Working With Layers - MACROMEDIA FIREWORKS 8-USING FIREWORKS Use Manual

Working with layers

Each object in a document resides on a layer. You can either create layers before you draw or
add layers as needed. The canvas is below all layers and is not itself a layer. For information on
working with the canvas, see "Changing the canvas" on page 42.
You can view the stacking order of layers and objects in the Layers panel. This is the order in
which they appear in the document. Fireworks stacks layers based on the order in which you
created them, placing the most recently created layer on the top of the stack. The stacking
order determines how objects on one layer overlap objects on another. You can rearrange the
order of layers and of objects within layers.
The Layers panel displays the current state of all layers in the current frame of a document. To
view other frames, you can use the Frames panel or select an option from the Frame pop-up
menu at the bottom of the Layers panel. For more information, see "Working with frames"
on page 313.
The name of the active layer is highlighted in the Layers panel. You can expand a layer to view
a list of all the objects on it. The objects are displayed in thumbnails.
Masks are also shown in the Layers panel. Selecting the mask thumbnail allows you to edit the
mask. You can also create new bitmap masks using the Layers panel. For more information
about masking, see "Masking images" on page 210.
204 Chapter 9: Layers, Masking, and Blending