The New FreeHand
Bruce Von Stiers
Last year I got a chance to check out a suite from Macromedia called
the Macromedia Flash 5 Freehand 9 Studio. I liked the suite and was looking
forward to the next versions of the products. This year Macromedia has released
a new version of Freehand. They have released it as a standalone product and
also bundled it again with Flash. I decided to check out the suite to see what
had changed. For this new bundle, Macromedia Flash
5 Freehand 10 Studio, only the Freehand program has been upgraded,
the Flash version is pretty much the same as the previous one.
The question for those of you who don't know these products are what are they
and what do they do? Flash 5 is a multimedia authoring program that lets you
produce animations for the Internet and other venues. Create cool movies for
your web site or build a stand alone piece that can be distributed on CD-ROM.
As for Freehand 10, it is a graphics design program. You can put together intriguing
graphics that can be output to the Internet , other graphics programs or even
to a print media.
When starting to look at the new suite, I pulled out my review of the last one
for comparison. What I found was that the Flash elements were the same and Freehand
had some changes. None of these changes were earth shattering, but added some
new elements to an already good program.
Some of the things that were added to this new version include better integration with Flash and a feature called Master Pages. This new feature allows you to produce special pages that contain objects that can be edited. These pages can be used over and over again in a document. When a change is made on a Master Page, each page in the document that was created with it will also be updated. This makes for quick and easy global changes.
Macromedia has also boosted up the Pen tools in the program. There is now a preference called Show Solid Points that allows your to display specific points on a shape in order for you to be able to edit it easier. Taking a page from Adobe Illustrator, there are now cursors that will show you what will happen when clicking on a specific location. You can also click anywhere on a selected path to create a new insertion point.
You can now create an object and save in the Library for future use. When saving
a file, you can now provide additional information about it using the File Info
dialog box. The Navigation panel gives you several options like assigning Flash
actions to your objects and linking URL's to specific objects. The program also
now has the ability to let you define a print area on your working page. You
can adjust the print area and send it to your printer. The Document Report compiles
information about your document so that it can be provided to a service bureau
when it is being published.
Freehand still lacks in some areas. There is no optimization features for GIF
or JPEG graphic formats. I guess I got too used to those features while using
Ulead Systems PhotoImpact. There is also no image map tool. As someone else
recently pointed out, perhaps Macromedia felt that adding too much web capabilities
to Freehand would take away some of the selling capabilities of their web design
program Fireworks. Or maybe these things will be added to the next version of
the program; Macromedia may be stringing out the advancements so as to insure
future buyer growth.
For the Flash 5 part of this review, I am going to heavily borrow from my previous
review of the program.
As with Freehand, Flash 5 has a Bezier pen tool that allows you to form lines
better for your movies. There are anchor points that can be set to create some
very interesting shapes.
There is a scripting language that Macromedia came up with called AciveScript. This language is similar to JavaScript. You can do amazing things with your Flash movie by writing some programming code using ActiveScript. It isn't easy to learn, however. There is a large manual that goes through the process of using ActiveScript.
You can add MP3 files on your web site using Flash 5. If you have made up some cool tunes using one of the many DeeJay programs out there, then they can be played during your Flash movie. You can also add pop up boxes and tabs easily.
There are a whole bunch of folks that are out there using Flash 5. Macromedia claims that over 90 percent of the people surfing the Web now have a Flash movie player as an add-on to their browsers. Even some companies are using Flash content on their Intranets.
Aside from the few limitations that I listed, the Macromedia Flash 5 Freehand 10 Studio is a solid package. There are enough new features for current users to want to upgrade and for people who haven't used the programs to really want them.
One of the other downsides of the Macromedia Flash 5 Freehand 10 Studio is it's price. The suite has a list price of $ 499. The upgrade price is about $ 199. You will have to check for current pricing, but that's about average.
As this is a high end product, there are only certain retailers that carry this product. Check with your local software retailer to see if they carry it or can order it. You can also order it through Microwarehouse.
For more information about the product, or to order it directly from the company, check out the Macromedia web site. It can be found at www.macromedia.com
© 2001 Bruce E. Von Stiers