In common with layout applications, bitmap editors, and web-authoring tools, vector-drawing applications used to compete for market share on the basis of features. At one point, Illustrator users were the top dogs, but with the next release of Freehand they were the ones holding the blunt pencil.

Now, both Adobe and Macromedia concentrate more on integration - making sure their products take advantage of proprietary technologies and leveraging the capabilities of other applications in the corporate portfolio.

So perhaps it's no surprise that Macromedia is positioning Freehand 9 as the vector graphics package with everything for the web designer, providing that Flash - its vector based web graphics format - is your preferred medium.

Flash support includes auto-generation of layer based Flash animations, static and animated Flash .swf export with full-screen, auto-play and import protection options. A Flash preview mode saves you the effort of having to export and view files in the Flash player to see what they look like.

But this is not to say that there are no new features on offer. Perspective grids, live enveloping, magic wand tracing and a new lasso tool extend Freehand's capabilities, and speed up the production process. Page and layer management have been improved, as has Freehand 8's severely limited 'auto-trace'. Furthermore, you can export to Photoshop with layers intact, and there's support for PDF export.

Perspective grids are such a fundamental drawing tool it's surprising that no attempt has been made to implement them before. You can set up a perspective grid with up to three vanishing points. Objects, including type, can be snapped to the grid where they adopt the appropriate perspective distortion. Objects automatically scale as you drag them towards or away from the vanishing point, and change perspective as you move them along the grid.

Objects attached to the grid automatically update. If the grid layout or perspective is changed you just press the shift key while manipulating the grid. If you don't do this, objects lose their link to the grid. The perspective tool doesn't currently work with bitmaps. If Macromedia can add that capability in the next version, it will be an even more impressive and powerful feature.

Envelope distortions are nothing new, but Freehand 9's new tool is more sophisticated and flexible than those that have been available before. Freehand allows you to apply pre-set envelope shapes to virtually any object - with the exception of bitmaps - and edit or apply your own. Text remains editable after the distortion has been applied, although applying more than one envelope distortion to text and 'releasing' the type from its distortion envelope causes it to be converted to paths, and therefore prevents further text editing.

Auto-tracing of bitmapped images to produce vector art is a task that requires careful manipulation to achieve good results. Even using the best tools available - Adobe Streamline and Corel OCR-Trace - a lot of manual post-processing is always necessary.

A new magic wand selection tool, combined with an integrated auto-trace function, provides a workable alternative to third-party utilities. The wand functions in exactly the same way as in any bitmap editor, selecting contiguous pixels of similar hue and brightness depending on user-defined tolerance levels.

There are, however, no advanced features such as Photoshop's 'similar' or 'grow' commands. You click once with the tool to select and a second time to bring up the wand options dialog box. The purpose of this is to choose between a straightforward selection trace or 'convert selection edge' which forms a path only from the outer edge of adjacent shift-selected areas.

To auto-trace an entire image, you simply drag around it with the wand. The trace uses the parameters in the Trace tool dialog box that is accessed by double-clicking on the tool. In addition to colour mode, resolution and path conversion mode, you can select which layers to trace and set tolerances for trace conformity, noise tolerance and wand tolerance.

It would be better if this were a modeless palette. As it is, having set the parameters you have to close the box before carrying out the trace. Inevitably, you'll need to undo and reopen the dialog box and make adjustments to get the best results. Overall, though, Freehand's new auto-trace did a good job on a variety of subjects much more quickly and accurately than its predecessor.

Perhaps one of the most compelling reasons for upgrading to Freehand 9 is the extended support for Flash. Freehand can export static and animated Flash .swf files either for direct web use or for further editing in Flash 4.

Flash animations are created using the Animate/release-to-layers Xtra. You create all the elements of your animation and group them on one layer before applying the Xtra. The dialog box provides four animation types: Trail, Drop, Build and Sequence. Release-to-layers creates a new layer for each frame of the animation and moves the relevant objects to the appropriate layer.

You need to make sure the individual elements are correctly ordered - the final animated sequence is dependent on the layer order that itself depends on the stacking order of the grouped elements. A Flash sequence, for example, displays each layer in sequence, starting at the bottom. The release-to-layers Xtra creates the bottom layer from the object at the rear of the group, the top layer from the object at the front and all the layers in between.

The next stage is to export the file in .swf format. You can export pages, layers or both to create animations. The export dialog box allows you to set path and image compression, frame rate and Flash version compatibility. You can also set the animation to auto-play in full-screen mode and protect against someone downloading and editing it.

Of course, you don't have to use the release-to-layers Xtra. You can create your own layer based animation and use the export filter in the same way. But it does provide a quick and simple route and, used in combination with the perspective grid and symbol library, can help produce sophisticated animated effects in no time.

As well as groups, text and blends can be animated using release-to-layers. Blends attached to paths can make for particularly interesting examples.

Using Freehand's symbol library not only saves time but file space as well, with multiple uses of the same symbol stored as references to the first symbol rather than repeat descriptions. Symbols are exported intact to Flash, so an animation with several occurrences of the same symbol will download more quickly. The editing process is also speeded up, because editing a symbol updates every instance in a document.

Despite the popularity of Flash - 185 million people, or 88 per cent of web users can view Flash, according to IDC - Macromedia recognises, like Adobe, that many web designers like to work with bitmaps. Accordingly, it has provided a Photoshop export filter that maintains Freehand's layers intact. You can also export to Illustrator with layers intact. Other export options include Dreamweaver-friendly HTML, GIF, JPEG and PNG. There's also a PDF export filter, although we failed to get this to work in the beta version.

A myriad of other additions and enhancements geared towards ease of use have been included. A lasso tool makes for easier drag selection of objects - you just free-form draw around everything you want to include. There are two modes: one where only objects entirely within the selection are included, and 'contact sensitive', where partially included objects are also selected.

Better page management, a Flash preview mode, step and repeat, improved linked-file management, new units of measurement and blending improvements will all make life easier for experienced Freehand users. But the tweak that will get the biggest cheer is the automatic mode change of the I-beam text cursor that now switches to a pointer when outside an active text box. Never again will you inadvertently create unwanted text boxes when clicking outside a text object to deselect it.

Choosing between Freehand and Illustrator, or indeed CorelDraw, is no longer the straight choice it used to be. Illustrator 8 has the edge for those who are interested in pure illustration, but for the wider view - a flexible and versatile graphics production tool - Freehand 9 will take some beating.

Contact Computers Unlimited 020 8358 5857 www.macromedia.com