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Fireworks MX 2004 Beta Review
Author: Scott Manning
Website: Scottmanning.com
Grade: 4 out of 5
Company: Macromedia
System details: Windows XP, 1200 Mhz Celeron, 512 MB, IE 6, DVD, CD-RW.
Well, it’s that time of all our lives where Macromedia
surprises us with a new suite of applications. Coming up is Studio MX 2004 which
includes Flash, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, and Freehand. I was lucky enough to
get a chance to review the beta of Fireworks MX 2004 to see what new tricks
the guys at Macromedia had up their sleeves.
First off, I use Fireworks all the time. I’ve been using
the product since version 2. It is just perfect for producing web-ready graphics
and it’s a piece of cake to use. With each new version of the product
that is released, I wonder what other cool features that may pack into it.
Fireworks MX 2004 is no different. Just when I thought this
program would be nothing more than slightly enhanced, there are so many new
features that there it is actually worth the upgrade. The new features will
improve workflow and save a ton of time with graphics.
I’m going to give a brief over of the new features that
caught my eye along with my thoughts on them.
Product Activation
I’m not sure if this should be considered a “feature”, because
it certainly isn’t a selling point. As with Contribute 2, Macromedia is
instituting Product Activation into Fireworks MX 2004. After installation, users
have the option to run the product in a 30-day trial mode or activate it.
I had no problems activating the product.
Tabbed Interface
One of the most useful features that jumped out at me is the tabbed interface.
In previous versions of Fireworks, designers were forced to minimize and maximize
graphics, if they wanted to use the most room possible while working with multiple
graphics. Several programs have realized that adding a tabbed interface not
only allows people to have more control on what they’re working on, but
it also allows them to see everything that is open. The chance of forgetting
which graphic is open is less likely to happen with this new tabbed interface.
Dreamweaver MX already had this feature and Fireworks is just joining the ranks.
Automatically save JPG and GIF files in
their original format
Possibly the most annoying feature in previous versions of Fireworks was not
being able to open a JPG or GIF file, change it, and just click Save. Instead,
designers were forced to make sure their Optimize panel was set appropriately
and then click File> Export. Then there was the pain of navigating through
the computer’s file system to figure where the file should be exported.
Now Fireworks has joined the ranks of many image
editing programs and allows designers to simply click Save.
This feature will save me about new seconds on
every GIF or JPG that I edit. Time is money and Fireworks is saving me time.
System Anti-Aliasing
Previous version of Fireworks gave the option to apply different styles of anti-aliased
text. But no matter how much you tweaked some text, it just didn’t look
the same as anti-aliased text on Windows XP or on the new Macs.
Macromedia has added a new feature called “System
Anti-Alias”. Basically, it will make the text anti-aliased as it appears
on the designer’s machine.
Fit to Canvas
A small, but very helpful feature is “Fit to Canvas”. This feature
automats the process of aligning a document within a canvas. It will also crop
the canvas down to match the size of the image, if needed.
Support for Windows XP’s Save, Open,
and Browse dialogue boxes
Designers using Windows XP will longer have to look at those old, crappy dialogue
boxes from older Windows systems. Fireworks now has full support for more detailed,
stylish boxes.
Auto Shapes
Fireworks has added the ability to drag and drop nine different shapes including
a clock, a talking bubble, and a frame. These shapes are in vector format and
can be distorted in Fireworks. While some of the shapes may seem useless, items
like a talking bubble could be very useful to some designers.
Also, 3rd Party companies will probably have the
ability to add new shapes. If not, they should.
New Vector Shapes
No longer are designers limited to the square, circle, line, and polygon. Macromedia
has added a slew of vector shapes.
Some of the new vector shapes do more than look pretty. The connector line will
actually connect to graphics. Although there are more advanced products for
creating flow charts, it’s now possible in Fireworks.
Photo Professional Effects
While Fireworks is still behind Photoshop when it comes to editing bitmaps for
print, it continually comes closer and closer with every release. The new features
include a color replacing tool, red eye removal, and motion blurring. All of
them are very useful and give designers more a reason to upgrade.
Overall impression
Just with some of the workflow features alone, Fireworks MX 2004 is a nice upgrade.
For those of you constantly editing graphics for the web, this new version will
save you heaps of time. You will also benefit from all the new features to improve
your graphics.
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