1. Text, Masks, and Live Effects – Lesson 41 Text, Masks, and Live Effects Lesson 4

2. 2 Text, Masks, and Live Effects – Lesson 4 Objectives Add text and special effects to your documents. Import text to your graphics and Web pages. Format text and position it in your documents. Add and edit Live Effects. Align and distribute objects. Create a mask by using Paste Inside.

3. 3 Text, Masks, and Live Effects – Lesson 4 Add text to your document Although the Web is a visual medium, text is still a very important part of any Web page. Add text to your Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004 document using the Text tool, or import text from an external file. Imported text must be in a file of type TXT or RTF. Once an image containing text has been exported to a bitmap graphics file, the text is then part of the bitmap image and can no longer be edited as text.

4. 4 Text, Masks, and Live Effects – Lesson 4 Format the font, size, style, and color of text The Property inspector shown below allows you to make many formatting changes to text on your canvas. You can change: The fontThe font sizeThe fill (and stroke) colorThe style Examples of different text styles and characteristics. Times New Roman, size 18, Bold, Red Helvetica, size 24, Italic, Blue

5. 5 Text, Masks, and Live Effects – Lesson 4 Change the leading, kerning, and scaling of text The Property inspector allows you to adjust the leading (the space between lines) and the kerning (the space between characters) of text entered onto your canvas. You can also adjust the vertical or horizontal scale of text to give it a “stretched” appearance, as shown in this figure.

6. 6 Text, Masks, and Live Effects – Lesson 4 Position text for maximum effect Once text has been entered onto the canvas, you may want to move it to a new location to really highlight or emphasize some part of the Web page. Text can be positioned by: Dragging the text with the Pointer tool to move it where you want it. Grids and guides can be used to help with this. Setting the exact X and Y coordinates for the text in the Property inspector.

7. 7 Text, Masks, and Live Effects – Lesson 4 Use Live Effects to dress up an image or text Live Effects are filters that can be applied to vector, bitmap, or text objects. Applying a Live Effect to an object does not permanently change the object. Changing an object that has had a Live Effect applied to it will update the effect, however. Add an effect by clicking the Add effect (+) button next to the Effects label in the Property inspector to open the Effects pop-up window.

8. 8 Text, Masks, and Live Effects – Lesson 4 The Effects pop-up window The Effects pop-up window shown here allows you to choose from several types of effects and then set numerous options to tailor the effects to your specifications. In this case, a bevel effect is being applied to an object. You can choose from many other effects. You can adjust the bevel: Shape Width Button preset Contrast Softness Angle

9. 9 Text, Masks, and Live Effects – Lesson 4 Edit effects after they have been applied Once you have applied a Live Effect to an object, you can change it or remove it anytime you want. The effects are listed in the Property inspector. Click the info button (the circle) next to the effect name to open the pop-up window for that effect and make your changes. You can also reorder effects by selecting an effect and dragging it up or down in the effects list. The order of the effects can change the appearance of the object.

10. 10 Text, Masks, and Live Effects – Lesson 4 Align objects using the Align panel Use the Align panel to precisely align text or graphic objects on the canvas. Align objects relative to the canvas or to selected points on a path. Select the objects to align, then click one of the alignment options displayed in the panel.

11. 11 Text, Masks, and Live Effects – Lesson 4 The Align panel This figure shows the Align panel, which can be opened from the Window menu. It has many options for aligning objects, such as by their left or right edges, their top or bottom edges, with the center of the canvas, or even to distribute the objects evenly across or down the page.

12. 12 Text, Masks, and Live Effects – Lesson 4 Use Fireworks masks A mask is a window to something underneath. The mask allows a portion of an image to be seen and a portion to be masked from view. A mask is similar to a mat in a picture frame except, in this case, the area inside the mat is visible. A mask is created using the Paste Inside command to paste an object on the Clipboard inside a selected object on the canvas.

13. 13 Text, Masks, and Live Effects – Lesson 4 Summary In this lesson, you learned to: Add text and special effects to your documents. Import text to your graphics and Web pages. Format text and position it in your documents. Add and edit Live Effects. Align and distribute objects. Create a mask by using Paste Inside.