Adobe® Flash Professional CS6 and GroupMail Business Edition . July 2013 . Vol. 19 No. 7

Cyber News and Reviews is a monthly column published for parents, teachers & business owners featuring kids educational software reviews, business software reviews (small business & home business), games and entertainment articles, a free resource since 1995.

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August 2011 --Adobe® Dreamweaver CS5.5 Website Design Program
February 2011 --VIPRE® Antivirus Premium from Sunbelt Software
January 2011 --Adobe® Contribute CS5, Adobe® Soundbooth CS5 & After Effects CS5
December 2010 --Adobe® Premiere Pro CS5 and CS Live Services
November 2010 --Adobe® Illustrator CS5 and Adobe Flash Professional CS5

Adobe® Flash Professional CS6

By Howard Berenbon

Adobe® Flash Professional CS6 has been the choice application for developing 2D and 3D animation for publishing online, on your desktop or for mobile devices, in the SWF format (aka “shock wave flash”).  Flash Professional CS6 is Adobe’s newest edition with enhancements and improvements over CS5.5.  Flash Professional is an authoring tool used to create games, basic animations, applications and other interactive content with pictures, sound, video and special effects. Projects use the SWF format with vector graphics allowing small files using less memory, best for Website animations.

The Main Menu

When you first run Flash Professional CS6 the program will look almost identical to CS5.5. At the very top you’ll find the drop down menus: File, Edit, Commands, Window, Help and Essentials.  On the far right you’ll find the Properties and Library panels.  You can Create from Template or Open a Recent Item through the Open folder, create a new file in various formats including Flash ActionScript 3.0, ActionScript 2.0, AIR and AIR for Android and AIR for iOS (both new), Flash Lite 4, ActionScript File, Flash JavaScript File, Flash Project, ActionScript 3.0 Class and ActionScript 3.0  Interface.  To the right of Create New is a column labeled Learn with links to online tutorials and also a link to Adobe TV, one great resource for video instruction.  On the far left you’ll find links to Getting Started, New Features, Developers and Designers. And below these links you’ll see the Timeline and Motion Editor panels.

If you’re new to Flash Professional CS6 you’ll find lots of resources at Adobe.com with simple tutorials to help you get a feel for developing animation.  I happen to like Adobe TV because it’s a great place to start for any level, beginners to advanced. Visit Adobe TV for Flash at http://tv.adobe.com/product/flash/.

Here’s What New and Improved in Flash CS6

A more connected Flash Professional. Flash® Professional CC is part of Creative Cloud™. That means you have access to all the latest updates and future releases the moment they're available. You can use Sync Settings and Save to Cloud to keep your settings, shortcuts, and files organized across multiple computers. And Creative Cloud is integrated with Behance®, so you can share your projects and get immediate feedback from creatives around the world.

64-bit architecture. Re-engineered from the ground up, 64-bit Flash Professional CC is more modular and delivers unprecedented speed and stability. Easily manage multiple large files, publish more quickly, and experience a more responsive timeline.

High-definition export. Export your content in full high-definition video and audio — even from complex timelines or script-driven animations — all without dropping frames.

Improved HTML publishing. Be more creative with enhanced HTML5 support using the updated Toolkit for CreateJS, which includes new functionality for buttons, hit areas, and motion curves.

Sync Fonts. Part of Creative Cloud — will change the way you work with type. Quickly find the perfect font from the growing library of Adobe® Typekit® fonts, sync it to your system, and have it immediately available for use.

Sync Settings. Work the way you like on any of your computers — Mac or PC. Synchronize your workspace settings to Creative Cloud — including Illustrator preferences, presets, brushes, and libraries — so they go where you go.

Simplified user interface. Focus clearly on your content with a streamlined user interface. Dialog boxes and panels are more intuitive and easier to navigate. Choose between a light or dark user interface.

Testing and debugging via USB. Test and debug your content in fewer steps by connecting multiple iOS and Android™ mobile devices directly to your computer via USB.

Timeline time-savers. Manage properties across multiple selected layers in the Timeline panel. Easily swap symbols or bitmap images on the stage. Select multiple objects on a layer and distribute them to key frames with a single click.

Unlimited pasteboard size. Easily manage large backgrounds or content that's positioned offstage with an unlimited pasteboard/work area.

Powerful code editor. Write code more efficiently using the new code editor, built with the open source Scintilla library. Search across multiple files using a new Find and Replace panel to update code fast.

Real-time drawing. See full previews instantly — with fill and stroke color — as you draw, using any of the shape tools in Flash Professional. Your designs will take shape faster than ever before.

Real-time drawing. See full previews instantly — with fill and stroke color — as you draw, using any of the shape tools in Flash Professional. Your designs will take shape faster than ever before.

Code profiling in Adobe Scout CC. Detect potential problems in your code earlier in your workflow by integrating with Scout, a tool that offers advanced profiling and analysis of items such as CPU, GPU, memory use, and performance.

Custom metadata APIs. Design layouts, dialog boxes, game assets, or game levels using a new set of JavaScript APIs. Assign properties to these elements as you create them in Flash Professional.

Object-based animation. Generate smooth animations and control attributes like speed or easing by applying settings directly to objects. Use intuitive Bezier handles to make adjustments to motion settings.

Wide platform and device support. Reach a wider audience on both Android and iOS devices by exporting or targeting your content for the latest Adobe AIR® and Flash Player runtimes.

Adobe Flash Professional CS6, IBM PC version, sells for $565 and is available for the IBM PC or compatible with an Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 64 processor or  faster processor running Windows 7 /8/ Vista with 2 GB RAM, 10 GB of hard disk space for installation, 1,280 x 900 screen resolution and a DVD-ROM drive and QuickTime.  Also available for the Mac OS ($599.99) with an Intel processor, Mac OS X v10.6.8 or v10.7, 2 GB RAM, 26.3 GB hard disk space, 1280x900 monitor resolution, DVD-ROM drive and QuickTime required for multimedia features. For more information, or to order, visit Amazon.com.

Software Companies Mentioned
Adobe Systems Incorporated
345 Park Ave
San Jose, CA 95110-2704
URL: www.adobe.com
800-833-6687

GroupMail Business Edition v5.3.137

By Howard Berenbon

GroupMail Business Edition from Infacta Ltd is one of the best, high quality and versatile e-mail manager for personal or business use ever invented.  GroupMail is an excellent program for anyone who manages a list of name for business or personal use. If you have a small list, say, 500 people or less, then their free version will work for you. This is also an improvement over their previous previous release which limited your list to 100 or less. Now,  if your list exceeds 500, then you’ll need their personal or business edition (starting at $99.95--previously $139.95) which allows any size group or list.  Their business edition costs more, but it makes up for the difference with increased delivery speeds (up to 256 connections) and business based features you'll really need..

Free Edition Features - for home user or community group with 500 recipients or less --upgradeable

With the free version you can send HTML and plain text messages, includes 28 HTML template library, send to 500 recipients at one time and allows group export. However, the e-mails will contain GroupMail links.

Personal Edition Features -- $99.95 – for business or personal use with more than 500 recipients
Manage mailing lists of any size and send using multiple connections. You can also send messages direct, without the need for an SMTP server. Includes add-ons to help manage and maintain your group lists. Add-ons allow you to manage and maintain your groups easily. It includes 67 HTML template library, allows automatic processing of opt-in, opt-out and bounced e-mails, lets you manage multiple email lists and more. E-mails do not contain GroupMail links.

Business Edition Features -- $349.95
The business edition, based on the Personal Edition, is designed for higher volume lists, from small business to corporate use.  It can send almost 100 times faster than the Personal Edition using up to 256 simultaneous e-mail connections.  It also includes Database Direct linking & Importing, Scheduling, Queuing, Background sending, MS Outlook Integration, routing, XML document support, a 99 HTML template library and more.

GroupMail Marketing - $699.95
The Marking Pack edition is designed for mass marketing lists and opt-in newsletters.  Send to large mailing lists, manage email subscriptions, track email open rates and click-throughs and help create online surveys and collect and analyze responses. Includes online surveys creation for 1 year and click through rates and open rates for 1 year. And here's what's new:

  • New: Autoresponder to send automatic email marketing drip campaigns
  • New: Display your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ profiles in your email.
  • New: Place Tweet buttons in your emails to let your readers share your newsletter.

For more information, click to visit Infacta Ltd.

Infacta
Floor1, Hanson Building
Cleveragh
Sligo
Co. Sligo
Ireland
Email: info@infacta.com
URL infacta.com