Quick Start Guide to Macromedia's Fireworks

Selection tools

The top four buttons are different types of selection tools. The small triangles that appear on three of the four buttons indicate there are more tools available that can be select by clicking and holding the mouse button over the tools. It might initially seem odd to have so many selection tools, but as you become more comfortable with the program, you will recognize that as an invaluable feature.

One of the reasons it is necessary to have multiple selection tools has to do with the different types of representations found in Fireworks. The two main types of representations are Objects and Pixel-based. Representations that we can change parameters for are objects. The parameters in pixel-based representations must be changed for each pixel by selecting a group of pixels. The top two pointers are used to select and move objects. The second row of tools allows you to select pixel-based representations.

The two tools in the third row are used to manipulate your view of the image. The hand tool is called Pan and it allows you to see other parts of a document that don't appear on your screen. The magnify glass allows you to manipulate the magnification of the image for editing purposes (note: this doesn't change the image-just how it appears to you).

Drawing tools

	The Line tool behaves just as you might expect. To use the line tool select a point in your document to begin and drag the mouse to the termination point.
	The Pen tool draws editable paths. In other words, this tool makes object representations.
	In contrast the Pencil tool (two rows down) make pixel based representation (i.e., non-editable paths).
	The Rectangle tool will draw straight and rounded rectangles. Other selections include circles and polygons.
	The Text tool is used to add text objects to your document.
	The final drawing tool, the Brush, is used to make pixel based representations. The brush differs from the pencil in that the stroke can be manipulated beyond one-pixel wide.

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