One key feature of Fireworks lies in its extendibility power. As one became more familiar working in Fireworks, he or she is likely to develop custom commands to further enhance their workflow needs, making it work the way you want it to. Fireworks has a very powerful Fireworks API engine.

Take for example, the default grid setting in Fireworks is 16 by 16px.  In additional, you can create command to create additional grid sizes to suit your project workflow.

Copy the codes below and save as a .jsf file called “Add 10px Grid”  The first line of code uses the getDocumentDOM() method of the fw object.  

Example

fw.getDocumentDOM().setGridSize({x:10, y:10});  
fw.getDocumentDOM().setGridColor(“#cccccc”);   
fw.getDocumentDOM().setShowGrid(true);          
fw.getDocumentDOM().setSnapToGrid(true);  

Put the file in the Commands folder inside your fireworks application. To run, just go to commands and select “Add 10px Grid”

I was at the Adobe CS5 launch in May.  One of the product demo that caught my attention was Indesign CS5.  It has packed with a few new arsenal that worth checking and consider quite good in my opinion.

I try to relate it to Fireworks and indeed some of them are quite well done for first impression.

So later i went through each of these features and compare with Fireworks. I realize Fireworks still wins.  In later part of my writing, i will rant out my thoughts about why i think Fireworks CS5 is still the better choice in screen design versus the new features of indesign CS5.

Stay Tuned!

Recently i met a designer and made some changes using his Photoshop designed mockup using my Fireworks.  First impression by him was, “huh why use Fireworks instead of Photoshop!”

I explained that Fireworks is a better tool and it surpass what Photoshop can do in my opinion.

I am able to show how comfortably i able to group objects on the canvas so quckly and move them about without using my Layers panel.

He was also puzzled how i managed to scale a rounded rectangle without skewing the corners. 

At end of the day, he still prefer to use Photoshop. Oh well, i just wish him all the best.
He just missed a gem.