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Fireworks: Effectively Designing for Online Recording

By   |  May 20th, 2010

This is the recorded presentation of Fireworks: Effectively Designing for Online, which was presented on May 20th.  Also included in this post is a zip file of the final files we created, including the website, and the fireworks png so that you can work with the files on your own if you choose.

Fireworks Final Files

Fireworks Recording

In this session, explore how Fireworks compares to Photoshop and why its particular feature set provides a great way to quickly sketch out web site user interfaces and communicate with others about design ideas. If you’re involved with the design of web pages, web graphics, icons for the web, or any online application, Fireworks is a useful tool.

Who should use Fireworks?

  • designers who are designing things for online display (not for print)
  • non-designers who need to communicate with others (including designers and developers) how you’d like a web page or application to look or work

In this session, we will cover:

  • primary differences between Photoshop and Fireworks
  • how Firework’s vector-based drawing tools allow you to quickly create artwork and interface elements
  • using the Common Library to get common interface elements like buttons into the design
  • using the Styles panel to quickly apply styles to interface elements
  • rearranging and resizing elements
  • the difference between Pages and Layers panels, and how to use them effectively
  • exporting designs into PDF format for collaboration and feedback from others
  • exporting designs from Fireworks into CSS-based layouts ready for Dreamweaver

Posted in Adobe, Fireworks, Graphics & Animations, Web Development

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Four Color Palette Solutions for Your Website or Desktop Publishing Project

By   |  May 6th, 2009

When I teach a workshop on Adobe Dreamweaver or Fireworks, I’m always amazed by a question that participants don’t ask. (No, not: “Why can’t you and the laser pointer get along?”  That question, I’m afraid, has no answer.)

The question that’s never asked is: “How do you come up with these colors?“  And by “these colors”, I’m referring to the 6-digit hexadecimal codes that we use throughout the Dreamweaver and Fireworks workshops to designate specific colors for display on the web:
A small number of colors and their hexadecimal values

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Posted in Adobe, Desktop Publishing, Fireworks, Graphics & Animations, InDesign, Photoshop, Web Development

4 Comments on "Four Color Palette Solutions for Your Website or Desktop Publishing Project" »

I’ve got CS4…now what?

By   |  February 2nd, 2009

With the announcement that IU had acquired free Adobe software for all of it’s employees and students, your first thought was probably “How do I get it?” Now that we’ve all had a couple of months to get the software downloaded and installed, you’re likely thinking now: “What do I do with all of this stuff?”

Adobe is one of the largest software companies in the world, and while most people are familiar with their core apps, like Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Flash, there are many applications included in the suite that you might not be familiar with. In this post, we’ll take some time to examine all the different applications that you can install with the various Adobe suites. We will focus on the applications in Design Premium CS4 and Production Premium CS4. There are many add-ons and extra technology included in the installers, but we will look only at the applications included.

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Posted in Acrobat, Adobe, Basic Skills, Business & Productivity, Desktop Publishing, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Graphics & Animations, Illustrator, InDesign, Page Design, Photoshop, Video, Video Basics, Web Development

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