Adobe officially removed all traces of its formerly omnipresent Flash software in a new update for its Reader and Acrobat PDF programs. The update also patches critical security flaws within Acrobat and comes ahead of Flash’s official end of life, scheduled for December 2020.
Before the update, there were still a few options within Acrobat DC that would allow you to interact with Flash elements. Flash-dependent options—like Filter, Update, Export, Add, and Archive—would allow you to collect user responses in a form. Now after this update, you’ll have access to a secondary toolbar that Adobe added in, which features action buttons for each of those options, so you’ll still have access to them when needed.
The update also stripped the Insert Media button from Adobe’s PDFMaker menu in MIcrosoft’s PowerPoint and Word apps. This action previously allowed users to embed Flash content in a slide presentation or document.
The removal of Flash was first announced in 2017, when companies like Adobe, Facebook, Apple, Mozilla, and Google stated they would be ending support for the software across the industry. Newer alternatives that are more efficient (and more secure) have replaced the software over the years, and are equipped to take over once Flash officially ends in December 2020.
via ZDNet