Fireworks CS4

[David Malouf]

Guys, I've downloaded it and I've opened up some files in it and
well it isn't yet stable enough for me to switch completely to use
for my project work I'm active in. That is a bit sad. I like the new
Look & feel of a lot of the components and I like the renaming of
frames to states, but that name was only surface deep. It is still
"animation" which is not what I need or want there.  The change to
the style management section is intriguing and I'm hopeful, but
haven't gotten too deep yet and lastly the "prototyping"
functionality is not quite Thermo, but might be a nice 'while you
wait" tease for basic proofing of ideas.

I really haven't gotten too deep into it, but I really hope to soon.

-- dave



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[Will Evans-3]

I have noticed over twitter two very different takes on Fireworks CS4.

Who has downloaded the beta? Who is trying it out - and what are your
thoughts so far, as it relates to prototyping, etc....just want to take the
twitterstreams and bring it into public discussion.

DaveM:  You first... what are your thoughts?

--
~ will

"Where you innovate, how you innovate,
and what you innovate are design problems"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Will Evans | User Experience Architect
tel [phone] | will@...
twitter: https://twitter.com/semanticwill
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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[Adam Korman]

Just started using it a little yesterday and today. My initial thoughts:

- It seems like most of the effort was spent on updating the UI to be  
more consistent across the Adobe products. The jury's out for me on  
whether this is better or worse. Probably some of both, but mostly  
it's just different. Since I don't use the other Adobe products very  
much, I don't see much benefit here, but I understand why they are  
doing it.

- Second most noticable thing was that there seems to be a lot of new  
functionality that will make doing visual design more robust (more/
better tools for working with colors, type along paths, combining/
editing paths, spacing objects, working with masks, etc.). I'm sure  
much of this is borrowed from Illustrator & Photoshop. Cool if that is  
important to you (which it sometimes is for me).

- It looks like they've spent some time improving how Symbols and the  
Common Library work, but frankly what was introduced in CS3 seemed  
like they rushed to include it (beta functionality, not well thought  
out). It doesn't look like the functionality in CS4 is dramatically  
different, but hopefully it just works (better).

- There's more emphasis on using styles (styles are added to the  
Properties panel, you can easily redefine a style based on the  
selection, etc.). This seems like it will be handy and good once I  
start to really use it. But, why did they add a bunch of goofy new  
built-in styles?

Some cool small things that already seem really handy:
- Smart guides are great -- they let you align things on the fly  
easily without having to use the align tool. The potential for this to  
just be annoying in complex documents seems high, but it's easy enough  
to toggle on/off.
- Line with arrowhead(s) is a built-in vector object. Yay!
- There's a "measure tool" (another built-in vector object) which will  
be great for annotating (as you increase the width/height, it updates  
a text field with the dimension in pixels!)
- There are functions to match the width and/or height of objects  
(e.g., select 2 rectangles, then click a button make them the same  
width). I guess they are slowly incorporating great tools that John  
Dunning built as Fireworks extensions years ago (thanks John, I still  
use that stuff all the time).

They seem to be touting this version as being great for prototyping...  
I haven't really explored that yet.

-Adam



On May 27, 2008, at 2:53 PM, Will Evans wrote:

> I have noticed over twitter two very different takes on Fireworks CS4.
>
> Who has downloaded the beta? Who is trying it out - and what are your
> thoughts so far, as it relates to prototyping, etc....just want to  
> take the
> twitterstreams and bring it into public discussion.
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[Jennifer Quigley]

I've been using CS4 for months now throughout the private beta,
sometimes as much as ten hours per day and both the Mac (new mac) and
the Windows versions (XP and Vista).

Returning to CS3, if even for a day has become quite painful.
Everyone in the private beta is very excited about CS4.

One major plus is the new progress bar and the ability to continue
working while saving.

I like the tool tips that appear adjacent to the cursor while I draw.
No more peering off to the side and into the properties panel. The
answer is now before my eyes.

Smart guides is another favorite and saves me time when creating
markup for the development team. I'm not much of an extension
writer, though I hope to see someone develop an extension that
utilizes the whole page data of the smart guides, and renders its
visualization in a new layer of vector and text instantly, reducing
my markup time to making a few notes. Any extension writers out
there?

The CSS export feature performs much better. The key is not to
overlap items, which keeps you from slipping into absolute
positioning. (I have used this at work.)

The properties panel now holds properties, symbol properties, and
auto shape properties, which just makes organizational sense and a
better use of the UI real estate.

Styles are linked to objects. If you update a style, just like a
symbol, the changes will apply throughout the document. You can break
the style linking to keep specific objects from the update. The styles
panel has also improved with a picker that lists the style libraries
you use separately, as well as a selection for the current document
so you can see what you have actually used

There is a create air package that's rather convenient.

Pages are now numbered, which adjusts as you shift the order of
pages.

Overall the UI is much sweeter and gets out of my way when I want it
to, which is crucial for those laptop only times.

I could go on for at least an hour, but I have to go to work.

Have a good day all, and I hope everyone is enthused as I about the
FW CS4.




. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=29535


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[Paul Nuschke]

I have an older version of Fireworks which I really like for prototyping but
I tried out CS3 and love the "Pages" feature. I'm thinking about buying but
would prefer to get CS4...anyone know their release timeline for Fireworks
CS4?

Paul


On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 10:57 AM, Jennifer Quigley <
jenqdesign@...> wrote:

> I've been using CS4 for months now throughout the private beta,
> sometimes as much as ten hours per day and both the Mac (new mac) and
> the Windows versions (XP and Vista).
>
> Returning to CS3, if even for a day has become quite painful.
> Everyone in the private beta is very excited about CS4.
>
> One major plus is the new progress bar and the ability to continue
> working while saving.
>
> I like the tool tips that appear adjacent to the cursor while I draw.
> No more peering off to the side and into the properties panel. The
> answer is now before my eyes.
>
> Smart guides is another favorite and saves me time when creating
> markup for the development team. I'm not much of an extension
> writer, though I hope to see someone develop an extension that
> utilizes the whole page data of the smart guides, and renders its
> visualization in a new layer of vector and text instantly, reducing
> my markup time to making a few notes. Any extension writers out
> there?
>
> The CSS export feature performs much better. The key is not to
> overlap items, which keeps you from slipping into absolute
> positioning. (I have used this at work.)
>
> The properties panel now holds properties, symbol properties, and
> auto shape properties, which just makes organizational sense and a
> better use of the UI real estate.
>
> Styles are linked to objects. If you update a style, just like a
> symbol, the changes will apply throughout the document. You can break
> the style linking to keep specific objects from the update. The styles
> panel has also improved with a picker that lists the style libraries
> you use separately, as well as a selection for the current document
> so you can see what you have actually used
>
> There is a create air package that's rather convenient.
>
> Pages are now numbered, which adjusts as you shift the order of
> pages.
>
> Overall the UI is much sweeter and gets out of my way when I want it
> to, which is crucial for those laptop only times.
>
> I could go on for at least an hour, but I have to go to work.
>
> Have a good day all, and I hope everyone is enthused as I about the
> FW CS4.
>
>
>
>
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
> Posted from the new ixda.org
> http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=29535
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________
> Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!
> To post to this list ....... discuss@...
> Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe
> List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines
> List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
>

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[Drausio R. Haddad]

Thanks jennifer for having shared with us all the great new features
of CS4. Also for your own point of view, which its important as user
feedback.

Drausio

------------------------------------------------------
On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 10:57 AM, Jennifer Quigley jenqdesign at
jenqdesign.com wrote:

I've been using CS4 for months now throughout the private beta,
sometimes as much as ten hours per day and both the Mac (new mac) and
the Windows versions (XP and Vista) . Returning to CS3, if even for a
day has become quite painful. Everyone in the private beta is very
excited about CS4. One major plus is the new progress bar and the
ability to continue working while saving. I like the tool tips that
appear adjacent to the cursor while I draw. No more peering off to
the side and into the properties panel. [trim]


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=31529


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[Drausio R. Haddad]

Thanks jennifer for having shared with us all the great new features of CS4. Also for your own point of view, which its important as user feedback.Drausio   ---- Envoyé avec BlackBerry® d'Orange ----  On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 10:57 AM, Jennifer Quigley <jenqdesign@...> wrote:I've been using CS4 for months now throughout the private beta,sometimes as much as ten hours per day and both the Mac (new mac) andthe Windows versions (XP and Vista).Returning to CS3, if even for a day has become quite painful.Everyone in the private beta is very excited about CS4.One major plus is the new progress bar and the ability to continueworking while saving.I like the tool tips that appear adjacent to the cursor while I draw.No more peering off to the side and into the properties panel. Theanswer is now before my eyes.Smart guides is another favorite and saves me time when creatingmarkup for the development team. I'm not much of an extensionwriter, though I hope to see someone develop an extension thatutilizes the whole page data of the smart guides, and renders itsvisualization in a new layer of vector and text instantly, reducingmy markup time to making a few notes. Any extension writers outthere?The CSS export feature performs much better. The key is not tooverlap items, which keeps you from slipping into absolutepositioning. (I have used this at work.)The properties panel now holds properties, symbol properties, andauto shape properties, which just makes organizational sense and abetter use of the UI real estate.Styles are linked to objects. If you update a style, just like asymbol, the changes will apply throughout the document. You can breakthe style linking to keep specific objects from the update. The stylespanel has also improved with a picker that lists the style librariesyou use separately, as well as a selection for the current documentso you can see what you have actually usedThere is a create air package that's rather convenient.Pages are now numbered, which adjusts as you shift the order of pages.Overall the UI is much sweeter and gets out of my way when I want it to, which is crucial for those laptop only times.I could go on for at least an hour, but I have to go to work.Have a good day all, and I hope everyone is enthused as I about the FW CS4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Posted from the new ixda.orghttp://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=29535 <http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=29535> ________________________________________________________________Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!To post to this list ....... discuss@... ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe <http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe> List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines <http://www.ixda.org/guidelines> List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help <http://www.ixda.org/help> _______________________________________________________________Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!To post to this list ....... discuss@... ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe <http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe> List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines <http://www.ixda.org/guidelines> List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help <http://www.ixda.org/help>
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