Vector and Bitmap Editing
The emphasis of Fireworks is on vector editing, similar to Adobe Illustrator, with limited bitmap capabilities. This is opposite to the approach used by Photoshop, which is primarily for bitmap graphics with limited vector editing features. Vector objects in Fireworks can be resized with no loss of quality, just as in Adobe Illustrator. A range of Macromedia FreeHand's vector tools were incorporated into the release of Fireworks 8. Bitmap objects suffer a similar loss in quality whether resized in Fireworks, Adobe ImageReady or Photoshop.

Menus, Toolbars and Tools
As with all Macromedia and Adobe releases as of 2004, menus and even some extensions can be docked in the Fireworks environment. Within the docks, menus can be collapsed and expanded to allow a high level of accessibility as well as convenience. This facilitates a cleaner workspace. The toolbar in Fireworks contains 34 buttons. Some buttons can be held down to reveal a submenu of variations on each tool. For example, as the dodge and burn tools are used to lighten or darken an image and are similar, they can be found within the same submenu. This system of organization saves a lot of space and is very useful to graphic editors trying to save as much space on-screen as possible.