I’ve had the unique opportunity to spend some time working with the new Adobe Fireworks CS5, and it has been a pleasure. The stability improvements are immediately noticeable, and although this has been described as a “stability release” there are some very useful new features that should not be overlooked. Keep in mind that about 90% of my Fireworks usage is for information design (wireframing) and prototyping, so my impressions on this new version will reflect the way I use the tool.

1. Ability to handle larger multipage files and better handling of large files from earlier Fireworks versions.

I spend less time waiting for Fireworks to open files created in earlier versions of Fireworks. I work with several other designers and many clients, so I open files from CS3 and CS4 often. The files open faster and render more quickly. The first time an older version file is opened takes a little longer as the file is updated and optimized, but once it has been saved from CS5 it then re-opens more quickly. Additionally, the multipage thumbnail preview will be enabled once the file has been saved from CS5.

2. FXG Export + Catalyst for enhanced prototyping.

I use Fireworks, Dreamweaver, and Flash for prototyping. The addition of Catalyst to the mix will make interactive prototyping easier, and since Fireworks exports directly to the FXG file format, I can use Fireworks to create the graphics for the prototype, export to FXG, and quickly use them in Catalyst. I can draw the pages once and use the same assets for prototyping in Dreamweaver (with Spry and jQuery) or Catalyst, and this gives me a wider range of behaviors and transitions/motions I can include in the prototype.

3. Document Templates.

Although Fireworks ships with built-in templates, I can easily create new templates customized for my project types and embed symbols and assets so that I always start from the same base to produce consistent work (and save some time.) I plan to create basic templates for ecommerce sites, mobile/iPhone apps, and even interactive Flash or Catalyst elements.

4. Compound Shapes.

I love compound shapes, but for simple reasons: I often create custom widgets for web projects (usually Flash-based) that change structure based on interactions. With the new compound shapes I can “assemble” widget wireframes from objects that can be easily “moved” around to create instances of the widget in different states. I no longer need to sub-select nodes and adjust their position; I can now just sub-select the individual components and move the parts around. Here’s a  really simple example: a tabbed widget where I need to show the state of the widget for all tabs. The selected tab and the frame are a compound path, and changing selected tabs is as simple as sub-selecting the tab object and moving it relative to the frame.

5. Enhanced CSS and Images Export.

Even though few of my prototypes leverage the CSS export, I sometimes export just a few pages or even parts of pages in order to get the page structure code (HTML and CSS) to use when assembling a prototype in Dreamweaver. I use the CSS export to generate the framework for a page, then refine and continue the code in Dreamweaver. The enhancements in Fireworks CS5 improve the quality of the code and make it easier to re-use.