Sarthak

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.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

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)

Explore the Adobe CS4 User Interface for handling panels and toolbars in Fireworks CS4 version by a demo from Thierry.

The video can be viewed from the following URL http://www.fireworkszone.com/page-2-4-0-521.html

CS4,User Interface,UI,panel groups,panel settings,toolbars

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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)

Sometime back I had mentioned of Apress Publications delivering a book for Fireworks CS4. The books available for Fireworks CS4 has increased to 5 which I know of. There might be more and I would appeal to all to add the books to this list as a one stop place for books for Fireworks CS4. Below mentioned are a total of 5 books which I have seen available till now.

Add to this list if you know of any other title for Fireworks CS4.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Fireworks CS4 application has finally released the much awaited patch to fix some of the big issues related to text and other stability related issues. The update can be downloaded from http://www.adobe.com/support/fireworks/downloads_updaters.html . The automatic update for the application from Adobe Update Manager (AUM) is coming shortly.

After applying the update, please ensure that the version screen now shows as shown below.

We await your response to this update release.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (27)

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)

Adobe Fireworks CS4 has a new book on the shelves. Friends of Ed from Apress publications have released a new book for beginners which sets a good understanding for designers and users exploring the capabilities of Fireworks. There are some really good case studies in the book to get you related to real world scenarios.

Below mentioned is table of contents of the book. For more details about the book, please visit site http://www.friendsofed.com/book.html?isbn=9781430216186

Summary of Contents

• Part One: Learning Fireworks
  • Chapter 1: Welcome to Fireworks
  • Chapter 2: Fireworks and CS4 Integration
  • Chapter 3: Working with Bitmaps
  • Chapter 4: Working with Vectors
  • Chapter 5: Exporting from Fireworks to the Web
• Part Two: Using Fireworks
  • Chapter 6: Creating Visual Effects
  • Chapter 7: The Ins and Outs of Animation
  • Chapter 8: Skinning Flex Components with Fireworks
  • Chapter 9: Creating Adobe Air Prototypes
  • Chapter 10: Fireworks Extensions
  • Chapter 11: Extending Fireworks: Developing an Effective Workflow Using Javascript and Flash
• Part Three: Fireworks in Action
  • Chapter 12: Web Site Case Study #1: Blog
  • Chapter 13: Web Site Case Study #2: CSS Sprites
  • Chapter 14: Web Site Case Study #3: E-Commerce

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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)

Pages panel is an important panel since it provides a way to quickly access multiple pages in the Fireworks png file. It also allows for various manipulations in the document related to pages.

1. A Fireworks png file can contain a master page. The presence is not mandatory. All the objects present in in the master page are visible in all the other pages under a special "Master Page Layer" layer. This layer is by default added on all the pages and resides at the bottom in the layer hierarchy.
2. Quick navigation to different pages is possible using the 'PgUp' and 'PgDn' keyboard keys. The navigation is circular in nature i.e from the last page a 'PgDn' down key press will lead you to the first page.
3. Each page in the document contains an independent set of States and Layers.
4. Multiple pages can be selected using the Shift/Ctrl on Win and Shift/Cmd on Mac
5. Once multiple pages are selected, they can be deleted from the delete shortcut icon present in the panel as shown above.
6. Optimize settings for the multiple selected pages can be changed at once by changing the Optimize panel settings.
7. New pages get added just below the currently selected page in the pages panel.
8. When a page is dragged and dropped on the New Page icon, the page gets duplicated and added just below the selected page
9. The thumbnail size of the page in the panel can be selected from one of the predefined 5 options.
10. An existing child page can be promoted to being a master and an existing master page can be converted in to a child page.
11. The Link icon shown above is used for inheriting master page attributes like canvas color, canvas size, optimize settings when they get changed.
12. Right click functionality has been added in the panel apart from the panel menu which can be accessed from the icon on right top location.
13. The page numbers before the page name are a visual indication of the number of page and does not get included when the file is exported.
14. When a page is duplicated, the new page gets appended with "copy' string.

Use Case:

Master page functionality is really helpful when creating the navigation system which needs to be present on all pages. It might be a problem when the different pages are of variable heights where the footer in present will need to on individual page. The master page objects and its placement on other child pages cannot be changed. It can be modified only from master page and inherited by all child pages.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Kuler is another service which has been added in Fireworks CS4. Kuler is a color palette sharing mechanism amongst the community of designers. The kuler panel can be accessed from Windows->Extensions->Kuler menu item.

The Browse tab within the panel allows users to search for the right palette. When the search results are populated with color palettes, an triangle icon next to it brings up a menu as shown below. The theme can be edited within the Kuler panel which will bring you to the Create tab.

You can also select a palette and add them to the Swatches panel in Fireworks through "Add to Swatches Panel" menu. This will add the palette of 5 colors at the end of all color entries in Swatches panel in Fireworks.

The Create tab as already mentioned allows for the editing of searched themes. The below image has 2 icons highlighted which communicate directly to Fireworks. The yellow highlighted icon numbered 1 sets the current stroke color of Fireworks as the Base color. The blue highlighted icon does the same operation but for fill color. If stroke or fill has transparent set to them as the color, a dialog will warn the the user to choose only solid colors. Same warning dialog appears when the user tries to work with gradients and other non solid color values.

Other workflows are if the fill or stroke field is selected in Tool palette, double clicking on any color in the 5 squares will set that color to the selection in Tools palette.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 2:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Creative Suite 4 has a number of services included for different products. Fireworks CS4 introduced three of them namely

1. Share My Screen aka Acrobat Connect
2. Kuler
3. Search For Help

The Share My Screen service is good for any application where the design right on the canvas of the application can be shared online. The sharing happens securely over https protocol and can be viewed by only those whom you wish to invite. The service requires you to have an Adobe ID which can be created free from www.adobe.com.

The dialog can be accessed from "File->Share My Screen". Once logged in the browser window opens which for some of you might install a flash plug-in needed to run this service. Once all the installations are done, a dialog box opens with URL address which has to be sent to people to view your canvas.

Then click on the "Share My Computer Screen..." button which has opened in browser. Some plug-in might be needed again which will finally lead to a screen with options of "Share" and "Cancel" After that you can return to any application like Fireworks whose canvas you would like to share with viewing participants.

When the participant joins a message will pop up requesting your confirmation to allow the user to view. Explore all the other options for chat, file share and have a good time collaborating using this feature. Free users can share it with 2 people and beyond that the subscription has to be purchased.

Mac or Win, it should work!

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The last post in the series for Fireworks CS4 feature. Part 5 of 5 for the features of Fireworks CS4.

1. Support for Illustrator file while opening/importing which contain Multiple Art boards in it.
2. Contextual menus for Pages, Layers and States panel
3. Preferences panel has been aligned with other Suite applications
4. Support for 4 byte characters in panel names, page names, objects etc.
5. 9 Slice scaling for nested symbols

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Part 4 of 5 for the features of Fireworks CS4.

1. Skinning of flex components which can be used in Flex as CSS behavior. It can be accessed via Commands->Flex Skinning
2. Demo Current Document. Accessible from Commands->Demo Current Document
3. Panel changes: Double byte support in the custom panels.
4. Measure Tool
5. Asynchronous Saving.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 7:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Adobe Fireworks has an AIR 1.5 update.

"This update for Fireworks CS4 supports the release of Adobe AIR 1.5, the Adobe cross-operating system runtime that allows you to deliver personal, interactive experiences to the desktop. The update is available in both English and Japanese. Fireworks CS4 adds the capability for users to create and share the design and functionality of an AIR application before effort is spent on coding."

There are some User Interface changes to the AIR panel making it consistent with other Adobe applications. There has also been some logical grouping of fields in the user interface allowing for a cleaner and easy to follow workflow. The updates can be downloaded from http://www.adobe.com/support/fireworks/downloads_updaters.html

The updates are for English, Japanese languages only and will have to be manually installed. The update will not be detected automatically by Fireworks CS4 when running and automatic installation also. Any other areas will not get affected with this update.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 2:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Part 3 of 5 for the features of Fireworks CS4.

1. Tooltips for objects with the dimensions. This can be accessed via View->Tool tips
2. 9 slice scaling for primitive rectangle.
3. The gradients and patterns movement on the canvas is not live.
4. Region based Screenshot Tool has been added for Windows. It can be accessed via Commands->Take Screenshot

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 1:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Part 2 of 5 for the features of Fireworks CS4.

1. 9 Slice Tool
2. Better support for Nested Symbols
3. Arrow Tool
4. Optional XMP data for JPEGs

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In an earlier post I had mentioned top 11 features of Fireworks CS4. The engineering was not limited to only those features. Below mentioned are some more features which were engineered. This is part 1 of a series of 5 posts.

1. Fireworks CS4 has 2 rendering engines. An earlier blog post titled "CS3 and CS4 rendering engine differences" will give you more details about it and a means to interchange between the two.
2. Better Photoshop integration for Import and Export for psd files.
3. FXG Export. Can be accessed from Commands->Export to FXG
4. Symbols In place Editing

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 5:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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)

Adobe Fireworks CS4 extending document is live with the new document containing all the changes in the API for the product. The same document is also available as a pdf file which can be saved on you local disk for referring to it while you are disconnected.

Web Help Link

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Fireworks/10.0_Extending/index.html

Downloading PDF Link

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Fireworks/10.0_Extending/fireworks_cs4_extending.pdf

Utilize the power of JavaScript interpreter built into Fireworks to enhance your productivity. To give you some examples, many panels have been built entirely using this technique. Some of them are Path, Align, Export to AIR panels.

Explore the power within the application.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two new articles have been posted at Fireworks Developer Center on www.adobe.com. The actual links for the articles are mentioned below. For people new to this location, it houses articles, extensions which range from traditional usage of Fireworks to extending the functionality to its limits. Explore the following new articles apart from the old ones which are a good read.

Lorem Ipsum placeholder text generator for Fireworks
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/fireworks/articles/loremipsum_panel.html

Workspace Manager panel in Fireworks CS4
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/fireworks/articles/workspace_manager_panel.html

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Continuing with the workflow changes that have been done in CS4 release version, below you can find 6 more. I will keep posting more workflow changes in this release over the next few weeks.

1. All the color spaces of .psd and .ai are now supported. Once the import/open of the files happen, they get converted to RGB 8 bit.This might result in color variations on certain occasions. Prior to CS4 some of the files refused to open.
2. Another hidden functionality added in CS4 is the history of object selections. Consider a case when you select objects at multiple places on the canvas and have to revert back to the last selected object. Fireworks CS4 allows a history for the selection of objects also. The user can run back or forward in the selection history using Cmd+Shift+Left Arrow/Right Arrow on Mac and Ctrl+Shift+Left Arrow/Right Arrow on Win.
3. Whenever a custom asset is created by the user, the path location is remembered unlike CS3 where the user had to navigate to Fireworks preferences location in users folder.
4. The usage of special characters in File, Page, State name has been restricted. Ex '/', '\'

5. Not really a workflow change but all the flash panels are not loaded at the launch of application. They are initialized and respond only when they are in focus. This improves memory footprint of the application and performance. If all the flash panels are in focus then the user will not see any change. Also when the flash panel has been switched off, it does not unload and consumes memory.
6. A much needed and special feature to have images inset the text, Text In Path has been added which will create something like as below. It can be accessed from Text->Text in Path.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 5:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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)

1. Pixel radius definition for primitive rectangle. The radius can be changed even after the rectangle is 9 slice scaled. This is apart from defining it in percentage values.

2. Restricting the scaling down of objects which have 9 slice scaling applied to it. This prevents the objects from getting distorted for vector and bitmap objects.
3. States and Layers panel have a small radio button kind of functionality which allows for moving the objects from 1 state/layer to the other layer/state without any issues. When an object is selected contained in the State or Layer the radio button is enabled. Once the button is enabled designer can move just the radio button which inturn moves all the selected objects under it.

4. The vector objects like Line, Ellipse, and Polygon now show up with names unlike just "Path" as was present in earlier versions.

5. When guides are present on a document, pressing shift will show the distance between 2 guides on the canvas in pixels.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 6:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

1. Guides on the master page will be visible on child pages. Any new guides added will also get reflected on the child pages. Guide location changes made in the master will reflect on child pages. Child page can override the master page guide settings.
2. In the symbol properties panel, user needs to press Enter to reflect the changes in fields like labels.
3. Loading of flash panels are delayed. This will reduce the launch time and use memory stamp only for panels which are used by users. There are 8 flash panels by default in Fireworks CS4.
4. Anti-aliasing for vectors is much smoother now. It is due to new rendering mechanism added in CS4 version.
5. Mouse wheel scrolling in panels
• Mac:  Layers, Pages, states, Common Library
• Win: All panels

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 1:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

1. Master Page Optimize settings can be carried over on to the child pages.  For optimize settings to be inherited by child pages, they need to be linked. Child page can override the master page optimize settings. Alternatively when the optimize settings for child page is modified, the linking goes off and the master page optimize settings are overridden.
2. Designers can now select multiple pages and change the optimize settings in one shot. It will be reflected in all pages.
3. Layers contextual menu has a new menu item called "Share Layer To All Pages". This option will share the selected layer across all the existing pages.
4. Another option added to the Layers contextual menu item is "Exclude Shared Layer". This option will remove the shared layer on current page without affecting it on the other pages.
5. The contextual menu can be accessed by right clicking in the layers panel. Similar right click functionality has been added to Pages and States panels.
6. Icons use for Extensible Flash Panels. Users can now place icons along with swf files, which will be considered as panel icons in workspace.The icons need to be png files. The name of the png file should be the same as panel name. Mouse over behavior can also be specified an icon and its name should be 'panelName_over.png'

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 5:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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)

Fireworks CS4 version has introduced defining the roundness of rectangles in either pixels or in percentage values. However in Fireworks CS3 the roundness could be defined only in percentage numbers.

In Fireworks CS4 if you are working with pixel values and a CS3 version file is opened, all the rectangles will loose the roundness information and have sharp corners.

To work around this just create a new rectangle and define the roundness in percentage and then open the CS3 version created fireworks png files. This will solve the issue.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 5:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Fireworks CS4 now utilizes a new rendering engine. Users have the option of toggling between the CS3 and CS4 vector rendering engines using the following scripts: Any object created afresh in CS4 version will utilize the new rendering engine.

A legacy file created in version prior to CS4 even when edited in CS4 version will not use the newer engine until the object is selected and the script is run on it.

1. Download link for script to enable Fireworks CS3 vector rendering on selected objects
2. Download link for script to enable Fireworks CS4 vector rendering on selected objects

Users can toggle as many times between the 2 options to verify the graphic appearance.

Visual Illustration: See the 1 pixel anti-aliasing added to red rectangle on right which uses CS4 rendering.

The above editable fireworks png file can be downloaded from here.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

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)

Following are the 11 features which have been highlighted in CS4 release for Fireworks product. To know more about them follow the link http://www.adobe.com/products/fireworks/features/?view=topnew

1. Preview or create package as an AIR application
2. Export all the pages in png file as pages of a PDF
3. Export the document as HTML and CSS
4. Link objects to Styles and skin them in a click
5. Bigger and better repository of re-usable assets
6. Workspace Improvements through Smart Guides
7. Kuler pallete usage directly in Swatches panel
8. New User Interface for better layout organization
9. Performance improvements in all areas of application working
10. New Type Engine for better integration with other products
11. Connect Now aka Adobe Connect for screen and voice sharing from within Fireworks

Stay tuned as I will highlight other features which are new in Fireworks CS4.

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 2:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Adobe just announced its suite of prodcuts for creative professional through the CS4 planned release.

Fireworks CS4 will be available in the following suites

1. Master Collection
2. Web Premium
3. Design Premium

Design Premium is the new suite in which Fireworks features. Just pre-order and enjoy!

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 7:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Adobe Fireworks Team is presenting a half day session related to designing and Fireworks CS4 public beta release. This is the first showcase of public beta of Fireworks to the designer community in India.

I received the following invite from Adobe and it seems like the registrations are on first come first served basis. So hurry up before the seats get filled up.

Greetings Creative Professionals...

We at Adobe, welcome you to the showcase of Adobe Fireworks CS4 public Beta.

Kindly, forward this invite to your designer friends who might be interested in this event.

Thanking you,
Adobe Fireworks Team
Bangalore

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Fellow designers and Fireworks users.

Adobe just announced the availability of its web designing and prototyping tool Fireworks CS4 beta on labs.

Continue reading "Adobe Fireworks CS4 Beta annouced !" »

Posted by Sarthak Singhal at 2:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)