Archive for the ‘Fireworks’ Category

Interesting read, unfortunately there is no stand out winner.

Fireworks alternatives on trial

I guess I will be waiting for the upcoming Fireworks CS4 update…. finally!

Finally Fireworks CS4 is updated with a fix for the annoying text position bug. I have only had the update for a day but it appears to be working fine. More info @ the Fireworks blog.

I have the same text rendering problems as described on these sites:

- Website #1
- Website #2
- Website #3

It is embarrassing to think the product was even released in this state.

Just some random thoughts after my first real day working in CS4.

I have previously complained about Fireworks 8, and even Fireworks 9, which was just Fireworks 8 with the 8 crossed out and a 9 put in its place. Don’t get me wrong, I love Fireworks, and think it is the best app for designing User interfaces and Web sites, I just think it needs more work to be… well… a really great product.

However, things have changed and I have recently bought Fireworks CS4. Things are not perfect, but I’ll start with the good bits. (btw, these refer to the Mac version)

1) Application Window Mode. Grouping all the panels together in one window is a welcome improvement to the mac version. I was sick of repositioning small utilities windows and accidentally clicking outside of them and switching to another application.

2) Tabs: Finally, tabs comes to Mac! I don’t know why it took so long, but it is another welcome improvement.

3) Minor improvements to the UI, and feature enhancements. Lots of little bits and pieces over the entire app, too numerous to mention.

4) New concept of “Pages” – a bit like frames but useful if you create concept designs but need multiple page layouts.

Now the bad.

1) Slow, it is still slow and cumbersome. I would prefer a faster more lightweight app. That’s why I switched from Dreamweaver to TextMate. Basically, I want a TextMate equivalent to Fireworks. Anyone???

2) Buggy, there are a few bugs in it. The most annoying is the one where my text suddenly moves and is no longer sitting inside their bounds. Really bizarre  bug, and very very annoying.

3) The upgrade process: I downloaded the trial, and after the 30 days I bought it online, however the serial number I was given didn’t work on the trial version. It just said invalid number. WTF!!! I called Adobe and they said to uninstall the trial version (and empty the trash) then download the version from my online Store account (isn’t it the same thing, why ask for a serial number on the trial?). So I did that, and then it couldn’t find Fireworks 8 or accept my Fireworks 8 serial number to do the upgrade!!!! So I was back on the phone to Adobe to sort it out. Not an ideal process. Why couldn’t it just work??

Overall its a welcome improvement, however I would only consider it a great app if it was 2001.

I am now trying out Flash CS4, and so far it looks good, but I think the Flex Builder has a more superior coding environment.

I was doing some designing in Fireworks today, when I kept feeling unhappy with the colour choices I was making.

I thought the colour was fine the Mac osx colour picker (opened from Fireworks) however, when I select the colour and it is used in Fireworks, it is the wrong colour.

Fireworks appears unable to get the right colour from the Mac OSX colour picker.

Am I going mad or is this happening to other people too?

I am running Fireworks 8 on Mac OSX Leopard. (with an External monitor.) Also, I selected different colour profiles from the picker with no luck.

When Designing Websites and Application Concepts I always use Adobe Fireworks.

I think its great, or was great. Let’s Face it, it hasn’t seen a proper update for far too long, especially on the Mac.

I recently tried Fireworks CS3 and it was embarrassing, I can’t believe they released it with a new number.

So I was thinking, there must be an alternative to Fireworks (not Photoshop), one that runs on the Mac.

If you know one, please post the details in the comments.Thanks.