As you know we are HUGE proponents of Adobe Fireworks for web design here at RocketTheme and RocketWerx. Following in the tradition of other Adobe public betas like Lightroom, today the beta for CS4's version of Fireworks has been released. It's available for download via the Adobe labs site but you must have your CS3 serial number handy so you can obtain a valid CS4 key to unlock the Fireworks CS4 Beta.

The biggest change your going to notice right out of the gate is the fact that Fireworks CS4 has an all new interface that really brings it up to the level of the other apps in the bundle. Fireworks has lagged behind on some of the UI goodness that the other applications received in the CS3 version. The new interface includes the ability to change the view-type of the side panels enabling you to optimize your workspace and efficiency. Also a big change for the Mac version is the unified UI that means that there are not panels strewn all over your desktop. This is something new for me, but I really like this change, it allows me to really focus on the Firework when I'm working and not get distracted by other windows poking through my work area.

Other interesting areas are the CSS based layout export. I need to really delve into this to find out how efficient it is and how it will affect our workflow, but it's pretty exciting to get some useful exports. A PDF export is also available now which makes a nice format to show off your design.

A big change is in the type engine. This release sees the move to the Adobe type engine with it's powerful features that Illustrator and Photoshop users take for granted. This has been an anxiously awaited change that was part of the CS3 development versions, but was pulled and reworked into a better solution in this CS4 beta.