- Getting Off to a Good Start
- Creating New Documents
- Opening Existing Documents
- Inserting Graphic Assets into a Fireworks Document
- Modifying Documents
- Navigating Within Documents
- Organizing Documents
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Inserting Graphic Assets into a Fireworks Document
Opening files made in other programs isn't the only way to get those assets into Fireworks, and often it is not the most desirable way. Opening other file types is a good choice when you want to move production from one program to Fireworks for optimization, further editing and design, or whatever reason. But when you already have a Fireworks file, and you just need to pull in a Photoshop-created bitmap or a FreeHand flowchart with arrowheads, you don't need to create a whole new file. Fireworks makes it easy to import assets in one of three ways: importing, dragging and dropping, or copying and pasting. Each of these can be used to bring in bitmaps, vector art, or text.
→ For more information on importing from a scanner or digital camera, see "Scanners, Digital Cameras, and Color Correction," Chapter 9.
Importing a Graphic into Fireworks
To insert an entire file into an existing Fireworks file, select File, Import (Command-R/Ctrl+R). The Import dialog box, shown in Figure 3.4, appears, allowing you to browse to find the file.
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Figure 3.4 The Fireworks Import dialog box looks and works like any Open dialog box.
You can use the Import dialog box to import vector graphics, bitmap images, or text. With certain vector formats, you see the Vector File Options dialog, which was described earlier and shown in Figure 3.2. All imported text and vector objects are fully editable. Imported bitmaps are editable as bitmaps; in other words, you can use bitmap selection and editing tools (such as blurring or color adjustment), but you cannot, for example, modify text.
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Inserting Graphics Using Drag and Drop
Oftentimes, you need to import an asset that is only a part of its source file. For instance, you might want to pull only the logo off the first page of a multi-page FreeHand document. In these situations, neither opening nor importing the entire file is desirable. Instead, you can use drag and drop or cut and paste to move only a select portion of a file from its source into Fireworks.
To drag and drop a bitmap image, a vector object, or text created in other applications into a Fireworks document, you must have both the file in its original application and the designated Fireworks document open at the same time. After you have both of them open, simply select the object, drag it from the source application, and drop it into the open Fireworks document.
You can drag and drop bitmap images, vector objects, or text into Fireworks documents as long as the original application supports drag and drop. Most major applications released after the mid-1990s support drag and drop, including the following:
Macromedia FreeHand 7 or later
Macromedia Flash 3 or later
Adobe Photoshop 4 or later
Adobe Illustrator 7 or later
Microsoft Office 97 or later
Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 or later
Netscape Navigator 3 or later
CorelDraw 7 or later
Inserting Graphics with Copy and Paste
To copy and paste a bitmap image, a vector object, or text created in other applications into a Fireworks document, open the file that contains the object (in its original application) you want to copy. Then select (or highlight) the object, and choose Edit, Copy (or Command-C/Ctrl+C) to copy it to the Clipboard. Return to Fireworks and paste your copied object into the target document by choosing Edit, Paste (Command-V/Ctrl+V).
You usually need to adjust the location of the pasted object after you paste it into the Fireworks document. The following formats can be pasted into Fireworks documents:
Macromedia Freehand 7 or later
Adobe Illustrator
PNG
PICT (Mac)
DIB (Windows)
BMP (Windows)
ASCII text
EPS
WBMP