Fireworks 4 for Windows & Macintosh (Visual QuickStart Guide) [Paperback]

Sandee Cohen (Author)

Book Description

Series: Visual QuickStart Guide | Publication Date: February 20, 2001

Macromedia Fireworks is the Swiss Army knife of Web graphics production. With this single software application, users can create, modify, optimize, and output all the Web graphic elements, including text, photos, buttons, banners, animation, and interface elements. This then enables users to produce sophisticated, graphics-rich, interactive Web sites with great ease and speed. Fireworks offers seamless compatibility with Dreamweaver and other Web authoring tools. Fireworks 4 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide is designed to be easy to use. Like the other books in this popular series, it takes a visual, task-oriented approach, so readers can look up what they need to know and get straight to work. It covers all the tools and techniques for creating graphics within Fireworks and exporting them to a variety of formats. This fully updated edition includes added coverage of animation; Dreamweaver and Fireworks scripting; using JavaScript commands; and exporting Fireworks graphics to Director.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Fireworks 4, a tool for creating graphics and interactive elements for web pages, works well with other Macromedia tools like Dreamweaver and Flash. Like other authors in the "Visual QuickStart" series, Cohen does an excellent job of distilling topics. Whether discussing optimizing graphics or creating rollover effects, her book addresses the issues in a concise manner, which makes it useful for even experienced users. How To Use provides a very graphical reference for the newer user. Both of these titles are recommended, given the popularity of web animation tools, but Cohen's book will probably have a longer shelf life.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Each chapter consists of numbered steps that explain how to perform a specific technique or work with a feature."Freelance informer, july 2001

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Macromedia Press; 1st edition (February 20, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201731339
• ISBN-13: 978-0201731330
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,328,433 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #47 in Books > Computers & Technology > Graphic Design > Web Design > Fireworks
  • #84 in Books > Computers & Technology > Apple > Mac Administration

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Covers the easy bits and the deep stuff, February 26, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Fireworks 4 for Windows & Macintosh (Visual QuickStart Guide) (Paperback)

I've been a fan of the Visual Quickstart series, but Sandee Cohen is one of the best authors in the bunch.

This Fireworks 4 Visual Quickstart does exactly what it promises. Gets you up and running fast, with no long-winded paragraphs and loads and loads of pictures.

Everything in the program is shown in big, clean pictures with loads of labels. So it's very easy to follow along the step by step instructions. Start here. Click there. Tah-dah! You've done it.

The book is divided up into different workflows. So if you don't care about drawing, you can skip directly to the Optimizing chapters. There's even a special section for those who are moving over from Photoshop. So each tool and palette from Adobe is clearly labeled with its Macromedia counterpart.

One thing I particularly like is the background on not just Fireworks, but the Web in general. For instance, there's a whole section that explains when or if you should slice.

There's also a great color section that shows things like the difference between Gamma settings for the Windows and Macintosh computers. Also Web Dither fills, Banding, JPEG compression, and so on.

This is much more than a book on Fireworks. I recommend it for anyone who is just starting out creating Web graphics, and needs some solid background.

Oh yes, did I mention the book also covers Dreamweaver 4 and Flash? Turns out Fireworks 4 works well with those programs. So the book shows you how to import code into Dreamweaver and then edit the images back in Fireworks.

There are tons of little stories and anecdotes that made the book a joy to read. Even when I wasn't in front of the computer.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Answered every single one of my questions, March 17, 2001

By 

Lynn Lee (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fireworks 4 for Windows & Macintosh (Visual QuickStart Guide) (Paperback)

Fireworks is a tricky program.

It's a combination of Photoshop (which I know) and Illustrator (which I don't) as well as a little Flash (which I played with once). Needless to say, with all those programs kicking around together, learning Fireworks is not easy.

After several weeks struggling with the manual and some online tutorials, I gave up and bought this visual quickstart book. Am I glad I did.

It only took a few hours with this book to create my own sliced graphic that I exported out as a table and inserted into Dreamweaver. Then, the book showed me how I could work in Dreamweaver to edit the Fireworks table.

The book also had the clearest, most understandable steps to create the new pop-up menus and rollovers. This is something I always wanted to do, but never understood.

I can't think of any question I had that the book didn't answer. It's like the author was watching me work and saw what things I didn't understand.

If you've got Fireworks, you must keep this book on your desk.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid and useful, but not for all learning styles..., March 27, 2001

By 

r404k (Atlanta, GA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fireworks 4 for Windows & Macintosh (Visual QuickStart Guide) (Paperback)

This is my first book in the Visual Quickstart Guide series. I have read a lot of reviews about the VQS series and knew what to expect when I bought one: a very solid quick reference work.

This book delivered exactly that. I have used Fireworks before and was familiar with a number of its features. This book helped clarify some of them and taught me several new ones (the most useful of which is the creation of a navigtation bar). In that sense, it was more than a good purchase. The book is well-written, clear and concise, which is exactly what I needed.

Now a word of CAUTION: I am not sure how useful this book would be to me if I had no prior knowledge of Fireworks or other graphic design programs. I tend to like a more structured approach for the material that is completely new to me. Also, while some people can learn well from quick reference works like this, I find that knowing just how something works is not quite enough. I need to unerstand the underlying reasons (theory, if you will) to feel completely comfortable with my knowledge. For this reason, I am not sure that this book would be the best guide for absolute newcomers to graphic design (those already familiar with programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, or any other similar products, should probably do fine). For those, I would recommend reading something a bit heavier, with a good amount of theoretical background (Bible or Mastering series come to mind, with Deke McClelland's Photoshop Bible as an example).

That said, for anyone who just wants a quick reference and a very quick start on Fireworks 4, Sandee Cohen book fits the (relatively small) bill--pardon the pun--perfectly.