Macromedia Fireworks 2.0

Fireworks 1 was a truly revolutionary program that set the benchmark for a new field of computer application - dedicated web graphics. Several features set it apart. To begin with it offered separate image modes for managing both scanned bitmaps and drawn objects and even allowed pixel-based effects to be applied to fully editable vector objects. Once graphics had been created, the program's URL mode made it simple to set up image maps or advanced rollovers. Finally the Export Preview dialog made the process of JPEG and GIF optimisation child's play. Fireworks' greatest success then was the way that it managed to combine, and at the same time simplify, the previously separate stages of the web graphics workflow.

In Fireworks 2 this process of integration has been continued with some major changes to working practice. In particular, the previously clear distinctions between pixel and vector editing and between image creation and HTML handling have both been blurred. The pixel-based tools, for example, are no longer grayed out when you select a vector object and when you enter the bitmap edit mode a striped border appears around the entire document rather than just the bitmap object. The dedicated URL toolbar has also gone with the hotspot and slice tools integrated into the main toolbox and the web layer integrated into the layer palette. The problem is that, since controlling vectors, bitmaps and URLs are very different tasks, the attempts at integration add nothing but confusion.

by Tom Arah, designer-info.com
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