Flash editors

[beefcake]

I'm entirely new to Flash and want to make a basic animated image with a few moving pictures and a fade-in logo at the end. I downloaded a trial version of Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and found it to be a bit challenging to jump into. I've heard of a few simple flash editors from friends, but all are Windows-only. Are there simple, easy-to-use programs I could use on my PowerBook? Free is preferable, but a trial version that allows saves would work too.

[boba120]

Try "Advanced Effect Editor"
http://www.effectmaker.com/

There is a free version and if you register you can get more templates.
There is also a paid version for the real advanced.

I have used it only a little bit so far.
One thing I did notice was, I couldn't edit a working flash effect
that had been created elsewhere. It said it was not a valid
flash file - it is, it works on my web page.

But overall good for creating effects - especially for free.

[decksnap]

There is a difference between the file exported for use on the web and the source file you use for editing. The source file is a .fla, and the exported file is a .swf. Generally speaking you need to be editing the source files. Flash MX hs become ridiculously overcomplicated, even for people who knew Flash 5 in and out. They just keep changing things around, and it's getting out of hand.

If you're just making simple animations, you don't need 90% of Flash. Just read the simplest of tutorials on moving things around the stage, changing opacity, etc. It's really very, very simple.

[scem0]

I found the flash tutorials to be helpful (for MX).

But I still don't know how to do the complicated, interesting stuff. I've only dabbled in a couple components.

scem0

[decksnap]

Yeah- the complicated, 'interesting' stuff comes with learning how to code actionscript- Which they completely changed and rearranged from flash 5. Can you tell I'm bitter?

[UKnjb]

I am needing a basic Flash editor as well, preferably free, and have gone through this forum and read all of the comments.
I downloaded the Mac flash editor - a free one - "Advanced Effect Editor" (http://www.effectmaker.com/) and ran into the same problem as Boba120 of my existing files not being recognised as valid Flash files. It wouldn't allow me to load the .fla source file or the .swf file. This latter one works well on my web pages (and I was given the files as examples to get to know how to use Flash).
Macromedia seems both VERY expensive and huge in prgramme size. There seems to be an abundance of Windows stuff. Are there any open-source programmes that anyone knows of? Help and advice would be much appreciated.