There are some great new additions to Fireworks CS3.
I could probably start this post with some bad puns about Fireworks CS3 and declaring your independence over other graphics apps, but I’ll spare you that and give you some quick tips for making the most out of Fireworks CS3.
Fireworks didn’t get all that many new features in the upgrade from Macromedia 8 to Adobe CS3, but there are a few that can really change the way you design Web pages and graphics.
1. 9-Slice Scaling. Confusing name, handy feature. First off, it has nothing to do with image slicing, but rather is an “intelligent” way of scaling your images. It allows you to tell Fireworks which parts of an image you’d like to scale while and which parts you want left alone. This is especially useful when designing navigation buttons which may have fancy corners or small text that you do not want adjusted when you need to make the overall button size smaller.
The 9 “slices” that define the scalable and non-scalable areas. The first row of buttons is created using 9-slice scaling, showing no distortion of the corners; the second row shows the distortion that occurs without this feature.
To use 9-slice scaling, convert your art to a symbol (Modify > Symbol > Convert to Symbol), and check “Enable 9-slice scaling guides.” Then go to Modify > Symbol > Edit Symbol to set the guides. Then you’re ready to scale your symbol as needed without distortion.
2. The Pages Panel. This simple addition makes designing or mocking-up a series of related Web pages super easy. The Pages panel (Window > Pages) works very similarly to the Frames panel (which pretty much all Fireworks users know well).
Create all of your main pages for a site in the Pages panel.
Once your first page design is done, duplicate it in the Pages panel to create your next page. Make whatever changes you like on the second page: Change colors of existing elements, scale existing elements, add new graphics and text, and so on. The changes will only appear on this page and will not affect other pages you’ve made. Additionally, you can make one page a “Master Page” in the Pages flyout menu—any changes you make here will apply to any page you link to it.
When you’ve got your whole site mocked up, simply export all of the pages at once under File > Export, making sure to uncheck “Current Page Only.”
3. Auto Shapes. Fireworks’ Shapes panel (Window > Auto Shapes) has been around since version MX 2004, but honestly, I didn’t pay much attention until I saw it introduced lots more handy shapes in the CS3 version (see above). These shapes are customizable objects that include some pretty powerful features, like the Time Stamp, which you can drag onto your canvas and will show you the time you last saved your file. Or the phenomenal perspective grid: drag it onto your canvas, and edit your artwork into perspective as needed. Or, how about the pie chart that you can easily edit to whatever colors and chart specs you need?
Granted, some of the items in the panel really are just handy shapes, but many will actually allow you to create special image features within Fireworks that you might have created in another app in the past.
Come to think of it, maybe Fireworks CS3 did get some serious upgrades after all!
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