#14 Wish Letter
Dear Adobe Fireworks Software Developer,
I really like the direction Fireworks is going with the new CSS3 Properties Panel. But it needs some work. To be useful in my workflow, it needs to be able to recognize the correct properties when using filters. It also needs to allow switching the properties panel to only show design tools that map directly to CSS3. Let me explain...
By only supporting some filters and not others, that limits its usefulness because there is no indication within Fireworks of exactly what filters are actually supported. So if for example you use a color overlay filter, it will not give you the correct color of the object because that filter is not supported. But the designer or developer who it is handed off to is not aware of that when using the CSS3 Properties Panel.
My suggestion is to separate the filters supported by the CSS3 Properties Panel from the others that aren't supported so that designers can choose not to use the ones that don't correlate to CSS3. Or give us the ability to hide any non-supported filters. At the very least, there should be some type of indicator.
And Fireworks itself needs more emphasis on CSS3 throughout the application. For instance, change all tools to have CSS inspired names instead of traditional print design names. So instead of calling it "leading", call it line height. Instead of calling it "roundness", call it border radius. And any differences between the names should have Fireworks following the CSS interpretation, not the traditional print one.
The naming convention it currently has is a relic from the print industry days when Macromedia competed with Adobe's Photoshop for the print design market. Fireworks does not need to rely on these print inspired naming conventions anymore because it is specifically for the web and digital screens.
Kind regards,
Daryl Barnes,
Twitter: @darylbarnes
