August 14, 2008

Canceling Fw Jam session today

Sorry folks, I just realized we need to cancel the weekly jam session for today as I am attending and working at uxweek hosted by Adpative Path. (http://www.uxweek.com).

I took down the jam session announcement as well until I can update the link and add new information.

Posted by amusselman at 09:42 AM | Comments (0)

May 29, 2008

Fireworks jam session live via Connect in 10 minutes!

I canceled the Fireworks jam session when our AXNA server was in transition to a new home. Today, we'll kick these sessions back into gear and take a closer look at the Fireworks public beta on Adobe labs!

See ya in a few minutes:

http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/osd

Posted by amusselman at 09:51 AM | Comments (0)

May 28, 2008

Adobe MAX comes to San Francisco

Folks - Just around the corner is the famous MAX conference aka Adobe MAX 2008. I have to admit this is by far the one event I can't miss even as a Adobe employee. It's an amazing place to collab and learn new techniques you never knew possible. I love feeling the energy and excitement from everyone that attends the conference and since its in San Francisco there is no telling what will happen! There will be over 200 sessions and 50 labs + plus pre-event labs...phew I hope I can maintain during this event. :-)

On the plus side for me at least the convention center is only a couple blocks away from my casa. I was thinking of throwing a Fireworks party (with no "real" fireworks people) if anyone is interested and wants to hang out with Fireworkers.

Get your reservation now, dont wait! I know a lot of you will wait till the last minute and then realize its too late. (slackers!)

Adobe MAX 2008
http://max.adobe.com

Posted by amusselman at 05:11 PM | Comments (2)

May 27, 2008

Adobe Fireworks user group meeting tonight!

Tonight is the night folks for Fire on the Bay!

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 6:30pm @ the mothership in San Francisco

If you are not in the San Francisco bay area and want to get a glimpse of Adobe Fireworks public beta in all its glory and can't attend in person...then attend the Connect session.

Take note of a few features and enhancements that will be demo'd tonight in the Fireworks beta below. (List from release notes)

Performance

File Open, Save and Close Improvements
A large amount of time went into re-architecting how documents are opened, saved or closed. The improvements will be noticed once you open an existing document created in Fireworks version CS3 or below in the Fireworks beta and then save and reopen the document.

Resolved Complex Memory Leaks
Many legacy and newly introduced memory leaks in CS3 have been resolved in the next version of Fireworks.

Vista Support
Resolved critical performance issues that existed in Fireworks CS3 using the brush tool or any tool that displayed a preview of the affected area. Vista performance was a priority for the engineering team to resolve based on the feedback in the Fireworks support forum.

Faster load time
Documents containing a lot of pages, layers, states and symbols will now operate smoother than before. The reaction time has been improved when switching between Pages and/or States.

Asynchronous saving
With asynchronous saving you now have the ability to save a large document and continue working on that document or a different document while the large document is still saving.

Workspace

User Interface
From Mac to PC, experience a consistent look and feel. The Fireworks beta has caught up with CS3 and has gone above and beyond to sport the new interface. Enjoy features like support for multiple monitors, full screen mode and collapsible panels enabling you to have more screen width to work with on those wider designs.

Smart Guides
Reap benefits like quickly being able to position objects with other objects including slices without using the Align panel. Hold down shift and experience the new dynamic values (width/height between guides) when updating or creating the positioning of guides.

Tooltips
Tooltips are everywhere! No need to constantly look at the property Inspector when positioning objects. Tooltips will give you a heads up display of the X and Y location in real time.

Preferences Dialog
Easily modify preferences with the new dialog, consistent with Flash preferences. Set custom grid size that is remembered with every new document or set guides and grids to a custom color in one central location.

Photoshop Import Dialog
Customize various options when importing Photoshop documents such as choosing a layer comp state or retaining custom shapes (vectors) or even choosing to preserve the appearance of clipping masks.

Updated Layers, Pages and States panels
Right-click on any object, layer, page or state and quickly access properties that were only available in the panel options menu in CS3 and below.

Live Gradients, Patterns, and Masks
Work with gradients real time on the canvas. No longer do you need to drag and drop just to preview the placement of the gradient on an object. All gradient types are supported. Patterns and masks also support the new feature.

New Workflows

Adobe Text Engine
Many new enhancements have been integrated; such as retaining the fidelity of your Photoshop or Illustrator designs with text. Support for Ligatures and font style. Flowing text inside a closed path has been implemented.

AIR content Preview and Creation
Preview the prototype as an AIR application to quickly test interaction and usability and then package the prototype and send it for instant feedback before developing the actual application in Flex, Flash or HTML.

Export to Adobe PDF
Export a clickable prototype as an interactive Acrobat PDF. No need to send around a folder of HTML files and images or post them on a server for review. Easily collect comments from reviewers using a single PDF document.

Symbol improvements
Edit-in-place for symbols is now supported. Symbols architecture has been completely re-architected to support better performance and the ability to see live updates across symbol instances when editing a symbol in place.

Style improvements
Style sets are now supported and apply styles that can be linked to various shapes and objects in the current document. Multiple documents open at the same time will exhibit the styles within them using the dropdown menu in Styles panel. Access current document styles and use options in the property inspector to quickly redefine, break link, delete or override the style. New style sets have also been included.

CSS and Images Export
Export standards based CSS layout designs that can be further tweaked in Dreamweaver using an extended version of Smart CSS for Fireworks. A new slice type called Background image is now supported. CSS Stylesheet is automatically externalized with the option to include the CSS within the current document. Easily position the layout by using new options to left, center or right align right from Fireworks. Text outside of slices will be retained as HTML text. HTML rich symbols export as HTML controls!

New Tools

9-Slice Scaling Transform Tool
Quickly select an object or even a combination of symbol, vector and bitmap objects and scale them using the same technology that exists in Symbols, however, now use the technology as a transform tool.

Improved Rectangle Tool
New and improved rectangle primitive has better support for 9-slice enabled symbols and the new option to select pixels versus percentage of rounded corners. Now scale the rectangle and retain pixel perfect rounded corners on the rectangle.

Arrow Line Auto Shape Tool
Easily point to a location in the document or change the Arrowhead type easily in one click.

Measurement Auto Shape Tool
Quickly create visual measurements between objects for projects such as creating style guide specifications for engineering teams.

New Commands

Demo Current Document
In a time crunch? The command will quickly export out a simple XML file with JPG images linked to a Flash-based presentation viewer. Present the presentation to your clients in person or upload the package to a server and send a link to the client for review. Also, create your own presentation player in Flash that hooks into the XML file for custom styled presentations that effectively show your company’s brand.

Export to FXG
This is an export script that generates vector graphics code for future use with next-generation Flash Player authoring applications. Currently, we are not looking for feedback on this command.

Take Screenshot (Windows only)
Now take pixel-precise screenshots using the new Take Screenshot command. Easily navigate to the window or screen you would like to screenshot and once you select the area, go back in Fireworks and paste in the screenshot.

Updated Commands

Add Arrowheads
Upgraded to ActionScript 3 to support better performance and sports a new interface. Apply Arrowheads on strokes and preview them in real time before applying the command.

Add Picture Frame
Upgraded to ActionScript 3 and supports a new interface to match the overall Fireworks new user interface.

Auto Vector Mask (Formerly Fade Image)
Supports a new interface with a real time preview to quickly see the mask applied to the image or vector object.

Twist and Fade
Apply a slew of new effects with optional randomization on each property. Upgraded to ActionScript 3 to support better performance Twist and Fade now allows you to save presets and even re-open an object to modify the applied effect. Another great enhancement is to preview the effect real time on the canvas without closing the panel.

Updated Command Panels

Align
Upgraded to ActionScript 3 and sporting a new interface. A major improvement is support with undo history steps. Now you can undo a step using a keyboard shortcut. Be precise when distributing objects by entering a numerical value. No need to manually select an option to modify anchor points. When a anchor point is selected the Align panel will update automatically to reflect anchor point options.

Auto Shape Properties
Upgraded to ActionScript 3 and sporting a new interface to fit within the Property Inspector location of the user interface.

Color Palette
Support for 5 colors. A new interface overhaul that makes the panel more usable and feel like the overall new user interface. The panel has also been upgraded to ActionScript 3 for better performance. Color Wheel is more reactive with real time preview of color swatches. Easily switch between Selector, Mixer and Blender options.

Special Characters
Upgraded to ActionScript 3 with new interface.

Symbol Properties
Upgraded to ActionScript 3 and sporting a new interface to fit within the Property Inspector location of the user interface.

Path
Amazing new features for intermediate and advanced users. The path panel has exposed more functionality that allows you to edit vectors with more precision then ever before. Upgraded to ActionScript 3 and supporting a new user interface this panel will be invaluable and will make you a vector editing wizard.

Also, take note extension developers can use ActionScript 3 and even customize the icon that displays their panel in Fireworks!

Posted by amusselman at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)

May 26, 2008

Adobe Fireworks beta is released on Labs!

I'm excited to announce the public beta release of Adobe Fireworks and hope you enjoy the bug fixes, enhancements, new user interface and features! While your downloading the beta check out the Connect recording below for a last minute demo of the beta:

Demo of current build 388
http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/p70713643/

Posted by amusselman at 09:21 PM | Comments (3)

April 09, 2008

Adobe TV! (and me)

Visitors that stop by Adobe TV will be welcomed by a ton of professionally cut videos on anything Adobe and one video is my friends and I playing disc golf in the "After Hours at Adobe" series. If you are into disc golf and live around San Francisco, you can usually find me on the disc golf course in Golden Gate Park! :-)

Wow...I never thought I'd talk about disc golf on my blog or at Adobe cause I told myself to keep it everything related to Fireworks...so technically this is legit since the video shows me working at my desk on Fireworks, no? ;-) I learned to play disc golf at an early age and always found regular "golf" to be rather boring if you ask me. Over the years I've really grown to appreciate the sport and thankful to play at our local disc golf course in Golden Gate park. Please give disc golf a shot if you havent played before!

Posted by amusselman at 09:10 AM | Comments (4)

April 04, 2008

Welcome Doug Winnie to the Blogosphere!

Please welcome Doug Winnie to the blogosphere at Adobe! I work closely with Doug and glad to see another Adobean passionately wanting to share their knowledge and resources via blogging. As Scott Fegette introduced me to the blogosphere awhile back I feel introducing Doug to you all is highly beneficial for many reasons. Doug works at Adobe as a Group Product Manager with an achieveable goal which is to increase productivity and develop new workflow opportunities between our applications here at Adobe. If you enjoy improving your workflow then Doug's blog is definitely one to bookmark. Going forward we will see a lot of great tips and resources if not workarounds to common tasks that may seem impossible.


Welcome Doug! :-)

Posted by amusselman at 08:55 AM | Comments (2)

April 03, 2008

Watch the recording of today's jam session. Tim demos kuler 2!

In today's jam session Tim Strickland (Sr. Computer Scientist in the Emerging Creative Technologies Group and lead developer for kuler) stopped by and gave us an in-depth demo of kuler and how he used Adobe Fireworks CS3 to rapidly prototype kuler 2. He also shared a lot of tips and resources and how developers can tap into the kuler API to extend the creativity into their own developments.

Connect recording:
http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/p63457132/

Thanks Tim!

Posted by amusselman at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)

Jam Session starts in 10 minutes!

Hey everyone -

Finally back in action after traveling for a few days and ready to meet up in the Jam Session.

Also, if you havent seen Smashing Magazine's roundup of Fireworks tutorials and resources, go check it out.

Posted by amusselman at 09:50 AM | Comments (0)

March 13, 2008

Fire on the Bay meeting reminder: Next Tuesday at Adobe

This will be a fun and informative presentation presented by Tim Strickland. Tim works at Adobe in the Emerging Creative Technologies team as a Sr. Computer Scientist. As the lead developer that used Fireworks CS3 to prototype kuler 2 this will be a presentation you do not want to miss if you are a new or existing power user.

Ya know, it's hard for anyone to give Fireworks credit cause Fireworks is used almost like you would do paper prototyping which is at the beginning of a project. I know a ton of companies that use Fireworks for prototyping and design (not only web work) that can't talk about how they use Fireworks cause the project is highly confidential until the project is complete.If you are using Fireworks today to prototype screen designs for devices, software, web sites/web apps and can talk freely about the projects, please contact me.

RSVP for the meeting at Fire on the bay or it will be hard to let you into Adobe at last minute.

Also just realized the Fireworks Jam Session will start in 50 minutes! Click on the graphic on the left nav to join up at 10am PST.

Posted by amusselman at 09:15 AM | Comments (1)

March 06, 2008

Rich Symbols, Contest and Jam Session

Sarthak on the Fireworks team pushed out an informative article in the Fireworks Developer Center around Rich Symbols and how to take advantage of the API to enhance current behaviors. It's an excellent read and gives you something to chew on when you think about making your custom library of Rich Symbols.

Enhancing rich symbols in Fireworks CS3
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/fireworks/articles/enhancing_rich_symbols.html

Fireworkszone is having a tutorial design contest and if you design the coolest tutorial they are offering prizes, go check it out for more details. The contest announcement seems kind of buried on the Fireworkszone site so the chances of winning look high. ;-)

The Fireworks Jam Session is today at 10am PST sharp! Get your video cams/headphones ready to jam about anything related to Fireworks or just come and attend.

 

Posted by amusselman at 08:52 AM | Comments (1)

February 21, 2008

Reminder: Fw Jam session in one hour!

Fireworkers -

This is an informal jam session where you can show off some work, report bugs and we'll look for workarounds and overall jam with me on anything related to Adobe Fireworks. (Click the Jam session link on the left to join up)

Also, a new Fireworks CS3 Article went live yesterday thanks to the DryIcons team!

Creating an icon in Fireworks
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/fireworks/articles/creating_icon.html

Posted by amusselman at 08:57 AM | Comments (3)

February 12, 2008

Adobe Fireworks Usergroup with special guest Senocular!!

Dude - if you are a new user or an existing Fireworks user you really need to make it to the Fireworks User Group in San Francisco (Also available via Connect) next week. Seriously, drop what you are doing cause Senocular aka Trevor is a fellow FireworksGuru, good friend and I constantly learn new tricks from the man all the time. This is an event you should not miss!!

What:
Top 10 Cool things you can do with Fireworks

When:
Tuesday, February 19, 7:00 PM

Where:
Adobe Systems, Inc., San Franciso, California

Who should come:
Trevor McCauley of Senocular.com is a Developer and Designer and a Current Member of Adobe's Flash team and he'll be showing his favorite things about Adobe Fireworks and how to use them effectively in your workflow.

Why:
A great opportunity to see what you might be missing in Fireworks. Or if your a current Photoshop/Illustrator user please stop by and see what you are missing.

Learn more here:
http://webdesign.meetup.com/485/calendar/7112930/

Visit the Fireworks Developer Center for Samples, Free Extensions and Downloads and fantastic Articles surrounding the Fireworks Ecosystem.

Posted by amusselman at 03:02 PM | Comments (6)

January 31, 2008

IxDA Conference

I'll be representing Fireworks CS3 at IxDA and helping anyone real time if they have concerns or just want to share something they are currently working on with Fireworks. Overall, I hope to exchange ideas, collab with others and whip out some extensions if anyone has a workflow they need to customize. Send me mail if you want to hook up!

http://interaction08.ixda.org

Posted by amusselman at 02:29 PM | Comments (0)

I'm back in action

Thanks for attending the Fireworks Jam session today! Un-fortunately, I've been traveling frequently and have not been able to sync up and host the Jam Session for the past two weeks and to top it off I forgot to record the session today. :( Last two weeks I was in Tokyo, Japan visting Fireworks customers to understand their pain points so we can improve on the next version of Fireworks. I was amazed and in awe to find out how detailed japanese users are with Adobe Fireworks! In the picture below, I was waiting for the gang to get out of the taxi. Did you know Taxi's in Japan have an automatic swinging door to let you out? Amazing...everything I saw in Tokyo was amazing! :-)

Today in the jam session there was a brief discussion around Buzzword and I showed my presentation assets for the demo I gave last night to the Las Vegas Dreamweaver User Group and looking for feedback on improving the presentation. Also, showed some simple bitmap editing techniques and discussed why keyboard shortcuts are so helpful. Nikola wanted to know if there was a panel of Text commands instead of the Menu commands you can access via Commands > Text that let you generate Lorem Ipsum fake text for prototypes. I didnt really understand what he mean't so I started to prototype out a Flash panel using the Flex components and 9-slice scaling to help build the container symbol. It was a lot of fun. Maybe I'll finish by next week.

 

Posted by amusselman at 01:32 PM | Comments (0)

January 10, 2008

Fireworks Jam Session today starts at 10am PST!!

Hey everyone!

Reminder for the Jam session today, we are on at 10am PST. I was bad about the last two sessions since they were over the holidays and didnt attend. See ya in a little bit!

Posted by amusselman at 09:18 AM | Comments (2)

October 19, 2007

Notes on this weeks Fireworks Jam Session

This week we did a demo of the new Fireworks skinning extension that works with Flex 3 Beta. When I updated the button skin, the image didnt update in Flex 3 and threw me off. This happened because when I defined the project, a folder called "src" was automatically created and I was working out of a different folder after I defined the project, bah! I should have been working out of this folder to begin with..well now I know...

I'm soo diggin the new Adobe Media Player in labs! Being able to create one Fireworks PNG that contains all the various assets for skinning the player is fan-tabulous. We would have been using Frames or multiple documents in Fw8 or below. Pages in CS3 give us the ability to create Pages in the same document with various sizes, yah!

Also we demo'd fireworkszone.com's Distrifusion, go check it out when you get a chance.

For those of you that are attending the Fireworks Jam Sessions, I want to say thanks! This really helps me burst out of my internal bubble and be one with the community and learn things together with you all. :)


Posted by amusselman at 02:41 PM | Comments (0)

October 10, 2007

Fireworks User Group: San Francisco

One of the biggest take aways for me personally at Adobe MAX 2007 is meeting Luke Kilpatrick who is now the User group manager for Fire on the bay. If it wasnt for him, I wouldnt be attending a monthly gathering of Fireworks users at Adobe in San Francisco. When I first mentioned this new group to a couple users in the bay area, they got were soo stoked so I'm not sure what to expect at this first meeting and hope we have enough chairs for everyone. I'll be handing out some never before seen Fireworks schwag and Luke has some goods up his sleeve including a free nights stay in Tahoe. (I wonder if I can win that since I'm employed by Adobe?!)

If you live or work around the Bay area and you are a web developer, web designer, deseloper, information architect, programmer, hobbyist, cave dwelling hippie or an interaction designer that works in Fireworks, this is the user group for you.

Fire on the Bay
http://www.fireonthebay.org/

Posted by amusselman at 12:16 PM | Comments (3)

October 04, 2007

Fireworks CS3 Jam Session

Please join me in a informal Adobe Connect session called Fireworks Jam Session. The first ten minutes will be seeing if anyone has any general usage questions that we can answer and then we can do a couple demos of Fireworks based on those questions. If you have something you did in Fireworks and want feedback or simply curious about a workflow, this is the place to get real time feedback from other Fireworks gurus!

Where:
http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/osd/ (Sign in as a guest and use your real name)

Time:
Thursday (Today) at 11:00am PST

Posted by amusselman at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

September 29, 2007

Fireworks CS3 sessions and Adobe MAX 2007

For those of you attending MAX in Chicago here is the list of Fireworks sessions!

You'll find me helping out around these sessions and I'll definitely be in the Meet the Fireworks team informal discussions. (Don't miss it on Monday night at 8:30pm)

Posted by amusselman at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)

August 28, 2007

Last weeks Fireworks jam session

Here's the recording for last weeks Fireworks CS3 jam session making it our 12th session so far. In this session, I'd suggest scrubbing to 18 minutes and watch Lian give some killer tips on handling bitmap and vector highlights in Fireworks CS3.

Posted by amusselman at 09:03 AM | Comments (0)

August 23, 2007

Fireworks in LA!

Tonight, I'll be giving a Fireworks CS3 demo in Los Angeles at the LAdobe user group and helping out with any design or technical related questions thereafter. Hope you can make it! If time allows I'll geek out and show off some progress with a new and improved CSS export script and cool extensions that can improve your current workflows.

Also, dont forget the Fireworks Jam Session is in 45 minutes at 11am (pst)! Its a totally informal Connect session. We usually start the first ten minutes figuring out what everyone wants to see or demo...you never know today we may do a design train or dive into some troubleshooting or help someone out with a question related to Fireworks.

 

Posted by amusselman at 10:06 AM | Comments (0)

August 02, 2007

Todays Fireworks CS3 Jam Session Recorded!

The session today was a lot of fun! I believe we now have a synergy we all like and thats creating a Design Train where one of us starts a design off and each person can only spend 10 minutes on adding/modifying something to the design. Tim recommended a commentary so I did my best describing what was going on when someone was presenting. Trick is who is going to do the commentary on me? hehe

Todays design was a Tech style interface and I had no idea where to start so I started out creating some containers and mucking with colors, passed the file to Angelo, he added his magic with giving the design life and then passed the file to Grant where he applied his gradient skills with the custom Gradient panel he developed in Flash and made a hand off to Ryan where he did a lot of fine-tuning and cleaned up the interface then Tim jumped in and gave the design some definition and added final touches. We all came to the conclusion its an app that would be viewed on your refrigerator monitor. Not bad for a random team with a random concept with only ten minutes each to create something to add to the tech style interface. All I gotta say is I cant wait till next Thursday!

08-02-07 Recording:
http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/p42396401/

Final Tech style UI we created:



Download PNG

Posted by amusselman at 05:46 PM | Comments (3)

July 25, 2007

Fireworks Awards/Reviews

Here's a good review by TecKMagazine for Fireworks CS3:

http://www.teckmagazine.com/reviews/software-reviews/adobe-fireworks-cs3-review.html

Some other reviews:

Fireworks CS3 Features: Intelligent Scaling
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2007/05/23/fireworks-cs3-features-intelligent-scaling/

Fireworks CS3: 5 Reasons You Might Upgrade
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2007/06/22/fireworks-cs3-5-reasons-you-might-upgrade/

I also never noticed this until now but there is a page on the Fireworks product side nav called Reviews and awards. Good to know about that link below. ;-)

Fireworks Reviews and awards
http://www.adobe.com/products/fireworks/reviews_awards/


Posted by amusselman at 05:42 PM | Comments (6)

June 28, 2007

Weekly Fw CS3 session in 2 hours!

Wow, is it already that time again? :-)

The last session was recorded, but when using the Camera/voice pod my machine became slow and not responsive to some extent. If we do not use the audio today, thats fine, but it really depends on the questions you all come and ask in the session.

It could be a discussion or if someone wants to show off something they created in fireworks thats cool too.

See ya in a couple hours!

Where
Adobe Connect: http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/osd/ (Login as a guest and not a registered user)

Time
Thursday (Today) at 11:00am PST


Posted by amusselman at 08:52 AM | Comments (5)

June 13, 2007

Fireworks CS3 Open Session!

Come join us for an open discussion about Fireworks CS3! If you have questions or want to share a tip or trick, thats cool with us. Feel free to stop on by and learn from myself and other Fireworkers in the Connect Session.

Starts tomorrow (Thursday) at 11am PST

Be sure to login as a Guest and use your real name or I wont accept you. You do not need a Username and Password.

Connect Room:
https://admin.adobe.acrobat.com/_a295153/osd/


Posted by amusselman at 07:23 PM | Comments (0)

May 02, 2007

Fireworks Developer Center: Fresh Downloads!

If you haven't seen the new Fireworks Developer Center, I'd suggest taking a peep. We updated the Fireworks Downloads section with 2 fresh Downloads thanks to Steven Grosvenor and Jose Angel Rivera Dominguez!

Steven added a Command Panel called Super Guides 1.0 (Super useful for Isometric Shapes and more) and Jose added a fantastic set of Old Paper Styles for that instant Old Paper effect that is very useful.


Posted by amusselman at 07:05 PM | Comments (1)

April 04, 2007

Introducing Adobe Fireworks CS3

Here's an article I busted out to highlight some of the main features in Adobe Fireworks CS3:

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/fireworks/articles/introducing_fireworks_cs3.html

Posted by amusselman at 07:03 PM | Comments (4)

March 19, 2007

SXSW 2007 + Adobe Fireworks

SXSW is seen for Video, clicked for interactive, and heard for music, of course I was there for the Interactive portion of the event more than anything else. It's amazing how many people you meet *outside* of SXSW when attending the Events at night around 5-6th street in Austin, Texas. I listened to developers screaming at the top of their lungs trying to explain to me this application or website they developed using Adobe products over the live music and inhaled more second-hand cigarette smoke to make me want to start smoking again, but you know what, it was worth every minute of it. Austin is jam-packed with a bunch of web slingers that get the job done. I love you Austin and thank you for showing me the ropes...literally.

Working on the Fireworks Team has its advantages and disadvantages. One major disadvantage of working on any product is you can burn yourself out and I was burned out until I saw the customers reactions of the Fw9 sneak at SXSW. Danielle Beaumont (Fireworks Product Manager) gave a sneak of Fireworks CS3 at the Adobe Stage. I was almost instantly revitalized when I overheard comments from attendees like "Can you believe that?" or "Wow, that'll shave 2 hours off my workload every day." Only then did I realize how much went into this release of Fireworks 9. While I want to share the full details of the presentation and discuss some of my favorite new features, you'll just have to wait till March 27th. ;)


Posted by amusselman at 06:01 PM | Comments (8)

November 21, 2006

Canceling tonights OSD session

Hi all - I'm canceling tonight's session. Sorry!

Until next time...

Posted by amusselman at 07:02 PM | Comments (1)

October 13, 2006

Join the Fireworks Beta!

If anyone is interested, Id highly suggest applying for the Fireworks Beta:

"Adobe invites existing and prospective members of the Fireworks community to participate in a private beta for the next release of Fireworks. Due to limited availability, we are asking those interested to apply. Accepted submissions will be notified via e-mail within two weeks of receipt."

Posted by amusselman at 02:31 PM | Comments (5)

July 10, 2006

NYC Usability Study (Looking for Fireworks users that work with Flash)

Adobe is visiting people in New York City who create visuals for Flash. Whether or not you use the Flash program itself, if visuals you create are used as part of the process of building Flash content or web applications, we would love to chat with you. We will spend about 90 minutes talking to you about your work at your desk, showing you some of our plans for the future, and getting your feedback on those plans.

Interested? We know your time is valuable, so we will show our gratitude for your participation with $125 in American Express gift checks. Either way, feel free to forward this message to friends or coworkers who might be interested. Thank you for helping us improve our software!

If you would like to be considered for this study, please copy and paste the template below (Fill it out of course) and send it to Usability_Study@adobe.com with subject line "Flash Visuals Study." If you don't hear back from us, this means that the openings for this particular study have been filled. Your email address will be kept private; fill out the survey at the bottom of this form if you'd like to be contacted for future studies.

--------

Please type an "X" in between the brackets to indicate your choices.

1. What types of web content do you work on? Please choose all that apply.

[] Static web sites
[] Dynamic web sites
[] HTML-based web applications (ASP, PHP, Java, ASP.NET, ColdFusion, etc.)
[] HTML-based web applications with Ajax/DHTML
[] Flash advertising
[] Flash animations
[] Flash e-learning/training
[] Flash games [] Flash interactive content
[] Flash web applications
[] Flex web applications
[] I don't work on web content

2. Which applications do you use to create visuals/mockups/prototypes FOR FLASH? Please choose all that apply.

[] Adobe GoLive
[] Adobe Illustrator
[] Adobe InDesign
[] Adobe Photoshop
[] Macromedia Dreamweaver
[] Macromedia Fireworks
[] Macromedia Flash
[] Macromedia Freehand
[] QuarkXPress
[] Other: __________________
[] I don't create visuals for Flash

3. Which ONE application do you use MOST OFTEN to create visuals/mockups/prototypes FOR FLASH? Please choose one.

[] Adobe GoLive
[] Adobe Illustrator
[] Adobe InDesign
[] Adobe Photoshop
[] Macromedia Dreamweaver
[] Macromedia Fireworks
[] Macromedia Flash
[] Macromedia Freehand
[] QuarkXPress
[] Other: __________________
[] I don't create visuals for Flash

Schedule:
Please mark the times you will be available; marking more times will increase your chances of being selected. All times are Pacific Standard Time.

Tuesday, July 18th

[] 9-10:30 am
[] 12:30-2 pm
[] 3-4:30 pm

Wednesday, July 19th

[] 9-10:30 am
[] 12:30-2 pm
[] 3-4:30 pm

Thursday, July 20th

[] 9-10:30 am
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Friday, July 21st

[] 9-10:30 am
[] 12:30-2 pm

Please fill out your contact information below (all required):

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Thanks for your interest in Adobe User Experience studies! If you’d like us to contact you for future studies, please click the URL below and fill out the survey. We will never sell or distribute your information – it will only be used by the Adobe User Experience team. Studies typically last 1-2 hours and compensation is $60-$125 depending on the study.

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Posted by amusselman at 12:08 PM | Comments (1)

June 21, 2006

Job Opening > San Francisco > Contribute/CPS Support

Hey all -

We have a new opening for a Contribute / Contribute Publishing Server L3 Support Engineer in San Francisco. Its a fun and fast paced environment with plenty of things to learn and of course you get to work at Adobe and be on the bleeding edge of technology. We are looking for a motivated individual that feeds and works on the web to handle escalations and work with customers and other Support Agents concerning Contribute and Contribute Publishing Server. (A major plus is if you already use Dreamweaver and have deployed sites with Contribute users in mind.) Here's some brief details of the position:

Contribute/CPS Level 3 Support Engineer

Summary:
This is a full time, on-site position responsible for providing world class technical support to Adobe’s enterprise and consumer customers.  This position will offer a competitive salary and benefits, enable you to learn and work with the best tools in the industry, and allow you to have an influence on the future development of Adobe products.

In this role, you will be responsible for handling client and server-side issues for Adobe Contribute and Contribute Publishing Server. You will be a part of a team that supports a wide array of products, tackling issues from general usage questions through testing complicated server-side configurations.

 

Primary Responsibilities

Basic Requirements

Ideal Requirements

Please contact me directly if you have any questions concerning the position. :-)

Posted by amusselman at 12:41 PM | Comments (1)

June 08, 2006

Adobe MAX 2006!

Adobe MAX 2006

Interested in attending MAX 2006 this year?

Register now so you can be notified by email when there are more details to share.

When: October 23-26, 2006
Where: The Venetian, Las Vegas, Nevada

Adobe MAX 2006
http://www.adobe.com/events/max/

Posted by amusselman at 09:45 AM | Comments (0)

March 14, 2006

OSD: Canceled

All, I'm moving the OSD session to tomorrow night (Wednesday) same time as usual. I totally forgot I bought tickets to see a friend play tonight in SF at the Plush Room and it just so happened to be tonight.

Sorry! See ya tomorrow tonight!

Posted by amusselman at 04:49 PM | Comments (4)

March 01, 2006

Two Open positions for Flash and Contribute/CPS Product Support Engineers

Hey all,

Just thought I'd let you know about 2 open positions on our team in San Francisco (old MM Headquarters). If you are in the industry and want to get on the other side of the looking glass, well, nows your chance. These are fun and fast paced positions and you will be on the Studio Support Team that I currently work with in San Francisco. If you would like to discuss the postion with me directly. Send me an email. These positions will go fast so get crackin and apply!

Open Position:
Contribute/Contribute Publishing Server Support Engineer - CV020602

In this role, you will be responsible for handling client and server-side issues for Adobe Contribute and Contribute Publishing Server. You will be a part of a team that supports a wide array of products, tackling issues from general usage questions through testing complicated server-side configurations.

Open Position:
Flash Support Engineer - CV010602

In this role, you will be responsible for handling client and server-side issues for Adobe Flash and Flash Player, the industry's most advanced environment for creating interactive websites, digital experiences and mobile content. You will be a part of a team that supports a wide array of products, tackling issues from general usage questions through complicated server-side configurations.

More details on the Flash position below as the Job profile is not up-to-date:

Primary Responsibilities:

Basic Requirements:

Basic Requirements (cont’d):

Ideal Requirements

 

Posted by amusselman at 11:16 AM | Comments (1)

February 14, 2006

Perfect Match?

Yes, tonight is the night for the Open Studio Discussion! I will be not canceling tonights session but, I will have to leave promptly at 9:00pm to make it in time for our reservations.

Thanks to Lian for creating the Valentines heart. You can find the source here.

What is the Open Studio Discussion?

The Open Studio Discussions is a Breeze room that will be open for 2 hours from 7-9:00pm PST every other Tuesday (starting 07-05) for anyone that uses the Studio (Fireworks, Dreamweaver, Flash, and Contribute) to come in and ask questions, share ideas, tips, techniques, and explore breeze on a more personal level.

This is pretty much an underground thang and after hours for me, but I'm looking forward to seeing sites and apps, chit-chat or anything cool you have to show off and/or help you get an issue sorted out.

Why Breeze?

A lot of times passing emails back and forth can become tedious, time consuming and complex in support so I use Breeze to communicate directly with the customer to identify the issue, determine a solution, and provide guidance and help to implement that solution. It's that simple...if I can't understand the issue through email, generally I'll ask you to join a Breeze Meeting (screen share etc..) and that way I feel like were both on the same level during the entire experience, its great!

Remember:

2 hours 7:00-9:00PM (sync time zone, I'm in California ) 02-14-2006 (every other Tuesday)

Posted by amusselman at 04:42 PM | Comments (5)

February 06, 2006

Introduction To Adobe's LiveCycle

Hey all, I thought this would be good for us Macromedians that have no idea what LifeCycle is and how it can help out your business. From what I've seen so far its really neat and just a lot to take in...so if your in the Bay area, be sure to check it out.

The featured speaker will be Mike Potter of Adobe Developer Relations, who will tell all about Adobe's enterprise-scale document management system, LiveCycle.

When: Wednesday 2/8/06, 6:30 PM
Where: Learn iT! (250 Montgomery Street in the San Francisco Financial District - 15th Floor)
Admission: $7.00 if you register in advance, otherwise $10.00 at the door, to cover the cost of food and drink.

You can sign up for the meeting at the MMUG site:

http://www.baadmmug.org/

There's a number of wonderful prizes to award to raffle winners on Wednesday evening.

Note: You need to be present to win!

 

Posted by amusselman at 06:15 PM | Comments (0)

February 02, 2006

Intel-based Macs and Adobe?

For those of you interested in knowing how we will be going forward with the new Intel-based Macs, I'd suggest read this FAQ for more information.

Adobe Support for Intel-based Mac Computers
http://www.adobe.com/products/pdfs/intelmacsupport.pdf

 

Posted by amusselman at 10:04 AM | Comments (1)

December 20, 2005

Canceled: Open Studio Discussion

Just realized I will be traveling tonight and will not be available to host the Open Studio Discussion at 7-9pm PST.

Sorry Folks!

Have a happy holiday and new year! Cya on the flipside...

Posted by amusselman at 09:18 AM | Comments (8)

December 08, 2005

It's Official, I'm now...

an Adobe employee. When I had heard about the Aquisition from a friend at 5am in the morning on the day of the announcement, I was really afraid what would happen to the fellow co-workers I know and care about so much that work at Macromedia. The culture, the people, what is going to happen!? Eventually, I became so concerned about everyone else I never really thought about myself and what would become of my position.

Tons of these kinds of questions have been zipping through my mind at light speed to the point where I could barely sleep at night. When I got to the point where I wasnt thinking about it, someone else was asking me the same questions either from family members and close friends, co-workers, and the peeps from the designer/developer communities that know me best.

I figured hey, I'm renting a cabin in Tahoe for 4 months with a season pass to snowboard all season at Alpine so worst case scenario I could snowboard all day long...heck all week long. Thinking about what it would be like without working at Macrodobia really stressed me out. I wanted to know my fate either way and soon!!

Well yesterday I received a gleaming white folder with no creases or stains. When I opened the folder, there was an offer letter from Adobe to accept the same position I have had at Macromedia which is a Product Support Engineer! The tension and stress finally disappeared from my face and was transferred to wondering what has happened to my fellow co-workers and other employees at Macromedia.

Come to find out, some had asked to leave, others wanted to stay but still got laid off. After observing all that has happened over the past couple days, I have to come to the conclusion that all of this will work out for the best in the end. Adobe will have the best of the best and should be honored to have such a great group of people now working WITH Adobe.

These are exciting times for us that used to be Macromedians and I'll definitely bring that thought process and culture over to Adobe. A lot of you that read my blog have expressed their concerns to me directly, I feel this is the best way to let everyone know of my status going forward. To me, this is a major step forward.

I feel this will be the era of Integration and Innovation.

Stay tuned and hang on....we have some exciting times ahead of us. :-)

For those of you ex-macromedians, good luck, I wish you very the best and please keep in touch. From what I've been hearing so far, ex-macromedians are overwhelmed with job offers. This makes me very very happy.

Posted by amusselman at 04:27 PM | Comments (13)

November 22, 2005

Open Studio Discussion in 10 minutes

Today I'll be building a template to work with a site I use for testing Contribute issues in support. If you have an issue or need some help with something, feel free to stop by and I'll see what I can do to help.

Note: The Open Studio Discussion is best viewed at 1024x768 and lasts from 7:00pm-9:00pm PST

Here's a quick summary of what can happen in the Discussion:

Posted by amusselman at 06:46 PM | Comments (4)

November 08, 2005

OSD starts in 5 minutes!

Sheesh, it feels like yesterday since the last Open Studio Discussion. :)

The last OSD (Open Studio Discussion) was fast paced and I eventually split the Breeze room into 2 Chat pods, one for Flash/Flex and the second for Dreamweaver/Fireworks/Contribute so the topics could stay somewhat focused. There was also 2 screenshare pods going at once which is the first time I've seen that in action.

Note: The Open Studio Discussion is best viewed at 1024x768 and lasts from 7:00pm-9:00pm PST

Here's a quick summary of what can happen in the Discussion:

Im also open to Flex, however, don't rely on getting an answer from me. Im still learning myself. :)

Posted by amusselman at 06:53 PM | Comments (1)

October 25, 2005

OSD starts in 5 minutes!

Hey all,

Just a quick reminder the Open Studio Discussion starts in 5 minutes.

Here's a quick summary of what can happen in the Discussion:

Im also open to Flex, however, don't rely on getting an answer from me. Im still learning myself. :)

 

Posted by amusselman at 06:49 PM | Comments (4)

September 13, 2005

Studio Open Discussion..starts in 40 minutes..

Anyone interested in showing off some new tricks or tips, have issues with the Studio and need help, feel free to join in.

http://macromedia.breezecentral.com/osd/

(7-9pm PST)

See ya in a few! :)

Posted by amusselman at 06:16 PM | Comments (3)

September 12, 2005

Studio 8...ready for download!

Sit down and relax....its Exploring time!

In case you havent heard about the Studio 8 launch yet, visit www.macromedia.com or check out the fresh Developer Centers below:

Dreamweaver Developer Center
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/dreamweaver/

Fireworks Developer Center
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/fireworks/

Flash Developer Center
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/flash/

~Enjoy!

Posted by amusselman at 09:39 PM | Comments (0)

August 25, 2005

Macromedia LiveDocs and how they can help you

I must admit a lot of the customers I work with in support do not utilize the full potential of Macromedia LiveDocs. Once they realize you can view comments that have been submitted by other developers that hit the same road block they did...they never go back to using the documentation in the app itself unless it's for general knowledge.

The LiveDocs are super powerful in my opinion by allowing tech writers the ability to make changes on the fly if necessary and allowing anyone to submit a helpful tip or workaround to an issue that cannot be resolved easily.

The Dreamweaver and Flash community eats the LiveDocs up like its icing on a cake and now Fireworks 8 will have the ability to use LiveDocs which is fantastic and something I've been waiting to have for quite some time. ;)

Although, Im not seeing the Contribute/Flashpaper community as active as I thought it would be and hopefully that will change since Contribute issues can get pretty hairy and complex depending on the customer's environment. I'm expecting to see this change with Contribute included in Studio 8 now. Woohoo!

Also, for us commandos in support, this is a useful way to get a workaround or update out ASAP without dealing with all the normal channels we have to go through to get something published. Ya!

Benefits you have with LiveDocs:

LiveDocs have been around for quite some time now and have helped me out a ton.

Here's an example of how it helps others:

Using the ProgressBar component
http://livedocs.macromedia.com/flash/mx2004/main_7_2/00002688.html

Do you find the LiveDocs helpful? What would you change about them to make them even easier to use? Not that anything would change, but Im just curious if anyone has a better way of doing it. I love LiveDocs! Would I marry them?? Maybe. :P

Posted by amusselman at 02:43 PM | Comments (7)

August 16, 2005

Canceling Open Studio Discussion session tonight

Hi all,

This is a heads up that Im canceling tonights Open Studio Discussion session. Looks like Im flying into San Francisco a little later than I expected. The next session will be on August 30th 7-9PST. Hope to see you there.

~Alan

Posted by amusselman at 08:51 AM | Comments (0)

August 08, 2005

Macromedia Studio 8 has been announced!

After months of playing with the alphas and betas, Im pleased to announce, Studio 8 has finally arrived. Almost every customer I talk to has seen the Sneak Peeks from MAX2004 and other sources and has asked when is the next Studio going to be released...well today, you can read all about the hype at http://www.macromedia.com/studio!

This is such a relief for me since I work with customers (you!) on a daily basis. You have no idea how much I wanted to tell you about all the new features within the Studio. So now, if you ask me questions, I can give you an answer!! Woohoo!

Be sure to check out the Feature Tours for each app here:

You also gotta check out the meet your match app for the new Studio! If still up for finding out more information, then dont miss out on the new articles in the Developer Center.

Time to get back to work? Be sure to get notified so you can go download the new apps when they become available.

 

Posted by amusselman at 06:49 AM | Comments (11)

August 02, 2005

Its that time again....for another Open Studio Discussion mtg!

Once again, please join us to discuss Studio Integration tips, show off something cool, play with Breeze 5. I know one thing I will show is the FW > FL workflow and how that can improve your workflow in certain situations.

Open Studio Discussion (7-9pm PST)
http://macromedia.breezecentral.com/osd/


Click Enter as Guest, add your name and your ready to go.

I'd also like to know what times you guys prefer, if any at all.

7-9pm works great for me since I can relax at home and drink a brewsky.

Cya tonight!

Posted by amusselman at 10:58 AM | Comments (0)

July 19, 2005

Open Studio Discussions

Yep, Tonights the night to chill out and chat about Studio MX 2004. If you use any of the apps, please feel free to join, stop by and say hi, show off something cool or ask questions. I have nothing lined up for tonight as usual, in fact, I'll be working on a tutorial for Fireworks MX 2004 and expose my tablet techniques for tablet users to take advantage of when using Fireworks.

~Alan

Posted by amusselman at 02:17 PM | Comments (0)

July 05, 2005

First Open Studio Discussion...Success

Although only a couple people showed up, it was fun using Breeze as the communication tool of choice and helping others or just plain chatting. I also had the pleasure of remembering how painful it is to reskin the V2 components. It appears the only way to build a top-notch quality component design is by building the component from the ground up instead of wrapping the design around the V2 components, but then again it all depends on the design and app as well.

Your welcome to join and I would be honored to have you attend and collaborate with us. I'm mainly focused on helping Studio users, but if you have a question about Contribute or CPS (Contribute Publishing Services), I can help out there as well and look forward to any challenges you bring to the table.

I also apologize to everyone that has asked me to reschedule due to timezone conflicts...Im finding this to be a difficult task to accomplish, but I could meet Saturday mornings as well if that would help. If there's a demand (1 or 2 peeps), I'll be there.

Just curious, but what timezone are you in?

Posted by amusselman at 10:05 PM | Comments (1)

June 30, 2005

Open Studio Discussions Breeze Room

The Open Studio Discussions is a Breeze room that will be open for 2 hours from 7-9pm PST every other Tuesday (starting 07-05) for anyone that uses the Studio (Fireworks, Dreamweaver, Flash, Contribute, FreeHand) to come in and ask questions, share ideas, tips, techniques, and explore breeze on a more personal level.

This is pretty much an underground thing and generally after hours for me, but I'm looking forward to seeing sites and apps, chit-chat or anything cool you have to show off and/or help you get an issue sorted out.

Why Breeze?

A lot of times passing emails back and forth can become tedious, time consuming and complex in support so I use Breeze to communicate directly with the customer to identify the issue, determine a solution, and provide guidance and help to implement that solution. It's that simple...if I can't understand the issue through email, generally I'll ask them to join a Breeze Meeting (screen share etc..) and that way I feel like were both on the same level during the entire experience, its great!

Remember:

2 hours
7:00-9:00PM (sync time zone, I'm in California )
07-05-2005 (every other Tuesday)

Posted by amusselman at 12:29 AM | Comments (0)

June 28, 2005

What's with the Oriental Theme?

Some may wonder why I picked an oriental theme for my blog. A lot of my appreication for asian art comes from my mother when she went through an oriental phase and explored various mediums used by traditional artists and here I am...just a little kid wondering what I was looking at with no appreciation until I was older and majored in Art in school. She used to have this amazing Oriental bed with a large headboard that had tight, intricate patterns carved out of the mahogany wood. I was completely fascinated by this wonderful piece of art yet it was just a King-size bed. Ever since then, I've been on my own quest...exploring asian patterns, colors, and textures.

I'm currently exploring ChinaTown (San Francisco, 20 min walk away from my flat) and other avenues for a traditional artist to give me private lessons since I stare (and others tell me I stare) way too much at the computer. Yet, are these people telling me I stare too much at the computer really into computers or is it just me? Sigh...true signs of a computer addict right here folks.

Thank goodness I live in San Francisco now, (used to live in Dallas, TX) I can finally get out of the casa and see something completely different every weekend ....blows me away. This is how crazy this last weekend was in SF, I woke up and stumbled into the kitchen to get some water. Samantha (my kitty) meows because she doesn't have any food, I grab the cat food to find out there's none left..crap..so I put on my shoes and went on a search for Cat food. Unfortunately, the 3 corner markets around me were closed so I had to walk up to Market Street, by the time I got a street away, it sounded like there was a Motorcycle show, but it was the Dykes on Bikes group sailing down Market Street ...I completely forgot it was Gay Pride Weekend, there must have been a million people spread through out downtown watching the parade!

pride_parade.jpg

Anyways, I'm completely mystified by the orient and hope I can master the rare techniques used by the ancients. Sorry for running off-topic there, it was just too much fun seeing all the people having a good time...

Posted by amusselman at 09:58 PM | Comments (2)

May 25, 2005

Ah..The sweet aroma of the first entry ~

Welcome!

I am pleased to share with you my thoughts, FW shaolin techniques, new findings with technology and science, and industry opinions while working at Macromedia.

My passion at Macromedia is to be the best I can be while helping customers find a solution to fix the issue their experiencing with one of our products specifically the Studio MX 2004 products and also Contribute and Contribute Publishing Services. I’ll mainly focus my entries towards using Fireworks MX 2004 and expose helpful tips for everyone to enjoy.

I am a strong believer that Fireworks has the best workflow and will save you time and money when developing websites for clients.

I survived for many years using DW/FW/FL as my tools of the trade and I feel its time for me to give back to the community what you gave me to get where I'm at today.

Before working at Macromedia, I was (and still am) a Web Designer / Developer "Deseloper" as (Jen DeHaan calls it) for 11 years of my life. I survived the dotcom bomb days and was fortunate to have a job when the industry became overly saturated with developers. It was a challenging time for all of us. Only the strong survive and the weak find another gig.

Posted by amusselman at 11:53 AM | Comments (9)