Navigating and Viewing a Document

You can control your document's magnification, its number of views, and its display mode. In addition, you can easily pan the view of a document, which is helpful if you zoom in and can no longer see the entire canvas (see Figure 6).

Figure 6. Magnification controls in Fireworks

When your document is maximized in Windows, you can easily choose among multiple open documents by using the document tabs that appear at the top of the document window. Each open document displays its filename on a tab (see Figure 7).

Figure 7. Document names on tabs in Fireworks

About the Quick Export Button

The Quick Export button lets you export your Fireworks files to a number of Macromedia applications, including Dreamweaver, Flash, Director, and Macromedia FreeHand MX (see Figure 5). In addition, you can export your files to Photoshop, FrontPage, Adobe GoLive, and Illustrator, or you can preview your files in the browser of your choice.

Figure 5. Quick Export button in Fireworks

Using Panels

Panels help you edit aspects of a selected object or elements of the document. Panels let you work on frames, layers, symbols, and more. Each panel is draggable, so you can group panels together in custom arrangements.

Some panels are not displayed by default, but you can display them if you want. Some panels are not grouped with other panels by default, but you can group them if you want. When you group panels together, all panel group names appear in the panel group title bar. You can, however, assign any name you like to panel groups.

• The Optimize panel lets you manage the settings that control a file's size and file type and work with the color palette of the file or slice to be exported.
• The Layers panel organizes a document's structure and contain options for creating, deleting, and manipulating layers.
• The Frames panel includes options for creating animations.
• The History panel lists commands you recently used so that you can quickly undo and redo them. In addition, you can select multiple actions, and then save and reuse them as commands. For more information, see "Using the History Panel to Undo and Repeat Multiple Actions" in Using Fireworks.
• The Shapes panel contains Auto Shapes that are not displayed in the Tools panel.
• The Styles panel lets you store and reuse combinations of object characteristics or choose a stock style.
• The Library panel contains graphic symbols, button symbols, and animation symbols. You can easily drag instances of these symbols from the Library panel to your document. You can make global changes to all instances by modifying only the symbol.
• The URL panel lets you create libraries containing frequently used URLs.
• The Color Mixer panel (Window > Color Mixer) lets you create new colors to add to the current document's color palette or to apply to selected objects.
• The Swatches panel (Window > Swatches) manages the current document's color palette.
• The Info panel (Window > Info) provides information about the dimensions of selected objects and the exact coordinates of the pointer as you move it across the canvas.
• The Behaviors panel (Window > Behaviors) manages behaviors, which determine what hotspots and slices do in response to mouse movement.
• The Find panel (Window > Find) lets you search for and replace elements such as text, URLs, fonts, and colors in a document or multiple documents.
• The Align panel (Window > Align) contains controls for aligning and distributing objects on the canvas.
• The Auto Shape Properties panel (Window > Auto Shape Properties) lets you set the properties of Auto Shapes.
• The Image Editing panel (Window > Image Editing) assembles the most commonly used tools for photo editing in one place.
• The Special Characters panel (Window > Special Character) lets you insert special characters into your text directly from within Fireworks, rather than having to copy and paste the characters from another source.

Organizing Panels and Panel Groups

By default, some Fireworks panels are docked on the right side of the workspace. Some panels are organized in panel groups. Other panels are not displayed initially but can be opened from the Window menu. You can undock panel groups, add panels to a group, undock individual panels, rearrange the order of docked panel groups, and collapse and close panel groups. You can also open and close individual panels.

To open a closed panel:

• Select the panel from the Window menu.

Tip: A check mark next to a panel name in the Window menu indicates that the panel is open.

To close a panel, do one of the following:

• Select the panel name from the Window menu.
• Click the Close button in the panel title bar when the panel is undocked.

To undock or move a panel group:

• Drag the panel gripper on the upper left corner away from the panel docking area on the right side of the screen.

To dock a panel group:

• Drag the panel gripper onto the panel docking area. As you drag a panel or panel group over the panel docking area, a placement preview line or rectangle shows where it would be placed among the groups.

To collapse or expand a panel group or panel, do one of the following:

• Click the title of the panel group or panel.

Note: The title bar is still visible when the panel group or panel is collapsed.

• Click the expander arrow in the upper left corner of the panel group or panel.

To undock a panel from a panel group:

• Select Group With > New Panel Group from the Options menu in the panel group's title bar. (The Group With command's name changes depending on the name of the active panel.) The panel appears in a new panel group of its own.

To dock a panel in a panel group:

• Select the name of a panel group from the Group With submenu of the panel group's Options menu. (The Group With command's name changes depending on the name of the active panel.)

To rename a panel group:

1. Click the icon in the upper right of the panel group and select Rename Panel Group from the Options menu.
2. Enter the new name.

To return panels to their default positions for your screen resolution, do one of the following:

• Select Window > Workspace Layouts > 1024 x 768.
• Select Window > Workspace Layouts > 1280 x 1024.

To hide all panels and the Property inspector:

1. Select Window > Hide Panels.
2. To view hidden panels, select Window > Hide Panels again.

Note: Panels that are hidden when you select Hide Panels remain hidden when you deselect this command.

Using the Property Inspector

The Property inspector lets you edit the properties of the current selection, tool, or document (see Figure 4). By default, the Property inspector is docked at the bottom of the workspace.

Figure 4. Property inspector in Fireworks

The Property inspector can be open at half height, displaying two rows of properties, or at full height, displaying four rows. You can also fully collapse the Property inspector while leaving it in the workspace.

Note: Most procedures in Using Fireworks assume that the Property inspector is displayed at full height.

To undock the Property inspector:

• Drag the gripper at the upper-left corner to another part of the workspace.

To dock the Property inspector at the bottom of the workspace (Windows only):

• Drag the side bar on the Property inspector to the bottom of the screen.

To expand a half-height Property inspector to full height, revealing additional options:

1. Click the expander arrow in the lower right corner of the Property inspector.
2. Click the icon in the upper-right of the Property inspector and select Full Height from the Property inspector Options menu.

Note: In Windows, the Options menu is available only when the Property inspector is docked.

To reduce the Property inspector to half height:

1. Click the expander arrow in the lower-right corner of the Property inspector.
2. Select Half Height from the Property inspector Options menu.

Note: In Windows, the Options menu is available only when the Property inspector is docked.

To collapse the Property inspector when it is docked:

1. Click the expander arrow or the title of the Property inspector.
2. Select Collapse Panel Group from the docked Property inspector's Options menu.

For more information about specific Property inspector options, see the appropriate sections in Using Fireworks.

Selecting a Tool from a Tool Group

A small triangle in the lower right corner of a tool in the Tools panel indicates that it is part of a tool group. For example, the Rectangle tool is part of the basic shape tool group, which also includes the Rounded Rectangle, Ellipse, and Polygon basic tools, as well as all of the Smart Shape tools, which appear below the divider line. The Pen tool includes the Vector Path and Redraw Path tools (see Figure 3).

Figure 3. Pen tool group in Fireworks

To select an alternative tool from a tool group:

1. Click the tool icon and hold down the mouse button. A pop-up menu appears with tool icons, tool names, and shortcut keys. The currently selected tool has a check mark to the left of the tool name.
2. Drag the pointer to highlight the tool you want, and release the mouse button. The tool appears in the Tools panel, and the tool options appear in the Property inspector.