Maximum optimization features in Fireworks

I think one of the most important aspects of web development in today's high tech internet world is file size and download time. They are both directly proportional to one another.

I for one do not want to wait 5 minutes for a page to show up. It may be really neat with flashing lights and music and scrolling text...things bouncing off the page and 3d effects out the you know what but by the time all that stuff loads...I am already 10 sites down the internet trail and I ain't coming back.

The key to making sure your visitors do not have to wait half of forever for a site to download is called optimization. True this does not fix the entire problem but it sure goes a long way towards making your site retain more visitors than you would otherwise.

The Macromedia team has created a grand thing when they brought Fireworks to the market. It has some outstanding features and among the most useful are the optimization features.

When you create a Fireworks document...under most circumstances it will contain text, vector images, photos, etc.

If these things are not optimized correctly you will have a Fireworks document of enormous size. I have a put together a few tips and hints here to make sure you are getting the most out of your creativity in the minimum amount of file size.

The first thing I do is apply slices to all my objects. In Fireworks each slice can be optimized separately. Select the object... right-click... create slice.

When using text, strokes, and fills in Fireworks always optimize these in the optimize panel as gifs. use the least amount of colors that you can. For instance if I am creating a block of white text...then I would select the slice over my text block and then set the optimization at gif and 16 colors or less. using preview will let you see what the different settings are doing to your document. You will have to decide what you are willing to live with.

all photos should be jpg and you will have to play with the quality settings to decide how much quality you have to have. As the quality gets decreased you can add smoothing to make it look a little better. A little goes a long way.

I would never use bmp as it is very file heavy.

Use gradient colors sparingly. They are a bit heavier than solid colors. Other effects such as shadows, glows, bevels, etc. also add file size and should be used sparingly.

I will add more to this FAQ as I think of things but these are the basics. If you will follow these guidelines, you will see magor decreases in filesize and you as well as your visitors will enjoy much faster downloads.

Happy Fireworks!