Macromedia Fireworks 8: Training from the Source (Paperback)

~ Patti Schulze (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

If you learn best by doing, and what you’re intent on doing is create stunning Web graphics with Macromedia Fireworks 8, this is the place to turn. The best-selling tutorial book on Fireworks has been completely updated to get you hands-on fast with all of the program’s most important features, including its newest: additional blend modes, support for special characters and AutoShape properties, workflow improvements, and more. Through project-based lessons that equal 16 to 20 hours of instruction, you’ll cover the entire process of creating Web graphics with Fireworks 8—from creating images to optimizing and exporting them. Simple step-by-step instructions, loads of screen shots, and a CD with media files and a trial version of the program will have you creating rollovers, pop-ups, and more in no time. Whether you’re new to the world of Fireworks graphics or a veteran user eager to tap the power of the latest version, you’ll find the trusted, Macromedia-certified instruction you need in these pages.

About the Author

Patti Schulze is the founder and president of Digital Training + Designs (www.digitrain.com), a Macromedia, Apple, Quark, and Adobe Authorized Training Center in Dallas, Texas. Patti has created many Web sites: from recommending the hardware, installing the software, and developing databases and e-commerce functionality, to designing the graphics and coding the HTML. She is the author of Macromedia Dreamweaver 4 Fireworks 4 Studio: Training from the Source, Macromedia Dreamweaver 4: Training from the Source, Macromedia Fireworks MX: Training from the Source, and Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004: Training from the Source, also from Macromedia Press.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Macromedia Press (October 9, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321335910
• ISBN-13: 978-0321335913
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #401,402 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good enough..., December 28, 2005

By	Ghostman (LA, CA) - See all my reviews

Before I purchased this book, I was a complete newbie when it came to graphical softwares. I had no idea what book to get. Fireworks 8 was brand new at the time, and there weren't many available tutorials for it, nevermind reviews.

I decided on FW8: Training from the Source from basing the series' integrity on the reviews for FW7: Training from the Source, which were fantastic. Otherwise, I would not have bought this book. Just the concept of learning something from the actual company, seemed monotonous and mundane. I expected a boring manual. :/

When the book finally arrived, I was seriously impressed with the general presentation and easy-to-understand explanation for beginners. I had read several tutorials of web languages and other programs like DW before, but this book was extremely precise and thorough with the instructions. It also has a lot of pictures, which is something I always cherish.

The tutorial also comes packed with a CD, including graphical elements you will manipulate and incorporate into your lessons. This is highly efficient, because you have the exact same image the author is refering to. Other books would just order you to fish for photos online, resulting in tedious time consumption and disimilar results.

The book slowly works you up from the ground from art editing to hotspot tools. Eventually through the process, you'll create the exemplified website from the book, which looks fantastic and professional for a ma-and-pa candy store.

However, there is one monumental flaw in either the book or the graphical software. Websites designed in Fireworks 8 are incompatible with non-Internet Explorer browsers. So if anyone were to view your site through say, Mozilla Firefox or Netscape, they would just see a slew of collapsed images and something completely different from what you see. So the point of teaching you how to construct a website and exporting it to the Dreamweaver is quite futile. I would recommend you skip that particular portion of the configurations chapter. FW8 is a graphics editing tool and it is strongly discouraged if one were to use it beyond the context of designing and authoring a graphic. If you want a WEBdesign editing tool, you need to purchase Dreamweaver 8.

Another folly of the book worth mentioning is its lack of a "How to Create Great Font Designs and Logos!" Fireworks 8 is capable of designing great custom logos and designs through filtering and layering, but the book's coverage on this section is shallow to nonexistent. I suggest you do a search for "fireworks font," where you'll find links to some great font creations through FW8. This will come in handy if you were to design a sophisticated font for your website logo or graphic.

But despite the shortcomings, and what's ultimately more important to the broad picture, is that you learn the basics of Fireworks 8 in a smooth and enjoyable process. I have never read a better tutorials book for a web language or program, period. If you're a novice-intermediate FW user, I honestly refuse to recommend a more qualified book.

With this book and prior web knowledge, I was able to design a professionally-styled website GuyFactor... (figure out the rest) ;)

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What a joke!, February 24, 2006

By	David A. Heintz "designdog" (Richmond, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this book unseen from Amazon, hoping, since it came from Macromedia, that it would help me learn the new features in Fireworks 8. Not! Instead this is a barely reworked edition of the one I have had for Fireworks MX!

To be fair, I printed out the "What's new in Fireworks 8" from the Fireworks Help, and cross-referenced it with this book's index. Nothing!

Perhaps this is a good book for a beginner, but it covers little of Fireworks' better features. and, if you are an experienced Photoshop user, there is nothing for you here. Even worse, the "web site" you will learn to build is totally lame.

This is too bad, because there is a lot in Fireworks that I would like to learn. And there is a dearth of literature on this product. Macromedia has said there will be a Fireworks 9. Probably Peachpit will change the cover on this book and market it again...

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Tutorial for New Users, February 6, 2006

By	Jason A. Farneth (Blacksburg, VA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I got this book just looking to understand the capabilities of Fireworks and integration with Dreamweaver. I was very surprised at the amount of basic skills I learned just in the first few chapters. I highly recommend this book for anyone just getting into web design.