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Beta Release Notes

Updated: August 7, 2008

These release notes document known issues related to the beta versions of the Adobe® Fireworks® beta release on Adobe Labs.

Important: The Fireworks beta is preview software licensed for use on a trial basis for a limited time. Do not use the Fireworks beta in a commercial operating environment or with important data. You should back up all of your files before installing this software and back up your files while using the software. Save your work often.

Overview

The Fireworks beta is available only in English; therefore, we can only accept feedback in English at this time. We’ll be keeping the release notes updated with a list of known issues for you to be aware of when using the Fireworks beta. Installation instructions are detailed below.

Release versions of Fireworks CS3 are available on Adobe.com.

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System Requirements

The minimum system requirements for the Fireworks beta are as follows:

Windows

  • Intel® Pentium® 4 processor
  • Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista® (Vista 64-bit edition support)
  • 1GB of RAM
  • 1GB of available hard-disk space
  • 1,024x768 screen resolution
  • CD-ROM drive

Macintosh

  • PowerPC®, G5, or Intel-based Mac
  • Mac OS X v.10.4, 10.5
  • 1GB of RAM
  • 1.8GB of available hard-disk space
  • 1,024x768 screen resolution
  • CD-ROM drive
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Features and Enhancements

Performance

File Open, Save and Close Improvements — A large amount of time went into re-architecting how documents are opened, saved or closed. The improvements will be noticed once you open an existing document created in Fireworks version CS3 or below in the Fireworks beta and then save and  reopen the document.

Resolved Complex Memory Leaks — Many legacy and newly introduced memory leaks in CS3 have been resolved in the next version of Fireworks.

Vista Support — Resolved critical performance issues that existed in Fireworks CS3 using the brush tool or any tool that displayed a preview of the affected area. Vista performance was a priority for the engineering team to resolve based on the feedback in the Fireworks support forum.

Faster load time — Documents containing a lot of pages, layers, states and symbols will now operate smoother than before. The reaction time has been improved when switching between Pages and/or States.

Asynchronous saving — With asynchronous saving you now have the ability to save a large document and continue working on that document or a different document while the large document is still saving.

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Workspace

User Interface — From Mac to PC, experience a consistent look and feel. The Fireworks beta has caught up with CS3 and has gone above and beyond to sport the new interface. Enjoy features like support for multiple monitors, full screen mode and collapsible panels enabling you to have more screen width to work with on those wider designs.

Smart Guides — Reap benefits like quickly being able to position objects with other objects including slices without using the Align panel. Hold down shift and experience the new dynamic values (width/height between guides) when updating or creating the positioning of guides.

Tooltips — Tooltips are everywhere! No need to constantly look at the property Inspector when positioning objects. Tooltips will give you a heads up display of the X and Y location in real time.

Preferences Dialog — Easily modify preferences with the new dialog, consistent with Flash preferences. Set custom grid sizes that persist across pages in a document or set guides and grids to a custom color in one central location.

Photoshop Import Dialog — Customize various options when importing Photoshop documents such as choosing a layer comp state or retaining custom shapes (vectors) or even choosing to preserve the appearance of clipping masks.

Updated Layers, Pages and States panels — Right-click on any object, layer, page or state and quickly access properties that were only available in the panel options menu in CS3 and below.

Live Gradients, Patterns, and Masks — Work with gradients real time on the canvas. No longer do you need to drag and drop just to preview the placement of the gradient on an object. All gradient types are supported. Patterns and masks also support the new feature.

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New Workflows

Adobe Text Engine — Many new enhancements have been integrated; such as retaining the fidelity of your Photoshop or Illustrator designs with text. Support for Ligatures and font style. Flowing text inside a closed path has been implemented.

AIR content Preview and Creation — Preview the prototype as an AIR application to quickly test interaction and usability and then package the prototype and send it for instant feedback before developing the actual application in Flex, Flash or HTML.

Export to Adobe PDF — Export a clickable prototype as an interactive Acrobat PDF. No need to send around a folder of HTML files and images or post them on a server for review. Easily collect comments from reviewers using a single PDF document.

Symbol improvements — Edit-in-place for symbols is now supported. Symbols architecture has been completely re-architected to support better performance and the ability to see live updates across symbol instances when editing a symbol in place.

Style improvements — Style sets are now supported and apply styles that can be linked to various shapes and objects in the current document. Multiple documents open at the same time will exhibit the styles within them using the dropdown menu in Styles panel. Access current document styles and use options in the property inspector to quickly redefine, break link, delete or override the style. New style sets have also been included.

CSS and Images Export — Export standards based CSS layout designs that can be further tweaked in Dreamweaver using an extended version of Smart CSS for Fireworks. A new slice type called Background image is now supported. CSS Stylesheet is automatically externalized with the option to include the CSS within the current document. Easily position the layout by using new options to left, center or right align right from Fireworks. Text outside of slices will be retained as HTML text. HTML rich symbols export as HTML controls!

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New Tools

9-Slice Scaling Transform Tool — Quickly select an object or even a combination of symbol, vector and bitmap objects and scale them using the same technology that exists in Symbols, however, now use the technology as a transform tool.

Improved Rectangle Tool — New and improved rectangle primitive has better support for 9-slice enabled symbols and the new option to select pixels versus percentage of rounded corners. Now scale the rectangle and retain pixel perfect rounded corners on the rectangle.

Arrow Line Auto Shape Tool — Easily point to a location in the document or change the Arrowhead type easily in one click.

Measurement Auto Shape Tool — Quickly create visual measurements between objects for projects such as creating style guide specifications for engineering teams.

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New Commands

Demo Current Document — In a time crunch? The command will quickly export out a simple XML file with JPG images linked to a Flash-based presentation viewer. Present the presentation to your clients in person or upload the package to a server and send a link to the client for review. Also, create your own presentation player in Flash that hooks into the XML file for custom styled presentations that effectively show your company’s brand.

Export to FXG — This is an export script that generates vector graphics code for future use with next-generation Flash Player authoring applications. Currently, we are not looking for feedback on this command.

Take Screenshot (Windows only) — Now take pixel-precise screenshots using the new Take Screenshot command. Easily navigate to the window or screen you would like to screenshot and once you select the area, go back in Fireworks and paste in the screenshot.

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Updated Commands

Add Arrowheads — Upgraded to ActionScript 3 to support better performance and sports a new interface. Apply Arrowheads on strokes and preview them in real time before applying the command.

Add Picture Frame — Upgraded to ActionScript 3 and supports a new interface to match the overall Fireworks new user interface.

Auto Vector Mask — Supports a new interface with a real time preview to quickly see the mask applied to the image or vector object.

Twist and Fade — Apply a slew of new effects with optional randomization on each property. Upgraded to ActionScript 3 to support better performance Twist and Fade now allows you to save presets and even re-open an object to modify the applied effect. Another great enhancement is to preview the effect real time on the canvas without closing the panel.

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Updated Command Panels

Align — Upgraded to ActionScript 3 and sporting a new interface. A major improvement is support with undo history steps. Now you can undo a step using a keyboard shortcut. Be precise when distributing objects by entering a numerical value. No need to manually select an option to modify anchor points. When a anchor point is selected the Align panel will update automatically to reflect anchor point options.

Auto Shape Properties — Upgraded to ActionScript 3 and sporting a new interface to fit within the Property Inspector location of the user interface.

Color Palette — Support for 5 colors. A new interface overhaul that makes the panel more usable and feel like the overall new user interface. The panel has also been upgraded to ActionScript 3 for better performance. Color Wheel is more reactive with real time preview of color swatches. Easily switch between Selector, Mixer and Blender options.

Special Characters — Upgraded to ActionScript 3 with new interface.

Symbol Properties — Upgraded to ActionScript 3 and sporting a new interface to fit within the Property Inspector location of the user interface.

Path — Amazing new features for intermediate and advanced users. The path panel has exposed more functionality that allows you to edit vectors with more precision then ever before. Upgraded to ActionScript 3 and supporting a new user interface this panel will be invaluable and will make you a vector editing wizard.

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Adobe Product Improvement Program

Improvement Program — Understand most used/valued feature in Fireworks and is optional for customers using shipping products. Statistically significant sample of our customer base that will overall help us refine features going forward. For more information see the Adobe Product Improvement FAQ.

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Installation and Uninstallation

Instructions for installing and uninstalling the Fireworks beta are as follows:

Installation

You may install the Fireworks beta on the same machine where you have Fireworks CS3 installed, or you may install it on another machine. However, on a machine you may run only one version of Fireworks (CS3 or beta) at the same time.

  • Close all applications currently running on your system, including other Adobe applications, Microsoft Office applications, and browser windows.
  • Do one of the following:
    • Double-click Setup.exe (Windows) or Setup (Mac OS), and then follow the on-screen instructions.

Note: To reinstall your software after the original installation, you will need access to the original installer (the download from the web). Before you begin additional installations or reinstallations, please make sure the installer is in the same drive or location it was in during the original installation.

Uninstallation

Please follow these steps to uninstall the Fireworks beta.

  • Close all applications currently running on your system, including other Adobe applications, Microsoft Office applications, and browser windows.
  • Do one of the following:
    • In Windows XP, open the Windows Control Panel and double-click Add or Remove Programs. Select the product that you want to uninstall, click Change/Remove, and then follow the on-screen instructions. Click Uninstall instead of Remove Components/Change or Remove
    • In Windows Vista, open the Windows Control Panel and click on Uninstall a Program. Select the product that you want to uninstall, click on Uninstall/Change, and then follow the on-screen instructions. Click Uninstall instead of Remove Components/Change or Remove
    • In Mac OS, DO NOT drag applications to the trash. To safely uninstall software, double-click the alias to the uninstaller in the root of the Fireworks folder called “Uninstall Adobe Fireworks CS4.” Authenticate as an administrator, then select Remove Components and follow the on-screen instructions. Click Uninstall instead of Remove Components/Change or Remove
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Known Issues

Styles

Win

  • Refresh Issues when setting the pages panel thumbnail to none.
  • When a psd file containing effects is brought into fireworks and the effects are edited. Clicking on the effect name generates an error. Clicking on the checkbox area will work fine.
  • Applying a series of PS Live effects sometimes causes an effect to revert to a default value.

Mac

  • The selection in the  Styles panel is small. Sometimes it is difficult to determine which style is selected in the panel.
  • Some complex eps files may crash the application.

Common

  • Opening a document and then deleting the styles only will not actually delete them. Some object operation needs to be done to save the file with deleted styles.
  • Linking a slice to a page name sometimes deletes the link name after the selection moves off the drop down.

Symbols

  • Refresh issues of slices with nested symbols having buttons in the nesting hierarchy on exiting symbol edit mode.
  • Trying to move an object in symbol edit mode which is beyond 2 levels of nesting causes some refresh issues.

Nested Symbols

  • For nested symbols with more than two levels of nesting having buttons in all levels bounding box would appear bigger than the nested symbol.

Type Engine

  • Paste Attributes will currently not paste the kerning property over to the new text block.
  • Copy-pasting of text along with vectors from AI will only bring text into FW. The workaround here is to copy-paste text and vectors individually.
  • After using the builds of Fireworks for some time and playing around, sometimes the font caches are getting corrupted. Please note that this doesn’t happen all the time and not on all the machines. At run time we are occasionally seeing this issue so the workaround if such a case comes up is to delete the below mentioned file manually and re-start the system.
    • On Mac platform:
      "[User]/Library/Caches/Adobe/TypeSupport/AdobeFnt11.lst" and "[User]/Library/Caches/Adobe/Fonts/AdobeFnt11.lst"
    • On Windows platform:
      "C:\WINDOWS\Fonts\AdobeFnt11.lst" and "C:\WINDOWS\system32\FNTCache.dat"

Adobe AIR Package Creation

  • To run an Adobe AIR package created from the Fireworks beta, the user needs to have the Adobe AIR beta 3 installed.

CSS and Images Export

  • Div, Paragraph and Heading components not implemented yet. These components are used to export as known controls in HTML and CSS. The components (Rich Symbols) reside in Window > Common Library > HTML.
  • Documentation for CSS export in product help is outdated. Please refer to article in the Fireworks demos page.
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Fixed Issues

This section will be used if new versions of the Fireworks beta are posted.

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Technologies

Showcase Gallery


MAX 2008