The recent betas released on Adobe Labs included the preview of the next version of Fireworks, Adobe’s rapid prototyping and web design tool. The new Fireworks beta includes several new features to enhance your workflow for web design and prototyping (for a full list, check out the release notes). Over the next several posts, along with Dreamweaver, I will demonstrate the top five. The first are the new Page enhancements.
Fireworks CS3 included the Pages panel which let you work with designs across multiple pages. The new Fireworks beta enhances this panel and makes it easier to work with pages throughout your workflow.
The first enhancement is the ability to set up a master page. With traditional layout applications, like InDesign, a designer creates a master page containing design components that are universal over every page. Fireworks now gives you the ability to set up a master page in your document so that all subsequent pages will contain these master page assets:
In Fireworks, you can create your master page design on the first page. To set a master page, right click the page in the Pages panel and select “Set as Master Page”. The page will now display in the Pages panel as “Master Page”:
When you work with other pages in Fireworks you design assets are unique to that page; however, all of the designs from the Master Page persist throughout the pages:
In Fireworks, there is a new drop down in the upper right-hand corner of the canvas, that allows you to quickly switch between pages. If you switch to the Layers panel, you will see the Master Page layers visible on the currently displayed page:
These enhancements make it much easier to design and prototype multi-page designs in Fireworks, and will help you build visual experiences that you can share with your clients and team members.
This is just one of the new features in the new Fireworks beta. To try out the beta, download it from Adobe Labs.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Just to clarify – your [Quote]The first enhancement is the ability to set up a master page[\Quote].
Though this a very powerful feature this is not new to the beta, rather this feature was released in the current CS3 version. Never the less there are many great enhancements that are worth looking into.
~ C
@Christian Baptiste
That is true, thanks for pointing that out — There are a few UI enhancements that make it easier to work with pages, and what is awesome is that for InDesign users, it is a nice workflow that they can carry over to Fireworks.
Tell me if i am wrong, but in CS3 you can carry project over to any application.
@Billigflug Kanada
I’m talking specifically about pages/master pages which is a common print design concept that is part of InDesign. With the enhanced workflow in the new Fireworks, it is easier to apply those same design concepts for web design now.
Thanx, i am still work with the older version.
so it will be time for me to change.
Any tips on how to prepare / organize layers in PSD for building multi-pages in Fireworks? The issue I encountered is when I set up a master page, all pre-grouped layers in PSD moved to the master page. Thanks!
@Chaz
Try looking at Layer Comps — These can be very powerful in breaking your content up into different parts of your document, which a lot of Creative Suite applications can read, including the Fireworks importer.