Gradient Grumbles and Less

[Stoonroon]

With the new gradient tool in FreeHand MX I can now do the same thing in 6
steps that I used to do in 1 step in FreeHand 9. It is especially frustrating
when the gradient info has been copied as an Attribute which is then pasted to
another object. The results are totally unexpected and unintuitive and may even
take more than 6 steps to correct.

Similarly, when I want to change the color of a grouped object (especially
when it is surrounded by and overlapping other objects so that the direct
select tool cannot marquee the object whose color I want to change) I have to
take additional steps to achieve the desired result, when in FreeHand 9 it took
one step.

Such facts have inspired me to conceive of a new upgrade strategy that
Macromedia may consider. It would be to offer two or more different versions:
One being "stripped down" to the functionality of FreeHand 9 (but native to Mac
OS X). This would be the MORE COSTLY version. Then, for every feature added or
changed the price would be correspondingly reduced. The full-bloat cumbersome
thing that would result if the latest trends continue would be sold at reduced
cost. Why? Because it would be harder to sell. Since I still prefer FreeHand
over Illustrator, I would be so happy to pay MORE for a streamlined version of
the program so I could return to the efficiency I had when I used FreeHand 9 in
Mac OS 9.

[Bill Schuhle]

I like your idea a *lot*. A while back I communicated to Macromedia that
what would inspire me to upgrade FH from my current version 8 would be if
they were to release a version with the clean functionality of 8, but with
the bugs fixed and with JET's list of no-nonsense, truly *useful*
improvements implemented. Now *that* would be a piece of software. And I
wouldn't even complain that I had to pay full retail for it (well, not much
anyway).

Bill Schuhle

> Such facts have inspired me to conceive of a new upgrade strategy that
> Macromedia may consider. It would be to offer two or more different

versions:

> One being "stripped down" to the functionality of FreeHand 9 (but native

to Mac

> OS X). This would be the MORE COSTLY version. Then, for every feature

added or

> changed the price would be correspondingly reduced. The full-bloat

cumbersome

> thing that would result if the latest trends continue would be sold at

reduced

> cost. Why? Because it would be harder to sell. Since I still prefer

FreeHand

> over Illustrator, I would be so happy to pay MORE for a streamlined

version of

> the program so I could return to the efficiency I had when I used FreeHand

9 in

> Mac OS 9.
>