| Tim Carden 2nd July 2002 Fireworks is renown for being the web graphics tool. Right from the start Macromedia built a solid application with intuitive optimization abilities, animation features and a full suite of design tools. It is a genuine vector-based program meaning objects are scalable and editable and remain so. This is different from most bitmap-based products where changes to an object are rendered and are not editable again. Fireworks includes a selection of live effects that can be applied to objects and edited endlessly. These include bevels, shadows and glows. It also has a full-featured text tool with character-level formatting and several advanced options like character spacing. Text, being a vector object, is completely editable and can have effects applied to it. Macromedia have accurately identified the role of a web graphics tool in the web development process and have refined the interface and methodology of Fireworks with each version. Later versions of Fireworks have powerful rollover features for creating mouse-over effects, and even a DHTML popup menu builder. What could Macromedia have in store for this new MX version? Interface updates 
Like all the Macromedia MX products, Fireworks MX sports the new MX-style interface with dockable palettes, a property inspector (that shows the relevant tools and options depending on the selected object) and consistent toolbar icons across products. Having a context-sensitive property inspector means there are less individual palettes and therefore less chance of your screen becoming cramped with excess palettes. Enhanced tools 
Fireworks has also enhanced its toolbox with new and improved tools. The text tool now enters and edits text directly on screen with live anti-aliasing and offers even more extensive formatting options including everything from anti-aliasing mode to spacing before and after paragraphs. Additionally editing a design on a computer that doesn't have the correct font installed is no longer such a problem as Fireworks will 'cache' the font and save the appearance of the text in the document. 
Fireworks bitmap editing tools now include new blur, sharpen, dodge, burn and smudge tools and there is no longer such thing as "bitmap editing mode" — vector tools work on vector objects, bitmap tools work on bitmap objects. The toolbox has been arranged to reflect this with clearly labeled select, bitmap, vector and web sections. Zooming now supports non-standard zoom levels by allowing you to drag to define a region to zoom to. Previously you could either zoom to 50% or 100% with no options in between. This is a very overdue update. "Fit All" zooms to perfectly fit the current document in the window and there is a new "Fit selection" that zooms to the current object. Exporting 
Users who frequently change and export a graphic will appreciate the new quick export button at the top right of the Fireworks window. This uses the current export settings to quickly push your design into Dreamweaver, Frontpage, Illustrator and several others. There is no need to export HTML as you can copy the HTML to the clipboard for easy pasting into your web editor. Fireworks MX can general XHTML-compatible code and you can import an HTML file (including the image slices) and Fireworks will rebuild a new Fireworks document for you, complete with any behaviors that were included in the imported code. One of my favorite updates is being able to drag the slice guide lines that are automatically made when you slice an image. This lets you easily drag the boundaries of slices instead of having to use the scale tool on each slice to make any changes. Flash dialogues Macromedia products have been extendable using Javascript for a number of versions. The new MX products, including Fireworks MX, support Flash in the use of developing dialogue boxes for extensions. Several extensions are included that demonstrate this such as the Data-driven graphics wizard. This simply takes a file with comma-separated or XML data and replaces variables in your file. To make some text into a variable surround it with braces "{}". 
Fireworks MX also uses this new Flash support as the interface internally for its alignment palette. Menus 
Fireworks MX has enhanced the DHTML menu features introduced in the previous version. DHTML menus can now be horizontal as well as vertical, and there is a new "advanced" step in the wizard-based editor that lets you set options for the HTML table used to create the menu. You can, for example, turn off table borders and adjust the cell padding. Conclusion Macromedia continue to take Fireworks from strength to strength. The new bitmap tools mean less time required in another bitmap editor for small touchups, and the re-organization of the interface, though confusing for experienced users initially, is more approachable. It remains to be seen how the MX-style palettes work once users are used to them, but other MX features, such as the property inspector work extremely well. For the droves that took to Fireworks DHTML menu builder, the additional settings and the creative option of horizontal menus will be very appealing. However, Fireworks 4 was also very good and if you only use Fireworks for slicing and exporting, there is less reason to upgrade to this new MX version. For such users it will be a question of whether the interface improvements and smaller tweaks justify the upgrade price. More information is available at Macromedia's web site: www.macromedia.com System Requirements For Windows - An Intel Pentium II Processor or equivalent, 300 MHz or faster
- Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT (with Service Pack 3 or later), Windows ME, or Windows XP
- Version 4.0 or later of Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer
- 96 MB of available random-access memory (RAM) (128 MB recommended)
- 275 MB of available disk space
- A 256-color monitor capable of 800 x 600 pixel resolution (millions of colors and 1024 x 768 pixel resolution recommended)
- A CD-ROM drive
| For Macintosh ® - A Power Macintosh G3 or later
Mac OS 9.1, Mac OS 9.2.1, or Mac OS X 10.1 or later - Mac OS Runtime for Java (MRJ) 2.2 or above (included on the Dreamweaver MX CD)
- Version 4.0 or later of Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer
- 96 MB of random-access memory (RAM) (128 MB recommended)
- 275 MB available disk space
- A 256-color monitor capable of 800 x 600 pixel resolution (millions of colors and 1024 x 768 pixel resolution recommended)
- A CD-ROM drive
| Copyright 2002, Tim Carden, All Rights Reserved |