Macromedia Flash MX 2004 is the latest version of one of the world’s most popular and widely used Web authoring and animation applications. With every new release, Flash continues to increase in strength, capability, and diversity. Flash MX 2004 is a powerful multimedia tool capable of integrating a wide array of media formats and data formats from server-side applications. Never before has there been more support for developers in what has traditionally been an animation and graphics-centric program. This chapter provides an overview of the many new advancements and structure of Macromedia Flash MX 2004.

Considering Flash MX 2004 in Context
Like its predecessor, Flash MX 2004 has the power to unite many technologies, techniques, and languages while supporting development in several different programs. With added and expanding support for native file formats of third-party software and the ability to directly edit and compress digital video, the program can be considered a multimedia application approaching the breadth and depth of Macromedia’s original powerhouse multimedia studio, Director. The Flash Player also integrates more technologies with direct support for Web services and runtime Flash Video file (FLV file) loading, enabling you to tap more data and media formats, respectively. Flash has influenced and penetrated all forms of visual media — it is now often seen in broadcast advertisements, video and special effects, corporate Web sites, and e-commerce.

Flash MX 2004 is an advanced application that can deploy products ranging from streaming animations to interactive and dynamic presentations that work with server-side languages and applications. Published movies can be accessed by a wide range of platforms, from portable devices to desktop computers to broadcast television. Flash movies do not usually have to be significantly altered for a wide and diverse audience to access your content within these different contexts. ActionScript is the object-oriented programming (OOP) language used in Flash MX 2004. ActionScript has experienced significant evolution, from the earlier days of drag-and-drop programming seen in Flash 4 to the robust and standardized OOP language it is today.

source:media.wiley.com
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