Is there such a thing as free flash authoring software?
 

I want to start studying flash creation and designing - but dammit, adobe flash 9 is $700, and I'm not sure I want to commit to $700 before I've had a chance to play with the shit a little to figure out if I'm interested in learning more.

Anybody know of free or low cost flash authoring tools?

You can download a 30 day demo and it is fully functional but I don't know of any free software.

The upgrade is a lot less. All you need is some old serial number that is typed in when you finally pay for it. It can be a serial number that you borrow from someone or someplace as Adobe doesn't actually check who the serial number belonged to or anything. I just did this for the new version of Photoshop and GoLive.

How about looking through eBay for student editions which are being sold? (Not sure if it is moral to buy it that way), But i picked up the Macromedia Suite a couple of years ago for $200AUD when it was retailing for around $1500AUD

Easy yet powerful is Swish at a reasonable price http://www.swishzone.com/

Haven't tried these yet but you might want to take a look.
http://www.goldshell.com/

Online flash creator.
http://www.toufee.com/

I will second swish for flash. Personally, its WAY better and easier to learn than Flash itself. I've built entire sites with swish and it does a great job and is easy to learn. it's got prebuilt in effects which are easy to use.

Its $119.95 which I found was worth every penny. Just try the demo and you'll be hooked!