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Ruth W. Kastnmayer

Ruth Kastenmayer

ruthk.net

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Creating a sideshow
  3. Editing a slideshow
  4. Flash or Spry?
Created:
16 April 2007
User Level:
Beginner
Products:
Fireworks

Creating a professional-looking slideshow

You already know that Fireworks is a great application for preparing web-ready photographs but how are you going to present all those images on a web page? Long web pages filled with photographs are slow to load and provide a less-than-optimal experience.

With Adobe Fireworks CS3 and the new Create Slideshow command, you can improve the experience and create a professional-looking slideshow in three steps. You just select an image folder, add transitions, and choose a template for the final output. Fireworks automatically batch-processes the required thumbnail and full-size images for size and image optimization. Additionally, with Fireworks CS3, you have a choice of five Flash-based players and one player that uses the Spry framework to produce an Ajax-enabled slideshow. No knowledge of Flash or Spry is required.

You can preview the Flash-based slideshows in any browser (on your computer) before being uploaded to a web server. The Spry player uses the Spry framework to produce an XML-based slideshow. You simply choose the Spry template for the final output and then upload the resulting folder and files to your web server for viewing.

Requirements

In order to make the most of this article, you need the following software and files:

Fireworks CS3

Digital images saved in a folder on a hard drive

Note: To test a Spry-based slideshow, you will need to copy your slideshow folder to a server—either to a testing server running locally on your own computer or to an external web server.

Sample files:

Prerequisites:
Familiarity with digital photos.

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About the author

Ruth Kastenmayer, an active member of the Charlottesville Adobe User Group, is a former college webmaster and instructor of web development courses. She is devoted to promoting Information and Communication Technology (ICT) literacy at both extremes of the lifelong-learning spectrum by volunteering as a tutor at Jackson-Via Elementary School and serving as the webmaster for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Virginia. She and her husband have three grown children and live in Willoughby Townes, Charlottesville, Virginia. You can reach her at ruthk@ruthk.net.