FW MX 2004 Save, Exporting, Association Problems

[Smiliemonster webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

I've been using 2004 for a few weeks now (FW for years) and my list of problems is growing and growing. Looking through the forum I've noticed one of the issues has come up a few times (internal error) but no-one seems to have commented on my other problems (annoyances? bugs?).

My main gripe is the "internal error" message that keeps coming up when exporting. I've mentioned this on another thread so won't go into it again here, however, it seems to be happening more and more often and is driving me crazy.

Another issue is the extraordinary size of the 'save as' window which opens. It is so big that I can barely fit it on my screen let alone have the buttons in view. The more save as functions I do - the bigger it gets! Even hiding my taskbar sometimes doesn't bring enough of it on screen. Resizing is fabulous if you can reach the resize handle and don't want to save anything else. As soon as you do, King Kong is back!

The file associations also keep dropping out of my system - including png files. When I first installed MX 2004 I noticed only png were associated with the program and I assumed this is because lots of people didn't like the auto associations for .gif and .jpg that occured under versions 4 and MX. I manually reassociated all the image files I want to use with Fireworks, but sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. It doesn't seem to be a case of other programs grabbing back the files as even pngs are orphans.

Back to exporting and saving again! The program only seems to remember the last used folder when it feels like it. Exporting slices and sometimes even saving can be a complete nightmare as you have to keep drilling up and down the folder tree to reach the folder you want. Its not such as hassle if you only export or save once in a while - its absolute torture otherwise.

My specs are: Windows XP Pro, PIV 2.8, 1GB RAM, Stand Alone Machine. (No software or hardware changes since install).

[funatik2k webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

I have the same problems with open/export (Windows XP Pro too).¨
I have reinstalled MX 2004 two times...
I'm thinking of going back to MX, which is slower but works ^^

[John Dowdell]

Well, there was a thread last week here asking what might be different
about that installation... we've seen similar types of problems in other
software where the application has been modified, for instance. I can't
tell if that is the case there too, though.

One option you might consider is using the support contact included with
each purchase, so someone else can ask you about that installation and
track the responses. If there's something we can change in the code then
we'd want to do so, but the first thing is to figure out the difference
on the systems.

(That "file associations don't stick" part of the description makes me
wonder about the integrity of the system, for whatever that's worth.)

jd



--
John Dowdell, Macromedia Developer Support, San Francisco CA
Search technotes: [url]http://www.macromedia.com/support/search/[/url]
Soapbox column: [url]http://www.macromedia.com/desdev/jd_forum/[/url]
Daily technical diary: [url]http://www.macromedia.com/go/blog_jd[/url]
Offlist mail is trapped by spam-filters... best here, thanks!

[Smiliemonster webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

John,

My current system is only 4 months old and is working perfectly fine. All other programs and hardware are stable including DW MX2004. Every piece of software on my system is proprietary and has not been surreptitiously modified in any way. I'm happy to contact the MM technical support to explain the problems (and send screen captures of the error messages, the gargantuan save boxes etc), however, as a fault (problem, bug) gathering exercise I believe the forum to be the correct place to acertain if similarities exisit between users. Furthermore, the types of errors I've mentioned above are not caused by faulty installation, user ineptitude etc and therefore using my limited free technical support on such matters (which clearly can't be fixed without a patch) seems to be a waste of a useful resource from my perspective.

I'm not such a mental midget to realise you can't produce a patch without knowing the exact nature of the problem(s), so if someone from MM would like to discuss the issues I can be contacted direct on [email]pincher@emirates.net.ae[/email]. The few responses to this posting and to the previous 'internal error internal error' threads clearly indicate either an issue with the application or a decided lack of legal integrity among FW MX2004 users!

[qrayg]

I was having problems with the "internal error" pop-up when I first intalled 2004. My solution was to change a few settings with MS Tweak UI. I was using Tweak UI to modify the Open/Export dialog to make it more useful.

I find it odd though that FW was the ONLY program that threw errors over this. Even DW2004, which uses the exact same Open Dialog, does not throw an internal error when Tweak UI is on.

Sadly, I found some more problems with FW2004 and simply can not use it productively. I switched back to MX.

I also found myself switching back to DW MX since 2004 has major screen flash problems and a huge speed problem. I'm also very disappointed in not being able to turn of Differed Update, DW auto coding the CSS inline when previewing a page, and DW adding an extra space after EVERY SINGLE line of code it creates. MX is a much better choice all around.

It sucks that I pre-ordered 2004 and wasted $400. I don't see myself using either program until ALL of the bugs are fixed. I fear that this will never happen since each release introduces so many new and rediculous bugs.

To me it looks like a new project lead needs to be assigned to FW and DW.

Thanks for your time and assistance,
Craig Erskine
Programmer - SPS
[url]www.solardreamstudios.com[/url]

[kangri webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

good to know
....

[John Dowdell]

"Smiliemonster" [email]webforumsuser@macromedia.com[/email] wrote:

> so if someone from MM would like to discuss the issues I can be
> contacted direct on [email]pincher@emirates.net.ae[/email].

Sorry, I'm short on bandwidth myself, but there's a one-on-one tech
support contract included with each purchase:
[url]http://www.macromedia.com/support[/url]

jd



--
John Dowdell, Macromedia Developer Support, San Francisco CA
Search technotes: [url]http://www.macromedia.com/support/search/[/url]
Soapbox column: [url]http://www.macromedia.com/desdev/jd_forum/[/url]
Daily technical diary: [url]http://www.macromedia.com/go/blog_jd[/url]
Offlist mail is trapped by spam-filters... best here, thanks!

[Pete The Chop webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

>>The file associations also keep dropping out of my system - including png files. When I first installed MX 2004 I noticed only png were associated with the program and I assumed this is because lots of people didn't like the auto associations for .gif and .jpg that occured under versions 4 and MX. I manually reassociated all the image files I want to use with Fireworks, but sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. It doesn't seem to be a case of other programs grabbing back the files as even pngs are orphans.



I am having major issues with file associations. I have uninstalled and re-installed FW 2004 several times, and it will not associate with jpgs. When I manually associate it, the jpg file opens in FW sure enough, but I can only get some default icon to appear, rather than the FW icon.

Very frustrating!

Has Macromedia addressed this problem?

It's a BeU2iful Day!
-------------------------

[giulioplay webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

I'm testing fw mx 2004 since two weeks. There are several littlle bugs.

For example, if i apply a stroke to a new shape, one of those introduced with the mx 2004 version, fw correctly apply the stroke. But If i need to modify that stroke, i have no possibility, because the program show me that shape have no stroke. So to avoid this problem, I have to insert a simple square and apply to that square a stroke. Then I can apply and modify the stroke on the original shape.

The new shapes have another problem. If I apply a shadow and then i modify the size of the shape, i have no possibility to modify the shadow, because in the window of the effect doesn't appear the shadow effects.

Another problem concern the font. I have an "f" in times new roman, bold, italic. The program trasform this letterhead in another font, while the fw mx doesn't do that!

I appreciate very much the new feature of the mx 2004 version and i hope you fix this bug and the other that users have noticed you in this post.

Sorry for my best english. Bye. Giulio

[Linda Rathgeber]

"giulioplay" [email]webforumsuser@macromedia.com[/email] wrote:

> I'm testing fw mx 2004 since two weeks. There are several littlle
> bugs.
>
> For example, if i apply a stroke to a new shape, one of those
> introduced with the mx 2004 version, fw correctly apply the stroke.
> But If i need to modify that stroke, i have no possibility, because
> the program show me that shape have no stroke.

Not a bug, Giulio. The auto shapes ate shape primitives until you
ungroup them. (Modify > Ungroup). Once they are ungrouped they behave as
normal vector shapes and you can add and change the strokes as you will.

> The new shapes have another problem. If I apply a shadow and then i
> modify the size of the shape, i have no possibility to modify the
> shadow, because in the window of the effect doesn't appear the shadow
> effects.

Same thing here. You should ungroup the shape first to convert it to a
regular vector shape before applying live effects.

> Another problem concern the font. I have an "f" in times new roman,
> bold, italic. The program trasform this letterhead in another font,
> while the fw mx doesn't do that!

I haven't seen that one and have no idea what could cause it.



Linda Rathgeber
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Design Aid: 10-Palette Pack for Fireworks & Flash
[url]http://www.webdevbiz.com/graphics.cfm[/url]
Playing with Fire | [url]http://www.playingwithfire.com[/url]
Victoriana | Theme Pack 03 - Club | [url]http://www.projectseven.com[/url]
Team MM Fireworks Volunteer | [url]www.macromedia.com/go/team[/url]
----------------------------------------------------------------------

[josh24 webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

When i create an image in fireworks, it will not let me re-open the image later for further editing. it says "unexpected file format" and stuff like that.

im going back to mx until these bugs are fixed.

[Stéphane Bergeron]

"giulioplay" [email]webforumsuser@macromedia.com[/email] wrote:

> I'm testing fw mx 2004 since two weeks. There are several littlle
> bugs.
>
> For example, if i apply a stroke to a new shape, one of those
> introduced with the mx 2004 version, fw correctly apply the stroke.
> But If i need to modify that stroke, i have no possibility, because
> the program show me that shape have no stroke. So to avoid this
> problem, I have to insert a simple square and apply to that square a
> stroke. Then I can apply and modify the stroke on the original shape.

I don't see this on my version of FWMX2004. I can create a shape, add a
stroke and modify it at will from the PI.

> The new shapes have another problem. If I apply a shadow and then i
> modify the size of the shape, i have no possibility to modify the
> shadow, because in the window of the effect doesn't appear the shadow
> effects.

Again I'm not seing that problem. I just create 4 shapes (arrow,
doughnut, star and the cog) and I applied various effects to them like
shadow, bevel or a radial blur (it looks great on the cog) and both
effects and stroke remained editable as well as the shape properties
themselves no matter how I resized the shapes (PI, drag a corner point,
etc).

> Another problem concern the font. I have an "f" in times new roman,
> bold, italic. The program trasform this letterhead in another font,
> while the fw mx doesn't do that!

I've never seen that either. What are the exact steps you are performing
and at what point does the letters "change". Giving us more details
about your system would help as well (OS, hardware specs, etc)

HTH!

Stéphane Bergeron

[giulioplay webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

First of all, thanx to Linda for the shape's explanation. I'm sorry but I thought that it was a bug.

Anyway, I'll try to explain better the problem with the font.

I have an "f" in times new roman, bold, Italic. If a try to modify it and to change in normal letter and then another time in bold, the letter change in another font.

My OS is win 2000, but i try also with winxp. Pentium 3 or athlon 1,2.

I attach the image of the "f" in fw mx and the same "f" with fw mx 2004

Thanx in advance.



[url]http://webforums.macromedia.com/attachments/f.zip[/url]