Q.
"I can't be the only one who would love to have a brief tutorial or know where you may already have one, on how you created the background gif with the ridges and cross-hatches I've seen floating around. __M

As it happens, you aren't. Here's a sample for those of you who are unfamiliar with it. Before we do anything else, it's necessary to switch to precise cursors and create a custom pattern.

Precise cursors

One of my favorite Fireworks features is the ability to switch between icon type cursors and the precise, crosshair cursors that are so handy for close up work. Since we'll need to zoom in to 1600% to draw our pattern, let's set up the crosshair cursor. Choose Edit > Preferences > Editing, and then put a checkmark in the Precise Cursors box. Click on OK to accept the setting.

Creating the striped pattern

Load Fireworks and open a new document (File > New). In the New Document dialog box, enter the number 5 for both height and width. Choose a color for the canvas by clicking the "Custom" radio button and then in the color box. Clicking on the color box will pop open a palette of web safe colors to choose from. Choose a light color to begin with so you can see the cursor easily. Note that selecting a color with the palette's built in color picker sets the color for the canvas, closes the palette, and returns you to the New Document dialog box.

Click on OK to accept your settings.

Select the Zoom tool (the one in the toolbox that looks like a magnifying glass) and click four times in the center of the document window. Resize the window by dragging on its lower, right corner so that you can see the entire canvas.

Select the Pencil tool and click in the Stroke Color Box. Choose black. Place the cursor at the top right of the canvas and click to place a black, 1-pixel dot.

Move the cursor to just below the bottom left corner of the first black dot and click to place to place the second one.

Continue placing black dots until you have created a diagonal line. Change the canvas color to the background color you wish to use for your page (Modify > Canvas Color). I've used Olive Drab (#999966).

Return the view setting to 100% (View > Magnification > 100%). Here is the pattern at its actual size [ ].

To make your pattern available from the Fireworks Fill menu, choose File > Save As. In the Save As dialog window, give the pattern a name, such as Olive_stripe. Browse to the Patterns folder in the Macromedia Fireworks 4 Configuration directory. On my machine, that's located at C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Fireworks 4\Configuration\Patterns. Click on the Save button.

The pattern looks like this when it is used as a Fireworks Pattern Fill.

Next step: Creating the background tile-->

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