Fireworks and software

Question

I have this thing about Software. I'm supportive of
Macromedia and now Adobe. I've done dtp with Freehand - then
progressed to the web and found Fireworks, Flash and Dreamweaver. I
have allegiance to the Macromedia line, and as well to Corel. (I'm
Canadian)
I find unfortunately and sadly, that the products I've
learned for years are starting to fade. Freehand is almost, if not
gone. Fireworks is looking at a new version. Flash will be around
for a while; and Dreamweaver will replace Go Live. (personal
opinion).
My dilema - everywhere I go it's - Photoshop, Photoshop this,
Photoshop that, Photoshop / imageready, "get a job and you have to
use Photoshop and Adobe" - if you're going to web - must have
Imageready for rollover effects.
I'm 52 years of age, and don't want to spend another $2ooo
for a creative suite that does print and web. I have daughters in
University with Macs, using Open Office. I know you've all heard my
drum beating before - but does anyone feel like me ??
Software was always a freedom of choice; as Apple vrs MS is.
I'm reaching some of my most creative years, and many "salt and
pepper hairs" are too. Corel supports PDF - MS does not. Word 2007
will not. Wordperfect does. We still have freedom of choice in word
processors, and spreadsheets, but slowly I'm backing up into a
corner with graphics ??
Does anyone feel the same way ? And if you do tell me what
you're doing. If I must learn (insert Adobe product here) then I
will. But where are the graphic choices ??
Bill
Expresiv Designs

Answer 1

Bill Wood wrote:
> I have this thing about Software. I'm supportive of
Macromedia and
> now Adobe. I've done dtp with Freehand -
FreeHand is not and never was a DTP app. It's an
illustration/drawing
app with a very unique multiple pages implementation that is
geared and
suited to drawing work (like creating multiple versions of a
client
logo, a letterhead template and/or envelope templates all in
the same
document). It still has a pasteboard/canvas size that is
similar to
Illustrator's (it,s a little bigger but not that much).
FreeHand's multi
page implementation is alike to scattering sheets of paper
around on a
desk or on the floor. Eventually you'll run out of room. What
is unique
is that you can create different pages of any sizes and
orientation. By
comparison, DTP apps like QuarkXPrress or InDesign (and even
word
processors like MS Word or OOo Writer) treat pages like an
infinite
stack. You need one more page then you just add it. You'll
never run out
of "space" because good DTP and word processing app will
"stream" the
pages into memory as you need them. It's a very different
kind of
workflow. Furthermore, FreeHand will slow to a crawl if you
link/flow
too many text boxes together (it doesn't take many) while DTP
apps are
optimized for this and will not slow down because of this.
> then progressed to the web and found Fireworks, Flash
and
> Dreamweaver. I have allegiance to the Macromedia line,
and as well
> to Corel. (I'm Canadian)
Ah Corel... ;-) I'm Canadian as well but I have no love for
Corel apps.
Their interfaces don't agree with me at all and I cannot get
anything
done with them.
> I find unfortunately and sadly, that the products I've
learned for
> years are starting to fade. Freehand is almost, if not
gone.
The thing is, FreeHand will keep working on your Windows
machine for a
long time to come so even if it's not updated anymore it
won't suddenly
stop working. It has some annoying issues but it still works
well for me.
> My dilema - everywhere I go it's - Photoshop, Photoshop
this,
> Photoshop that, Photoshop / imageready, "get a job and
you have to
> use Photoshop and Adobe" - if you're going to web - must
have
> Imageready for rollover effects.
Those people could learn a thing or too and get a clue by
reading the
following ;-)
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/fireworks/articles/why_fireworks.html
> I'm 52 years of age, and don't want to spend another
$2ooo for a
> creative suite that does print and web. I have daughters
in
> University with Macs, using Open Office. I know you've
all heard my
> drum beating before - but does anyone feel like me ??
You don't have to buy the whole suite. No one can force you
to stop
using Fireworks and move to a less efficient 3 apps juggling
workflow
(see above article). For DTP work on the other hand, InDesign
is the
best application by far and would serve you much better than
FreeHand
for that kind of work. Illustrator is worth learning because,
like it or
not, it is the industry standard and it does do a lot of
things better
than FreeHand. Both apps could "learn" a lot from each other.
I started
with Illustrator but I really love FreeHand too. Bottom line
is, if you
need to do print work then you may just need to buy
Illustrator and
InDesign. But as great as Fireworks is, Photoshop is still
the best at
raw bitmap image editing and Fireworks does not do print at
all (no
CMYK, etc). Getting the suite at that point would make sense.
It's
pricey but it's quality software.
> Software was always a freedom of choice; as Apple vrs MS
is. I'm
> reaching some of my most creative years, and many "salt
and pepper
> hairs" are too. Corel supports PDF - MS does not. Word
2007 will not.
> Wordperfect does. We still have freedom of choice in
word
> processors, and spreadsheets, but slowly I'm backing up
into a corner
> with graphics ??
I wouldn't qualify FreeHand's (unconfirmed) disappearance as
being
backed up in a corner. There are alternatives (Illustrator,
Canvas,
DrawPlus, etc). As for office apps, I use OpenOffice more
than MS
Office, especially Writer. OpenOffice is high quality
software and well
worth taking the time to learn it... and it does PDF natively
too.
> Does anyone feel the same way ? And if you do tell me
what you're
> doing. If I must learn (insert Adobe product here) then
I will. But
> where are the graphic choices ??
I use both Macromedia Studio 8 and Adobe Creative Suite 2. I
could not
do all that I do without both. Fireworks was the first
Macromedia app I
bought... got it standalone long before the suites/studio
packages). The
first graphics app I dabbled with was Photoshop (3.05 if
memory serves)
but I much preferred vector apps and Illustrator is the first
graphics
app I learned in depth. It and Fireworks are the two I still
use the
most. Fireworks for all my Web graphics layout design work
and
Illustrator for my work at a screen printing company.
FreeHand MX is
used for all kinds of things from specific drawing tasks
where its
toolset is stronger than Illustrator's and also for short
multipage docs
like Web site documentation (wireframes, flow charts and site
diagrams).
InDesign is a new addition to my workflow but I use it to
create
specifications documents for the screen printing company I
work at and
to create business collateral (letterhead, envelopes
invoices) for my
one man Web design shop. I think choices are wider than ever
but costs
are certainly going up... You can save on your next MS Office
license by
switching to OpenOffice though... ;-)
Cheers and hang in there!
Stéphane Bergeron
reach:connect:communicate
www.webfocusdesign.com
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www.pixelyzed.com