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Review: Macromedia Freehand MXReviewed By: Kirk Hiner Review Date: April 21, 2003
Illustration software is the bane of my existence. Actually, that's not entirely true. My coworker's Steely Dan marathons at work are the bane of existence, Illustration software is just something I've never quite been able to grasp. Back in my electronic prepress days, I'd often fill the periods between jobs teaching myself Adobe Illustrator. I found the program to be fairly difficult to learn, then very difficult to integrate into the workflow. I could make decent sample files, but was never able to apply these techniques to real world usage. Whether that's a reflection on their usefulness or on my knowledge of the programs' capabilities, I'll leave that up to you. Now, the "periods between jobs" became a bit too long, it would seem, so my manager let me go about six months before the owner let the company go. I soon began work with an internet design firm, and have since had very little use for illustration programs. Now, along comes Macromedia Freehand MX, and it's aiming to change all of that. My first experience with Freehand came in v10, which was part of the Macromedia Studio MX package. Although decent (and the first major graphics application to see an OS X version), I found it out of place there for two reasons: it hadn't been updated to the MX style, and it didn't really offer too many web capabilities that weren't already covered in the other MX products (mainly Fireworks MX and Flash MX). With MX, Macromedia is working to position FreeHand as the choice for print designers who need to repurpose their content for the web (which, according to Macromedia, is 70 to 80 percent of them). Now, if you're a user of other Macromedia web programs (Dreamweaver, Fireworks or Flash...the Studio MX package), FreeHand now more closely resembles the interface and tool set-up of those programs. This is good for that group, but can be awkward for those looking to switch from Illustrator or CorelDraw, or even previous versions of FreeHand. It's been quite some time since I've been anything more than an Illustrator dilettante, so I was basically approaching FreeHand as a new user of illustration tools. My experience with Dreamweaver and Fireworks therefore proved quite helpful, and I found the new interface to be fairly comfortable.
Of course, Macromedia did more than make FreeHand MX look like its Studio MX counterparts, they made it play well with them, too. Flash MX is huge in the web world, of course, so it's a foregone conclusion that FreeHand MX would both import and export Flash SWF. The two programs actually work hand-in-hand; users can launch and edit Flash MX files with FreeHand MX, and FreeHand MX files can be launched and edited with Flash MX. I found this to be quite helpful, using FreeHand MX to create the files to be animated with Flash MX without having to worry about special formatting or exporting. Likewise, the ability to tweak the FreeHand MX files in Flash MX saved quite a bit of time. You can even open Fireworks PNG files and edit elements such as color and text.
How about the other new and enhanced tools? There are far too many to cover in this review, and--as I mentioned earlier--I'm coming into FreeHand fairly new to the whole thing. For more on what FreeHand MX offers, take the feature tour at Macromedia's website. My particular favorites include the Eraser tool that deletes a portion of the vector path upon which it's used, Snap to Objects that offer more precise controls over where the user wants the object to snap (it's features like this that can quickly make people like me appear to be talented illustrators), and the ability to alter objects after 3D effects have been applied with the Extrude tool.
Many of my colleagues who prefer Illustrator or CorelDraw over FreeHand tell me that FreeHand has simply lagged behind its competitors for a few years now. FreeHand MX not only bridges many gaps, but it also digs entirely new gaps for the its competition to now bridge. Not content to simply add new tools and refine old ones, FreeHand MX introduces entirely new and terribly clever ways in which to use it. In support of this, they offer one of the best integrated help and tutorial features available in any software program. Answers, as they call it, even gets its own panel. There's not much of a manual of which to speak, but most of the answers are directly in the program or online if you don't mind poking around a while. If you can't find them, you are allowed two free tech support phone calls within 90 days of purchasing the program. After that, have a credit card handy. Undoubtedly, I will get quite a few e-mails from Illustrator users explaining that they won't switch to FreeHand until it supports A, B or C, or from FreeHand users who feel I should've pointed out that FreeHand can or can't do X, Y or Z. Fair enough, but a program this diverse will be used for completely different purposes depending upon the environment. Yes, I miss the slicing and gradient mesh capabilities of Illustrator, but I was more struck more by what FreeHand offers than by what it lacks.
That may be too bad, too. If my coworker doesn't get off this Steely Dan kick fairly quickly, getting laid off may be a blessing.
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Along with reorganizing the tools in a more uniform manner, FreeHand MX also gives you a fair degree of control over them. You can move any panel into another group, or you can create a new group into which you can place any panel you like. This is done via the panel's Options window. It's simple enough, but I would like the ability to simply drag a panel's tab into another group. Also, although you can collapse the panels or pull them apart, there's no other way to resize them. For this, I still prefer Adobe GoLive's method of completely collapsing the panels to individual tabs on the side of the screen.
How about with non-Macromedia products? FreeHand MX is pretty good there, too. It can not only open TIFF and PSD files, for example, but can also display the alpha channels in these files (PNG and GIF files as well). In fact, let's focus on Photoshop files for a moment, or at least Photoshop capabilities. Yes, I expected FreeHand MX to have vector effects such as bend and sketch, but I wasn't expecting raster effects such as bevel and transparency. I was impressed with the gradient enhancements, as well. There are new gradient types such as cone and rectangle gradients, all of which can have four behaviors: normal, repeat, reflect and auto size. After a gradient has been added to an object, a control line appears. Grabbing and dragging the handles of this control line allow you to position the gradient anywhere within the object. Finally, no more re-editing of the gradient before it's applied to achieve the desired effect.
FreeHand MX is good like that. It's all about easily editing elements after they've been applied, not before. For instance, the new Object Panel allows you to alter object properties from one location. Better yet, you can create styles by simply dragging and dropping attributes from the Object panel to the Style panel.
Instead of the tools, what I'd like to focus now are the flowcharting capabilities. It may sound odd that flowcharting would be such an impressive feature in an illustration program, but anyone who has designed a website, for example, knows how important this can be when organizing the whole thing. FreeHand MX allows you to easily create multiple pages within a document, each of which can contain connected elements. The Connector Lines tool creates persistent relationships between objects. Move one of the objects and the connector lines automatically move with it. Better yet, they're smart enough to find a path between the objects that doesn't bisect other lines or objects. And yes, you can customize the appearance of the connector lines themselves. In other words, if you're creating a flowchart for any reason, you can focus entirely on the actual flow instead of worrying about making the chart itself look all nice and pretty.
I spoke above about connecting elements on multiple pages. Sure, the flowchart's all nice and neat, but what if your client wants to actually see how the navigation will work? With drag and drop simplicity, the new Action tool allows you to assign ActionScript navigation commands to link a source object and its target page. The behavior of this link can then be modified in the Navigation menu, and elements of the objects on these pages--elements such as color, stroke, and such--can be changed throughout the project in one shot. Obviously, the applications for features such as this extend well beyond website flowcharting.
The tight help integration and newfound cohesiveness with other Macromedia products makes the task of learning what FreeHand MX offers a little less daunting, yet I can't help but feel that after a month or two of evaluating the product, there's still plenty more I'd like to learn. Two FreeHand MX training books are soon to be released (Macromedia FreeHand MX: Training from the Source is due in May, and Macromedia FreeHand MX for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide is due any day now), so I'd plan on spending an additional $20 to $45 for one of these books when purchasing the program. I know I will be. Unfortunately, my new job keeps me busy enough that I don't have time to practice with new programs.