Tips on Fireworks 4.0

Macromedia has added some really cool features to Fireworks which has made Fireworks a truly remarkable web design tool. Macromedia Fireworks is the best tool to use while designing web site layouts, logos, icons and innovative web graphics. Designing complex web sites with swap images, rollovers and DHTML couldn't be easier.

Macromedia Fireworks 4.0 Tips

1. Masking

   This is a cool new feature introduced in Fireworks 4.0. The reason I personally like it is because it is a combination of the Paste Inside feature and the Photo Optics feature. Try this out -

   1. Keep a colored object (circle, oval, rectangle) above the photograph you would like to edit
   2. Now cut the photograph (Control+C) and then select the object
   3. Click on Edit> Paste as Mask
      
      

2. DHTML Menus

   You can now add drop down menus easily in Fireworks and customize it in Dreamweaver. The drop-down menus seen on our site are developed in Fireworks. All you need to do to add a drop-down menu in Fireworks is to right click on the slice and click on 'Add Pop-Up Menu'. Enter the menu content and click on Next. Give the font size and colors for the cells and click on Finish. It's as simple as that!
   
   

3. Swap Images

   Swap images is now even easier than it used to be with the simple drag and drop behaviors in Fireworks 4.0. You can design some pretty amazing web sites using this feature. Click here to learn how to create swap images.
   
   

4. Great Fills

   You can get some really cool textures and gradients using the fill palette. Open the Fill palette by clicking on Window/Fill. Insert a rectangle and with the fill tool select 'Linear' (you can edit the colors by clicking on edit). Once you have a nice gradient choose 'Line-Horiz 4' and make the amount of texture 20%. Isn't that a really cool effect!
   
   

5. Preview Pane

   Be sure to preview your web site layouts using the preview pane. You can preview your rollovers and swap images in Fireworks itself instead of previewing it in Internet Explorer. You can also preview the file size and the load time. The only drawback here is that the drop down menus cannot be previewed.
   
   

6. Optimizing Graphics

   In Fireworks 4.0 you can optimize individual graphics separately before exporting it. Use the optimize palette to do this. You can also optimize multiple images at the same time. Preview these images directly in the preview pane.
   
   

7. Opacity/Transparency Tool

   Choose the object you want to change the opacity/transparency for and go to the Layers palette. You can adjust the transparency of the object by reducing the opacity in the top left of the palette.