Customer Reviews

Macromedia Fireworks 8: Training from the Source

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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) ;)

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...

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.

My impression is that this is a reasonably good book for a first introduction to Fireworks. It helped me to already be familiar with Photoshop since many functions are quite similar.

I like "learn by doing" books but they, like this one, can be a little light on why you are doing something in a particular way.

One irritation with the book's structure is that the author would tell you to do something, not explain exactly how to do it using Firework's definitely quirky interface, then explain it after all in a call-out tip box a paragraph or two later. This after one stumbles all over the menu and icons searching for the function and finally move on, discouraged. Then, I'd discover the tip box and go back and revisit the assignment.

When I caught on that this was a pattern, I learned to search ahead when something wasn't self evident and often found the information I needed and progress was smoother.

Another irritation was that the files on the accompanying CD seemed to be incomplete. I was able to construct similar components myself, but I would like to have had the example ones to see where mine differed.

In summary: I found the book a bit cumbersome to use, but it achieved its purpose. It gave me an overview of the more important functions of Fireworks and a humble capability with its interface. I didn't complete the last couple of chapters where you are asked to export to Dreamweaver and complete the functionality there. I tried and the resulting program was a hash. Hardly anything worked. The two programs do not seem well integrated. But, since I intend to use Fireworks for text and limited graphics and do not intend to generate navigation with the program I wasn't concerned. If you are to become proficient in the use of Fireworks, I suggest you plan on reading some other books on the subject. Sadly, I haven't discovered any good ones to recommend.

This is very a well organized and written book. All examples from one lesson to others are well connected. Instructional steps are easy to follow. If you interested in knowing how to work with Fireworks 8, this book is recommended. The author has done a good job.

PRO:

+ very straight-forward, uncomplicated examples teach by doing, without longwinded explanations.

+ lessons are not boring.

+ techniques taught can easily be applied to your own projects.

+ i learned many new, small things that i did not know before.

+ broad coverage of most of fireworks's utilities.

CON:

- nothing in-depth. this book skims along with the whats and wheres, and not the how's and why's. i craved more from every chapter.

- the examples you use/create, while acceptable for learning, are quite uninspiring. if fact, the website you create is downright hokey.

- almost no coverage on properly integrating FW with DW.

- skimming coverage on creating advanced logos & text & effects.

BOTTOM LINE:

beginners- this is your book, you will learn alot about FW if you have little or basic knowledge of the program.

intermediates- you will definitely pick some new things up, but most of the book will seem redundant.

advanced users- this book will make an excellent door stop for you.

****
i don't quite understand; there are a million books on DW and Flash, but books on FW are non-existent. where is the missing deep-book on FW???

Great book, specially for beginners.
Well organized and rich in details.
It teaches you step by step how to use fireworks.
I definetely recomemend it, specially if you are new to fireworks like I am.

I found it an excellent walk-through of Fireworks. Within a short time, I was applying oval marquees, bevels, drop shadows and other terrific graphic effects. I carry this with my notebook computer -- it goes wherever I go, for the next few weeks at least.
[....]
Ed Detlie

Not exactly the best tutorial book, but then again, there isn't much out there on Fireworks. If you are new to Fireworks, then this is the book for you. However, if you are looking for more advanced content, then don't get it.

This book along with the tutorial cd really help to try out a lot of the features of the Fireworks program. As a beginner in the website development field, it has been a lot of help.