Fireworks CS3 - Hierarchical Layers

Fireworks CS3 for me was a big release as lot of big features got added to the product. This was despite the fact that Macromedia had just been bought over by Adobe in an all cash deal. Also the designers were apprehensive about the future of this beautiful tool they had been working on for years in the Adobe league of products.

Another big help in the area of document management was the availability of hierarchical layers.

For readers and designers, from Fireworks CS3 all the layers and frames are contained in a page. A single png file can contain multiple pages.

The hierarchical layer was made available for Web Layers as well and not restricting it to the ordinary layers. The layer nesting is allowed at any levels.

The hierarchy of the layers can be changes by simply dragging and dropping them. A visual feedback to user is available on where the layer will be landing but sometimes it can be misleading.

The ‘Layer 2’ and all the child layers along with their objects are colored in yellow. This is a visual demarcation that the ‘Layer 2’ is shared across multiple pages.