Re: Alternative Flash Creator
The freeware is worth almost as much as you pay for it -- okay for making banner ads (sort of) but not much else. There are a couple of low-priced (under $100) alternatives that have something of the power of Adobe Flash, notably SoThink SWF Quicker, that will allow you to create real interactive elements and are free to download for evaluation (movies are watermarked, and no, I'm not endorsing the product).
I'd suggest forgetting you ever heard of Flash, though, since you can do most things another way and you're going to lose audience (Apple mobile devices, including the iPhone and iPad, do not support Flash). I'm sure I'm not the only user who has FlashBlock enabled -- you'd have to be offering something pretty compelling in order to get me to allow Flash to run on your site. Keep Flash for games. If you're using it for anything else, you're doing it wrong.
“Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.” --Donald Knuth
"It was as if its architects were given a perfectly good hammer and gleefully replied, 'neat! With this hammer, we can build a tool that can pound in nails.'" -- Alex Papadimoulis (on TheDailyWTF.com)