kinematics animation while Deco allows for the set up of repetitive patterns for any small animations that might be created.

And then we come to ActionScript, those familiar with Flash won't be burning all their ActionScript books but they will be using them as door stops (just kidding). ActionScript is still alive and well in Flash CS4 but a lot of it is now generated by object manipulation on the Stage using tools and panels. Users happier with scripting their animations can still write ActionScript, but the enhancements in Flash CS4 are in design, not scripting. As opposed to the ActionScript oriented Flash CS3 which introduced ActionScript 3 and whole new swag of scripting tags.

Another major move for Flash is the new XFL file format. FLA has been the traditional file format for Flash but has never been open source. So, Flash moves into XFL which is an open standard format that applications other than Flash can produce. And, here is where the integration of the CS4 Suite tools rears it's head because InDesign CS4 can export print layouts as an XFL file which can be used Flash Professional CS4. XFL files work well in Flash CS4 Professional and even retain live text. Another Suite member that supports XFL is After Effects CS4, which, if you join the dots together, means video animation and Flash multimedia will be living in harmony in Flash Professional CS4.

There are other new features but I feel I've touched on the major changes and new bits. Flash Professional CS4 is overwhelming and I love the new interface as it's so user friendly, efficient and time-saving. Definitely worth investigating if you're a Flash professional and readily earns a double thumbs from me.