Fireworks Tips

Techniques

Fading an Image into the Background

(Adapted for Fireworks 3 from Fireworks MX documentation found here.)

1. Set up some layers: The background you want faded into, above that the image to fade, and another above that for the gradient.
2. Paste the image to fade into the appropriate layer.
3. Select the gradient layer. (Hide the image layer first if you prefer.)
4. Select the Rectangle tool and draw a rectangle to cover the image totally.
5. With the rectangle selected, click the arrow for the Fill Category drop-down list and choose Linear.
6. Adjust the gradient as needed, via Edit Gradient in the Fill box's triangle menu.
7. Hide the gradient layer, select (and un-hide, if necessary) the image layer.
8. Select the image object. Press your Shift key, un-hide the gradient layer then click on the gradient.
9. Choose Modify | Mask Group | Group To Image. (Or, click Ctrl+Shift+G.)

Note that to repeat the process, you'll have to ungroup and delete both the gradient and the image. However, every time you create a box it'll use the last version of the Fill gradient.