Troubleshooting

One of my panels has disappeared. How do I turn it back on?

The easiest way to find a panel is to choose Window from the main menu. The Window menu contains all the panels and their subpanels. As you find yourself using specific panels more often than others, learn their shortcut keys so you can turn them on or off easily.

In Dreamweaver, can I turn off all the panels to maximize my space?

Sure, but there is a better way to keep the panels you find useful open but hidden. To do this, choose Window, Hide Panels from the main menu or simply press the F4 key. The panels located to the right of the workspace are now hidden. To restore them, choose Window, Show Panels or press F4 again. Note that when you restore the panels, they are arranged exactly as you left them.

Best PracticesFamiliarizing Yourself with Panel Functionality and Customizing Your Workspace

At first glance, any of the Studio programs can be a bit overwhelming. In addition to the typical menus , there are panels on the left, panels on the right, and buttons , drop- downs , and boxes on every panel. The good news is that all these options are what make the Studio applications some of the most powerful on the market. The bad news is that you have to learn about every feature to take full advantage of what the programs have to offer.

Don't worry, though. The panels really aren't as intimidating as they might appear at first glance and after you get used to them, I think you'll find them to be very intuitive. The best thing you can do to get started, however, is to open each panel and familiarize yourself with the functionality that exists. Make some notes and if you don't think you'll use the panel very often, minimize it or turn it off altogether. This enables you to customize your workspace to fit your needs, but still find features located in a hidden panel should you need them.

Part II: Fireworks 8

Chapter 3. Introducing Fireworks 8

In this chapter

What's New in Fireworks 8 42

Fireworks 8 Environment 43

Document Window 45

Tools Unique to Fireworks 47

Property Inspector 71

Menu Bar 71

Fireworks Panels 75

Customization with Preferences 79

Troubleshooting 81

Best PracticesKnowing When and How Your Images Will Be Viewed 82

What's New in Fireworks 8

Several new features have been introduced in Fireworks 8, as well as enhancements of some existing features. New feature functionality includes

• The new Image Editing panel Provides access to commonly used image editing tools, filters, and menu commands.

• The new Auto Shape Properties panel Enables you to modify the properties of Auto Shapes .

• The new Special Characters panel Using this panel you can insert special characters into text blocks.

• The new Add Shadow command Enables you to add a shadow effect to vector objects and text blocks.

• New symbol libraries Additional buttons , bullets, themes, and animations have been added to the Fireworks 8 libraries.

• New default styles Additional styles have been added in Fireworks 8.

• New default patterns and textures Patterns and textures for use in filling shapes have been updated.

• CSS-based pop-up menus Pop-up menus created in Fireworks 8 are now CSS-based, rather than JavaScript.

• New blend modes 25 new blend modes have been added, including Negative, Hard Light, Soft Light, Freeze, and a host of others.

• Additional import file formats Formats such as QuickTime, TGA, MacPaint, and others are now available for import into Fireworks 8.

• Additional slicing capabilities Slices can now be polygons or rectangles.

Those existing features that have received updates include

• The capability to save multiple selections Using the marquee tool, you can now save, restore, and name multiple selections within PNG files.

• Shift-Click functionality in the Layers panel Enables you to make contiguous selections within the panel.

• Stored Autosave preferences Fireworks preferences are autosaved by the application to ensure that your preferences remain consistent each time you run the application.

• Enhanced vector compatibility Vector attributes of fills and strokes are preserved when objects are moved between Fireworks and Flash.

• Improved JPEG compression JPEG files can be exported into smaller files with better quality.

• Improvements to the Color Replace, Remove Red Eye, and Vector Path tools and Popup Previews Each of these tools has been improved to enhance functionality.

• Export Preview renamed to Image Preview The functionality remains largely the same, but the navigation link has simply been renamed.