Sarthak

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.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (54)

Hi All,

I noticed that all the comments from you are now going to Junk comments section. I have raised an alarm internally.

Also I have managed to find all the legitimate comments from the junk section. If you still do not find your comment answered to in the next couple of days, please write a new one.

This will help me in answering your queries in speed.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am seeing multiple folks reporting the issue of update failing to install on their machines. To get a speedy answer to your queries and a resolution, I would recommend you to follow the thread at Adobe forums linked at http://forums.adobe.com/message/1956471.

The thread is being followed by people from the installer team as well and you can get your queries resolved sooner than on my blog. I try to be active in that forum as well but somewhat get restricted by solving the issues of core product functionality and features.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Here is the latest new I have to share with you folks about the updater planned for Fireworks CS4 10.0.3. Below you can find the post content from Bruce Bowman, new Fireworks product manager. Watch out for the white little Adobe updater pop up in you system tray or the dock icons bouncing up and down. Once live we would love to get your feedback on it.

"There have been some recent changes in the product management team for Fireworks. Rick Jones has moved into the Fireworks Product Marketing Manager role, and I am now the Fireworks Product Manager.

It is my pleasure, as my first of what I hope will be many Fireworks blog posts, to share some really good news – we have the Fireworks CS4 10.0.3 Updater ready and we’re targeting May 6 as our go live date. Once live, it will be available via the Adobe Update Manager and on http://www.adobe.com/support/fireworks/downloads_updaters.html where you will also find release notes with details on the bugs that this updater fixes.

This updater fixes the most common bugs that we know about in Fireworks CS4, including numerous text shifting problems, stability issues on Mac and Windows, and bugs related to pasting text from Microsoft Office applications. The team would like to thank you for your patience as we developed this updater.

I’m very excited to get started in my new role, and look forward to interacting with you in the Fireworks community.

Bruce Bowman
Fireworks Product Manager"

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (28)

It's official now! Fireworks will be releasing a patch for the CS4 release version.

"The Fireworks team is actively working on a fix for the text-shifting bug and other bugs we know are causing real pain for Fireworks CS4 users. An update will be made available when we are confident that we have corrected the problems."

Some pain points getting addressed finally. Joy times ahead!

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)

Users facing the text bounding box issue can breathe a sign of relief as there is a workaround for that problem. As a temporary solution is through an extension which will correct all text objects whose blue colored bounding box has been shifted in the document.

Important Note:

1. Running this script will correct the bounding boxes for all text objects in the document affected by this bug. This correction is limited for that png file edit session only. The bug may be encountered again during future file edits where the extension script will need to be executed again.

2. Any CS3 text element if present inside a Group ONLY will get re-rendered on running this script. After installing this extension, you can access this script from Commands menu-->Re-sync Text

This extension will not touch any text elements containing missing fonts. The missing fonts dialog pops up when opening a png file which contains fonts not found on the system.

Thus there is no need to worry about CS3 text and missing text getting re-rendered unnecessarily on using this Extension.

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/index.cfm?event=extensionDetail&loc=en_us&extid=1706527

Re-sync Text Bounding Box is a simple Extension which will go through each and every text element present in a png document (be it inside a page or a layer or a state) and re-align its bounding box.

EXAMPLE:

The following is the screen shot of a file which got affected by this problem.

After running the extension script mentioned in the above link, the following is the state of text objects.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)

I have seen that users of Fireworks are running into issues where the design job is lost while saving the file. I admit to this begin a huge frustration for the users and we will work on to better it. Till that time a useful utility is present at the following web address which can save the png file automatically for you.

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/marketplace/index.cfm?event=marketplace.offering&offeringID=10210

This is an AIR application which will save your work automatically. It will not update the original png file but will create a folder FWAIRBackup where the auto saved png file will be placed. The extension will successfully work in versions CS3 and CS4 of Fireworks. The only requirement is that AIR run time needs to be installed which can be downloaded from http://www.adobe.com/products/air/

Further details of the extension can be obtained from the first link. Any other doubts or queries post them right away.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 6:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Below are some of the scenarios with respect to text shifting on the canvas. The user lands in a situation similar to one shown below from all the 4 scenarios.

1. Scenario: Selecting/de-selecting the text object and trying to move it on the canvas using keyboard arrow keys.
   Problem description: The text within a textbox in Fireworks CS4 on a Mac will move within the textbox and even move out of the textbox if you select and deselect the textbox multiple times while moving the textbox with the keyboard arrow keys each time.
   Temporary workaround: When ever you see a text image going out of sync with its bounding box, just re-adjust the text or double click inside the bounding box. This will make the text object to correct itself.
The above scenario can be seen visually from the video. The video has been provided by www.designme.sk
View Video
2. Scenario: Trying to align text elements using mouse either against other objects present on the canvas or a guide, using the cues from smart guides.
   
   Problem description: When ever we have grids enabled and we try to align a text element against other objects on the canvas using the cue from smart guides, sometimes the text bounding box shifts away from the text image on releasing the mouse.
   
   It seems this shift in the bounding box is happening when the bounding box tends to snap to the nearest grid pixel and we release the mouse at half pixel less.
   
   Temporary workaround: Try to align text elements with the following settings turned off. (i)View->Grid->Snap to Grid and (ii)View->Smart Guides->Snap to Smart Guides


3. Scenario: Range Kerning/Kerning value in CS3 is not the same in CS4.
   
   Problem description: Range Kerning value applied in CS3 does not give the same appearance when opened in CS4 and updated. The look of the text block totally changes and we need to manually enter the new value to get back the desired effect.
   
   Temporary workaround: Range Kerning control present in the UI has now been changed to Tracking in FWCS4. Tracking control works the same way as that present in apps such as Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. To apply tracking, a range of characters has to be selected first, unlike kerning control wherein, just keeping the cursor between 2 characters we could apply kerning.
   
   For a value of Kerning applied in CS3, if we set approximately 10 times the value of Tracking in CS4, we can get similar looking text element. Ex: if the Kerning value which was set in CS3 for a text element was 10, then around 100 could be the Tracking value which we will have to set in CS4 so that we can get similar looking result.
4. Scenario: 2 pixel shift in text glyphs when we change area/frame text to point text and vice a versa.
   
   Problem description: When we change the area text (drawn by click dragging on the canvas using the text tool such that we get an area bounding box) into a point text (drawn by just click once on the canvas using text tool) by double clicking the top right handle or vice-versa, we can see that there is a 2-px shift in glyphs on the canvas.
   
   In ATE, bounding box of a point text is different than the area text. The area text has a small gap between the glyphs and the bounding box, thus currently when we do such a change; there is a slight shift of the glyphs either upwards or downwards depending upon the point or area text change done.
   
   Temporary workaround: Create either an area text or point text depending upon your requirement and don’t shift or change from one type to the other. Note that when you convert area text to point text, the glyphs shift 2 px downwards and when we convert a point text into an area text, glyphs shift 2 px upwards.
   
   


5. Scenario: Trying to 9-slice scale a custom symbol or common library element, sometimes the text jumps away.
   
   Problem description: When we try to apply 9slice scaling on common library element such as a button etc, sometimes the text jumps away from its location. 9-slice scaling when applied to a text bounding box changes it to an area text if it’s a point text which makes the glyphs to shift 2 px from their original location. Moreover in situations where in 9-slice scaling is used to scale the button element, after some point the text tends to break away from its original location.
   
   Temporary workaround: If a symbol or custom component has text contained inside, then make sure that the text object is placed well inside the 9-slice guides and they are not overlapping. More importantly, make sure that the text element is an area text box (if it’s not then convert it by dragging the lower right corner of the bounding box) and not a point text box.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (31)

Thank you all the designers for upgrading to Fireworks CS4 version.

I have been reading about some stability issues with this Fireworks release which seems to be crashing or generating unexpected behavior at different work flows. I would request all the designers to be a little more patient and post some of the work flows here so that we can investigate them deeper.

We would be really happy to hear from you to make Fireworks a better product. Please try to provide me with as much information as possible like the steps involved, which platform you are designing on. In case it is possible to share the fireworks png file, it will be even better.

If you don't feel comfortable posting all these details here, you can mail me. Or you could post a message so that I can contact you offline. Any way of communication works for me till I am able to solve your problem.

Thanks once again for using Fireworks!

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (46)

Bug fixes part 2 lists some more issues which have been ironed out in Fireworks CS4 release.

1. When objects are present in sub layers and the canvas image is resized, the sub layer objects do not get resized.
2. & character is now allowed in Symbol Properties dialog.
3. Layer in FW created in a PSD have the blend mode set to Pass Through now instead of Normal.
4. Exporting the slice from contextual menu was causing a hang of Fw.
5. Text with PS effects had a bigger bounding box. Now it is fixed.
6. Text object which had multiple attribute settings when copy pasted did not preserve the attributes when pasted. Now pasting the text object preserves the same.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (116)

Apart from the workflow features in Fireworks CS4 there have been some bug fixes which seem important from a designers perspective. Below mentioned are 7 bug fixes which stand out amongst the other fixes.

1. When pages in the png file are linked and then renamed, the links had to be updated manually. This updation of links now happens automatically in Fireworks CS4 on page renaming.
2. If an invisibile layer or object was selected, the visibility was getting turned on automatically. This has now been taken care, where the visibility doesnot toggle automatically.
3. A restriction has been added to disallow the presence of special characters in page names. An alert message is displayed now.
4. Images copied from a web browser and pasted as a mask was broken in Fireworks CS3. Version CS4 has rectified the issue to make it work once again.
5. While scaling a vector or on some other occassions, a stray pixel used to crop up on the canvas. This stray 1 pixel has been taken care of now with the CS4 version.
6. When a web object aka slice/hotspot is cut and pasted, it now pastes in the selected web layer/sub web layer.  CS3 pasted in the lowest layer hierarchy irrespective of the layer selection.
7. The "Select Unused Items" in the document library now works across multiple pages. In Fireworks CS3 it was limited to the current page.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 5:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)