Customer Reviews

Macromedia Fireworks 4 Fast & Easy Web Development

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I know that many of the computer books out there are replacement manuals for pirated copies and electronic software downloads, and I also know that many people just like an approach that relies heavily on screen shots. So the market for this kind of book seems straightforward enough.

The problem is that this book is shallow and disorganized. It does not contain nearly as much information as the manual. It teaches you very few usable techniqes, relying instead on showing you how to use individual tools in isolation. It teaches you artistic creation tools by adding effects to triangles and squares, rather than real world graphics. Even mediocre art would have been a substantial improvement, since many of the tools exist to create art, rather than triangles, and it is hard to appreciate what they can really be used to do.

As a beginner book, perhaps you can forgive it for neglecting power techniques, but one wonders why concepts (like bitmap vs. vector, GIF vs. JPG, color depth, and so on) were given such short shrift. Beginners especially need this to be able to make the best decisions when exporting graphics; simply walking them through the export interface is not enough. It is almost as if the author took a thousand screen shots first and then wrote a book around them.

The book is not a total waste. There are a lot of screen shots, so at least you will probably get glimpses of what some of those more esoteric buttons lead to. The author did a nice job with callouts, so you know what you are looking at in the screen shots. If you are a visual learner, who likes to browse around casually for ideas, this book may very well work for you. If you prefer to understand things with a little depth, or if you are hoping to see how polygons and lines can create artistic effects, keep looking.

The reviewer from Boston is right. This book is little more than a re-write of the manual, and is a waste of money.

Worse, it isn't even a good re-write. The book suffers from a problem that too many software books have: it assumes that the reader has never seen a modern piece of software. Does anyone *really* need instruction on "Navigating the Menu Bar"? (pp. 29 - 42) If you need to be told how to open and close files with the file menu, you're already way out of your league and need to get a basic Windows/MacOS book. The first 100 pages of the book are so much wasted paper.

Unfortunately, the subsequent 500 pages aren't much better. Instructions are poorly designed and disjointed -- and there are errors throughout the book. I lost count of how many times I had to re-read sections thinking I'd missed something because what was on my screen didn't match what Lee described, only to discover that I hadn't missed anything -- Lee had.

so far it looks like this new edition is a total rewrite of the previous. I prefer to learn new software with stepbystep examples combined with screenshots and this book is it! recommended!

I was looking for a book that has some hands-on examples of the newer features in Fireworks 4. This book is broken up into four parts. I found the second half of the book particularly helpful with helpful coverage of the JavaScript based web elements that can be put together in fireworks. The sample files included with the book are another bonus.

My friends are learning how to build web pages, and we're all huge Mac fans. It's great to find a book with so many shots of Mac screens. Yeah, there could be color (everythings blue). It's definitely not a learn how to draw book. I can see why a windows person might not like this book. Its great for bringing newbies to Mac web software.

I found many helpful examples throughout the book. but I did not read it from cover to cover. I prefer to experiment and see where it takes me. this book has some simple but useful stuff.

I'm new to all of macromedia's web tools. I have some graphics applications experience and this book has some great examples that are totally unique from any manuals I've seen. The CD that comes with the book has all the sample artwork, too! If you're new to Fireworks, I highly recommend this book! Buy!

I was getting this book because I didn't find the Macromedia manual very helpful. I wish I would have stuck with the manual. This book was much worse. I found it very hard to follow the lessons in the book. It seemed when something started making sense they just stopped and went on to the next lesson. Even the material on the cd-rom seemed disorganized. I also found the artwork on the cd for the examples very poor.

Don't bother with this unless you pirated the software. Then you deserve whatever you ger.