You can now find the Fireworks team's new blog here : http://blogs.adobe.com/fireworks That's a great thing for improving Fireworks' visibility and hopefully it will be updated regularly.

On the other hand, I wonder why Adobe is not using a ColdFusion based solution for blogging. I really think they should be using their own platforms as much as possible. They could be using an existing blogging application like BlogCFC which I'm using here or build their own (which they could sell or give away, integrate into Dreamweaver, etc). The possibilities are mind boggling and I wonder why the primary Web building software supplier is still not helping their customers build blogs using their own platforms and software?

But I digress... ;-)  Do check out the Fireworks teams's blog!

It's been a week since I signed up on Twitter now and, in spite of my expectaions I must say I'm loving it. There are a lot of very helpful people there and it makes me feel like I'm more part of the community.

As I said before, the experience is made a lot more enjoyable by using a good Twitter client instead on the Web interface. I still use Twhirl which I mentionned in my last post and it works great for me. Seems popular too. But the one thing that is really annoying is the limits Twitter puts on the number of "API requests" such clients make. For some reasons, this number is set to 20/hour these days (usually around 70) so I can't get as frequent updates as I did last week.

Twitter's infrastructure seems quite fragile and is frequently overloaded which is too bad because the service is great and far more useful than I expected (more on that later). So it seems I'm there to stay...

I resisted for a long time as I didn't see the usefulness but I am now on Twitter and posting once in a while. My Twitter page is http://twitter.com/pixelyzed

I would have given up almost right away if i'd had to do it through the Web interface but I found a great Twitter client called Twhirl based on Adobe Air which makes the experience a lot more fun for me.

I'm planning a design refresh of this site (as well as my professional freelance site) and I may add the Twitter thing to it then but I'll see.

In any case, Twitter turns out to be far more interesting than I expected so I'll stick to it for now.

I've started to use jQuery on the current project I'm working on and I really love it so far. It's a lot easier to grasp than I expected and is very lightweight for such a powerful framework.

When the site is done I'll post a link to it. I've used jQuery for tabbed forms, form data manipulation and updating of page text and more. There's one thing I didn't find out how to do with it or if even a plugin exists for it and it's a specific kind of tooltips implementation. jQuery does have tooltip plugins but none I found can easily take the text from ANY element in a page and show it in the tooltip when mousing over another element.

The contents of my tooltips was long and needed to be formatted so I placed it in hidden divs with a class named "descriptions" and those divs are hidden by the script so available as linked references if JS is off. I'm really surpised I couldn't find a similar implementation for jQuery. The tooltips script I used is the one from Walter Zorn. If anyone knows of one that works similarly (needs to load content from any ID'd element on the page) then please share! :-) The one thing I do not like about Zorn's script is that it relies on the onmouseover and onmouseout attributes and I would like to keep the code cleaner.

Fireworks is finally getting some long overdue exposure. A beta of the next CS4 version has been posted on Adobe Labs today. I will blog about this in more details later this week. Long story short is that there is a lot to love in this new version and Fireworks is finally gainning some maturity and sophistication.  There are still many areas that need work like, for example, its desperately archaic color management features as well as not having any way to maintain links to external assets (just to name these two) but a LOT of progress has been made in this release...

Check it out !

Wow! I was going through  my new items in FeedDemon when I came upon Jeff Veen's blog. It seems that WebMonkey is back. Now that brings up memories! I cut my teeth on the Web design stuff around the time WebMonkey, HotWired, Talk.com and others were born in 1996. I learned a lot of the my early Web design skills from WebMonkey articles and tutorials. They were pretty much the only quality reference we had back then and it's very good to see them back!

For the last few weeks, I've been having a lot of issues with my font management software. For a Web or graphic designer, a good font management program is very important so I've been scrambling to find solutions.

I had been using Extensis Suitcase for a long time but the Windows version doesn't have a proper search feature and that is something that can really help when you are looking for fonts for a project. That's why I had been experimenting with other apps. One of those apps was Proxima Software's FontExpert. But the thing is, both have pros and cons and I basically used one for a while and the other for a while then back again. Want examples of things one does well while the other doesn't? here it goes:

Suitcase Pros:

• It is a mature app with a polish that is hard to beat
• It has a very streamlined and easy to use UI
• It comes with automatic font activation plugins for both Illustrator and InDesign and, coupled with is FontSense technology, they work very well.

Suitcase Cons:

• It lacks a search feature in the Windows version
• It is harder on resources than FontExpert as it uses a resident service that start with every Windows boot.
• It's activation process depends on the infamous "Bonjour Service" (more on that later).

FontExpert Pros

• It has a very extensisve feature set that includes tagging and categorizing fonts and searching them.
• It offers access to detailed information for each font.
• It is very light on resources

FontExpert Cons

• Its interface can be confusing, especially its implementation of Groups and Worklists and what each is used for. Suitcase is a lot easier to deal with in that regard.
• Documentation is lacking
• It has an auto activation plugin only for InDesign and the CS3 version is flaky. It was preventing InDesign to load for me so I had to uninstall the plugin.

Up to a few weeks ago, I was using Suitcase because, even without search, its operation was more trouble free and it really worked well with InDesign and Illustrator when I openend a filed that used fonts that were uninstalled. But one day, it stopped loading on Windows startup or manually. After a bit of detective work I realized that the issue was tied to the "Bonjour Service". No matter what I try, I cannot get that stupid service to start and Suitcase depends on it being started to start itself.

I tried downloading the latest version of Bonjour from Apple but that won't start either. I have made no change purposefuly to my machine that could explain this. Maybe some kind of Windows update is preventing Bonjour to start but I have no idea why and no amount of Googling has given me a solution. Extensis are no help.

I had no choice but to uninstall Suitcase and install FontExpert. But I started having problems with that too. Fonts would not display correctly within the app nor within applications using them even if they were activated. They defaulted to a basic sans-serif that looked nothing like the typeface I was using. So I was screwed and I needed to find another font management application. I'm starting a new project these days and it includes the creation of a logo  so I need to look at a lot of fonts...

After a bit of research I found Hi-Logic MainType. It looks a bit like FontExpert but more streamlined and its Group features is directly linked to folders on your machine which is a lot closer to how Suitcase worked. All fonts display correctly in it and it has a "filter" feature that helps find fonts based on several criteria and it seems to work quite well. I'll see how it works for me over time.

In the meantime, if any of you that read this blog have experienced problems with the Bonjour Service failing to start or have heard of a solution to that problem then please, post a comment here. Suitcase is not the only app depending on it and I would love to fix this issue on this machine.

It seems that the debate over this issue which I discussed in detail in a previous post is still going on in the forum thread that inspired my bringing the issue up here. It also was the issue in a recent post from respected Fireworks evangelist and now Adobe employee, Trevor McCauley (Senocular).

The thing is, Trevor brings up just the same weak arguments we've heard before in favor of keeping the .png file extension which I have tried to debunk in my other post on the subject. Basically, his only argument for keeping the extension and justifying his claim that changing it would do "more harm than good" is that, support for the files in other applications would be lost.

I have already addressed this specific issue in my other post and showed that, for the only applications where I believe this really matters (Web browsers), you could take a PNG file, change its extension to .xyz or anything else that strikes your fancy and IE, Firefox and Opera would all still open it. That's because those applications do not just look at file extensions to determine file types.

For the applications that do this like Photoshop or Illustrator for example, you could always temporarily rename your ".xyz" or whatever file to .png and open it there then change it back later. In my opinion, it becomes even more important to use a new file extension when opening editable files in editing applications like Photoshop that do not support the proprietary data chunk that holds the native data saved by Fireworks. Saving a PNG file from Photoshop will loose all editable data no matter what. If the file had another extension, Photoshop wouldn't open or save it without having to change the extension to PNG. That would mean designers would really have time to make sure the file they open in Photoshop or another editing app is not a native file or that, if it is, they'll have to be extra careful how or where they save it back out of Photoshop.

I think this debates really boils down to theses two choices. On one hand, if you change the extension, you have the minor inconvenience of having to rename it if you want to open it in applications that are dumb enough to only look at file extensions to determine file type. On the other, if you keep the status quo, users will still accidentaly overwrite native and editable PNG files and loose hours of work. Which one is the bigger inconvenience in your opninion?

A little while ago, Jason Santa Maria wrote a very interesting post about Photoshop and Fireworks (as well about Adobe in general...) in which he brings up many good points to which the powers that be at Adobe should pay real close attention.

First, he admits that, although Photoshop is the Adobe application he uses the most as he designs Web sites with it, at the end of the day, it really is completely inadequate for that kind of job. To me this is as true today as it was when I ditched Photoshop to use Fireworks years ago for the same reasons. Like me, many commenters to his post don't understand how so many designers still use Photoshop for site design or for any kind of layout work for that matter (Web or print based). That is a subject I have touched on here before and something I often discuss with fellow designers. For all the incredible power Photoshop has for editing photographic images, it is indeed "woefully inadequate" as a layout application as Jason puts it. Comment #58 really nails it on the head as to why IMO.

But that is not the important part of his post for me. He then moves on to say that, after getting fed up with the tedium of doing layout work in Photoshop, he tried Fireworks again recently and realized that, almost 3 years after Adobe acquired Macromedia, Fireworks still languishes and and still only gets paltry new features at best, most being touted by how they integrate with other Adobe apps. This is where he hits a very sore spot for me.

Following on his first very valid point about Photoshop's inadequacies as a Web and UI design tool, Fireworks should have been the application that truly filled that gap but in reality, it has not. We can blame this in a large part on Macromedia's truly abysmal marketing of Fireworks in the past and the fact that Adobe is not doing any better now, but in reality, the problem lies much deeper than that IMO. I'm realizing that it's really no coincidence that so many design professionals still perceive Fireworks as amateurish because, in a lot of ways, it is. If we want to be honest, Fireworks has never evolved or matured in a significant manner after Fireworks 4. What truly innovative feature has been added to Fireworks since then?

It has now lost its direction completely as Macromedia then Adobe cannot seem to decide if they want to make Fireworks a truly professional design application that serves the needs of power users working on real Web site design projects or a jack of all trade and master of none lite design app for weekend Web designers. I agree 1000% with Jason on this.

At some point, Adobe will have to decide either way and put real resources behind Fireworks' development. If not, it will keep languishing and will eventually die. At this point, I for one am already loosing faith in Fireworks and anyone who knows me knows how devoted a Fireworks evangelist I have been for so long. But reality is catching up with me.

As the projects I work on are getting more complex and as my design skills improve, I find Fireworks increasingly frustrating to work with for some of the same reasons I abandonned Photoshop all those years ago. It is becoming inadequate for larger projects. The pain points in my workflow are not in the same places as they were in Photoshop, but they are very real nonetheless and make me waste a lot of valuable time.

For example, now that we finally have multiple pages (let's pass on the ridiculously half baked single Master Page implementation), we should also be getting tools that speed up the editing of the more complex documents we're creating. I'm talking things like text styles as in InDesign and Illustrator,  but especially, real color management with individual color swatches which can be set as global colors. This means that if you apply a color to objects, text or effects properties from a global color swatch, editing that one swatch in the colors panel will cascade the change throughout the entire document automatically and immediately. I'm not talking about something on the level of Illustrator's LiveColor here but a truly basic feature that has been taken for grated in all vector design applications I know for over 2 decades.

On the last project I worked on, I got extremely frustrated with Fireworks' absolutely primitive color features when I needed to make color changes across a document to experiment with different color schemes. With global color swatches, it would have been trivial but now, it is a real pain. This is just one example. Jason brings up many others in the later part of his post. I'm really skeptical now that Fireworks will ever get there so I've started exploring new avenues that will alleviate some of the more serious pain points in my design work flow.

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about going to Illustrator to do the actual design work and only bring those layouts in Fireworks for the purpose of slicing, optiming and exporting graphics. I truly cannot stand Photoshop's and Illustrator's "slicing" features and "Save for Web" modal dialog window so I would have to keep performing those tasks in Fireworks. By doing this I would loose some of the integration advantage Fireworks has always given me (no need to move to different apps for different taks) but in the end, slicing and exporting accounts for a fraction of the time I spend actually designing Web site layouts and, in Illustrator, I would get real color management, external assets linking, text styles and a much more sophisticated basic vector editing toolset.

If Fireworks does not bring a good dose of sophistication to its core design toolset very soon, I feel that's exactly what I'll have no choice to do. Many of us long time Fireworks users and evangelists have been more than patient with Macromedia and Adobe but my patience is running out...

An overview of the last year on pixelyzed.com

Now that 2008 is just about to start, I thought it would be a good idea to write a pixelyzed.com style year end review.

There's been a lot of activity in our little world last year as well as in other areas of the software industry. Throughout 2007, I discussed products and technologies that can help our work flows and processes in new ways and my own process has evolved significantly. Now I'll try to summarize some of it and share some of my best finds of the year in several categories. There are some new things in here I didn't discuss before so enjoy!

pixelyzed is growing

Although I still am not a very prolific blogger, Pixelyzed has grown in readership last year and I have made an effort to share my more interesting discoveries as they apply to Web designers and creative professionals. I have also tried to write about more varied topics and I will keep doing so in the new year.

2007 has been a year of growth and change for my career as well. I have tackled a couple of large Web design projects and have started doing sub-contracting work again.

Behind the scenes, I have been working on a new version of my professional site webfocusdesign.com and started marketing locally more aggressively. Once the new version of that site goes up sometime in the next few months, I will intensify these marketing efforts.

Another project I've been working on is my wife's portfolio site as she is a gifted artist- painter. I've gone through a few design iterations and we finally decided to go with a very simplified and uncluttered look. I've looked at dozens of painters and photographers' Web sites and realized that the better ones really put the emphasis on the artist's work and everything else recedes. We also decided to go Flash all the way which means I'll have to re-acquaint myself with it and give myself a quick crash course. If anyone has good advice on good Flash books, I'm all ears. I don't want books that go through the basics but books that teach solid techniques for real world projects and functionality.

The year in software

This is a really quick overview as I will write a separate post dedicated to the year in software to be published later. I must say that 2007 has been a very exciting year for me. Here are a few of the standout products I've been using last year which have been helping me get my job done more efficiently.

Adobe Creative Suite 3

The major new software suite release from Adobe... and the first iteration of the integration of existing Adobe products and former Macromedia ones. There was a lot to get excited about here as most products received serious upgrades. Standouts for me include Illustrator and InDesign.

Fireworks CS3

In spite of all our speculation, Fireworks is still alive and got better under Adobe's care. After the extreme disappointment that Fireworks 8 was, Fireworks CS3 was an encouraging release. But Adobe still has a lot of work to do to fulfill Fireworks' early promise as key areas of the application have been neglected for years and still have got no love in CS3. Looking forward to CS4, there are several key areas I'd like to see improve. More in my next post...

FreeHand MXa

Creative Suite 3 is the release that finally and officially marked the death of FreeHand and the official word from Adobe is that FreeHand users should now migrate to Illustrator. This decision leaves a lot of long time FreeHand users who feel that Illustrator is not an adequate replacement in the cold and I feel for them. Removing competition is never good for any industry and this is no exception. More later...

MindJet MindManager 7

MindManager is my best software find of 2007. It's the application that had the biggest impact on my process and work flow. It is a fantastic knowledge and information management tool that is flexible enough to help through all phases of a Web design projects. I would really encourage every creative professional to at least try it. I will keep sharing tips and ideas on how I use MindManager in my own work through the new year so stay tuned!

JCVGantt Pro 3.0

The perfect companion to MindManager, JCVGantt can both be use as a standalone application and as an add-in for MindManager. Planning and scheduling projects has always been a hard and tedious task for me. JCVGantt Pro makes it a lot easier and integrates seamlessly with MindManager. It is extremely flexible in how it lets users set resources parameters like working and non-working times and days, hourly and fixed costs and more. It updates the Gantt charts, total costs and the MindManager maps it is tied to in real time as you make changes to resources or tasks. A great discovery for me.

Studiometry 5.0

The other piece in my project management and administration puzzle. I've been using Studiometry since mid 2006 to track and keep client and project information, track communications but also as a timer for billable time and then for invoicing. Studiometry does a lot more than that and it got a major upgrade to version 5.0 in 2007. Check it out!

FeedDemon 2.5

Control information overload and get the latest info from all your favourite Web sites in one place. I've been using FeedDemon to subscribe and read RSS feeds for a while now (since it first came out) and I couldn't live without it. It this age of information overload, it's the main "hub" through which I get industry news and more. It has too many features to go into here but if you use Windows, this is the only feed reader you need to consider...

Windows Vista

Vista got a bad rap last year for a variety of reasons but I love it myself. Moving to Vista has brought me little trouble and a real boost in enjoyment and productivity. It'S true that my new computer has the powerful hardware to support it so Vista for me is fast and extremely stable. Much more so in fact than XP ever was for me. A great surprise for me and I can't wait to see the improvements SP1 brings.

The year in music

Many of you know I'm a musician and a music fanatic in general. 2007 was a great year in music for me as well. I'll also post a separate entry on my musical finds of the last year but here's a little taste of my 3 best musical discoveries of 2007. More later...

XM Radio

2007 is the year I discovered satellite radio and more specifically, XM Radio. It is where I discovered several of the artists who's music I fell in love with in 2007. XM Radio has more varied playlists than Sirius and more interesting channels. I carry my radio from the home to my car and the office and I re-discovered the joy of listening to music for hours. I discovered many new talents on XM and I bought more CDs in the last year alone than in the prior 5 because of it. Couldn't live without it now...

Grace Potter and The Nocturnals

My biggest musical crush of the year... on more levels than one ;-). If you never heard of Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, you have to visit their site and listen to some of the samples.

They play great music lead by a phenomenal voice with amazing raw emotional intensity. And Grace is adorable to boot... ;- ) Just give them a listen if you like rootsy but intense rock music based on well above average songwriting. Current stand out songs for me include "Apologies" and "Loose Some Time" (next week it may be two other songs...) both of which are slower numbers but the band also excels at the more intense rockers that fill out the rest of the album and fuel their live shows.

The music press is simply gushing about them and her and the band apparently gives amazing concerts. Don't miss them if they come play in your city. If they ever come play in Montreal, I'll be first in line to see them... In the meantime read this review of one of their recent shows to whet your appetite.

Missy Higgins

Another young and extremely gifted female songwriter. Higgins is folksier than Potter but just as intense. This Australia native was another XM Radio discovery for me. Not long after hearing her music on XM, my wife and I had the pleasure of seeing her perform on the Australian segment of Live Earth and we were immediately hooked. Great melodies sung with a very noticeable Aussie accent that just adds to the charm of her music. I'm really surprised she does not get more airplay or exposure in North America.

Again, give her music a listen, you'll be glad you did.

The year in learning

One of the more exciting aspects of working in the Web design industry for me is the need to continually learn new things. I have discovered a few great resources last year that I will now share with you.

Some of those resources or sites that may seem pretty basic to those who've been in this business for a while but I like reading about different approaches so I can look at my work from a fresh perspective from time to time. Some of this stuff will be known to you but it may still contain great refreshers.

Less experienced Web designers would be wise to look at some of those resources closely, spend quality time at those sites and absorb some of the wisdom their creators are spreading mostly for free.

Learning keeps your mind young and fresh so, enjoy!

Before & After PDF Subscription

For any designer interested in reading excellent practical articles with great design tips and ideas published on a regular basis, Before & After delivers great value for the money and teaches you how the pros do it and why. Even pros will learn new things and will at the very least be inspired to try new approaches to solve design problems. I know I have.

I've actually been a subscriber for a couple years now but it seems the quality of the articles has kept improving throughout the year. If you subscribe you'll also get access to a number of past issues. Before & After magazine is one of the best of its kind so take a look at the sample PDF's on the site and you'll see what a great value it is.

Save The Pixel - The Art of Simple Web Design

I discovered this e-book through the feed of the "Web Design From Scratch" Web site created by Ben Hunt. Every working Web designer should probably read it as it is shock full of great tips and advice for creating efficient Web sites that succeed at creating great user experiences.

The book is very well written in that it does not just explain the principles behind Hunt's "Save the Pixel" design philosophy but also provides numerous case studies of Web site re-designs. Each case study shows the original site and explains why it wasn't exactly successful. Then it shows the redesigned version and explains why it works better and why key design decisions were made.

The book would be an excellent resource even for seasoned Web design pros but it should be required reading for all aspiring and new Web designers but especially wannabes who think that what they do is design when they have no real process and just like to make "pretty things" without forethought, planning or direction. Sadly, there are a lot of people like that in our industry vying for the same projects we're pitching for. This book demonstrates very well why real design is a lot more than mere decoration and why every pixel counts when your site tries to communicate a brand or message as clearly as possible. Best $30 I spent all year...

Start creating better, more effective designs too. Get "Save The Pixel" through my affiliate link here.

Web Design from Scratch

Ben Hunt's Web site which claims to be "A complete guide to designing web sites that work".

This site is an extensive resource that contains a lot of free content as well as paid stuff like the "Save the Pixel" book discussed above. One of my great finds of the year.

ideasonideas

A site I discovered through another site's feed in FeedDemon. IdeasonIdeas touches on a wider variety of subjects than pure design talk. One of the recent discussions centered on the pros and cons of Requests For Proposal or RFPs and started the discussion by stating why they thought they were bad for designers and why.

If you've ever had to deal with such issues (and what designers hasn't) then you know what a pain and a waste of time RFPs can be. Commenters brought up other good points and that is what that blog is about. Great discussions on subjects that matter to communications professionals and brand strategists.

Looking forward to 2008

While I don't like to play the guessing game of predicting the future, we should probably all look ahead to the future now and plan where we'd want this year to take us. Our future is ours to create and imagine so here's a few things I'm looking forward to in 2008.

Continuing growth

I'm planting the seeds of a growing business by re-designing my own professional Web site. We might all benefit from re-visiting our own branding and marketing efforts. As a freelancer it is sometimes more difficult because what we are marketing is our own expertise and our brand is ourselves. I'm looking forward to improving my own marketing skills as this will also benefit my clients.

Waiting for Fireworks CS4

Readers of this blog know how important Fireworks is to my design process. I have been a vocal Fireworks evangelist for years now. As I stated above, I think that Fireworks CS3 was solid transitional release under the new care of Adobe. But Fireworks is not without problems... In my next post which will be about the year 2007 in software, I'll discuss how I now see Fireworks' place in mine and a typical Web designer's arsenal and where I would like it to go next.

2008 on Pixelyzed.com

All in all, 2007 was a great year on many levels for me and for the industry but I feel it was a transitional year. I'm really looking forward to what 2008 brings and hopefully, some of the bigger personal changes I have been planning on for a long time will finally happen. Stay tuned!

Regarding the blog, I don't like to make promises and break them so I will not claim that I will write more often in 2008. All I can promise is that I'll keep working on building my "voice". What I try to share with people here are ideas and resources I feel are worthwhile. What this blog and site will never become is a link whore that simply links to other content with little or no new take on it. If that means I post less often than some other bloggers because I don't spread the latest "meme" without critical thought or commentary then so be it.

I will keep speaking my mind and try to strike conversations on issues that matter to me and which I believe should matter to other design professionals.

Thank you very much to all who follow this site and blog and those who have commented here or sent me e-mail throughout the year. It's good to know people appreciate what I try to share and care enough to comment on it. See you all in 2008!

There was a thread on Adobe's Fireworks forums recently where a user was asking why Fireworks uses the PNG file format (and extension) for its native editable files (the equivalent to Illustrator's .ai and Photoshop's .psd). This is an issue that gets raised from time to time and that thread was just the latest public example of it.  This debate resurfaces from time to time and I think it's worth re-visiting it again especially since Macromedia and now Adobe don't seem to see it as an issue worth addressing when I think it really warrants concrete action.

Why is this an issue at all?

The fact that Fireworks uses a common graphic extension for its editable native format causes very real problems for a number of users who sometimes accidentally erase editable files while exporting flattened optimized ones destined for Web site viewing. Although most experienced users have developed work flows that virtually eliminate those risks, anyone can make a mistake and overwrite an important editable file. Unless you have a backup, that file is gone for good at that point. The thing is, there is no way to know how often users loose work this way as only a small fraction of any application's user base posts in public forums to discuss their problems. For me, one thing is certain though and that is that, no matter how rare or widespread this issue is, any application behaviour that can so easily cause loss of work should get addressed and fast.

The other thing is that Fireworks is the only graphic design application I know of that has this problem because it's the only one that doesn't use a unique and proprietary file extension (and format) to save its native editable file. You never need to worry about overwriting your editable files when using Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign as they all have their own native formats and file extensions (.psd, .ai, .indd) that very different from the final exported formats they can export or save to.

The issue may not be as serious if Fireworks was actually any good at remembering where it saves or export files. The folder it defaults to when saving or exporting sometimes seems completely random and although this has gotten better in the last version, why take the chance of users loosing work. After all, when you export or save a PNG file, noting looks more similar to a folder full of graphic files than another...

Why use the PNG format?

As I said, the debate over the merits (sic) and drawbacks of using the PNG file extension and format re- surfaces from time to time because of the potential problems described above and it really begs the question as to why Macromedia decided to use the PNG file format for Fireworks' native and editable files in the first place.

I believe that one of the primary reasons Macromedia chose PNG was to ride the PNG buzz which was really something in the Web design business for those who have been at it long enough to witness it in the late '90s. This is all speculation from my end though as I was not part of the first beta testers/advisors group that tested the initial Fireworks 1.0 release. I only started using Fireworks at version 2.0 and I only became a beta tester much later.

Whether the primary reason was marketing or not, the technical reason that the PNG format was usable at all —as it is much better known as an optimized and flattened Web publishing format like GIF an JPEG— is that the PNG file format specification allows for a special data chunk for proprietary "extensions" and this is what Fireworks uses to store its editable information (vector objects data, effects, slices, optimization settings, etc). This is explained in the last paragraph on this page (part of an old Macromedia era tutorial) which is probably the most sensible explanation for choosing PNG for Fireworks that I've read about the issue so far.

That article claims that PNG was used because it is an open source format and other graphic applications and browsers can open or at least view the file. It also mentions that those other applications can only see the graphical or bitmap part of the file and not the proprietary info. In short, it works like an .eps with a bitmap preview in other applications.

Was that a compelling enough reason to choose PNG? Not even close in my opinion. The fact that the proprietary information remains proprietary within a Fireworks PNG file pretty much blows the already very weak open-source argument out of the water. A real open-source document format like the OpenDocument Format for example takes all document data into account, not just its bitmap "preview". Open-source usually means better interoperability between applications that can EDIT the file. Are we getting that with a Fireworks PNG? Not at all. Being able to view a file in multiple applications doesn't make it open-source, editing it in multiple application does, and none but Fireworks can get at the real editable data within a native Fireworks PNG file.

What then does remain as a real practical advantage to using the PNG file format? Is the ability to drag and drop a native Fireworks PNG in IE or Firefox and see what it looks like the only one? It seems so. Is that really worth the loss of work many users experienced already and the potential for future such mistakes. Not to me. Again, not even close.

In all fairness, if you put aside the dubious "open-source" argument, there is also no technical drawbacks to using the PNG format. Nothing limits what can be put in the proprietary data chunk and the format has served users well inside of Fireworks.

So what can be done to solve the loss of work issue?

The distinction between the format and the extension

There is one simple thing that can be done to solve the issue once and for all with minimal impact on existing files or work flows. Adobe should just change the file "extension" of native and editable files saved from Fireworks. Underneath, the file format can remain a PNG but changing the extension would eliminate the potential for loss of work as regular exported PNG files could no longer overwrite editable ones.

So what about the ability to see an editable file in a browser or open native files in applications like IrFanView, XnView and others then? Well, nothing. Try it. Take one of your existing native Fireworks file and simply change its file extension to anything, use myFWPNG.xyz for all I care. Your OS may warn you about the danger of changing the extension. Do it anyway and drag that file in your browser's window. It should show up the same as before. It at least does on Windows. Even Windows Explorer will preview the file correctly if your folder view option is set to one of the icons views.

I also tested it in IrFanView. It recognizes the file as a PNG but warns that it has the "wrong" extension and gives the option to rename it. If you cancel that it still opens the file and displays it just fine anyway.

Finally, if an application does not recognize your PNG file with a different extension, you could always rename it to whatever.png before trying to open it in that application. I doubt you would have to do that often if at all.

So why not make the change?

If the change doesn't disrupt the single advantage of the status quo that its proponents seem to be able to conjure up, for me the real question becomes, why NOT make the change? When an application's behaviour causes people to loose work, I call it a bug, and in this case, a very destructive one. Adobe can still tout the use of the PNG format as a "feature" if they want to even if I never met anyone who was "impressed" by the fact that Fireworks uses the PNG format. To me it was a ridiculous marketing trick in the beginning and now, the madness has to stop, especially when the change seems so easy to make...

It's rare that I simply link to a post or article when i have nothing to add. In fact I've really tried to avoid that on this blog. But the following article by Jeffrey Zeldman on A List Apart is really worth reading and says everything better than I could:

Understanding Web Design

It's a must read... really.

Famous blogger Robert Scoble has published a very interesting post today about Apple's advertising and brand promise following his experience upgrading his Mac computer with Apple's latest updates. He is making the point that Apple claims the Apple experience is better, that Apple builds better quality computers, various hadware and software than its competitors. So when he reported problems with his upgrade, many apple users flocked to his site to post comments blaming him for his troubles and criticizing him for criticizing Apple's marketing.

I don't usually comment on issues like this but I have seen this kind of wolf pack mentality before as well and I find it disturbing. I don't drink anyone's Kool-Aid and I find those Windows/Mac debates tiresome and irrelevant because my computer is ultimately just a tool to me. Not a social standing object and not a way to try and be cool. Both sides will argue that their camp is the best and you are basically a moron for believeing otherwise. But Mac fanatics just have this extra little bit of zeal, that smug self-righteousness of the "true believer". Not every Mac user is like that of course and many of them see their machines simply as the tools that they really are. But there are those who really buy into the Mac lifestyle thing or the "brand promise" Scoble talks about. Nothing wrong with that if it makes you happy but when any criticism of the Mac marketing hype brings on the flames then maybe these Mac users take their little Apple branded gizmos much too seriously...

They're just computers people, it's not the brand name on them that matters, it's what you create with them!

Following on my two previous posts on the subject of mind mapping (here and here), I have recently found another piece of my "mind mapping for project management" puzzle.

I'm currently developping my project planning and tracking methodology based on mind maps made with MindManager  and I am determining both what specific maps I'll use and what are the exact client deliverables I'll create from them. One particular aspect I've often had trouble with is determining a project's schedule. I've now found the perfect tool to help me with this pocess and it is a plugin for MindManager called JCVGantt Pro.

As the name implies, JCVGantt Pro creates Gantt charts which are a staple of project management methodologies. I had never used Gantt charts previously eventhough I knew what they were (my other project tracking application Studiometry has them) but I had never used them before because, for me at least, they were a pain to create directly.

The amazing thing with JCVGantt Pro is that it ties directly into MindManager maps and updates you make in one app are directly reflected into the other. What this means is that, from a specifications map for example, I can separate each item into smaller specific tasks which I can time estimate more easily and create dependencies between them using relationships. When I then sent that to JCV Gantt Pro it creates a timeline for the project as a Gantt chart and I can track tasks as they get done.

But the really great thing I discovered which I didn't know about previously is that, in JCV Gantt Pro and probably in other similar software, I can give each task a "resource". Resources can be anything from specific items like fonts or stock images you need to purchase (whose cost goes towards the project total)  but, more importantly in this case, "human resources". The human resource concept is very significant because it defines how much time a "human resource" can devote to tasks within each week and the hourly cost of each "resource". The time per week concept is important for me because I am a one man operation and I can devote only a specific amount of hours each weekday to Web work and slightly more on weekends. What that means is that, not only does JCVGantt Pro calculates the cost of the project based on all the tasks and their allocated resources but it "spreads" the work across the timeline according to the time constraints of each resource.

In short, if a project required 100 hours to complete in total and I could work 40 hours a week on weekdays and not on weekends then it would require 2 1/2 weekes to complete the project. Since, in reality I can only devote about 22 hours a week to Web work (at best) spread on all 7 days of the week, the same project would take me over 4 1/2 weeks to complete and JCVGantt Pro will determine that automatically and draw the Gantt chart accordingly. It even goes further into spreading resources across concurrently running tasks and moving tasks that depend on the completion of previous ones further on the timeline.

I really wish I had discoverd all those incredible tools earlier. Not only do MindManager maps help me keep track of all project specific info in one place but, with the help of JCV Gantt Pro, I can now give clients realistic schedules and get much better cost estimates than ever before. My first project using this new methodology is taking me longer than usual to complete but from that project I will be able to create the map templates I will re-use on every future project..

There is a significant time investment in the learning process in addition to the cost of the software the software for a one man shop like mine but I would really encourage other freelancers and small Web shops to explore similar methodologies if you are not already using them. It's really proving to work very well for me and will remove a lot of the tedium of project management tasks that used to slow down projects for me. Not only that, it will help me create better early clients deliverables (specification documents, creative briefs, proposals/quotations, etc) but it will also help me create better quality projects.

It seems that Adobe is currently quite busy coming up with new useful technology and services. The first one is Share which is currently in Beta on Labs. Share is a service for publishing and sharing documents from anywhere and with whoever you choose. The intersteing thing I see for me is that you could create a repository of documents you would like to share with clients and set permissions so that each client can only get at what concerns them. I've only given Share a quick look but it seems very useful. You sign on with your existing Adobe ID and password.

The second one is even more intriguing for designers and Fireworks enthusiasts. It's a new application that Adobe previewed at Max which will serve as an RIA building tool for designers. Make sure you read this blog entry from Narciso Jaramillo (nj) which answers many questions about Thermo and has links to 3 movies of the MAX presentation of Thermo on YouTube.

Thermo looks like a very promising application that will enable non-developers entry into the world of RIA design and development. Adobe touts it as a great tool for collaboration between designers and developers where both can work on the same project using both Flex Builder and Thermo and not "break" each other's work. Really check out the blog post I linked to above and whatch the movies on YouTube. The Thermo presentation really is impresive.

What I can't wait to see is how the interoperability between Thermo and Fireworks will work becaue, Fireworks still hasbetter design specific tools but Thermo goes a lot further into being a real RIA design tool than the similar embryonic features added to Fireworks CS3 (smart symbols in the Common Library and basic MXML export). What is also unclear to me with the arrival of Thermo is how that side of Fireworks will evolve if at all in future releases. Whatever happens, I would still like to see that side of Fireworks evolve if only to limit wasted effort and and I would also love to see great interoperability between the two apps. Time will tell...