My last review was about my current and continued experience with Macromedia’s Dreamweaver 4. How could I possibly not include a review on Fireworks 4 to the Epinions.com site?

Just the mere word - Fireworks, invokes that feeling of energy that can pump through our soul when we are excited. So, what can a software program do for me that has such an intriguing name?

Basically, Macromedia’s Fireworks was designed to create graphics to be used on the Web. Some of those really cool banners, buttons, templates, animations, imagemaps, and interface elements that you see on some of your favorite Web sites have been created in Fireworks.

Fireworks is very much a competitor with Adobe’s Photoshop and is a most powerful tool for Web design. Fireworks 4 lets you concentrate on the “look and feel” of a Web site, which is a most common phrase used today as the Web explodes into all of our homes, that which makes everybody want their very own Web site of course.

It is very useful if you know HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) or JavaScript, but you do not have to know these scripting languages before you use Fireworks. I was not an avid user of Dreamweaver prior to Dreamweaver/Fireworks 3, but with the development of Dreamweaver/Fireworks 4, I have become quite dedicated to acquiring the art of using this package of Web tools.

Those Exciting Features of Fireworks 4…..

Do you like to be able to edit everything you do? That is very possible with Fireworks 4 because everything is editable, all the time. It is an incredibly versatile drawing tool for graphics designing. Features for vector and bitmap graphic applications that can be edited for effects, that would include neat effects to play with such as drop shadows, bevels, glows, etc. The possibilities are endless!

Optimize those graphics! Fireworks 4 optimization features shrink the file size of Web graphics without completely sacrificing quality.

Drag-and-drop behaviors? Those rollovers that are so cool are really easy in Fireworks 4. You drag from trigger to target with the drag-and-drop behaviors. Each slice and hotspot contains a behavior control that you can just drag to assign different behaviors. These are all contained in panels, and are very easy to use once you become familiar with their capabilities.

Those annoying Pop-up menus…..but some folks like them. The very easy to use Pop-up menu command is at your very fingertips. With your own styled text, graphics, etc., you can get very creative, too easily!

The “Round-trip” table editing lets you edit and update HTML and JavaScript code and graphics from Dreamweaver while maintaining edits to the table. It updates HTML table images placed in Dreamweaver while preserving changes made to the HTML itself outside of Fireworks. IF you change behaviors, enter new text, change a link, or make other edits, you can update graphic changes without overwriting HTML in Dreamweaver. This is a very, very nice feature of!

Fireworks is not that easy to learn. But, a variety of resources are available for learning this product, including a printed manual, a help system you can launch from the application that includes tutorial, onscreen interactive lessons, and several Web-based information sources, that I highly recommend.

The following hardware and software is required to run Fireworks:

· For MS Windows, an Intel Pentium processor (Pentium II recommended) running Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, or NT 4; 64 MB of RAM plus 100 MB of available disk space; 800 x 600 pixel resolution; 256-color display, CD-ROM drive, and a mouse or digitizing tablet.

· For Macintosh, A Power Mac (G3 or higher recommended), running system 8.6 or 9.x; 64 MB of RAM plus 100 MB of available disk space.


You can find a wealth of information on Fireworks, as well as all of Macromedia’s products at www.macromedia.com


Recommended: Yes