Rating: 
Summary: Fireworks 4 FX Design
Review: Having Fireworks 4 f/x & Design land on my doorstep was a blessing, it is very thorough, providing detailed descriptions of most of Fireworks tools and samples of implimentation. That's not all this book is though, it shows you some of the medium to high end techniques to building great graphics and Joyce takes you through step-by-step using a project based training approach. It has helped me with graphics creation and manipulation 100 fold. If you're starting out with Fireworks, need inspiration, or want to more about designing with Fireworks, then this is a must have addition to your library!
Rating: 
Summary: A Library Gem
Review: Having Fireworks 4 f/x & Design land on my doorstep was a blessing, it is very thorough, providing detailed descriptions of most of Fireworks tools and samples of implimentation. That's not all this book is though, it shows you some of the medium to high end techniques to building great graphics and Joyce takes you through step-by-step using a project based training approach. It has helped me with graphics creation and manipulation 100 fold. If you're starting out with Fireworks, need inspiration, or want to more about designing with Fireworks, then this is a must have addition to your library!
Rating: 
Summary: Essential reading for the non designer/artist!
Review: I found "Fireworks 4 f/x and Design" very helpful in teaching the creative possibilities of using different tools and techniques together. I'm not much of an artist when it comes to drawing but Joyce's book also helped me to get some creative juices flowing. It helped me think differently (and yes, I use a Mac!). I can now approach a project and think more in terms of assembling an image or project as opposed to drawing it.
Rating:
Summary: Essential reading for the non designer/artist!
Review: I found "Fireworks 4 f/x and Design" very helpful in teaching the creative possibilities of using different tools and techniques together. I'm not much of an artist when it comes to drawing but Joyce's book also helped me to get some creative juices flowing. It helped me think differently (and yes, I use a Mac!). I can now approach a project and think more in terms of assembling an image or project as opposed to drawing it.
Rating:
Summary: Quite a Find
Review: I found the projects to be great fun, and quite thorough. ONE time I couldn't figure something out so I wrote the author with the supplied email and got a quick and courteous answer! I also found out the file names were cut off by the publisher when the CD was burned and the author uploaded them to her site for those of us that might get confused. All in all I found the instructions to be very complete and to the point. I could say much more but some of the other reviews are more eloquent than I and I have to agree with them especially the one by Shoshanna. I have finished almost all of the projects and have gained some real world experience I am already using in my own Web sites. Kudos to a job well done. I'll be looking for more work by this Author.
Rating:
Summary: Great Buy!
Review: I found this book extremely helpful. It was NOT a beginners book which is as it should be for an intermediate book. It is very detailed and well illustrated. I saw a review about the design elements. I happen to like the game design...design is in the eye of the beholder. After a long rant by the same reviewer, the book was recommended. I bought the book to better learn how to better use the program! And it succeeded in its purpose, plus I got some very useful design elements I can use along the way. It appears this is this authors first book, taking that into consideration I think she did a superb job. Perfect? no, but not many are. I learned much more and more diverse things than in other books I've purchased. I like the idea that I learned everything I needed to complete a design. I look forward to more by this author. Oh, almost forgot, the movie tutorials were really helpful for some of the more complex tasks. By the way, I did have a question and wrote the author and was shocked at the quick and very thorough and friendly response I got. I highly reccomend this book to anyone that wants to expand on their Fireworks skills.
Rating: 
Summary: Beware - there are lots of mistakes in this book.
Review: I love this type of book. Doing all the projects in this book (and there are lots) is my favorite way to learn software programs. I have to say, though, that I'm disappointed in how many mistakes in the project instructions I have found (such as incomplete steps and misnamed files). Didn't anyone test out these projects before going to press? I still recommend the book but you might find the mistakes frustrating. Many are addressed on the accompanying website, but not all.
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring
Review: I must say that this book gave me more than my moneys worth!! How anyone can possibly compare it to a Quickstart guide escapes all logic. This book is intermediate as stated and assumes you know the basics. Which is exactly why I purchased it. I learned how to make complex shapes suitable for navigation. The techniques taught helped me implement my own designs. Another section I found very valuabe is the slicing and optimizing. How to best slice up a document and then how to optimize the individual slices for the fasted download times. A real usefull project was the one on deconstructing an animation. Not only can I now look at an animation and learn how someone else did something but I also learned how to look at any Fireworks source file and see what effects, fills, strokes and settings were used. All the files used in the book are included on the CD-ROM so if I was confused I would look at the file to see what I was missing. I did find a few "minor" errors which is to be expected, but nothing an intermediate user couldn't quickly identify. Plus most of the time all I had to do was check the Website for updates, watch one of the quick time movies or send an email to the author.Which by way answered any request the very same day. I learned tons of stuff about masking, how to mask an image without loosing pixels in the process, how to apply gradients and how to use gradients for lighting effects. The book is layed out in a logical format, even though it's intention is not to teach the programs basics, it still does a great job of teaching all the vital areas, such as how to fix those pesky pop-up menus problems and advanced features such as using Levels and photo restoration. If you are serious about using Fireworks for Web site design then you'll want to get this book. If you have a local bookstore pick up a copy to look at then come back and purchase it. I honestly don't think you'll be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely helpful
Review: I own Fireworks MX but purchased this book because of the many projects contained in it. I found the techniques to be very helpful and innovative. I learned more than enough to pay for the book and get me well on the way to working professionally with Fireworks. I mastered the Pen tool, using the Vector capabilities of Fireworks, making masks, optimizing, exporting and slicing as well as plenty of button ideas and interface designs. Since Coriolis publisher is now out of business you can find this book at many discount bookstores as well as here at Amazon.com in the used section for practically nothing.
Rating:
Summary: just okay
Review: I suppose it all depends on what you are expecting, but most of the gee whiz stuff in this book has been covered by the periodicals that you subscribe to if you are serious about graphic design. If you really want it, I'll sell you mine..just check under used books. :)
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