Sarthak

There are more mobile devices than the combination of computers and automobiles in combination. The phones are getting smarter and their capabilities are increasing.

This has led to businesses making their web sites optimized for mobile screen sizes. We would like to know are you a mobile web site developer? If yes

1. What is the workflow you are following?
2. What are the bottlenecks you face while developing, deploying, previewing or testing the web site in devices?
3. What are the pain points in your workflow which can be addressed?
4. What are your expectation from a solution?

Adobe is looking for feedback in this area exploring the possibilities. The goal may be to make you more efficient and productive.

Please write to us with as much feedback as possible. We might contact the commenting folks further to understand deep into their working style and collaborate with them.

Official AIR Team blog announcement:

http://blogs.adobe.com/air/2009/12/adobe_air_153_now_available.html

AIR 1.5.3 Developer Release Notes:

http://www.adobe.com/support/documentation/en/air/1_5_3/releasenotes_developers.html#newfeat

Apple has released an update for Snow Leopard. The update version is 10.6.2 and is a recommended update for all users of Adobe Fireworks CS4.

The random crashes seen while working in the application is expected to get fixed with this update release of Snow Leopard.

Once the update has been successfully installed, and there are some issues faced while working in the application, this forum is open for all of you to send in their feedback for the team to better investigate the root causes.

There has been a official statement release from the product manager of Fireworks, Bruce Bowman. The statement has been made live at Fireworks team blog at blogs.adobe.com/fireworks.

He talks about the various issue Fireworks designers are facing while using the app on Snow Leopard. The much talked about crash on exit, hang and error on launch all get a mention in the official statement.

The complete post can be read at http://blogs.adobe.com/fireworks/2009/10/follow-up_on_snow_leopard_comp.html

Yahoo Developer Network has hosted some nice assets for wireframing and other designs. These assets are Adobe Fireworks png files which are in the symbols format allowing them to be reused across multiple pages in a document.

You can copy them in the Common Library location and refresh the panel. They will be available for your design layouts or wireframes.

A screenshot of the assets is shown below:

The complete article and the files are placed at http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/about/stencils/fireworks.html

Quite an impressive set!

Are you facing hangs, beach balls, wheel of death while working with Text tool on Fireworks CS4?

We have investigated the issue and the resolution is below: Steps to follow:

• Quit all the applications that are running.
• Navigate to “/Applications/Adobe Fireworks CS4/Required/” folder.
• Rename the file, “GlobalResources” to something like “GlobalResources_original”.
• Now copy the file from this link at the same location. (essentially we are replacing the old globalresources file with the one I have attached with this mail above)
• Launch Fireworks CS4 and select the text tool to type something on canvas.

The file has been placed at location http://sarthak.adobe.com/files/GlobalResources

CAUTION: This solution needs to be used ONLY when the text tool is not working. The other issues of crash on exit/save will not be solved by this file replacement technique.

The Adobe Developer Connection is excited to announce that the brand new Adobe Cookbooks application is now live!  This uber Adobe Cookbook application replaces the individual, product-specific cookbook applications that were previously in place for Flex, AIR and Mobile.  The new application will still support those technologies, in addition to a dozen or so additional technologies, all within a single application.  For those new to the cookbook applications, they are a searchable repository for community-generated code samples. 

James Cameroon shows his new movie 'Avatar' later this year. If you would like to see a sneak preview, be there at MAX 2009.

Things are getting hot at MAX. Now you have one more reason to attend the MAX event in LA Oct 4-7.

More details about this can be found at http://www.loopinsight.com/2009/09/22/adobe-to-show-3d-version-of-james-camerons-avatar-at-adobe-max/ . Even the employees have little idea of what the movie holds for us. So be there and let us all have fun at MAX.

Be there!

What appeals to you in Adobe Fireworks? Any version? Old Macromedia days or Adobe days?

It could be specific to a feature which has been introduced in CS4, CS3, or the old days. It could be a workflow which makes you come back to the application, like Batch processing, slicing technique or something else.

I am gathering this data for knowing which feature/workflow of Fireworks is being used by designers. This is to gauge and help if something has been worked upon and could increase the efficiency of designers.

A new look, feature rich version of tv.adobe.com got launched recently.

The site has a brand-new look & feel, and many new features including:

• User-customizable homepage
• Vastly improved navigation & search
• Save your favorite episodes to “My Library”
• Share videos on social networking sites such as Facebook, Digg, and StumbleUpon
• Subscribe to the RSS feeds of your favorite shows
• Pop-out video player to view videos at any size
• Commenting & Rating
• Tags

This new version should make the learning a smoother flow now.

There is a new extension by Eugene which gives you a set of pre-built cursors for web. The use cases might be huge for web designers and eases them from building it from scratch for them.

The extension is available at Adobe Fireworks Exchange http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/index.cfm?event=extensionDetail&loc=en_us&extid=1879523

Once the extension is installed the assets will become visible in the Common Library folder where all other pre-built assets for Adobe Fireworks are shipped.

Download the extension, install it and save some time by not creating these icons.

Are you using any version of Adobe Fireworks on the latest OS from Apple aka Snow Leopard?

If yes, then do send us your feedback, observations, bugs, weird behaviors. You could be using any prior version of Firework like CS3 or the latest release of CS4.

Let us know your experiences and we will try to resolve in case there are issues found.

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A new script is posted at Adobe Labs for Fireworks which will address the request for better FXG export from Fireworks which can be consumed by Flash Catalyst.

The script can be found on http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashcatalyst/fireworksexport.html from where it can be installed and functionality changes and enhancements done by the Fireworks team.

Below are copy pasted the Release notes for quick reference

Enhancements

1. lineHeight for Text element was always exported as %, now its exported based on value selected in Fireworks ( % or exact)
2. Tab indention was not correct for elements which were exported as bitmaps
3. Exporting invisible bitmap elements caused script error
4. Updated Rectangle primitive object to export transformation matrix and roundness value.
5. Modified / Added Application Private Data for all elements (d:userLabel , d:type etc)
6. Exporting effects applied on Groups and Symbols

Issues Fixed

1. Error is thrown when FXG with Stroke for text is imported in Flash Catalyst
2. Objects with different opacity are not imported properly to Flash Catalyst
3. Export to FXG: TypeError: currRun.size has no properties
4. Flash Catalyst: Unsupported elements exported as bitmaps are incorrectly positioned
5. Text shift is seen when imported to Flash Catalyst
6. Flash Catalyst: Importing of sublayers with different visibility is not proper
7. Flash Catalyst: Importing a stack of symbols with different visibility is not proper
8. FXG Export: Exporting text with numeric throws error
9. FXG Export: Visible symbol elements are not exported
10. Exporting test file to FXG shows a negative number
11. Flash Catalyst: One of the rectangle in the bug file shifts when imported to FC
12. Flash Catalyst: Rectangle roundness shows different value when imported in FC
13. Flash Catalyst: Importing test file with text runs having a mix of attributes throws error while parsing
14. Command doesn’t Remember the last export directory
15. Warning is not thrown before overwriting FXG file
16. Remove copyright notification in the FXG script
17. Exporting a selection to FXG
18. Text gets truncated when exported to FXG
19. Unable to import the file to FC
20. Export to FXG should throw warning while exporting files with missing fonts
21. FXG export creates invalid tag names starting with a number
22. Export to FXG encounters duplicate PNG files

Known Issues

1. Rectangle with gradient applied is not exported correctly.
2. Masks applied on Bitmaps appear stretched in FC
3. Masks with unsupported properties are still exported as normal elements and not bitmaps
4. Invisible bitmap element inside the group is not exported but the tag is exported.

Flash Catalyst,Adobe Fireworks,FXG

I have recently started using the services of twitter. My twitter account is twitter.com/sarthaksinghal. This account is not limited to Fireworks but expands on my travel and photographic interests as well.