I always liked the idea of Macromedia Fireworks, but never quite felt like I was doing things that made it worth the install space. Vector-bitmap tools are a great idea. Maybe it was the way they were often being used more for convenience sake than to actually do something significant. More a fun tech demo than something I ever found serious utility for over and above Photoshop, particularly as websites move away from gratuitous bevels and drop shadows.

Fireworks soon to get its chair at the big kids' table?

Where I found most value in the past was making slick web buttons very quickly -- it was one of the easiest ways to make rollovers and image swaps. Still is, really.

With the Macromedia merger, Fireworks was one of the fifth wheel solutions that no one was sure would find a place to sit when the music stopped. I even found Adobe's site acting like it was a real chore to pull up the Fireworks product page! Now word is out that Adobe has a new version of Fireworks in beta, and it seems its target niche is as a specialist website prototyping package. It's going to see native Photoshop and Illustrator file support, and smarter layering tools and page-based layouts (wonder what that is going to mean exactly) which should all blend nicely to make it damn fast at spitting out interactive site mock ups.

Good news for former or future Fireworks lovers. If you want to take part in the beta program, click on over to the beta site and get your name on the list. The link currently says its an invalid project link... yet a site search brings up the same URL. Hopefully this isn't a sign of the low priority status of Fireworks around the Adobe office -- give it a whirl and hopefully it will be live link very soon.

Happy days for Macromedia lovers! Now if only we can get some news on Freehand...