More on Fireworks

I’ve spent more time with Fireworks now and so am a little more qualified to evaluate its usefulness to me.  It still seems like a very useful tool for web-design, especially when used in combination with PNG files.  Because Fireworks works with vectoring so well (at least, as far as I can tell), I can use it to make quick work of a lot web-design, such as in putting smooth corners inside div tags and in creating quick backgrounds/watermarks.  I can put Fireworks on one monitor and Dreamweaver on another and adjust images on my pages in real-time.

The vectoring tool is pretty cool.  It’s really useful for making illustrations to add to text.

My only serious gripe is related to the layers tab.  I like to work with layers, but it seems that whenever I drag the layers/objects around inside that little box that they never end up where I want them too.  That can be annoying.

Also, it would seem like Fireworks could make it easier to connect points on different vector objects (not group, but connect — like attaching a curvy-line to a corner of a rectangle).  But perhaps I just haven’t become used to it yet.  Or maybe it has something to do with the way PNG files handle vector data.

Of course, I imagine that Fireworks falls short in the bitmap-editing department.  But most of that kind of work is outside of my league anyway.

I’m not sure I’d pay $300 dollars for it, though.  I’d have to see if there are any $100 programs that do the same sort of thing.