Filed under Fireworks
Adobe Fireworks Vs Flash
Adobe Fireworks Vs Flash
Macromedia Studio 8 vs. Adobe Creative Suite 3?
HELP!!!
At the university where I work, we have Macromedia Studio 8 (Dreamweaver 8, Flash 8, Fireworks 
installed in our digital media arts computer lab and in my office.
I do a lot of web design and have started obtaining outside contracts. I am looking for Studio 8 to install on my home computer but web searches come up with Adobe Creative Suites. All I know is the Macromedia suite and am concerned that if I buy the Adobe suite I will have to learn a whole new software program and one that the university doesn't support as we have no plans to upgrade anytime soon.
Can anyone tell me about the Adobe version? How comparible is it to Macromedia Stduio 8 (Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, Freehand).
Adobe aqcuired Macromedia and all new versions of the Macromedia software are now released under the Adobe name. The lastest version of the Flash, etc, is CS3. You'll find the interfaces and functionality of these newer versions to be very familiar. It's just gotten better and more powerful.
By default, the Flash CS3 IDE will want to generate Flash files based on Actionscript 3.0 (as opposed to 2.0) for Flash Player 9. Macromedia Studio 8 creates Flash files for Flash Player 8 and higher. Now, it's easy enough to upgrade your Flash browser plugin to version 9, so you can play files created by any version of the Flash IDE, including CS3.
However, I found out that CS3 *by default* wants to create .fla files that are *not* compatible with the older versions of the Flash IDE. This would break your compatibility with the IDE your university is using. However, you can override that by chosing "Save As..." in Flash CS3 and selecting "Flash 8 Document (*.fla)" instead of "Flash CS3 Document (*.fla)". That will allow you to take your .fla from home to your university and edit it there as well. Having to do that is a little tedious, as Flash doesn't seem to want to just remember that preference, but at least you can do it.
Now, if you don't care about taking files from home to university, and are just worried about your familiarity with the software packages, then you have nothing to worry about as the new CS3 ones will look very familiar and more polished to you.
Of course, you can also always search Ebay for an old used version of Macromedia Studio 8.
Good luck,
- Erik