I read so much technology news these days that it really takes something interesting to get my attention (such as the massive arrival of unnamed devices in the U.S. from Apple's manufacturing facilities overseas). Yesterday, Adobe gave me an early birthday present by introducing the Fireworks CS4 Beta, a program I am heavily reliant upon and eager to see develop. I am now running Fw CS4 at home and at work, and suffice it to say, I love it to pieces.

Allow me to round up for you some of the changes that I find particularly welcome.

Color Palettes

I have building color palettes by hand for years now. I could draw little boxes and mix in more/less black to create several shades of a color. At long last, Adobe is giving me tools to do some of this. I can already feel myself getting faster at design.

Measure Tool

Many times you want to provide some specifics in your design so that creating the XHTML is a little faster. One of the new Auto Shapes is a measure tool that allows you to click and drag and create dimension markers on any element on the canvas. I currently waste a lot of time going back and forth between my code and my PNG just to double-check the dimensions of a graphic element. Hopefully this will speed that up and also provide reference to a coder in a situation where I hand off a design.

The Tabs Are Back

I really loved this about the PC version of Fireworks that they had a couple versions ago. Having everything flying around in its own window seemed so Windows 3.1. Another huge improvement is collecting all the toolbars back into one parent window (another Fw PC advantage). Spaces doesn't handle toolbars in Fireworks very well. Every time I go to another space and come back to the space that holds Fireworks, I have to hit Tab a couple times to bring the toolbars back. No seriously, every time I change spaces. What a bother. Now I don't have to worry about that. In fact, there are several new ways to manage your toolbars:

• Expanded Mode
• Iconic Mode
• Iconic Mode with Panel Names

UI Cleansing

It seems that UI enhancements come with every new release of software, and Adobe really hit the mark this time. They dulled out the deactivated options and muted the whole interface so you can focus on your design and the tools you currently have out. I really dig the new interface (and I'm pretty picky).

So what don't I like about Fireworks CS4? Well, it's a little early to have my grief all lined up especially since I'm still in wow-is-it-Christmas-already-with-my-software mode. My only expectation is that it doesn't get slower and that it remains stable. So far, it has been a little wobbly on its feet, and I'm beginning to wonder if it has new Spaces issues, but we'll see. So far, it's a definite step up. I better start saving up for the upgrade.