I'm a big advocate of using Fireworks for web design (so much more than Photoshop!). Unfortunately, the CS4 version has a reuptation for not being the most stable piece of software in the world - often giving slow performance, behaving erratically, and worst of all, crashing.
While there's some things which are bugs you can't do anything about, there are some things that you can do to reduce these inconveniences, and reduce the risk of the "aggghhh" moment of seeing your work disappear before your eyes. Here are some hints I've gathered with the generous help of the Fireworks community and engineering team...
1. Keep patched and up to date
Released in May 2009, the Fireworks 10.0.3 update patch is the number one step you can take to improve your Fireworks experience. As well as fixing some annoying issues relating to text boxes jumping and working inconsistently, it adds a number of stability fixes (the full list can be found in the PDF release notes). You will notice an immediate improvement as soon as you upgrade. To check whether you already have the patch installed, check the "About" screen - if it reads 10.0.3.11 you already have it.
To get it, just allow your Adobe Updater to run and install it - or download directly from adobe.com.
There's also a hint on the Fireworks team blog with a patch to fix hangs when using the text tool on Snow Leopard. Subscribing to these blogs is also a good way of keeping up to date with stability and patch announcements.
Finally, Apple's OSX 10.6.2 update fixes some issues which cause Fireworks (and other CS4 products) to become unstable and crash - get this through Software Update on your Mac.
2. Save, save, and save again
If we can't completely remove the risk of crashes, the least we can do is try to minimise their effect. Apart from religiously hitting CTRL/CMD+S every few minutes, Fireworks doesn't have a built in "Autosave" function, but there is a downloadable AIR application which will do the same thing for you (Requires Adobe AIR 1.5+). Keep this running in the background, and it will save a copy of your file (to a separate backup directory) so if the worst does happen, you shouldn't lose more than a few minutes work.
If you prefer the manual route, you may also find the Commands -> Save All menu item helpful (why this isn't on the File menu is one of the great unexplained mysteries of the world!). It doesn't have a keyboard shortcut by default, but you can assign one by going to Edit -> Keyboard Shortcuts (Windows) or Fireworks -> Keyboard Shortcuts (Mac). Find "Save all" under "Commands", and hit the "plus" icon. You can then press the key combination you wish to use (it will alert you if it's already in use) - CTRL+SHIFT+S is available by default and seems like a sensible choice.
And remember, if Fireworks starts to feel sluggish, it's often a sign of an imminent crash - so hit save and restart Fireworks!
3. Remove memory consumption by disabling unneccessary extensions and panels
There are many extensions and addons available for Fireworks, but unfortunately these can sometimes be a source of instability. Removing (or disabling) extensions that you use rarely (or never) reduces the amount of memory Fireworks uses, which in turn helps stability.
Even if you've never installed extensions yourself, you're probably still using them - Fireworks ships with about a dozen pre-installed extensions. About the only one you are likely to use regularly is the "Align" panel (unbelievably this isn't part of Fireworks' core!), so you can safely disable the rest via Adobe Extension Manager by un-ticking the "enabled" box next to each one.
From CS4, you can enable/disable extensions without needing to restart Fireworks, which means if you do need to use any of the other extension you can just fire up Extension Manager, and enable it for the duration of needing it.
Unless you're designing retro Geocities sites, you may well never use any of the default patterns (e.g. grass or cloth), which are listed under the Fill -> Patterns menu. You can delete the source files which are found in /Configuration/Patterns within the Fireworks application folder (remember to back them up if you might want to use them again later). I've found this reduces memory usage by 6Mb on Win and 8Mb on Mac - not a huge amount, but every little helps! Within the Configuration folder you will also find the files for a great many other built in FW features - e.g. the Common Libraries, textures, auto shapes, etc. If you want to streamline your FW installation you could also remove other component you don't need, although I haven't found this offers as much of a memory reduction.
Memory is also increased every time you open a panel, especially Flash based ones (to test if it is one, right click on it, and if it has "Redraw regions" on the menu then it is). If there are panels you don't use, remove them from your workspace layout. Once the panels have been removed from the workspace, ensure to restart the application (memory is allocated to panels even when they are made visible once and then hidden).
4. Reduce the number of undo steps
Anything which helps reduce Fireworks' memory usage helps its stability. One simple but effective step you can take to help this is to reduce the number of Undo steps Fireworks stores from the default 200. To do this:
- Go to Fireworks' preferences - Edit -> Keyboard Shortcuts (Windows) or Fireworks -> Keyboard Shortcuts (Mac)
- Under the "General" tab, change the "Undo steps" value from 200 to 50 (or whatever you feel is appropriate for your workflow - the lower the better, but obviously at the expense of not being able to undo so far back)
- Click OK
- Restart Fireworks
5. Report your crashes
When the worst happens (as it inevitably will still do from time to time) and Fireworks DOES crash, very often you will get an Adobe "Crash Reporter" window asking for permission to send details of the crash to Adobe. Say "yes" - these ARE actively analysed by the Fireworks engineering team to track which crashes happen most frequently, and each report helps provide a clue to tracking down the source of the crash. If you can elaborate on what you were doing when the crash happened in the text box, it helps them track down the problem more easily. It's possible to view the log file before it is sent, if you're concerned about what information is being sent. You can also report specific steps to reproduce a bug on the Adobe Bug Report form.
No, this won't help you immediately, but may help making CS5 or 6 more stable. Think of it as your contribution to the greater Fireworks good!
Update 14 March 2010
Adobe has announced they will be bringing out a further stability patch for Fireworks CS4 in the next three months - no definite dates, just "later in Q2 2010"
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Posts: 11
Reply #1 on : Fri November 13, 2009, 04:03:18