As with any piece of software, it's important to understand the concept behind it. Fireworks is unusual in that it supports the creation and editing of both vector based drawing and bitmapped drawing. So, in essence, it's like having Photoshop and Illustrator in one package.

It also has HTML coding attached to it, so anything you save as a Fireworks file can be exported for use in Dreamweaver. For instance, the menus at the top of this site’s pages were made in Fireworks, and include the links to all the software "lectures,” as well as links to topics within each software section.

Finally, Fireworks allows you to create fairly large images, and then slice them into manageable bits so the image loads faster in a web browser like Netscape or Internet Explorer.

WORKSPACE

The workspace for Fireworks is similar to Photoshop/Illustrator. You have a tool palette and can specify canvas size and color in the "new" dialog box (or edit them with the Modify menu or Properties panel).

Under the Window menu are several floating panels that you can keep on your desktop to make working easier. There are several tabs to each panel: click on the tab to bring that information forward. Use the panel’s options menu (at the top right of the panel) to pull a tab out of the "nest" and have it separate if that works for you (“new panel group”).

The keystroke shortcuts we know and love, like zoom in (command space bar, or command +), zoom out (command space bar option, or command -), scroll (space bar), drag a copy (option), undo (command Z), and redo (command shift Z) all work in Fireworks. To do something again is command Y.

Show your rulers using the View menu. You can drag horizontal and vertical guides from the ruler, and readjust the position by double clicking on a guide; type the position in the dialog box that pops up.

NEW DOCUMENT

To begin working in Fireworks, you need to create a canvas. You can use any measurement system that's comfortable, but Fireworks' rulers will only ever be in pixels.

Since this artwork is intended for the web, a resolution of between 72 and 90 is all you need.

Canvas color determines the background color of your document. If you are going to have a textured/tiled background in your Dreamweaver document, choose transparent: only gif files can have a transparent background, however.

You can change any of these specifications from the properties panel at any time, as well as crop the canvas larger or smaller) to fit the image later.