r Tutorial: Adding effects in Fireworks
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Tutorial: Adding effects in Fireworks

Fireworks has a few handy tools for adding effects to objects in your image. We will be adding effects to the second frame of our document, so that when we make our rollovers, there's something to rollover to. On this page, you will learn how to change object colors, add drop shadows, and duplicate effects.

Change Object Colors
A selected shape
A selected shape
Click for enlargement
Changing the color selected for an object is pretty easy to do. Essentially, you just need to select the object and choose a new color. Below is a more detailed, step-by-step instruction set:

  1. Make sure you have selected frame two. You can verify this selection by examining the frame panel.
  2. Select the shape that you want to change by clicking on it with the black arrow tool (below). A blue line will appear around the selected shape (as shown right).
    Black arrow tool
  3. Now, click the color box in the tool bar (the one next to the paint can) to change the color of your shape. This works for text objects too!

Repeat steps two and three for each object you want to change.

Add drop shadows
Effect details
Effect details
Click for enlargement
Drop shadows are dark spots that make it appear as though your shape or words are hovering over the surface of the image. They are a standard image trick, but fun to do. Follow the steps below to add a drop shadow to one shape in your image.

  1. Select the shape using the black arrow tool. A blue line will appear around the shape to indicate that it is selected.
  2. Find the effect panel. It's tab is in the same panel as "Stroke," "Fill," and "Info." If you can't find it, use this progression to foreground or open it:
    Window Effect
  3. Once you have the effect panel open, click the effect option (labeled "none") and follow this progression (see a screenshot):
    None Shadow and Glow Drop Shadow
  4. Now adjust the details for the drop shadow (details shown at right).

In the next step, we will learn to save that effect and copy it to other shapes.

Duplicate effects
You can apply the same effect to more than one shape by saving it. Below are the details for doing so:

  1. Select your effect by clicking on it. It will turn blue.
  2. Click the arrow menu in the effect panel and select "Save effect As."
  3. Fill in the name of the effect. In our example, we chose "shadow."
  4. Select another shape with the black arrow tool and click the selection area in the effect tab. You can now choose your custom effect to apply to your shape.

Repeat this process for each shape you have.

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