I downloaded the trial version of Flash 4 about 3 months ago and I loved it. I mastered the basics of creating motion for text and images and also added some sound. However that is far below the capabillities of the program. Many people think that you need Director to produce games and decent interactivity (to create shockwave) but as I found out last week, that is not true. I hired a book from my local library and it taught me how to build amazing games in flash and also how to build polls and guestbooks using php3 scripting. Just some of the games I made were: Pong, Pub Quiz and Hangman all using the macromedia ActiveScript. However, there is always a downside to everything, no matter how good it is, and in this case it's the price of the software, a huge $299!! Maybe it's worth it if your website is designed for games and would like to use extensive flash, but not if you wish to use it for the odd graphic or animation. My advise is stick to the trial version from Macromedia.com