Making the GIF animations and Java rollovers takes merely one step in Fireworks: just make your multiple frames of animation (if you are doing a Java rollover you make your "Up," "Over," "Down," and "onClick" versions of the button), and export as you wish. Fireworks will generate any code (even Java) necessary for an exported graphic. All you have to do is ask.

An Adobe Illustrator document opened in Fireworks can still be edited as if it was created in Fireworks.

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A pleasant surprise was Fireworks compatibility with other graphics programs. It's possible to import Photoshop (and still keep the layers separate), GIF, JPEG, TIFF, BMP, ASCII (Text) Illustrator, CorelDRAW, and FreeHand documents. An even bigger surprise was the fact that vector-based drawings, from Illustrator, FreeHand, and CorelDRAW, were fully editable when imported into Fireworks. The only major drawback with importing and exporting, and Fireworks in general, is that it does not seem that one can export a vector-based file from Fireworks, to use later in another program. Meaning that if you draw a complex and time-consuming composition in Fireworks, you will have to redo it in Illustrator or FreeHand if, for example, you want to use it for any printed work. Maybe this could be an addition for the next version.

With all the great things that Fireworks can do, should you throw your present army of graphic programs out the door? No. Although Fireworks delivers on a lot of promises, you still need the nuances and pure power that a variety of programs can provide you. You need the vast array of Photoshop filters and the printing and layout capabilities of Illustrator and Quark. To wrap things up, I am definitely sold on Fireworks. It saves time, effort, and a lot of guess work that is necessary when jumping from program to program and back again. It is a welcome addition to any web designer's toolbox, especially mine.

Ged Bauer is the former webmaster of Animation World Network.