Books: Fireworks

Most of my experiences with these books goes no deeper than having spent time at Barnes and Borders thumbing through their pages. I have not actually worked through any of the books listed here to thoroughly evaluate their worth. If you have used a book that you felt was helpful, or spent money on a book that you later regretted, email me and I'll share those experiences here.

Workbook
Macromedia Fireworks MX: Training From the Source
by Patti Schulze

From the publisher: These hands-on, project-based lessons for active learners teach novice users all the basics and many advanced features of Macromedia Fireworks MX, the latest version of Macromedia's premier Web design tool. Over the course of 12 lessons and 16 hours of instruction, readers will learn everything from editing bitmaps and creating interactive buttons, to optimizing and exporting their pages as HTML files. The enclosed CD-ROM includes all the media files necessary for readers to create sophisticated, professional-level projects, plus completed files for them to compare with their own results.

My own evaluation of this book: As the paragraph above explains, this book is really meant to work you through the building of a project. If you are looking for a reference book, this is probably not a good choice. This book did seem that it would be very beneficial to those that would like to learn Fireworks through experience in using it. It is very "workbook" like in nature and, like many computer books, comes with a CD containing the files used within. The book appeared unimposing, yet thorough.

Reference: Easy
Macromedia Fireworks MX for Windows and Macintosh
by Sandee Cohen

From the publisher: This is the fourth update to Peachpit's Visual QuickStart Guide to Macromedia Fireworks, a tool that creates both raster and vector-based graphics for the Web. Fireworks is more than a drawing and effects tool, it's also capable of generating buttons, image maps, simple animations, and their underlying code. Additionally, if you use other Macromedia Web tools, such as Dreamweaver or Flash, Fireworks can be used "roundtrip" with them when editing and updating your Web pages. This edition will cover the newest features in Fireworks, in addition to the clear, step-by-step instructions on how to use all the existing graphics and text features in the program.

My own evaluation of this book: Peachpit's reputation as being a publisher of books for the "average" person, in my estimation, began with their publishing of Robin William's book "The Mac is Not a Typewriter". Since then, they have published books on nearly every piece of software available, all with an eye toward keeping things as simple as possible. In my opinion, their Fireworks and Dreamweaver series have not been as good as some of their others, but those that have used them seem to have enjoyed them.