Buy Cheap Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5 Student and Teacher Edition

Explore new heights in interaction design with Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5 Student and Teacher Edition. This program is developed to turn content from Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Fireworks into stunning interactive documents and interfaces. The results can be published in the form of Adobe AIR or SWF files. The main difference of Flash Catalyst is that you don’t need to write any code. The program also suits great collaboration teams as with Flash Catalyst you can enjoy fast data exchange with Adobe Flash Builder and other programs built on the Adobe Flash platform.

Main Features:

Precise customization

Working with Flash Catalyst is really simple – all components in the program are shown in the form of building blocks. You can easily add such components like, for example, sliders, fields for text, buttons, scroll bars, checkboxes and much more. Work with Flash Catalyst is similar to preparing pages for printing with adding and placing objects like picture and text frames, rectangles and much more. No need to say all dynamic objects can be fully customized and you have full control over their look, ‘skin’, and other features.

There are two main ways of customizing objects in Flash Catalyst.

Way 1 – make a static artwork. You can do this in a program like Fireworks, Photoshop, or Illustrator. Then start Flash Catalyst and select individual elements in your design that you want to customize. After this click on the command “Convert Artwork to Component” that will quickly turn your static artwork into a working interactive component.

Way 2 – use basic wireframe components library. This library is incorporated in Flash Catalyst and so it can be used by everyone. Just select the component that suits you and it will be automatically placed on your page. After this take advantage of the Properties panel and adjust the component according to your needs. Your editing capabilities can be expanded by using editing of these components in Illustrator or Photoshop.

Working with layouts

Designers traditionally want to have complete access to editing of all objects. Flash Catalyst is the right program for them as it provides users with total control and interface that is similar to other popular products of the company like Photoshop, Fireworks, Illustrator or Flash Professional. The design features in this release include:

-    Shortcuts and toolsets – such actions as shape, transformation, text, selection, and so on are no big difference in Flash Catalyst comparing to other products in CS5 family. Learning curve is also reduced by using same shortcuts.
-    Layers Panel is a wonderful way to keep a precise control over all functions of your artwork. It’s also easy to see the complete list of all files imported from Illustrator or Photoshop with the help of the Layers Panel.
-    Properties Panel is the quickest way to edit such options as fill, stroke, size, color, opacity, and others. From this panel you can also add filters, blurs, shadows, specify transparency and much more.
-    Grids, rulers and guides are the most efficient way to place your object correctly. These elements also work just like in other applications by Adobe.
-    Arrange and Align functions – these options maintain perfect lining up of your design, enable precise selection and perform a bunch of other useful functions.

The program is developed with designers in mind and so it provides users with large selection of tools ready to turn your work into a professional design.

Roundtrip Editing

Adobe Flash Catalyst is the fastest tool when you need to turn your static work into interactive content. Import into the program designs or graphics made with Fireworks, Illustrator or Photoshop to make them interactive. You can also add graphics in multiple formats, such as PNG, JPG or GIF. When you’ve transformed them and finished your work, easily send your work to manager or client.

As a rule reviewing requires making some slight changes like editing the look of the buttons or sliders. Such tasks look simple, but in true they can be very time consuming. With Flash Catalyst you can make your routine work fast as the designs in the program are fully functional and you can edit any detail at any time without any problems.

If the functionality of Flash Catalyst is not enough for you, you can import any object into Illustrator or Photoshop and finish your editing there. When you make changes and save them, the artwork in the Catalyst project is updated automatically. No need to say the element remains in its place and all properties are kept as well.

Let’s look how this is done. For example, you have a button that needs to be edited as you don’t like its look when you place a cursor on it. Flash Catalyst is not the best environment for you as you are accustomed to Illustrator. When you do is to select the artwork and click on Modify – Edit In Adobe Illustrator CS5. The following steps will be done by the program:

-    The component is copied to Illustrator and together with this is made a snapshot of the page.
-    Illustrator is launched and the snapshot is placed on a locked layer at 20% opacity. By doing this users are able to see the look of the button in the entire page.
-    All changes are saved in the Illustrator file and top-level layers.

Such roundtrip editing is great to keep all things done faster and get expanded functionality in Flash Catalyst.

Working with Pages and States

Building an interactive design is much easier when pages and states are applied. They will cause no troubles in case you are familiar with designing for print or web, or you have developed covers for DVD or Blu-ray discs. To make working with this function easier and more enjoyable, there is the Pages/States panel in Flash Catalyst.

Every website consists of at least several pages. As a rule, these pages have tight connection with each other, so, for example, your login page must redirect users to home page, profile or any other screen. In Flash Catalyst all these screens are considered pages. This is very convenient as you can, for example, gather different information from Photoshop, Fireworks and Illustrator and them connect all those pages using Flash Catalyst.

States function will help you to edit various components and their states. Any object has several states. For example, a button has such states as ‘enabled’, ‘disabled’, ‘clicked on’, and ‘mouse over’. With Flash Catalyst you can create different types of interactions for each design.

Animated Transitions

Forget about choppy transitions as with Flash Platform you can make expressive and smooth transitions with the help of tweens, blends and the technique known as easing (it allows controlling how fast the animation is played; this technique usually requires applying additional steps).

Creation of smooth transitions with just a couple of clicks is definitely a strong point of Flash Catalyst CS5. Edit and create animated transitions between pages and states of components without any problem, preview the adjustments of the fly and precisely edit timing and duration of each transition. Opposite to other programs in Flashy Catalyst there’s no need to create tweens and define motion as these steps are done automatically.

The program also comes with preinstalled actions like Resize, Rotate, Rotate 3D, Move, Fade and others that can be easily applied to transitions and interactions.

Design-time information

Developing content for dynamic applications is a real challenge for a designer as it bears a series of problems. How to preview the ready design if the dynamic content is not connected to the database? In order to solve this problem Flash Catalyst uses design-time data component.

In order to work with this function you will need to enter information in a table first. The table looks similar to Microsoft Excel or InDesign. By inputting information in it you will be able to create a simulation of any item present in the list.

Working with Videos and Dynamic Media Files

Designers always need new ways of exploring their creativity and video content is, without a doubt, a great way to attract attention of viewers. Video information is easily comprehensive and this is well-known by marketing and video professionals, who don’t lose this chance to win more clients. When you work with Flash Catalyst, there’s no difference whether you interact with static artworks or with video and sound effects. The program is very fast and simple in use. You can add video content, scale it, turn various objects into video controls, and much more. While many programs perform all actions with video slowly, incorporating one in Flash Catalyst is very fast.

Here the program also features tight connection with other programs from Creative Suite family. You can import videos made in After Effects or Adobe Premiere Pro, or add F4V and FLV files. Adobe also has an application named Media Encoder (comes as a separate program) that can easily convert almost any video into the format suitable for Flash Catalyst. Finally, SWF files created in Flash Professional can be added to Catalyst with ease as well.

Saving Project in AIR and SWF

Flash Catalyst is a program that can develop content for various purposes, for example, for web and desktop. In order to minimize so called cross platform issues, you can save your work in SWF or Adobe AIR. SWF files can be then played by any Adobe Flash Player 10, and AIR files are known as a great way to create content for different platforms and applications.

System Requirements:

-    Microsoft Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or later installed), Windows Vista (all versions except Home Basic, Service Pack 1 installed), Windows 7;
-    Intel Pentium 4, AMD Athlon 64 processor;
-    Screen resolution 1204x768 (1280x800 recommended);
-    Min 1GB of RAM (2GB recommended);
-    1GB of free space on hard disk; the program cannot be installed on removable flash-based devices;
-    Java Runtime Environment 1.5 or 1.6 installed;
-    DVD-ROM.