Fireworks into more bandwidth effective format

[Jopling]

I made a quick website about a month or two ago for a final for one of my classes. Unfortunately I did most of it in Fireworks. I just downloaded the demo version of Fireworks from CS3, but haven't had a chance to use it yet. Fireworks is nice for making templates and all, but is there anyway to translate basic shapes into tables in the new or old version of fireworks? I'd like to get rid of all images in the layout except for my picture.

http://nw01.american.edu/~zj3612a/index.html

 

[yojitani]

I made a quick website about a month or two ago for a final for one of my classes. Unfortunately I did most of it in Fireworks. I just downloaded the demo version of Fireworks from CS3, but haven't had a chance to use it yet. Fireworks is nice for making templates and all, but is there anyway to translate basic shapes into tables in the new or old version of fireworks? I'd like to get rid of all images in the layout except for my picture.

http://nw01.american.edu/~zj3612a/index.html

so long as you saved the png file with all the layers etc. you should be able to edit it any way you want. if you've only got the html file it generated plus all of the images associated with it, then you might be able to find the pic you want if you scan through the image folder.

Frankly, designing in fireworks is really bad practice - I would strongly recommend against doing it again.

YT

 

[Jopling]

... Yeah I know I can edit it any way I want. I was just asking if there was a way to convert to tables instead of just reprogramming the whole thing.

 

[CanadaRAM]

... Yeah I know I can edit it any way I want. I was just asking if there was a way to convert to tables instead of just reprogramming the whole thing.

Automatically? no.

You can set guides on the image, and then slice the graphic file up into many smaller graphics. Then export as HTML + Images, which will construct a table structure, but depending on how you have designed the page, this may or may not provide any savings in download time/Kb size.

Without seeing your file, it's really hard to imagine what you are dealing with, here.

<Edit> .. errr, ahh ... I viewed source on your page and you have a table structure with graphics already
Just what exactly is the real question here ??

So, work out which table cells you want to be text, not images, and delete the image those cells. Then choose the appropriate background colour for those cells, add text. Of course if you delete the images and go with text, your look is going to change radically. Really the only parts that you can practically change are the Welcome and Welcome to AU paragraphs. You're going to have to understand your tables pretty thoroughly to do this. Dreamweaver would make it a bit easier, otherwise you're in for a crash course on HTML.

 

[Jopling]

Yeah, I've been doing html for about 6 years. It was my first time making a site with fireworks because that was the assignment. I've become lazy and was hoping there was another magic way.

 

[decksnap]

Frankly, designing in fireworks is really bad practice - I would strongly recommend against doing it again.

YT

Balderdash. Designing in Fireworks is pretty much best practice. You shouldn't be exporting tables or other HTML from Fireworks, but for generating web graphics and buiding pixel-perfect source files it's second to none.

I recommend doing rough drafts in something like Illustrator, then translating that design into a Fireworks source mechanical. From there you export all your graphics and do your html/css layout from scratch elsewhere.

 

[yojitani]

Balderdash. Designing in Fireworks is pretty much best practice. You shouldn't be exporting tables or other HTML from Fireworks, but for generating web graphics and buiding pixel-perfect source files it's second to none.

I recommend doing rough drafts in something like Illustrator, then translating that design into a Fireworks source mechanical. From there you export all your graphics and do your html/css layout from scratch elsewhere.

yeah, what I meant was that designing a whole site and then exporting into html is not good practice. You *can* do it, but, as the OP notes, it is not bandwidth effective and it is often very sloppy in terms of slicing etc. I'm currently 'fixing' three sites all made by the same designer who produced everything directly in fireworks. It's an effing mess! that said, I do all my drafting in fireworks.

Why would you do drafts in illustrator though? you can do them fine in fireworks?

 

[decksnap]

Why would you do drafts in illustrator though? you can do them fine in fireworks?

Yeah- just a preference for me because it's a lot quicker when you are doing roughs, and don't have to be pixel-perfect. I usually move to Fireworks after I have a chosen direction.

 

[yagran]

i love fireworks for deigning, but when it comes to exporting images for the web i dont find it that great...i usually export the files and then save them again through illusrator, as it seems to dish out much smaller file sizes using the save for web feature.

 

[decksnap]

i love fireworks for deigning, but when it comes to exporting images for the web i dont find it that great...i usually export the files and then save them again through illusrator, as it seems to dish out much smaller file sizes using the save for web feature.

That seems very odd... Fireworks kicks out better quality files at smaller sizes than Photoshop... and I'd imagine Illustrator uses the same code as Pshop being that they're both Adobe.