Why can't Flash CS5 "Save As CS3"?

[chrisemerson]

I'd like to get an official response to why Flash CS5 *CAN* save to CS4 format - but *CAN NOT* save to CS3 format.

If Flash CS4 can take a CS4 *.fla and convert it to CS3 *.fla, there is no reason I can imagine why it wouldn't be technically possible to save a file to CS3 format - directly within Flash CS5. Until Adobe adds CS3 to the Flash CS5 "Save As" menu, I have to keep Flash CS4 installed - which is extremely annoying not to mention time consuming to load up Flash CS4 just to do this now!

I apologize for the confusing manner of my post - but hopefully my question/point is clear. Simply put - I need Flash CS5 to be able to save to CS3 format and would like to understand why this wasn't in the launch version of Flash CS5 to begin with.

Thank you.

[Ned Murphy]

It has always been the case that producers of Flash allow one to save to the current and the preceding version -- only.  If you need to save a CS5 or CS4 file to a CS3 file, then you'll need to retain CS4... it is not uncommon to have multiple versions installed.

[The_Buke]

So how does that work if you are upgrading a licence? Does that mean you have to purchase outright multiple licences of what seems to be the most expensive kit of software around? Seems a bit silly. It's not like Adobe is losing money, you cannot buy CS3 anymore, they should allow the ability to save in lower formats!

On a slightly different topic, why can't CS5 save a CS4 document as CS5? I have just posted a forum up, as I am having huge issues. When I open up a CS4 document, and try to save it as CS5 Flash crashes.

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/642378?tstart=0

[Ned Murphy]

I can't answer that as I don't have any idea what upgrading a license is or what it involves.  I just know that you get what you get when you purchase a product, and you should know what you're buying beforehand.  Adobe is at least considerate enough to offer a free trial period to help in the decision process.

As for your CS5 issue, I can't answer that as I have yet to decide whether I'll make that purchase.  The various issues with CS4 kept me away from buying it, and I'm waiting to hear how CS5 fairs.  There aren't any features since CS3 that make either CS4 or CS5 a must-have as far as my work goes.

[chrisemerson]

>> Ned Murphy: "...It has always been the case"...

Not necessarily. Seems to me Adobe understands the concept - see evidence in this screenshot from Illustrator where they allow support all the way back to CS2 (and CS1)!

Unless someone comes up with a better answer - I have a hard time not assuming the reason they didn't put in CS3 support in CS5 is to make the upgrade to force more people to upgrade to CS5 since CS3 is now an even more awkward format to support than it was in the CS4 days.

Whatever the reason though it seems like adding CS3 support in Flash CS5 is a very doable/possible thing - I'm just hoping Adobe takes notice and deals with it. Requiring folks to keep multiple versions of CS installed is crazy - not to mention wasteful, inefficient and just plain lazy!

[Ned Murphy]

Unlike Illustrator, which Adobe created, Adobe acquired Flash and retained features that came with it.  One such feature was to allow saving only to the current and previous version.  It is possible that making Flash capable of what you want is not cost-effective since it involves programming language(s), players, and other design features that may make it impractical to provide for... or it may just be that enough people haven't asked for what you want as yet.

If you have a suggestion to make, these forums are not really the place top do that... these are user-to-user forums.  Below is the link for making such requests.

Adobe - Wishlist & Bug Report
-----------------------------

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

[chrisemerson]

So it's not Adobe's fault because they inherited the product? Seems to me unless they completely re-wrote the codebase for Flash this time around the methods involved in "Save As CS3" should be easy to just drop into Flash CS5 - but you're right I don't know their limitations and/or cost restraints/etc.

In any case - good point - I placed my topic on the wishlist. Here's hoping it doesn't get ignored!

[Haravikk]

Hmm, this is annoying me as well, as I'm working on a large Flash project with multiple team-members, also intending it to be open-source (so community members can participate), which means that really we need to be able to support CS3 as the minimum version as that's what a lot of people seem to have.

How well documented are the .fla formats, could a plugin be built to allow CS5 to save in CS3 format? As this project has a lot of smaller .fla files to keep things easy to manage (and easier to merge changes from different people), not to mention avoid the 200mb+ .fla files we were using before, but saving is going to be a huge pain.

It seems a strange policy when Photoshop supports every .psd file version I can throw at it, and save compatible for a lot of older versions. It's especially annoying when, to be honest, Flash CS5 is a bit underwhelming compared to changes in other apps, since all effort seemed to be in the now useless iPhone export option in favour of improving stuff like the project view, making the bone tool more useful etc. Things that I cared a lot more about personally.

[Guest]

"...Unlike Illustrator, which Adobe created, Adobe acquired Flash and retained features that came with it.  One such feature was to allow saving only to the current and previous version.  ..."

To a point. Prior to buying Macromedia, Adobe had their own little piece of .swf generating animation software called LiveMotion, so it's not like they were held to Macromedia's standards of limited backwards compatabilty. After all we aren't having to deal with the ins and outs of FreeHand once it was folded into Illustrator.

I know from the corporate clients I deal with, the lousy legacy integration is one of the many reasons Quark has lost market share to InDesign. Because ID can work backwards, it's easier to deal with than needing three legacy copies of the same program to be able to serve clients with projects that only require periodic updating .

[Kat Gilbert]

This would have been great as I just ran into a CS5 swf/html file that would load but not play as FF and Safari wouldn't acknowlege that player 10.1 was installed. Had to save back to CS4, close out open CS4 and save back to CS3, opened CS3 and published file. Uploaded and it works... This shouldn't be but was and this is the only way I could get this file on the internet!

MacPro, 64 bit.

[chrisemerson]

@Haravikk and @Katherine,

Glad I'm not alone w/my pain!

Do any of you know if the format/makeup of Flash files is public information? I wonder if we could hack together a stand alone utility that did the conversion since I'm taking a wild guess that Adobe never will. How awesome would that be - a little app that would take any Flash file and convert it to any format. I might look into that! Post info/thoughts if you have any!

[Kat Gilbert]

Would be awesome! Unfortunately that part of my brain never developed- coding continues to be a major mystery to me and writing a program would be so far out of my field infinity would be closer! Wish I could help. I am sure that format for Adobe is not public.

[Viptv_pl-bpSqR2]

I can write a plugin to save in version CS3.
Who wants to buy and at what price?

[Guest]

I think a plug-in would be good to have as I have a multitude of legacy projects in CS3 and didn't upgrade to CS4. Now that I've got CS5 I'm sunk as far as working between old copies.

Adobe does this from time-to-time. I remember when they changed the type engine in Illustrator I had many many issues with boilerplate type that reflowed in work that hadn't needed to be proofed in years of printing -  One project cost me thousands out of pocket to reprint because we didn't think to recheck copy that had been unchanged for two or three updates of Illustrator.

As for how you should price that plug-in  - that's up to you as the developer to look at your time, costs and what market you think is there. But since so many believe it should be an existing feature of the software I wouldn't think they would want to pay an extreme amount.

[chrisemerson]

Ironically I loaded up a hex/compare tool today to look at CS3/CS4/CS5 files side-by-side. I'm no super leet programmer/hacker so honestly not sure what I was looking for. Nothing jumped out at me as an obvious 'backdoor' fix. I suppose the only real shot at creating something for this issue would be by using an official API built by Adobe.

I saw a tool once that claimed to be able to take a directory full of FLA files and "publish" them in a batch (I think w/out opening Flash). Whatever technology fueled that thing is what I think we'd need here - basically we need to find a way to externalize and make-portable the "save" methods from CS3/CS4 and CS5.

Anyone know where to look/start taking this approach?

[masterkadaj]

Absolutely agree! I making a flash banners sometime, and a customer needs a source files of this one (.fla), but he's work on CS3 version of flash. As a result - I have to downgrade back to CS3 for be able to save in CS3 format? Something wrong with this I think... It's good, that I had just installed trial version of CS5 without buying...

[Andrei1-bKoviI]

There are many purely technical reasons why CS5 wouldn't come with ability to save in CS3 format. I think among main reasons is that CS5 comes with AS3 libraries that are different from libraries in CS3. Both CS4 and CS5 can compile for Flash 10 which is not the case for CS3 which can compile for Flash 9 only.

In addition, there are many features in Flash CS5 that are Flex-like. I suspect that compiler in Flash CS5 is actually closer to mxmlc (Flex) compiler. After all, this is a direction Adobe going to. Sort of...

[brainexplosion2000]

Because Adobe is a lousy company and Flash is increasingly a buggy, inefficient, anti-user program.

I have been trying to get a copy of CS3 to bridge the gap between client required CS4 and ANIMATION FRIENDLY, quicktime exporting Flash 8. Can not find it anywhere.

[soom1976]

Completely agreed. It is ridiculous to keep 3 copies of Flash just to have ability to save CS5 documents in CS3 format. I even don't have the energy to scold about how worse and worse Flash becomes and Adobe doesn't give a f*** cause they are a total monopolists now on the market and only care about making programs bigger in Gigabytes and looking like space-rockets, instead of listening to peoples needs.

Most of the classical animation industry still works on Flash CS3 but often web developers work with higher versions like CS5, and there is a constant problem of versions compatability.

I'm quite sure it's all about marketing and has nothing to do with technical abilities...

[chris_emerson]

/Sigh... I was really hoping Adobe would redeem themselves here and add previous version support to Flash CS6 ... sadly they did not.

While Illustrator CS6 *CAN* (still) save back all the way to CS1, Flash Professional CS6 can *NOT* save anything earlier than CS5. THIS IS SUPER LAME, ADOBE!!

So I guess we all get to keep our previous installs of Flash CS3, CS4 and CS5.x around still

Related frustrated: http://goo.gl/FAhrI

[nocturnal_YL]

It'd be a good idea to retain the older versions. It seems to be that each version is deliberately trying to kill off some features. No PDF import since Flash CS3, no export to vector formats since Flash CS5 (CS5 also eliminated the possibilities to publish to Flash Player 1~4)... it's just lame.

[Paul M. Zahorosky]

I just received a new Mac for work with CS6 - and I have CS4 on my home computers. This inability to downsave past 1 version is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. One of countless reasons why ADOBE SUCKS! They release a new version now every 18-months, fail to actually improve on the product, but make them incompatible with older versions!?! The ONLY reason for this flawed logic is to keep selling software- period. I personally wouldn't care to just continue using CS4, but it's not an option at work. It's bad enough that Adobe finds it impossible to streamline their products so they all work (or even look) the same (and don't give me the "not originally Adobe's product" excuse - it's THEIR PRODUCT NOW!), but they HAVE THE AUDACITY TO PRICE THE PRODUCT SO RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE that it almost doesn't pay to be in the graphic design business and expect to stay ahead of the technology. Adobe sucks almost as bad as Apple (don't get me going on that!), but neither will ever change.

[barrywbaker]

This is frustrating me no end. We are working on an animated TV series with studios in the far east, who only ever seem to have CS3 to work with and do not want to invest in newer versions, so we always have to work in CS3 here in France as well due to Flash's refusal to save anything further than one version back. I'm very surprised that in the two and a half years since this topic was started, there has been no response from Adobe on the issue. But then, they never seem to respond to users' requests so maybe I shouldn't be surprised.