Will Flash Catalyst help "me"?

Flash Catalyst is supposed in bring developers and designers together. But I am one of those hybrids and does the devloping and designing. Usually I will create skins in Illustrator, then import skin artwork in flex, which auto generates the .css file applying each skin to each class, and all I need to do is reference the .css file. So with this in mind will Flash Catalyst help me at all?
I have been using Illustrator for a while now and am comfortable designing with it, so would it really be worth learning a whole new app?
There is one major drawback in the way I do it that I wonder if Catalyst handles. When I skin in illustrator the overall themeColor is built into the skin, so I cannot change the theme color simply by changing the global themColor style. Is this something that is addressed in Catalyst?
Also off topic, does anyone know if Orielly is going to be publishing a "Programming Flex 4" book?
Thanks!

Catalyst is in his early birth stage, so for now it's really slow and memory consuming, you'll spend lot of time importing Illustrator stuff in to your Catalyst project. As to your question regarding themeColor, yes this could be done easily.
Overall, I think Catalyst it's a handy tool to bring creative Designer Idea to live faster than ever, and it would be just ideal for making quick semi-functional sketches just to feel the breath of Idea in test-drive mode. As well it suits for simple applications better, the simplier application is - the more benfit you'll gain out of Catalyst

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Will Flash Catalyst give me a jump start on a phone ap?

I want to create two applications for different media formats for an idea I am developing in Illustrator CS5.
One for the web or desktop. The other for a phone.
I have taken a Lynda.com course on how to develop with Flash Catalyst CS5.
I have also taken courses on ActionScript 3.0 but I'm still learning.
Would the actionscript generated by Flash Catalyst CS5 be adequate for me to test in Adobe Device Central CS5 on various phone types?
Would I have to do a ton of work re-working the code in Flash Builder 4 to fix it so that it works on a phone?
If so, are there any resources that would help me navigate the CS5 software to do this?
I am in the research planning phase right now.
However, I want to get my ducks in a row in the area of cell phone applications.
I am currently learning Actionscript 3.0. Essential Training and taking Flash Mobile Essential Training with Arthur Phillips on Lynda.com.
I hope to move on to Actionscript 3.0 Beyond the basics soon, however, I have to admit, understanding Actionscript isn't an easy transition.
I like designing better.
Thanks,
2LL4me

Hero (mobile development capabilities for the Flex framework) is in beta on Adobe labs. You'll need to be comfortable working with Flex libraries in Flash Builder. Flash Catalyst does create an .fxp file that can then be imported into Flex builder. Though, before venturing further I would do some more reading on the pros and cons of the different players, authoring environments, supported devices and available markets. Here are some resources.
Flash Player Lite (Flash Professional and Device Central for authoring)
Flash Player 10.1 (Flash Professional and Flash Builder for authoring)
Hero on Labs - http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flex/mobile/index.html
Hero FAQs - http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flex/mobile/faq.html
Open Screen Project - http://www.openscreenproject.org/
Hope this helps.
Tanya

Flash Catalyst and the problem of designers who can't to program.

Let us assume that Flash Catalyst is still limited to certain resources. For example, a loop sequence of images, a video and photo gallery, a contacto form and others.
I always have to work with Flash Builder - and then have to programs code? Will future versions of Flash Catalyst help us in this aspect? I hope so. I wanted to hear from you. Recalling that Flash Catalyst is a valuable aid to designers who do not know programming.
Graceful.
@eldermarx

Exactly, my dear juviesi.
To create a little more complex sites we have to learn to program in Flash Builder - even if only a few lines. The Flash Catalyst' idea is great, no doubt, but I hope that Adobe will facilitate futher the life of graphic designers in future version of this software.
Thanks.
@eldermarx

FAQ: How do I create a scrolling panel in Flash Catalyst?

A common challenge in web design is finding space in the available window to display all of the necessary content. One solution is to create scrolling panels. A panel creates a well-defined container for content in the user interface. By adding scrolling content and a scroll bar, you can place a large amount of information in a limited space. To create a scrolling panel in Flash Catalyst, you need:
An object to define the panel area, such as a rectangle shape (optional)
Scrolling content, such as a long block of text or a series of images (required)
A scroll bar used to scroll the content (recommended)
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Thank You, Thank You,
Thaqnk You
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After Flash Catalyst discontinued - What Workflow Designer / Developper to use? and how skin compone

Hi,
Now that Flash Catalyst is discontinued before being totally usable,
I used Flash Catalyst for skinning components and prototyping design of App.
So i wonder how experienced people do that without Flash Catalyst?
And more im asking to Adobe the same questions. What do you propose to do now what Flash catalyst helped to do until now?
how do you skin components?
how do you work with designers to get their App Pages designs?
in a word, what is the WorkFlow?
Thanks

I couldn't agree more with you that developers need a solid WYSIWYG tool, and Catalyst was Adobe's closest rival to Blend. It had much more potential than the amount of attention it received. Adobe was very foolish pulling the plug on it, not to mention all their other recent decisions related to the Flash Platform.
My point was that with all of the importing and exporting capabilities of Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash Professional, and especially Fireworks, you already have all of the capabilities of Flash Catalyst, at least in regards to making creative assets available to the Flex framework. That was the sole purpose of Catalyst- to bridge the gap between Adobe's design applications and Flex. If you weren't concerned with Flex, Flash Catalyst would be of no use, even if it were still in development. Exporting a Catalyst project to Flash Professional or HTML was never on it's roadmap, although I'm sure I'm not the first person who thought of those possibilities.
Catalyst, simply put, was the FXG editor which Flash Builder's design mode was not. For example, you could not draw a rectangle using Builder's design mode. With Catalyst CS5.5, it allowed you to directly assign FXG assets to MXML skins for ten of the nineteen Spark components which use the MXML skin architecture. This was a huge limitition, and espeically obvious with the new roundtripping feature, because using any of the non-supported components could easily break the connection between Builder & Catalyst. Honestly, myself and many of the Adobe engineers I talked to on the Flash Builder team, still do not understand why Catalyst wasn't merged into Flash Builder in the first place.
Perhaps it's not as useful out of context, but I compiled a presentation a few months ago for my Adobe user group, titled "Creative & Production Harmony": https://acrobat.com/#d=jNyu*qRjpF68tbl*8lCiTw&x=s
Basically what it outlined, was when to use Catalyst, and when you are better off exporting straight from the other design apps. My conclusion, was that you're generally better off designing your assets in the app you're comfortable with. That IS your WYSIWYG editor, to the precision of 1px. It was also a future proof answer since Catalyst was discontinued and many of the other Flex related workflows have evaporated. The main loss behind discontinuing Catalyst, were its states, timeline, and visual editing of FXG less commonly preserved when exporting from the other apps.
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Daniel,
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Tom-
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Hello Mettiuss,
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities
It sounds like you are unable to uninstall iTunes so you can install a new updated copy, and if so, I recommend taking a look at this article named Removing and reinstalling iTunes, QuickTime, and other software components for Windows Vista or Windows 7 found here http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1923
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Will Flash Catalyst help "me"?

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