Flash Team

Add tooltips to Library items. It takes eternity to take a "quick look" to figure out what class has being associated with the item.

Add document skeleton generation like Rails: Folder for Graphics, one blocked layer just for code, one blocked layer just for layers. This wouldn't allow newbies to spread code all around the FLA.

Add quick class association in context menu. Say, you may show a popup with class selection list and don't forget autocomplete the way Eclipse JDT class creation wizard offers. Learn from Eclipse for interface widgets, their are handy, your are not.

As a variant you can create set of surrounding textfields for selected item on the Stage. That is, when I select my supercool red circle, I see 2 text boxes RIGHT ON THE STAGE and not somewhere in the low corner of the screen. These textfields are for instance name and linkage. Make the same possible for Library items. When user selects one he/she have to see linkage option immediately. It's too long to select a context menu item for 1000 of items in large projects. They only case worth of it is class association wizard of Eclipse JDT wizards quality.

Just make all these routines to be lightning fast. Developers hate Flash IDE. Developers hate spending time on linkages/classes assignment even more.

Remember Adobe, Microsoft goes you way. And they copy everything their competitors invent. Make your tools worth it's money or Flash Platform will die under pressure of AJAX with SVG and WPF.

Cheers.

This may be a lot to ask for, but I'd like to be able to visually create a static effect in the authoring environment, and have those settings output into actionscript I'd then manipulate with code. I want to be able to get the settings for all the parameters for a filter or something else in a format I can use in AS.

please add set functions for keyframe

- nextKeyFrame,prevKeyFrame,currentKeyFrame & ets

I'd like to request a feature that I'm missing since Flash 5. Its very simple and minor actually ... Saving the currently set frame size in the timeline view (tiny, small, large etc. short ...), the playerheader position and the movieclip the user was list in together with the Fla file.

Right now when continuing working on a Flash movie, one has to set the frame display size again and click all through the hirachy to get where he last worked on. (I find the normal frame size too small so I always set it to medium or large).

When you copy paste assets from one FLA to another, you may come across naming conflicts in the library panel and Flash will tell you so. It would be great to get a dialog box to rename the assets you brought in and choose which asset you want to keep or overwrite

I’d like to listen for frame label changes through actionsctipt. Example – if an animation is playing and I need to add have things appear at points I don’t need to manually add them in as I could just wait for the next label with a listener like labelChange.

Support for more screen readers including Apple’s VoiceOver and Dolphin's Supernova Reader.

And then, as I am sure you have heard before, better support for fonts and RtL (right to left) text.

please , make the hitTest() function detecting collision with the real shape of the movie clip and not with it's bounding box .

A real improvement would be if a system could be put in place so that developers could create and share their own filters. Similar to the way 3rd party companies can develop plugins for Photoshop, After Effects etc

Option to turn off tooltips in Flash Help. The tooltips are useless, because they just repreat the text you've rolled over. Worse, they cover what you're trying to read.

As I scan the list of Help topics, I use the mouse pointer like an index finger — to keep my place. But I have to keep the pointer in motion at all times or those confounded, obstructing, useless tooltips pop up. It takes video-game reflexes, but doesn't reward me with points.

support Hebrew and right-to-left language

I'd like to see better support for jpeg export (getting a jpeg out of flash) and pdf generation (single and multipage, screen capture, or single movie clip) from within actionscript with support for various resolutions.

1. access to script files through the jsapi
2. a snippets panel
3. function lists panel

I strongly agree with everything that Michael said, and, off the top of my head, would add one more:

Context folding in the actions pane. There is such limited space a lot of the time, and it would just make reading and searching through the code a lot easier.

A search / search and replace in the actionscript window that doesn't lock the window... like every other editor in the world!

And make any item dragged on the stage take a default instance name of it's library name + some number (better yet, add an option in preferences so we can tell it what default should be - eg. we can specify "mc_" as the prefix - something like that...)

And add the option to specify which frame to export library items in (like you can with classes) - at the moment you can say frame 1 or not at all - so for preloading you have to drag everything onto some frame - just seems pointless. An 'export in frame X' would be spot on...
Actually, if possible a global export in frame X would be more handy - so don't need to worry about classes or mc's - can have everything go on say frame 10, leaving you free to do a preloader type thing in frames 1-9... (you get the drift!)

I aggree with Mike's search comment plus it would be great if search was like Firefox's search bar.

One thing I mentioned on the other post..

Actionscript window to allow multiline strings: eg..
var myString:String = "This
is
a
new
line";

and

Being able to draw textfields acuratly - eg.. 200px wide by 100px high... not having to guess until its close enough (201.5px by 99.67px).

"And add the option to specify which frame to export library items ..."

... What Mike said, I completely agree! I guess we got used so much in creating a hidden MC in frame two that holds all exported assets that we almost forgot that it could be much easier if it was possible to simply specify a different frame than 1.

Better Text Kerning Feature (maybe like in Illustrator).

Scrollwheel support on timeline on MAC please,

I'd like to see the Flash 9 IDE brought into line with the other Adobe products in terms of stability, looks and functionality. Flash 8 is still no way as stable under OS X as I would hope.

Fix the "Other Panels" menu, as on occasion another panel opens rather than the one you selected.

Give us another Panel which we can customize adding commands or menu items.
i.e.: I would add some of the items from "Modify -> Shape -> Convert Lines to Fills / Expand Fill... / Soften Fill Edges" and possibly some of my own custom JSFL actions. There is a similar feature in PowerPoint see "Tools -> Customize -> Customize Toolbar / Menus..."

A customizable right click menu for both timeline and stage. i.e.: for time line I would like to be able to add "Shape Tween" and for stage I might add one of the "Modify -> Shape" menu items.

WindowsSWF panels: Kill setInterval and onEnterFrame on panel close, or add a method to detect if the panel is closed so we can kill the processes. I have created an example to illustrate this: http://www.sqcircle.com/george/loopError.zip (drop the contents of WindowSWF into the WindowSWF directory) and access it via "Window -> Other Panels -> loopError"

A better Action Script coding environment, for both the Actions Panel and Class view, I am thinking along the lines of the FDT plugin for Eclipse.

Thats it for now

If the authoring tools could support right to left languages such as hebrew and arabic that would be good. Microsoft applications do.

i strongly agree with a export in frame X.
and with a sort of copy/paste feature for the fx like said before :
ability to adjust a drop shadow on the timeline and have a copy filter to actionscript option, this way you paste the corresponding code in your sripts, new dropShadow filter with your parameters set.

I'd like the ability (like there is in the Director script window) to select multiple lines of code and then quickly comment them out by clicking a button, adding // to the beginning of each selected line. Clicking the button again would add another set of forward slashes. Next to that button would be an 'Uncomment' button that would remove two forward slashes at the beginning of each selected line.

It is useful to see different stages of commenting, particularly useful when trying to track down a bug.

For example ...

trace("myVar: "+myVar);
//var myString:String = undefined;
////this.blah.blah(Math.whatever());
////myMovieclip_mc._x = 320;
//mySound.stop();

I realise you can use /* and */ to comment out chunks of ActionScript, but I can become awkward to follow and slow to try different permutations.

I'd like to be able to work with the properties of Library items for more than one item at a time. Right now you have to click on each individually to make changes.

I would also like to be able to easliy copy and paste things like x and y location from one clip to another.

Many time I worked on big project involving great deal of MovieClips and deep hierarchy of animation and some projects, with a filesize of only 6-7megs were taking hours to save. Seems pretty fair Request to revise the saving algorithm.

Improve the actionscript editor! You know what's needed already I'm sure. If you could match either DreamWeaver or Flex 2 you'll be doing many people a great service.

Same as mike I would very much like a export in frame x, frame 1 is never handy while working with preloaders!

And make the actions panel a little "robust" as other scripting tools have alot of functions for creating actionscript. Not only usefull for creating good code, also for direct debugging.

like this initiative alot!

Flash already supports the CSS style a:hover - it would be very helpful if this hover/onRollOver event could be listened for in ActionScript. E.g. for making tooltips appear when the user rolls over a portion of dynamic text.

Flash has enough features to be one of the most powerful tool on the web nowadays. It needs to stop evolving horizontally and strongly evolve vertically. I understand Macromedia needs to cover new markets to stay competitive, but Flash users really need a more robust application. All I ask for is to eliminate all flash bugs (some are there since Flash 4) and strongly overhaul the usability of the interface.

It would be great if you could include a simple 3D package with linear texturing. Nothing fancy, doesn't need to be hardware accelerated, but it'd prepare the ground for the real thing.

It'll also be fantastic to be able to compress a BitmapData object as JPG.

Updated UI components;

For those who don't want to use flex or for applications where flex isn't a natural fit.

Better text control...especially paragraph control, space before/after paragraphs, text on a path, text in a shape other than a rectangle, word wrap around a shape...you know, things that other text-handling applications have done for years. Also, built-in ability to detect how much text can fit in a text box, then cut off the source text, replacing the end with an ellipsis, to fill the box.

1 - Keyframeable properties as opposed to having to keyframe every property @ once
2 - Library saveable motions --- similar to 3d
3 - Command line compiles
4 - JSFL access to the timeline panel properties. (keyframe & layer sizes)
5 - Allow me to put subfolders in the Commands pulldown menu
6 - the means to duplicate externally loaded swf's & images
7 - Collapseable Brackets in the AS editor
8 - Illustrator like Bezier controls.
9 - Color chooser that actually grabs and 'keeps' colors
10 - set the moviecliploader class to allow it to read the movie that it is in.
11 - A memory / cpu usage monitor in the debugger
12 - Compress to target file size option for images
13 - SOUND CHANNEL SYNCING!!!!
14 - SOUND CHANNEL SYNCING!!!
15 - WHY HAVENT YOU ADDED SOUND CHANNEL SYNCING!!!
16 - Fix the Windows Font family menu listing bug
17 - a non-timeline space to write functions & global code for actionscript
18 - A means to change the keyframing numeration on the timeline for people who don't want it to be every 5th frame
19 - timeline stretching / compression
20 - being able to mask / guide an entire layer folder
21 - bug fix. when i right click on the file tab & hit new -- instead of getting the filetype picker, it just creates a new "whatever was created new last"
22 - textfield support for html tables
23 - FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND ALLT HAT IS HOLY -- SOUND CHANNEL SYNCING!!!!

I think a global find/replace feature for AS would be awesome. Let's say for example, you accidentally named an item incorrectly and you are calling it in multiple scripts in the timeline. It'd be great to be able to do a find/replace throughout Flash and not just in one script at a time.

- I agree with Julian, except JSAPI should have access to _everything_, including script files. To me, a document is anything that can appear in a document tab, not just FLAs. The other two features Julian requested could be done easily then with JSAPI and a WindowSWF. So much could be done to help ourselves out with new features if JSAPI could do more. A number of features listed could have already been done is JSAPI had the power. Let developers help you guys with adding features through custom JASPI/SWFpanels. Look at gProject and others.

- Fix the custom SWF panel code. When adding a custom SWF panel I have to go into the registry and fix it because Flash thinks the newly added panel is a SWF panel that already exists. The result is a SWF that gets two IDs so opening up the correctly-named menu item displays the wrong SWF that might already be open in another panel.

- Custom SWFpanels need work. In MX04 the panels remembered their sizes when Flash started. In 8 the panels size themselves to the size of the SWF, not to what the panel was resized. The first time a SWFpanel is loaded it should take the size of the SWF but after that it should take the size to what the user resized.

The custom SWFpanels no longer accept key input. In MX04 you could create a panel that had textfields and would adjust control focus when the user pressed Tab. In Flash 8 pressing Tab always goes to the Stage (or into the ether, not sure) if a custom panel has focus. This is wrong. One major use for custom panels is to provide an interface for which JSAPI code can run. The panel should receive tabs just like any other panel.

- The timeline gets crunched (minimum height) when you add panels above/below it that cause it to go beyond the visible screen. This is very annoying. With two screens I get around this by undocking the timeline to my other screen.

- As mentioned by sascha, Flash should remember timeline and other settings according to the FLA, or better yet, make that an option so a particular FLA can remember its settings or fall in line with a global setting. Or keep the setting for the current view ... pick one way to handle it. Right now it seems to be a little inconsistent.

- PLEASE make the Manage Workspace Layout better. The dialog allows renaming and deleting. That's mildly better than before, but why can't I activate a view and then make changes to it and save? Right now that requires me to save the view and type the name again. How about creating a set of views (or perspectives ...). So, there is a default view and any changes to that are saved to that view - automatically. Then when you want another view, add a view (based on the current view or on another ... maybe just on the current view so it doesn't get too complicated) and then changes made to that view are saved, again, automatically.

- The Project panel ... see gProject, or Eclipse.

- The Library: I never use the Library panel in wide view. A way to make it better might be to make the options in the Properties dialog fields in the Library so we can edit them directly, or be able to select multiple items and edit common properties, or select multiple items and edit the field right-clicked on. Hope that makes sense. A better way to edit (multiple) Library items is really what we're after.

- Being able to setup views/perspectives for a selected document type. So, for instance, FLAs get view/perspective 1 and selecting an AS file gets view/perspective 2. Why? When you edit both, it's a pain to have to edit code for an AS file in the main window and then select an FLA and then have to open the ActionScript panel to see the code there. Then get rid of the ActionScript panel to see the AS file you just clicked on.

Sorry if it sounds like I'm comparing to Eclipse, but I guess I am. There are some things Flash does great and some Eclipse does great.

[*] a TODO list (pannel) would be a wonderful thing, one that automatically takes comments starting with //TODO for example.

[*] line markers which leave a mark on the scrollbar, if possible with tooltips which quote the text on the marked line.
also, if breakpoints can leave such mark on the scrollbar.

[*] autocomplete for custom classes can make wonders.

[*] something which resembles support of RTL languages - we are choking on this one.

[*] ctrl+Enter publishing of opened FLA file when pressed from AS file, like some external editors do.

It would be very nice if we could use the "find and Replace" feature within a selected area of the AS, not in the entire script. Like a "find and replace within selected".

- The Flex 2 code hinting and auto-complete functionality.
- The debugger is in need of a major overhaul. If the Flex debugger was in flash, it would be a huge improvement.
- Right-click ablitity to comment or uncomment out the selected lines of code.
- An easier and supported method for loading and applying fonts on the fly.
- More HTML tag support in textfields.
- Some built-in class packages to handle UI management, similar to how Flex handles the UI elements.
- Built-in class packages for loading and parsing common data files like .ini
- More support for dynamiclly loaded graphic types like .bmp. Also support for loading in icons, .ico

Thanks! :)

Make the Strings panel work with components.

Add tooltips to components.

Stop the nonsense with embedded fonts. If a user has the font on his system, why should we embed the font to rotate, scale or mask a text?

1. A greatly improved Library window, with the ability to show/hide/drag the columns. The list seems to jump around a lot as well, especially when you are pasting items in.

2. AS editor - search/replace window that is not modal

3. AS editor - code folding, and a functions list button in the utility bar of the editor.

4. A more 'feature-rich' textfield class (ordered lists?)

5. Scrollwheel support for MacOS

Fonts

- RTL support, but I'm sure you guys are on the case of this one?

- TextField vertical alignment options: top, middle, bottom.

- Option to package all used fonts within the FLA. Not sure if this would run into licensing issues? But would save a world of time in having to find all the crazy fonts a designer may have used.

- Text align to path

- Text flow and wrapping around objects

- Introduce some kind of internal StyleSheet way of managing fonts. Within a TextField property panel, rather than selecting a font, select from a set of styles. These styles would be defined maybe in a panel as a global element, call it a FontLibrary, within which are held Styles that are defined as font faces, sizes, colors, embedding options, etc. This would enable me to very easily change an existing FLA to use a Greek, or Cyrillic font with minimal effort. Better still, make that Font Library able to be an external element that can by dynamically loaded at run-time - which would mean one single Flash movie could be dynamically switched between languages.

Library

- Greater support for different version control systems, in particular SubVersion.

- BUG FIX - when using "Select Unused Items", do not highlight bitmaps that have been used as bitmap fills in the color panel. This has many times caused the deletion of required assets.

- Right click on an object on the Stage and have option for "Select In Library" to quickly find it.

Sort out the managment of panes on the mac. It's a real pain in the rear at the moment adjust the layout of different panes on the mac.

Have an easy and effective way of quiting a movie thats playing if it's in an infinate loop. More often than not it breaks the IDE and i have to relaunch flash. It's not a massive problem on the odd occasion but if your trying to locate a problem and have to run it several time before you find it, it's a little tedius.

- Support for subscript and superscript in dynamic text fields

- Support for paragraph spacing

- The ability to visually add tabs and indents in a text field

- 3D

I would like to request the Flash 9 has those improvement:

1. Creat more UI Component themes, not just the Halo. In addition, the themes' source file in Flex is more easy for developers to motify and create.
2. Add more advance drawing function and Brush and Pattern library like those in Illustrator or Photoshop.
3. Support Drag & Drop for the panel.
4. Add more motion like Custom Easing Tool.
5. Support Drag & Drop for the tabs above the timeline to chance their order.

* I am not good at English so the gramma may be wrong. I hope you knew what I say.

The thing I would like to see would be a set of lightweight components!!! I think most developers would be willing to give up certain aspects of V2/Carnigorn components in exchange for very small SWF size.

Add Information about Data Binding. More samples and more Help. The actual version seems very short.

I have a couple more:

A compiler option to compile the whole project (graphics and ActionScript) or just inject byte code (if the graphics have not been modified).

Implement the ability to have coloured trace

var LOG : Number = 0xE7E8E9; // grey
var DEBUG : Number = 0x4CABDB; // blue
var INFO : Number = 0x43CCB6; // red
var WARNING : Number = 0xF8CA18; // deep yellow
var FATAL : Number = 0xFF0000; // red
var ERROR : Number = 0xEF7A2D; // orange

trace ("Flash", FATAL);

would trace:
Flash // in red

maybe some more later :)

In the library panel, allow to set properties on multiple files... For instance, the same bitmap properties on multiple bitmaps...

How about source control options other than MS source safe.? CVS, and Subversion are open source and more cross platform compatible. In mixed Mac/Win environments Source Safe just doesn't work well or at all.

- Improvements to selection of multiple frames / layers

- Would be good if paste frames also (/optionally) pasted in place.

- Would be good if swapping symbol that is part of a motion tween asked if other frames in the tween should also have the symbol swapped

Why don't you have a "make default" option for .as files so we can have a default script template?

People could have standard headers in their script including author details and a copyright perhaps. It would be useful for commenting the sections that make up a script (mine would look like this):

/*---------------------------------------------
variable declarations
----------------------------------------------*/

/*---------------------------------------------
instantiate variables
----------------------------------------------*/

/*---------------------------------------------
functions
----------------------------------------------*/

/*---------------------------------------------
event handlers
----------------------------------------------*/

/*---------------------------------------------
run immediately
----------------------------------------------*/

It must be quite easy to do?

When you select several layers and hit F8 to create a new Symbol it would be nice if the layers hierarchy were kept.

I would like to see a global search & replace for renaming files (bitmap, sound) that have been imported into Flash.

Reason: many Flash docs can be repurposed by simply substituting media files. For example: importing image files named XXX_image1...2...3, etc. will instantly replace images with the same names in a Flash doc. If I could rename the existing files to the incoming files (i.e. XXX_ to ZZZ_)there would be no need to import and swap. A great productivity boost when the layout doesn't have to change but you only need to change the pictures.

To do this now you have to do a manual substition of one file for another in Search and Replace or rename the exisitng bitmap files in the Library. Very tedious.

Flash first became popular because of the time line where non-coders could get a feel for coding. As Adobe tries to move AS3 into the hands of 'real' coders Flash is becoming a big fat sloppy mess with Flex style fat published files... o.k., maybe it's the way of the future BUT...

It sure would be cool to draw on the stage and have the IDE fill in the correct code for symbols, tweens, colors, filters and all the other timeline drawing tricks... :)

Then novice coders could still learn to use Flash and Flash would create the AS3 code properly.

Additionally, Let us put the frikkin' code on keyframes - so when i click a keyframe, the code snaps to visible in the AS3 editing panel - Flash can organize the code in the editor correctly anyway... RIGHT! And when using the editor, highlight the keyframe that code is associated with - please.

Animators have used keyframe and timeline based comments to organize timeline based code for years, it is so much easier to look at a timeline and pull a few keyframes around to adjust a tween etc. with one's comment actually in the timeline.

This type of backwards 'fill in the code from timeline work' would sure make learning the new way easier for all.

- Adobe interface, a la AfterFX.
- Macros like PS.
- Stupid idiosyncrasies fixed (tiny swap window + multiple swaps, library fixed - as promised in 8, alpha masks, etc).
- Decent timeline, a la AfterFX.
- Save workspace with file - layout, pinned scripts, multiple timeline position, etc.

Go on Adobe, make me happy :)

manipulating gradients with Gradient Transform Tool:

the 3 icons used to scale/rotate/skew gradient are confusing and could use a refresh!

Cheers
S

coool,

i've been sending feature requests to MM for authoring for quite long time. and not sending anymore since F8 released.

there're a lot fo features missing in F8 authoring. the first and my most requested feature was proper Help System, like MSDN Library. and the second one is correction of F6to8's Intelli-NonSense to full Intelli-Sense.

currently when you type _btn. you'll get the list of button members even object doesn't exists :|

it should check for on-stage objects or instantiated objects throgh AS then provide it's intelli-sense/code complete.

the third feature is to takeout the fla2swf compiler from Flash.exe, i belive this will be a great hit for developers who want to compile thier .fla or .as without starting heavy Flash.

i'd also like the flash team to kindly view these imagination sketches i created for Flash8 sometime ago:
1. Flash's Main interface
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chall3ng3r/25269735/in/set-72057594107510122/

2. Code Editor
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chall3ng3r/25269736/in/set-72057594107510122/

3. Integrated Help
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chall3ng3r/25269737/in/set-72057594107510122/

Adobe now needs a MSDN like help system which allows show help for all Adobe products. and also should also allow 3rd party developers to integrtion into this help system which will allow better and single place to find help for related products.

also there should be more designing tools in the toolbar, as it is not updated since Flash5/6

i'll post some important FP related requests in FP section.

i wish this time Adobe's Flash team will deliver bug free and full featured Flash authoring.

// chall3ng3r //

oh, i forget to remind the very important feature regarding mobile development.

kindly include all the mobile development features you demostrated on MAX last year.
[ref: http://www.orison.biz/blogs/chall3ng3r/?p=157]

// chall3ng3r //

More accurate usage count. Checking how many times an item is placed on the stage INCLUDING at runtime, e.g. using attachMovie. I don't know how many times I've gone and cleaned out the library according to Flash's assumption that an item is "unused", when in actual fact it is still being used, but only called at runtime.

1. code snippets in the IDE

2. code folding (bracket folding) in the IDE

3. code bookmarks in the IDE

4. more configurable coding options in the IDE (such as tab width, replace tabs with spaces, and other common IDE options)

5. a sleep( ) function call

6. it should be configurable whether or not the Output and ActionScript windows vanish when another application is selected (instead of just assuming they should always vanish as it currently does).

7. “Paste Special” functionality like MS Excel has (where you can choose to paste just the filters of one movie clip onto another, or just the actionscript, or just the coordinates, etc)

8. Better control over the filter effects (similar to the control in Photoshop)

9. hardware (GPU) graphics acceleration

organising the auto-completion pop-up window into distinct property and method sections

I'd like the option to be able to view where a trace was coming from in the Output panel. Many times, I'll forget where in my code a particular trace () statement is originating from, and can have a hard time finding it to remove it. (If I no longer need it.) It gets even harder when I inheirit code from another developer.

An option to toggle the adding of something to the effect of "(myFileName.as - line 324)" to the beginning of the line generated by the trace would be awesome.

It would be brilliant to have support for secure XML sockets, i.e over https...

that's a good one Gareso, I would love it !

Mouse wheel support for the Mac.

Not just in the player, but in the IDE. Currently, the wheel works in the library, and on the stage, but how about in the timeline as well to move the layers up and down?

- Autonaming of movieclip instances. E.g a movieclip called Fish in the library would automatically be named Fish01, Fish02, Fish03 etc... by default when instanciated. The name could still be changed afterwards.

- Rendering Styles. Possibility to set the rendering style of a movieclip. The two modes would be fill (normal mode) and outlines wherein the movieclip would be rendered as when clicking on a color chip in the timeline to see all the contents of the layer as outlines.

mc_fish.renderStyle = outlines;

I'd like to be able to numerically position a guideline - Like I can in Fireworks.

Hi folks

I am a total flash nOOb, just starting a course at college, but I have been using xhtml, html and css for years so I think I know a little about web design.

1. Firstly, I think you could do with changing your request pages so that they function much better and do the job both you and us users want.

I think you could best accomplish this by implementing a voting system for feature requests.

If i was going to create this system, I would enable users to create a "list" of features they want to see implemented and then when they submit their requests, the results would be displayed with each feature request having a checkbox next to it so users can vote (or select from a range of points) for each item they want.

This way, the most requested features could be implemented first.

That is not to say that you folks shouldn't still look through the requests, because you can never tell if some bright spark has made a wonderful request which others might not have noticed.

2. Being absolutely new to Flash, I have decided to try learning actionscript first and then worrying about how to use the user interface to create gui's for my projects.

So as you can imagine I have been having to delve into the help file a helluva lot.

My gripe on using Flash help are as follows;

a) No options to "bookmark" pages which I might want to refer back to later (after I am redirected to another page by the help file) and yes I do know there are back and forward buttons, but they are useless if I want to find something quickly, or if I want to view the info on a particular subject at a later date.

b) no option to turn of search highlighting on/off(from within the help file itself).

c) I am growing old in years and my eyesight is not as good as it once was (and I also use a high monitor resolution) so I would like an option to enable me to change both fonts and font sizes inside the help files.

d) An option to open the help file "seperate" from the program itself.

Other than that I am beginning to like using Flash, more so because I am beginning to realise how poewerful it will be now that Adobe are in the driving seat.

Lets hope Flash develops along the lines of and integrates better with other Adobe software, especially PS.

P.S faster loading times for both FLash and the player would be a bonus for us using slower machines.

Thanks for listening.

1. Working with After Effects' timeline is absolutely wonderful; very easy and efficient. I would love it if such features were implemented to Flash. Working with the Flash timeline isn't so bad with simple projects, but with complex projects it can be very tedious and frusterating.

2. To have more features to make it easier for people who do not know Actionscript. Or better yet, to make it so that people don't have to use Actionscript. It would be so great if people could create impressive interactive Flash applications without being an Actionscript genius.

It'd be nice if there were more options for printing ActionScript. Right now, ActionScript can only be printed from a .as file, and as of the Public Alpha, it ignores the text colors set in Flash's preferences.

I'd like to be able to print the code currently visible in the Actions panel, so that it appears on paper the same way (if possible) that it appears on the screen.

How about adding support for IBL (Image based lighting), HDRI, (High dyanmic range images), reflections/ refractions, bump, displacement maps, realtime shadows, light maps, textures, IK/FK (Inverse/forward kinematics)support, high poly count support, etc;

oh I forgot to mention... PLEASE ADD SOME 3D support. The future is 3D why have we not moved there yet?

At least players like Viewpoint Enliven add Flash to their 3D engine. Why is Flash not embracing this huge wide open area of development?

* Please devise a simpler way of preloading linked symbols. Right now we have the following options: a) load in first frame, which makes it impossible to preload them b) use a wrapper swf, which is clunky, c) place the symbols on a frame that is never displayed, which is a pain to manage and messy. Whatever method is developed should also work for embedded fonts so we don't have to export them on frame 1.

* Similar to the above, I'd like to see a less klunky way of dealing with imported classes than 'load actionscript classes on frame x'.

* Proper reading of adobe type1 font families in the font menu (see photoshop, illustrator)

* Better use of screen real estate on bigger monitors in the IDE..the properties panel looks rather underused even on a modest 17" monitor. Hopefully the Adobe merger will influence the Flash UI.

* Better documentation.. I still can't figure out how I can use v2 components in conjunction with attachMovie and depthmanager, seeing as getNextHighestDepth is incompatible with v2 components.

* The ability to set properties on multiple items in the library. JSFL helps, but these sorts of things should really be a part of the IDE.

* Better performance and better reliability on Mac (hopefully the next release will be intel-native and will solve these issues) note: I'm not a mac user but I have noticed these issues when working on a mac.

* In general, take UI cues from the tried and true Adobe apps. For example, the fonts panel, the colour chooser, ability to edit vector points and shift them around with the arrow keys..etc.

* "Select unused items" in Library should not select items that are set to export for actionscript.

* Improve list of search results in help > AS language reference. For example, searching for a method like 'onSetFocus' currently spits out a flat list where onSetFocus appears 4 times, once for each relevant object.. but this would be much better as an expandable tree - clicking on onSetFocus would expand to reveal MovieClip, Selection, TextField, and Button varieties.

* Not really an IDE suggestion.. but it would be nice if pages on the adobe website didn't take so long to load. It's rather painful to browse the forums or flip through developer articles.

Thanks for soliciting our input!

Please do something about importing videos. For big video projects its a real pain when you have to click 5 times when all you want to do is import a flv into the library.

I get why the dialog is there but it would be really nice to have a "advanced mode" or a check box that says use these settings for all videos when importing mulitple videos at a given time.

I´d like to save a swf to an image.
If I have a nice chart with Flex 2, ¿why I can't save it to .jpg or .gif and use it later in other applications like Power Point, etc?
I think that it will be nice.

1 Support midi file
2 Improvement audio

You guys have made an awesome project. however, the only way i will consider upgrading is if you program the ability to directly connect with SQL databases, particularly MySQL. Support for PHP, ASP.NET, and Access databases would also make the life of a flash web developer alot easier.

An Undo feature that can be saved. Whatever the user has done which can be undone by pressing undo should be saved in the file.

I'd like some live code wrangling, like the message window in Direcor. That's a BIG DEAL for me. The ability to create an object, manipulate it, etc, and then go back and code it.

Or have the message window up when it's running and be able to interact with the object rather than just tracing stuff left and right before a compile.

MovieClip.constrainProperties:Boolean

by default it is set to false.

If set to true would allow a developer to set either the _x or _y value and the corresponding value would be adjusted to preserve the aspect ratio of the MovieClip.

As a Flash Professional who works with Flash on a daily basis, you could help me and my clients tremendously by adding more XHTML and CSS rendering support.

Just getting basic data stylized better would be a *major* implication. Just think of the infinite possibilities for all the different devices.

I hope you remain focussed on the core issues. You have done a great job sofar!

The Project Panel needs to be more inline with how Dreamweaver manages Sites/Projects. It's the opposite of user friendly when you have to create all the project folders in the FLP and then add the files all manually. Why can't you just select the root folder of the project and click import? Then all contained files within will be added to the FLP.

And there MUST be a Synchronize feature like Dreamweaver. Working on projects in Dreamweaver then switching to manage a Flash project is a NIGHTMARE.

So, match Flash's FLP project environment to Dreamweaver's, then kick both up a notch!

Thanks for your time.

I've noticed the little box under the timeline that tells you what frame you are on doesn't update until you click on a frame. When working with long timeline animations this means scrolling alot & looking for a keyframe. As it is currently i can get to round about the keyframe I want by looking at the every ten markers at the top of the time line (often timnes some distance away from the layer i'm working on), and then setting my keyframe and then going in and adjusting to the paticular frame I planned to have it on.

Anyways, basically if i could have that little box with the frame update when i rollover a frame my life would be much much easier.

Integrate LiveDocs into the help pannel and add a reported/known bugs/workarounds section to LiveDocs.

For example instead of the comments section at the bottom of a LiveDocs page you could add a tabbed section, with tabs for: comments, faq, bugs, user samples, support (forum-like), ...

For character animators;
Layer parenting, like in After Effects and Toon Boom would make a huge difference to animating because we would get more control over the symbols, and not need to nest as many symbols inside symbols inside symbols.

Built in camera like in After Effects and Toon Boom, which will remove the need to tween different movieclips at different rates to get a feeling of parallax. Pleas make it so it can be exported when rendering as quicktime because actionscript camera's that are around at the moment can't do this. Being able to re-order symbols in z-space would make a big difference.

Nameable colour swatches that automatically update in the project if the settings are changed for the swatch. This is a great feature found in other programs like Toon Boom.

Better rotation points. The default is always in the centre if you make a new symbol or bring one out of the library even if you've changed where the registration point is. There is an annoying bug that resets the rotation point if you change the symbol from a movieclip to a graphic in the properties window, or vice versa -- messing up any motion tweens you had set up.

Fix the smooth/straighten/optimise feature -- if you smooth a shape and then edit it, all beziers are set as corners when they should be smooth lines; which makes adjusting the shape afterwards really fiddly.

Update the export features for stills and videos so that you can render the filters. Currently they only work if you export to .swf

Cheers!

I could create an entire Web site on the subject, but without nitpicking too much, I would like to see three general things in ActionScript:

1. Obviously, it would be nice for everything to work as it is documented.

2. There should be fewer silent failures--preferably none. In general, I would prefer for the compiler to be strict and grumpy. I do, however, like how PHP handles built-in error messages: by default, built-in functions trigger error messages, but these are easily silenced on a per-call basis, allowing for more-elegant handling by the developer.

3. Beyond that, I would like to see greater parity between ActionScript and GUI/timeline development; if you can do it with your mouse, it would be nice to be able to do it via code.

There is also one specific pet peeve that is perhaps the most annoying thing in ActionScript: the differing methods of removing and unloading MovieClip instances. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't (even though it looks like they should from the documentation), and when they fail, they do so silently. I want one function or method that works in all cases regardless of whether the MovieClip was created anew, attached, gifted by aliens, or willed into existence.

FileReference.name property should retrieve the hole path to the file and not just the name of the file.

a better Debuger, maybe with the option to modify values during testing and reloading everything without exporting everything again.

For movieclips and such, a perspective would be great, allthough it would take a lot of work. It would help against making animations in 3DStudioMax, exporting them, importing them in flash and working with them trying to keep the movie size as low as possible.

Maybe a morphing engine, as a plugin only for the ones who need it?

Maybe even a plugin support for the ones who would like to write their own effects, or something.

Better editor, with options like advanced script editors have (Add ident, remove ident, comment sellection, decomment sellection, underline myvar if myVar is used more frequently, etc)

In templates quizes...need solutions for drag and drop multiple items to object with clear instuctions on how to use.

Simple Thing:

Acept Tags HTML in Output panel to facilitate the visualization of the traces outputs.

Exemple:

trace("[font color="#FF0000"]my_var=[/font]" + _root.my_var)

Thanks and See ya

Eduardo Burko

Not sure if this has been covered yet bt I woud love to see some text mnipulation tools that will allow us to present text along set shapes or paths (ala Illustrator)without needing to be broken apart first.

Hi,

Quicker access to the 'Close Panel Group' command either with a shortcut or a toggle 'x' button on the panel itself, consider putting all commands in the dialogue that includes above and other commands related panel commands onto the main menu face of the panel. Also as mentioned by another contributor above, ability to copy all filters as a style to apply to other movie clips etc.

thanks

Colm

Strong agreement with :: Jenia at August 13, 2006 07:13 AM

I'd like to see better support for jpeg export (getting a jpeg out of flash) and pdf generation (single and multipage, screen capture, or single movie clip) from within actionscript with support for various resolutions.

My Request:
using action script to change the rotation center of a new dynamically added movie clip.

An offical port to Linux. As I posted in the player request its not that hard if you design it with common libraries like QT, OpenGL, and OpenAL. It would be great if Adobe did this for all their products.

What about creating FlashPaper and PDF at runtime?
It would be so great to get the current stage exported as an pdf or FlashPaper file!
Let people configure something on screen and get a PDF!

It would be also cool to import pdf files at runtime into my flash apps :-)
myClip.loadMovie("itsPDF.pdf");

:-)

Thanks!
Sascha

Please ad some support for actionscript to include access to OpenGL/DirectX 3D Hardware acceleration. Charge whatever you want for it. Just add it, we will use and so will a hundred thousand other Flash users. I don't see the need to purchase Director for this. In any case it seems as if Director is taking the backseat.

I would like a "outline-button" that will make it possible to see a outline of the stage-area.
Something like the outline option on layers.

Well .... it difficult for me to explain .... but take a look here .... I think You'll understand :

http://www.westend.dk/webdesignflash/outline_button.html

Thanx

Lars Bregendahl Bro, Copenhagen, Denmark

It would be great if you could duplicate a symbol in the library being able to automatically duplicate all symbols contained in it.
I mean, adding a checkbox in the "duplicate" dialog with "duplicate contained symbols" and a textbox where you could add characters to the automatically duplicated symbols' names. I think would increase designer's productivity, avoiding wasting too much time duplicating all the symbols' hierarchy.

In MacOSX: a proper display of the font-menu (like in Adobe Illustrator...) + a quick -jump to typeface while you type- ...

And of course, scrollwheel support in Macosx, both in application and in player!

I figured it would be nice to have two different types of guide layers. One exactly the same as it is now and another one that shows through movie clips (outside the clip).

For example having on movieclip in _level0, when you double click it and view its timeline layers, when you convert one of them into a guide layer and go back to _level0 you should still see that guid layer.

This would make it easier to align dynamic clips in the _root level.

Thanks

Please please please fix ASO file issues. If I am working off a network drive, run into a AS error, the next time I compile I have to fight with ASO problems for 5 minutes. I clicked delete ASO files and test project... why does it still run into compile errors.

Besides an IDE that looked more like flash 5, I would love to see the ability to place anchors on vectors with an input box. I hate having to drag them when I know what the position should be.

OpenType support.

Now when Flash is under Adobe development, it should have full OpenType support (especially support for glyphs variants). Contemporary OT fonts (most from Adobe) have essential glyphs as glyphs variants. Can't add simple ligature or small cap when using Pro font from Adobe.
If Adobe can implement OT features into an old and giant apps like Photoshop and Illustrator, why not do the same in Flash 9.

Thank you for such an outstanding product, and this opportunity to offer a few humble suggestions:

1- A simple parent/child bone system to make animation of characters and chain-linked items, etc. much easier.

2- In addition to the scale, rotate and skew transformation tools; please include something like the distort, perspective and warp tools currently found in photoshop and illustrator.

3- Highlighting layer title windows in different colors, similar to the layer properties function in Photoshop.

Please add fadeUp() and fadeDown() methods to the Sound class.

The complexity of the coding a fade up or fade down for sound clips and the ease with which (we think) the flash team could add these methods to the class, makes my students and I hope you could add it to your list.

I would like more functionality regarding connecting to mysql database.
I appreciate that you can use webservices for php remote or loadvars but it would be easier if you could link database tables directly to components.
Possibly a component or function that would loop content easily through perhaps parameters.