FW MX 2004 Tutorial (i): interface

Tutorial Fireworks is one of the tools for Web making software developed by Macromedia Company.

In drawing, fireworks combines the features of bitmap and vector graphics processing, not only with complex image processing functions, but also with the ability to easily output graphics to flash,dreamweaver and third party applications.

In Web page production, fireworks can quickly create a variety of interactive dynamic effects for graphics, both in the image production or in the support of the web has a good performance.

With the continuous upgrading of the version, the continuous enhancement of the function, fireworks are more and more image web makers of the favor. The latest version of fireworks MX 2004 Chinese version is its convenient and efficient operation mode, and bitmap editing, vector graphics processing and GIF animation production functions of many excellent integration, won many praise.

In order to enable more beginners to master fireworks as soon as possible, the editor selected the fireworks MX 2004 Chinese version as the blueprint for a series of tutorials to explain, hoping to learn fireworks for everyone to help.

In the first part, let's take a look at the operating interface of the fireworks MX 2004 Chinese version.

　　First, create a new document

When you start the Chinese version of Fireworks MX 2004, a Start Page window appears, where you can quickly access a recently edited document or create a new document or access a file or Web page of Help.

When we select "Create a new document", the "New Document" dialog box pops up, as shown in Figure 1-01.

Figure 1-01

　　Canvas Size: Sets the width and height of the file canvas, which can be in pixels, inches, or centimeters.

　　Resolution: The higher the resolution of a file, the finer the image, but the larger the file.

　　Canvas Color: The document canvas color has three options, followed by white, transparent, and custom colors. In the color selection box below the custom color, you can choose one of the colors.

When you click OK, the new file is created and completed.

　　 Second, the working interface of Fireworks

When the new document is finished, you can see the working interface of fireworks, as shown in the figure. The working interface for fireworks is made up of six parts of the menu bar, toolbar, workspace, toolbar, combo Panel, and property box.

Figure 1-02

　　Workspace: not only can you draw vector graphs on your workspace, you can also work with bitmap (bitmaps) directly. There are four tabs on the workspace, currently the original option window, the workspace, in which you can edit the image file. In the Preview Options window, you can simulate a browser preview to make a good image. The "2" and "4" tabs display the production of images in two and four windows respectively.

　　Toolbar: The new fireworks toolbar in addition to a number of new tools, but also with the original tool to optimize the combination to make it more intuitive and humane.

　　Properties Panel: When you select the image or selection tool, the information is displayed in the Properties panel. You can also adjust the image's associated properties by modifying the data or content in the property panel. For example, image size, position and color, and so on, as shown in Figure 1-03.

Figure 1-03

Click Properties on the window caption to expand or collapse the Properties window. In the Drop-down list to the right of the title bar, you can set the window to display only half the height and close the window.

　　Combo Panel: Fireworks has a total of 14 combo panels, which are "information, layers, colors, color swatches, styles, URLs, libraries, shapes, frames, history, behavior, find, optimize, and align panels." Each panel can be arranged independently of each other and combined with other panels to form a new panel. But the functions of each panel are still independent of each other. Tap the name on the panel to expand or collapse the panel. Figure 1-04, for example, combines the styles panel with the alignment panel to form a new composite panel, as shown in Figure 1-05.

Figure 1-04

Figure 1-05

　　Animation play button: for the production of animated files can use these buttons to play, stop, to the last frame, display the current number of frames and so on.

　　Cancel BMP mode: when you introduce a BMP format graphics file, click the Red Fork can be canceled BMP mode, into the vector editor.

　　Display scale for workspaces: Here you can change the display scale of the workspace to facilitate related operations, but it does not change the actual size of the image.

Figure 1-06

　　 third, the introduction of image files

You can start the Open File dialog box by using file-open on the menu bar or the Open button on the toolbar, as shown in Figure 1-07.

Figure 1-07

When you select the graphics file you want to import, a preview of the file appears in the Preview box on the right. Select the open as unnamed item to open the selected file as an unnamed file. Select the open animated item to open the selected file as an animation. Fireworks also supports opening multiple adjacent or nonadjacent files at once, or directly opening or importing a PSD format file made by Photoshop for editing.

　　 Four, modify the canvas

The canvas in fireworks is the same as the background of the image, and we often modify the related properties of the canvas in order for the size or color of the canvas to be able to coordinate with the foreground image in the drawing process. Click the canvas with your mouse, or click outside the canvas's workspace to bring up the canvas's Properties dialog box in the property bar, as shown in Figure 1-08.

Figure 1-08

To modify the canvas color: In the Properties dialog box, click the Canvas color selection box to select the new canvas color again.

Figure 1-09

　　Canvas Size: Clicking on the Canvas Size button will pop up the settings dialog box, from which you can see that the current canvas is 650 pixels wide and 263 pixels high. In the new dimension item, you can enter a new wide, high pixel. On the right side of the anchor is the fixed point of the canvas, which changes the size of the canvas when the size of the canvas is changed, with the selected fixed point unchanged.

Figure 1-10

　　image size: changes to the size of the image area can also be modified by the image size in the Canvas's Properties dialog box, as shown in Figure 1-11.

Figure 1-11

You can set the width and height values of the workspace under pixel dimension items. When the constraint proportions item is selected, when one of the values in the width or height is changed, the other number changes proportionally. If you cancel this option, you can change the value of the width or height individually. The image resample item is a resample feature that sets the image.

　　Fit Canvas: This is a new feature of the Fireworks MX 2004, which makes the canvas size one to the size of the image.

　　 Five, grid and auxiliary line

Grid and auxiliary lines are often used in the painting process, the image placement, angle, size and other auxiliary reference, so as to bring convenience for image production. Click the View menu to start the grid and guide functions, as shown in Figure 1-12.

Figure 1-12

　　grid: in the sub-menu of the grid, when Snap to Grid is selected, you can align the edges of the drawing object with the grid. The edit grid allows you to reset the color and arrangement density of the gridlines, and so on. As shown in Figure 1-13.

Figure 1-13

　　Guides: When you start the ruler, press the mouse button from the ruler scale on top or left, and drag the canvas direction to pull out an auxiliary line, as shown in Figure 1-14.

Figure 1-14.

When you drag the guide back to the ruler position, you can cancel the guide. In the menu of the guides, you can set the related properties of the guides.

Figure 1-15

Lock Guides--when the guides are dragged from the ruler to the workspace, they cannot be moved again;

Align Guides-align drawing objects with guides;

Edit Guides--you can start the editing window for guides to further set up the guides.