Animate wins over Flash in every respect. No doubt about that.
There is just one area where, in my opinion, Flash users have a better life.
That’s the Library.
The Flash Library is easier to use, easier to search, easier to organize, and has better Symbol updating when cross-importing Symbols into different files; and allows that essential feature, Symbol-swapping.
Flash’s Library is intelligent, Animate’s Library is more like a big box.
The Library is the only reason why Flash is not BETTER than Animate but, in my experience, FASTER to use. And speed is no doubt a quality parameter in work ('specially nowadays).
If Animate had Flash’s LIbrary, Flash would be totally dead, kaputt, gone, byebye.
I hope this part of the software gets improved.
thanks for the great work.
Josh
Hi Lily, thank you for your answer.
I work with both Symbols and Drawings, with a particular liking for Symbols as they allow nested Drawing and animations.
You really cleared my mind by telling me about Control-Paste. I had gone over that in the Guide, but that vital detali just skipped me.
I see now that I can over-write Symbols on the stage from the Library. That’s what was hampering me.
I still think there is some ironing out to be done, at least from the User Interface point of view. Things could be clearer, but I must admit your answer really tempered down my anxiety 100% 
Problem solved, and… well, my bad for having started out with ''Better Library please".
Can I make up for it by changing it into ‘Clearer Library’?
thank you very much for your kind attention and help,
Josh
I just want to make sure that you’re using the library to its full potential. You mention Symbol updating when cross-importing symbols into different files. In Animate, if you work with Templates instead of Symbols, then your templates should be available in all of your files. Also, if you update a template and you want to update the version that’s in your scene, then you can drag and drop on top of the version that you have already and hold down Control to get paste special options that will allow you to copy over either keyframes or drawings or both - this is an extremely powerful feature.
I also wanted to make sure that you’re doing the swapping correctly - because imho swapping is the thing that is way easier to do in Animate than it is to do in Flash. When you create a drawing in animate, if you have that drawing layer selected and the library view open, as soon as you draw that drawing is right away available in the library for swapping. I could delete all the exposure in the timeline and swap in the drawings that I just drew wherever I want them. There’s no need to actually create a symbol.
The other part that is extremely useful is the ability to set drawing pivots on your drawings, because that way when you swap them in, they always swap in in exactly the right place and rotate around the right place.
Are you working entirely in symbols? Maybe this is what’s slowing you down. Maybe you should try to not work in symbols, and instead just work with raw drawings. Give it a try and you might find it faster.
~Lilly
No problem - glad to be of help! Some of these functionalities are indeed a little bit more tricky to get the hang of, so we will try to think of a way of making things a little bit clearer.
~Lilly