Flash Basic 8 and Flash Professional 8 introduce many new and changed elements in the workspace that improve the way you work with the authoring tool. They also feature new tools you can use to create exciting new applications. This article discusses the new features in Flash Basic 8 and Flash Professional 8 and how they compare to similar features in Flash MX 2004. The article also contains tips that help you migrate your projects from Flash MX 2004 to Flash 8, and describes the new runtime features and security in Flash Player 8.

In many cases, migrating projects is a transparent procedure. For example, if your work consists mainly of animation and simple ActionScript commands, transitioning to Flash 8 will likely be seamless. In other cases, you might want to reauthor Flash MX 2004 content using the new authoring and runtime features available in Flash 8, such as the new graphic effects (filters and blend modes), new video encoding and playback features, or the new classes added to ActionScript 2.0 for file uploading.

Requirements

To complete this tutorial you will need to install the following software:

Macromedia Flash 8

Prerequisite Knowledge

Working knowledge of Flash MX 2004.