Fireworks 4 script tutorialThe limitation of us supplying you the scripts is that when you run them, the files are processed and then saved in your original folder. This isn't much of a problem, you just need to take a little care when selecting the original images. We have no way of knowing where you are going to save your images, and therefore we do not know your file paths.
Wouldn't it be good though if you could run a script, and that script would process your images as required for your gallery, and they are then saved to a new folder.
Well here's how.
Folders firstIn a location of your choice, set up 2 folders. 1 for your source (original ) images and 1 to receive all of the final images after running the scripts.
It may be advisable to put the folder to receive the images within the same site as you defined in Dreamweaver for your Gallery, although once it has all of the resized images ready for the Gallery, you may copy it to any folder that you require.
We will for the purpose of this tutorial, create 2 folders, and name them,
original_images and
finished_images.
Now copy all of your images to the folder, original_images.
Now we are ready to write the scripts for your computer system.
Note: We will show you how to batch process your images to _thumb images.
That is resize them to 125x75px's, convert them to greyscale, rename them to have the suffix _thumb, and then save them to your finished_files folder. This will give you an idea of the batch file process, and give you the confidence to experiment with this technique further.
In Fireworks, go to the top and click on File then Batch Process, as in the screen shot below.
After clicking, you will see the screen similar to the one below.
Click on the arrow and browse to your original_images folder.
Now you can 'shift-select' the images that you would like to process, and then click 'Add' to add them to your list, or as in the screenshot below, you can simply click on 'Add All'.
See above. All of our image files are in the list ready for processing. Leave all other settings alone.
Click next.
When you see the screen below, in the left panel, click on 'Scale', then 'Add'.
This will add the 'Scale' command to the batch process. In the box below where it says 'Scale:' click the arrow and get 'Scale to size' in the window. Put in your pixel size here. For this tutorial we are using 125x75px's.
Now click on 'Rename' and then 'Add' and the 'Rename will go in the right window.
Now click on the arrow in the 'Rename' panel, Choose 'Add Suffix'. Type the suffix that you require in the next window. Remember we are creating our '_thumb' so type this in the window.
Look at the screenshot above. Click on the small sign next to the word 'commands' in the left window. In the list that appears select 'convert to greyscale'. Click 'Add'. See below.
Now click on 'Next' as we have all the commands that we require in the batch file.
On the screen above we can now choose where we would like our processed files to finish. Click on 'Custom Location' and browse to your destination folder that we named earlier as finished_images.
Look at the screenshot below. We have browsed to our folder, now click on the 'Select' button below.
Once you have clicked on that button, you will see the screen below.
Now simply click 'Batch' and the batch process will run all of your commands, and save the files to the folder that you have chosen.
Once this has run, you will hopefully see the screen below. Click on 'OK'
The batch program will now close. You now go back and repeat all of the operations above, except you will use different settings for the rest of your files. Your custom location will be the same as your other finished image files.
The beauty of this method is that your original files will however remain intact and in the original folder, and only the files that you process and require for the gallery will be in your chosen folder.
You may have noticed that at this point you may save your script, using the save script button, but be warned that if you ever move specified folders then it will fail to run properly.
We prefer to use the technique we have described above, without saving.
Click here to see see other settings.