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Chapter 7. Using Buttons and Symbols

In This Chapter

• Understanding states

• Creating rollover buttons

• Converting graphics to symbols

Before you jump into creating buttons and animations, you need to understand states and how they work in Fireworks. States let you organize layers in such a way that you can create several versions of your artwork; these states could be used for rollovers or animations.

Using States in Fireworks

You may want to use states for two reasons:

• States for animation: You can build and edit animated GIFs with states like the one you see in Figure 7-1. One step of the animation goes into each frame. The states (sometimes referred to as frames) are played one after another to create the appearance of motion — an effect a little like those cool flip books you may have found in caramel-corn boxes. By using layers, you can specify which items are animated and which items remain static.

  

  Figure 7-1. In this example, the woman moves from left to right in five separate states.

• States for rollovers: You can also use states to produce rollovers. By slicing an image (discussed in Chapter 6 of this minibook), you can trigger the different versions (or states) that appear when the user's mouse pointer crosses over the artwork.

Making a Rollover Button

You can create interactive buttons in Fireworks to make rollovers, swap images, and react to other interactions with viewers. For all these ...