Augutst 14, 2005 - Flash was originally designed to create easy Web animations and vector-based graphics. Now, however, the product can create and repurpose motion, sound, interactivity and Web graphics, almost becoming Director's younger sibling. Flash is more Web-oriented, though, able to compress files to an Internet-friendly size, for instance, reformatting and compressing a 5MB PowerPoint show into an 800KB file.

In 1999, only five percent of Flash users created presentations with the product, according to the NPD Group Inc., a Port Washington, N.Y., research firm. With the demand for multimedia growing exponentially, however, some production houses are finding Flash can comfortably cover the middle ground between PowerPoint presentations and full-blown interactive CD-ROM projects.

Epic Software Group's multimedia designers have put Flash to use when repurposing projects that began life in different formats. According to Vic Cherubini, president of The Woodlands, Texas-based firm, clients bring in a variety of PowerPoint slides, Web pages and even print brochures, looking for effective alternatives to spread their messages. In many cases, we use Flash because it allows rapid development and deployment in a variety of formats, Cherubini says.