Review: Macromedia Fireworks 4

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by Aaron West

5/5 Geeks

The new Fireworks has definitely raised the bar when it comes to Web Graphics software. While there are other quality programs availabe, none seem to offer as much range, flexibility and power as this new version. Fireworks 4 adds other dimensions to graphics creation, including easy ways to publish on the Web. With Dreamweaver at its side, it is the most powerful design suite available today. With all the new features, Fireworks takes the crown away from ImageReady as the most powerful Web Graphics and Bitmap Animation tool available.

New Interface

The new Fireworks uses the User Interface recently introduced in Flash 5. The tabbed menu sets allow for easy customization, and helps keep the work area clean and uncluttered.

There are also quite a few changes to the toolbar, and some new palettes. Here is a screenshot of Fireworks 3 compared to Fireworks 4. Click on either for a full screen image.

Fireworks 3

Fireworks 4

Also new in Fireworks 4 is the launcher bar. This sits comfortably at the bottom of the document window and can be used to launch particular palettes or other Fireworks features.

Live Animation

Fireworks now offers more animation tools which makes it easier to create high quality GIF animations. This is especially useful for banner design. Instead of a timeline, Fireworks offers Animation Paths. A selected object can be animated easily by using a simple dialog box.

This creates a path, which you can see below. The path can be manipulated with the mouse to control the length and direction of the animation. Each point that you see in the sample below represents a frame.

Here is the completed animation:

Pop-Up Menu

This is one of my favorite new features. There is now the ability to create Pop-Up Menus entirely within Fireworks. First a hotspot or slice must be defined. The rest only requires the designer to enter information in a couple of dialog boxes.

First the designer must specify the title of each selection along with the url when clicked.

The next dialog is where the design elements of the menu are controlled. Either an HTML or Image based menu can be created. Elements can specify values for Fonts (from Dreamweaver), color, cell backgrounds, and more.

When an Image Menu is being created, the options change so the designer can control the style of the images that are used.

Here is an example of the Pop Up Menu in action.

Fireworks saves the code in an external javascript file. This is nice, since it can then be used on multiple files without having to add extra code to each page.The file is a little heavy on the code side, but might be worthwhile considering it is such a popular navigation system. The greatest plus is that this menu works in all version of IE and Netscape, including Netscape 6.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Fireworks 4 now has the ability to modify keyboard shortcuts from the Edit Menu. There are several built in shortcut options available, including Fireworks 3, Photoshop, Freehand and Illustrator. This is great for new users of Fireworks who want to wait before they 'jump in'.

Fireworks and Dreamweaver

Fireworks has plenty of new features which allow it to integrate seamlessly with other Macromedia programs. For example, from Fireworks one could save and launch a comp in Dreamweaver, make some changes and come back to Fireworks with the Dreamweaver changes intact. In this respect, Fireworks serves as a hub for comp designs.

Another nice little feature is all the customization options when exporting Fireworks HTML for Dreamweaver. Designers can specify whether spacer images or nested tables are used in the HTML, what case the file should have, and even customize the naming conventions for support graphics (like slices).