Working With Text

Text is probably the biggest use that people have for graphics programs when it comes to web design. That's probably why the folks at Macromedia put so much effort into making text handling so easy in Fireworks.

The next time you need some fancy text for inclusion on your website, Fireworks is tool you should look to use to create it. As mentioned in the section on Live Effects, any changes that you make to your text, either now or in the future, are completely editable.

Fireworks uses the same true-type fonts that are common in other Windows applications. You can manipulate the outline of text, its fill, the font size, leading, character spacing, character proportions, the direction it runs (left to right, or right to left), and many other attributes that you can discover on your own.

Another valuable feature is the ability to align text to a path. That means that if you'd like your text to run around the outside of a circle, rectangle, curve, or any other path for that matter, all you have to do is create the path, create the text, select them both, and on the text meny, select "Attach to Path". Simple - and with stunning results.

After you've created your masterpiece of text, it still remains completely editable. Say for instance that you've created a cool little banner with the company CEO's name wrapped around a circle... These things change. Rather than create the object from scratch, all you have to do is open the PNG file you created, double-click the text, and make your changes. The text fill, shadow, golow, outline - and all the other attributes you've attached to the text is automatically updated... sweet!