Starting life as an animation package for the Web, Macromedia Flash has evolved over time into a powerful application development tool. This transformation has now been re-emphasised with the release of Flash MX 2004 - an upgrade so radical that Macromedia has had to soften the blow by splitting the package into two versions.
Flash MX 2004 Professional introduces a whole new way to create Flash movies based on 'screens'. Programmers and application developers will find this a more familiar approach than the package's traditional Timeline model. The Standard edition of Flash MX 2004 doesn't have this particular feature, but it's in no way a 'light' version of the package. It's still a full upgrade, jam-packed with new features - most of them aimed at making Flash faster and easier to work with.