Is Fw really better for web graphics?

Question

Ok, so I've downloaded the Fw trial to see how it's better
for web graphics than Photoshop. With Photoshop the usual problem
is that I have to mess around to turn on/off layers, copy parts of
images into new images to export transparent logos, tabs etc. so I
hoped that Fw have some intelligent slice system for one step
exports. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find it. Maybe I'm
wrong but it seems to me that Fw has a very primitive flat slicing
system, no overlapping is possible. So for a very basic example if
I have a background graphics on the top of the page that I want to
export (not the entire page) and a logo *on* it that I want to
export as a transparent png or maybe just as a jpg including the
background, it's impossible, because the logo slice will divide the
page into rectangles no matter what. I don't care about
HTML/CSS/whatever I just want to export overlapping graphic parts
in one simple step by properly defined slices. Looks like I
couldn't find the one step solution I hoped for in Fw. Am I missing
something?

Answer 1

I. G. wrote:
> Ok, so I've downloaded the Fw trial to see how it's
better for web graphics
> than Photoshop. With Photoshop the usual problem is that
I have to messing
> around to turn on/off layers, copy parts of images into
new images to export
> transparent logos etc. so I hoped that Fw have some
intelligent slice system
> for one step exports. Unfortunately I haven't been able
to find it. Maybe I'm
> wrong but it seems to me that Fw has a very primitive
flat slicing system, no
> overlapping is possible. So for a very basic example if
I have a background
> graphics on the top of the page that I want to export
(not the entire page) and
> a logo *on* it that I want to export as a transparent
png or maybe just as a
> jpg including the background, it's impossible, because
the logo slice will
> divide the page into rectangles no matter what. I don't
care about
> HTML/CSS/whatever I just want to export overlapping
graphic slices in one
> simple step by properly defined slices. Looks like I
couldn't find the one step
> solution I hoped for in Fw. Am I missing something?
>
>
>
>
>
In a word. Yes. It's designed to work with screen graphics,
and handles
both vector and bitmaps well at the same time. It's got quite
a few
more web-centric workflows than Photoshop.
Fireworks CS3 supports multiple pages. Each page supports
it's own web
layer, so you have much more control over slices and can
avoid the
problems of overlapping slices this way.
Overlapping slices don't work because it's impossible for FW
to
determine which one is the most important - and should be
sliced in whole
>>So for a very basic example if I have a background
> graphics on the top of the page that I want to export
(not the entire
page) and
> a logo *on* it that I want to export as a transparent
png or maybe
just as a
> jpg including the background, it's impossible, because
the logo slice
will
> divide the page into rectangles no matter what.<<
I'm not clear on what you're trying to do here as you seemed
to have
left some information out. Assuming you want a repeating
background
image and as separate slice for the logo.
Draw a slice that covers the width of your background, by
however many
pixels tall you need. Either lower on the page or on a
separate page
plave the logo and slice it as well. As you are not concerned
about the
html or CSS it's pretty straightforward from there. Just
export the
slices, and tell FW not to include unsliced areas. In your
html, set you
background image as a background image and your logo either
as an inline
image or as a background image within another containing div.
HTH
Jim Babbage - .:Community MX:. & .:Adobe Community
Expert:.
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