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Provides: Design, develop, and maintain standards-based websites and applications

Format: DVD

Developer: Adobe

Minimum Requirements: G4 PowerPC-based or Mac Intel-based processor, Mac OS X v10.4.8, 512MB RAM, 1GB hard disk space, 1,024x768 monitor resolution with 16-bit video card, DVD-ROM drive, Internet or phone connection for product activation, broadband Internet connection for Adobe Stock Photos and other services, QuickTime 7 for multimedia features

Processor Compatibility: Universal

Retail Price: $299.00 complete; upgrades start at $149.00; Also available as part of Adobe Creative Suite 3.

Availability: Out now

Version Reviewed: 9.0.0.1188

Fireworks has always been a weird program for me. I've been mostly pleased by what it can do, but somewhat frustrated by what it can't do. Although its feature-set never tried to mirror that of Adobe's ImageReady, Fireworks was often seen as Macromedia's vector-based alternative to ImageReady. This is why I was curious to see what Adobe would do with Fireworks: merge it with ImageReady, drop it, or keep it going as is. They've taken the latter route, and that has left me...well, mostly pleased, but somewhat frustrated.

To clarify this, I'll start where I started in my review of Fireworks 8: pop-up menus. Then, Macromedia promised CSS support for pop-up menus, but only half delivered, creating a cumbersome combination of CSS and JavaScript that really offered nothing more than the previous JavaScript only code. With Fireworks CS3, Adobe does bring us full CSS/HTML pop-up menus, but they offer it on the tail end of their creation. Because of this, the only benefit to using CSS is that you're saved from all the messy JavaScript. However, the pop-up menus are still limited to what could have been done with JavaScript; all the great capabilities of CSS pop-up navigation aren't available, which severely limits what can be done with Fireworks. Adobe needs to finally take the Fireworks pop-up capabilities to the next level by bringing its functionality in line with what can already be done by numerous other applications and Dreamweaver plug-ins so developers won't have to look outside of CS3 to do their work.

Additionally, Adobe has introduced a glitch here. When adding content to a pop-up menu, I used to be able to hit the tab key to move from the text field to the link field. For some reason, I can no longer do that. The return key will bounce me down to the next level, but I have to manually click to move to the next field in a row. Even more bizarre, the delete key won't erase the previous letter in any of the fields. To delete, I have to manually select the necessary letters with the mouse. No doubt Adobe will address this glitch in a future update, but it's odd that such a problem should slide through.

So, where did Adobe focus their efforts? First, and quite obviously, integration. Adobe is big on having all of the programs in their Creative Suite speak smoothly with one another, and Fireworks is, thankfully, no exception. Moving an image from Fireworks to Dreamweaver, for example, is not just a matter of copy and paste. As with Photoshop images, Dreamweaver runs you through an optimization window when you paste the Fireworks image into it.

Although integration with Photoshop and Illustrator is improved, there are still some issues that will make some users just stick with Photoshop and Illustrator where possible. For instance, vector shapes and masks in a PSD file are rasterized and converted to bitmaps in Fireworks. Rather ironic, really, considering Fireworks is a vector program at its heart. Fireworks also doesn't support layered 16-bit RGB Photoshop files, and will flatten them to a single layer. The workaround is to simply save the 16-bit files as 8-bit (and 16-bit is probably overkill for the web, anyway), but that's another step with which users shouldn't have to concern themselves.

That's not to say Photoshop/Illustrator integration is a loss. On the contrary, there are many successful and welcome improvements. For example, Photoshop files now retain their layers, effects and blend modes in Fireworks, and you can write your Fireworks files back into Photoshop format. My workflow has always been to create my navigation buttons in Photoshop, then use Fireworks to generate the rollovers and pop-ups. Now, if I find an error while working in Fireworks, I can actually make the changes there then write them back to Photoshop. Very handy.

Another great new feature for web designers is the Common Library, which contains stock graphics, text symbols, and animations that can be easily applied to your web designs. Most of these are very useful, and can help web developers get their designs moving. Some, however, have a distinct "FrontPage template" feel to them, and most likely will never be used for anything other than a placeholder.

Of course, with the method in which Adobe anticipates you'd use Fireworks, placeholding is much more important. Adobe has positioned Fireworks to be the tool you'd use to develop a web design before you actually begin to build the site. They've done this by adding Pages to the mix. Within Fireworks, you can actually design multiple pages of a website that behave pretty much as an actual site would, allowing you to submit sites for approval before you being to build them. One page can be set up as a master page with elements that will automatically appear on all subsequent pages (as with Dreamweaver templates or server side include files). You then need only add page specific content where needed. Once the design has been approved, you're set to export the elements of that design as you normally would.

How useful this will be depends upon your client, I suppose. In my experience, most clients have been satisfied with a static image of a website design, so a simple Photoshop graphic has worked. However, I occasionally have seen clients who can't anticipate rollovers or altered interior pages, and who don't get how the navigation will work without seeing it in practice. The Page features in Fireworks will certainly help address that issue, but note that you need Fireworks installed on the computer with which you'll be displaying the site. Either take your laptop to the client or have the client come to you.

One final feature I'd like to discuss is scaling. Fireworks now has 9-slice scaling, which I'd never heard of until this update. It allows you to determine which elements of a graphic are to be scaled, be it bitmap or vector based. How is this useful? Let's say you have a 728x90 banner ad that you need to scale down to 468x60. With 9-slice scaling, you can tell Fireworks to scale down all of the items in the image aside from the "Click Here" text that is already small enough at 8 points. Your scaling controls are even remembered if the graphic is exported to another application that supports this, such as Flash.

Adobe has obviously put a lot into their Fireworks development, certainly much more than I anticipated. They've added some impressive new features and focused how they feel Fireworks should be used in your web design workflow. Whether you're willing to make room for it is another matter. There are still some important features that need to be addressed, nearly all of which have rolled over from Macromedia's development, and I'd like to see Adobe focus on bringing them up to date before they add much more to the mix.

See other Adobe CS3 reviews.