fireworks
I use Dreamweaver & Fireworks DAILY... and moving over to the mac has been actually quite easy in a lot of ways, but relearning how to work as fast & efficient in DW and Fireworks is already proving to be kind of a bummer.I need to write up something a little more detailed on my whole SWITCH, as there's actually quite a few things I miss and think it's dumb that the mac doesn't do, but I digress...
So first, yes it's true with macs that you need to have your hand on the mouse a LOT more. And what's more is often the programs are inconsistent when it comes to how you have to use the mouse vs. the keyboard, too. For example (and this is more an issue directed towards the software giants Macromedia than at Apple per say), when I want to add a new layer in Fireworks and I go in & hit "New Layer" and it brings up the layer renaming box and the ok/cancel buttons - Well on a PC your cursor is already in the name box & then you just hit OK. On my new *macalicious* your cursor isn't even there - AND even if I didn't want to rename it, it won't let me just hit Enter to make the box go away and let me keep working!! LAME!
Arg, I have a ton of things I can list here. Like how my Fireworks no longer has the toolbar up top with the quick export button, or flip image button or easy align pulldown box (that thankfully is in the palettes though, and has align to stage which is cool). Granted I'm still on just MX, not MX04... so that's obviously the next move for me - and I sure hope some of these annoyances are worked out! (and yes, I'll download the trial soon :)
So what I was actually here to tell you is how psyched I am on Fireworks ability to create symbols, similar to Flash. I feel like I tried this on the last version of FW and it didn't work like I wanted. But I finally tried it again - and it's awesome. So for example, I'm making an animated gif - and in each frame the same box is in there... and after creating 15 or so frames, I need to change the color of that box. (somewhat bad example cuz you could also onion skin it & select it that way, but that's not always that easy either depending on what else is in the frames you're not wanting to select at the same time) And with symbols, similar to flash, I can just chage the symbol & wala! it's changed on every frame. Thank god!
Little things like that are what working efficiently is all about.
Ok back to work.
