Well.. they are currently starting beta testing for the next update of MX
2004 . its code name is Ellipsis and its supposed to be a stability and
performance update (ie bug fixes). They expect it to be out late this
summer (northern hemisphere time I assume) and it should be another free
update. Don't know if it will have any new features in it.

Howdy,

Thanks! That's all I need to know......I'll probably wait awhile and check
out the "What's New" thing on their site.

<<a few words of caution:
MX 2004 is certainly "better" than Flash 5, but there is a BUT.
The learning curve might be hard if you're not familiar with writing
your own action script. In flash 5 you could use "normal" mode or
"expert mode" for your scripts, in MX 2004, normal mode is no longer an
option.
This means you will HAVE to learn how to write Action Script by hand.
Then, there is one step BACKWARDS in MX 2004, compared to Flash 5 and
MX, which is the undo feature. It is no longer contextual, which means
you can't undo changes you've made to one single MC independently from
the rest of your changes. When you "undo" in MX 2004, you just undo
whatever you've done last regardless of which timeline you're seeing. It
is very inconvenient.
[quoted text, click to view]

That's true (to some extent). There is still a panel to the side of the
Type Action panel. If you drag in the action, it will tell you in a little
box where everything goes. So though it's not quite as easy it's very
close! But if your a VERY beginner I would recommend Flash MX (6).

If we want these things fixed in the newer version, then we ought to report
them,
Flash MX 2004 had many glitches at the beginning, but that wasn't totally
the fault Macromedia. On www.macromedia.com there is a place to report
glitches. And when they released MX 04 Beta, it was the users' job to
report the glitches. If users never did that it's not surprising it was
full of glitches. Finally it sounds like people reported all of thoughts
glitches and then Macromedia fixed the problem. The same thing may even
happen with 2005, but it's our (the user's) job to report them and then we
use a better product!

Regards,

Originally posted by: Newsgroup User
Though the differences between mx and mx2004 may not be vast; the
differences between the current version and Flash 5 definitely are. Just
check the products specs at Macromedia.

John

I did that, however, it's mostly propaganda. Better to ask people who has
actually used the products.

Thanks
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[quoted text, click to view]
actually used the products.

I've actually used all three products and I can tell you that it's not
propoganda. The difference between Flash 5 and Flash MX 2004 is a world away.
The difference between 5 and Pro 2004 even greater. Major changes to the
language, IDE, extensibility of the IDE, huge speed enhancements in the
player, etc etc. Ignore 'xwhatis' and check out the spec.

If you buy Flash MX 2004 now, you're luckier than the rest of us were. When
many of us bought it, it was a disasterous, bug ridden, smelly heap of crap.
Now it's a different story. There was a major update which solved almost all
the issues and turned it into an exceptionally stable, brilliant environment. I
mention this because much of the criticism you might read relates to the period
before the update and many people are still really pissed off.

Julian

[quoted text, click to view]

"I did that, however, it's mostly propoganda." ?!?

You must be a liberal. What Macromedia is stating on their website in the
product specs is fact. There are huge differences between the older versions
and the MX versions. Whether or not those differences would be useful to you
is a different story - to figure that out you'll need to check the product
specs on the Macromedia site as previously mentioned...and believe them.

For those who are in doubt of MX 2004, there's a trial version for downloading.

Even for making Flash games, (Which DO use script) MX is SOOOO much better
than 5 and 4. I never used 4, but I've seen games made with it! The code
is SOOOOO limited!! Bt Peter is right, if all you do is animating 4/5 are
fine.

You could probably buy them cheaper anyway:-)

Regards,

If you are an animator Flash 4 or 5 is fine. If you code and have ever hunted
under Flash 5 rocks for 10 minutes to find a bit of code then you NEED MX. As
far as I can tell MX 2004 is a pass, unless you are a high end coder it has
nothing to offer except problems.