Useful Books and Software

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Fireworks 2 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide introduces novice and experienced Web designers to this powerful technology, using a practical, step-by-step approach that makes it easy to get started. Clear explanations and plenty of screenshots guide the reader to Web graphics profiency, and cross-platform coverage makes this an essential reference for all Web graphics producers.
Fireworks ships with Macromedia Director 7, now reaching a whole new audience
Revised edition covers all new Fireworks features.
Powerful, omnibus creative tool designed to address the entire Web-graphic production process
Practical, step-by-step tasks get users up and running quickly with this comprehensive program

With quick lessons in how to accomplish creative wonders, Fireworks 2 for Windows and Macintosh offers more than the usual product propaganda. Graphic designers and Web content creators will get quick lessons in how to accomplish creative wonders with this book's "Learn by the Numbers" approach for Fireworks. Every page is packed with annotated screen shots and includes color plates to illustrate special color, blend, and compression examples.

The book uses a solution-based approach, with each chapter comprising a series of how-to examples such as "Create a curved path segment" and "Change the object transparency." Readers will get explanations of key topics such as color palettes and compression algorithm basics. The book addresses both Macintosh and Windows versions of Fireworks with careful attention to the subtle differences between the two flavors.

All of the key Fireworks operations are covered in this book, from basic vector graphic design to exporting HTML files that include event-driven effects. Appendices show various styles and list useful keyboard shortcuts. This guide provides a quick taste of Fireworks and is a handy lookup tool for frequent users. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered: Macintosh and Windows color sets, vector graphic design, object manipulation, text formatting, importing and exporting, slices, animations, and behaviors.

Publisher: Peachpit Pr
Author: Sandee Cohen
Release Date: 1999-06-15
ISBN/EAN: 0201354586 / 9780201354584

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"This book delivers on its promise to get you up and running quickly, which is essential in the fast-paced world of Web development." From the foreword by Lynda Weinman

Fireworks, the new Web-graphics tool from Macromedia, is impressively versatile: you can create illustrations, edit photos, add text, build animations, apply image maps, and more. Ideal for beginners and intermediate users, this Visual QuickStart Guide helps you learn Fireworks quickly and easily. The book teaches you all about the interface and helps you set up new documents, work with color, create and manipulate paths and vector-based objects, apply fills and effects, use brushes, add and edit text, edit pixel-based images, import and export files, create image maps, work with slices (specially defined areas of images), create rollovers, and build animations. An appendix illustrates the default settings for textures, patterns, gradients, brushes, and effects, and another provides keyboard shortcuts. The book is full of clear step-by-step instruction, brief introductions to each task, and helpful screen shots. There are no obscure technical discussions to weigh you down--just explanations of features so you can get right to work. A full-color section illuminates a few issues regarding palettes, file formats, and color. --Kathleen Caster

Publisher: Peachpit Pr
Author: Sandee Cohen
Release Date: 1998-07-17
ISBN/EAN: 020135361X / 9780201353617

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• Covers all Fireworks features, including new interface elements, the Properties Inspector, on-screen text editing, vector tools, new transparency and object layer tools, and more!
• Provides amazing tips for rollovers, layers, frames and slices.
• Shows how to take advantage of Fireworks' excellent image compression, export options, and image tweening, plus its easy-to-use GIF animation engine.

ABOUT THE CD-ROM
The Windows/Mac CD-ROM is loaded with Fireworks commands, templates, textures, gradients, strokes, and images, plus Fireworks training lessons and tryouts of other Macromedia products.

Publisher: Wiley
Authors: Joseph W. Lowery, Derren Whiteman, David Morris
Release Date: 2002-08-15
ISBN/EAN: 0764536621 / 9780764536625

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After a thorough introduction to the user interface, the book covers how each tool and technique works in detail. Much of this may already be familiar to readers with any amount of experience in paint or drawing programs, since the tools and actions are similar. For example, the book shows how to draw vector curves using a pen tool, a skill also needed for Illustrator and Freehand. In other instances, although the actions may be like those in other applications, the methods may differ, like using masks or applying effects. In Fireworks, most of the features are executed from individual panels (floating palettes). The step-by-step style of instruction here, which discusses individual tasks in small portions, is ideal for learning your way around these panels and all their options.

The Visual QuickStart Series is also known for the division of each page into a column of text and a column of illustrations. This edition includes an abundance of pictures and illustrations, so many in fact, that it seems as though no instruction goes without a visual.

A beginner may have difficulty in the chapter on making GIF animations. Without a specific sample project at hand, the text may move a little too fast when explaining frames and tweening. On the other hand, intermediate users who have created animations using shareware apps or Photoshop will have no problems and may find this helpful in adding Fireworks to their arsenal of tools.

The book also covers slicing GIFs, creating rollovers, navigational bars, and even swap-image behavior. There's an excellent series of tables showing all the preset patterns, gradients, brushes, effects, and library images that come with Fireworks 3, as well as an extensive list of keyboard shortcuts. --Angelynn Grant

Topics covered: Creating artwork for the Web using Fireworks 3, including using paint, vector and text tools, effects, working with color palettes, optimizing images for export, creating GIF animations, rollovers, and navigational bars.

Publisher: Peachpit Press
Author: Sandee Cohen
Release Date: 2000-02-25
ISBN/EAN: 0201704528 / 9780201704525

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For a fraction of the cost of the classes, you get the same manageable, step-by-step lessons. Better yet, you can work at your own pace, and you don't have to wade through technical jargon or esoteric theory, Instead, the book focuses on how to use Fireworks in a real-world environment, giving you professional techniques you can easily adapt to your own work. A special chapter on integrating Fireworks with Dreamweaver shows you the best and most efficient way to use Macromedia's Web-development programs together. The CD-ROM contains all the files you need to work through the lessons, plus final versions of the projects with which you can compare your own results.

This book, published by Macromedia, walks readers through how to create artwork within Fireworks 4, export it for the Web, and import it into Dreamweaver 4. It doesn't cover Dreamweaver in depth, but it does show how to integrate Fireworks into the Dreamweaver workflow, which can be extremely useful for working on graphics-heavy Web pages and for maintaining good site organization.

The book contains a series of step-by-step tutorials that build upon each other, using the common theme of a multipage, travel e-business Web site. (All the necessary files are on the CD-ROM.) The lessons are drawn from the curriculum used by Macromedia-authorized trainers. Readers are assumed to be new to Fireworks, but experienced users may also acquire a deeper understanding of Fireworks's features, increasing their arsenal of skills and improving their efficiency.

The book begins with bitmap editing, working with layers, creating vector art, and adding text and effects. Masks, text along curves, optimizing, and exporting are also covered. Readers learn how to make animated GIFs, buttons, image maps, and slices; how to apply "find and replace" to multiple files; batch processing; and integrating it all with Dreamweaver. Also shown: how to create pages within Fireworks, complete with buttons and navigational bars, plus how to open the pages within Dreamweaver to complete the design. Along the way, the author frequently points out timesaving steps. For example, she shows an easy way to use one Fireworks file with six frames to create six title GIFs, all exactly the same size, for export into the six respective Dreamweaver pages.

Every product from Macromedia shows care and attention to those using it day after day, and this book offers that same level of consideration. From the layout and typography of the book to the pacing of the exercises (which cover just enough steps at a time and aren't deathly slow either) to the quality of the sample project (which has the feel of a real-world job), this is one tutorial book that won't leave you cross-eyed. Instead, you'll feel powerful and quick with your new skills in hand. --Angelynn Grant

Topics covered:

• Bitmap editing
• Working with groups and layers
• Using vector tools
• Text, fills, and live effects
• Advanced techniques, like working with gradients and text along a path
• Optimizing and exporting
• Creating GIF animations
• Creating buttons and rollover buttons
• Image maps and slices
• Timesaving production techniques
• Integrating with Dreamweaver

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