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States



You build animations by creating states, whose contents appear in the States panel. There, you can name the states, reorganize them, manually set the timing of the animation, and move objects from one state to another.

Each state also has associated properties. By setting the state delay or hiding a state, you can see how your animation looks as you edit it.

You can use layers in animations to organize objects that are part of the scenery or backdrop for the animation. To make objects appear throughout an animation, place them on a layer and then use the Layers panel to share the layer across states. Objects in a layer shared across states are visible in every state. For more information, see Share layers.

    Set state duration

    The state delay specifies how long the current state is displayed, in hundredths of a second. For example, specify 50 to display the state for half a second or 300 to display it for 3 seconds.

    1. Select one or more states:

      • To select a contiguous range of states, Shift-click the first and last state names.

      • To select a noncontiguous range of states, hold down Control (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) and click each state name.

    2. Do one of the following:

      • Select Properties from the States panel Options menu.

      • Double-click the state delay column.

    3. Enter a value for the state delay.

    4. Press Enter, or click outside the panel.

    Hide states during playback

    Hidden states are not displayed during playback and are not exported.

    1. Do one of the following:

      • Select Properties from the States panel Options menu.

      • Double-click the state delay column.

    2. Deselect Include When Exporting.

    3. Press Enter or click outside the panel.

    Change state names

    As you set up an animation, Fireworks creates the necessary states and displays them in the States panel as State 1, State 2, and so on. When you move a state in the panel, Fireworks renames each one to reflect the new order.

    Give your states meaningful names to keep track of them. Moving a renamed state has no effect on the name.

    1. In the States panel, double-click the name.

    2. Type a new name and press Enter.

    Manipulate states

    You can add, copy, delete, and change the order of states in the States panel.

    Add a new state

     Click the New/Duplicate State button  at the bottom of the States panel.

    Add states to a sequence

    1. Select Add States from the States panel Options menu.

    2. Enter the number of states to add.

    3. Select where to insert the states and click OK.

    Copy a state

     Drag an existing state to the New/Duplicate State button at the bottom of the States panel.

    Copy a selected state and place it in a sequence

    Duplicating a state is useful when you want objects to reappear in another part of the animation.

    1. Select Duplicate State from the States panel Options menu.

    2. Enter the number of duplicates to create for the selected state, specify where to insert the duplicate states, and click OK.

    Reorder states

     Drag the states one by one to a new location in the list.

    Reverse the order of states

    You can reverse the order all states or a selected range.

    1. Select Commands > Document > Reverse States.

    2. Do one of the following:

      • Select All States to reverse the sequence of states start to end.

      • Select Range Of States and then choose the start and end states to reverse the order of a range of states.

    3. Click OK.

    Delete the selected state

     Do one of the following:

    • Click the Delete State button  in the States panel.

    • Drag the state to the Delete State button.

    • Select Delete State from the States panel Options menu.

    Move selected objects in the States panel

    You can use the States panel to move objects to a different state. Objects that appear in only a single state vanish as the animation plays; you can make them disappear and reappear at different points.

    In the States panel, a small circle to the right of the state delay time indicates the status of objects on that state.

    1. On the canvas, select the objects you want to appear on another state.

    2. In the States panel, drag the selection indicator (the small black circle at the right of the state delay time) to the new state.

    To copy selected objects to other states, Ctrl+Alt-drag them (Windows) or Command+Option-drag them (Mac OS).

    View objects in a state

     Select the state from the State pop-up menu at the bottom of the Layers panel.


    All objects in the selected state are listed in the Layers panel and displayed on the canvas.

    About onion skinning

    Onion skinning is a technique for viewing the contents of states before and after the selected state. You can smoothly animate objects without flipping back and forth through them.

    When you turn on onion skinning, objects in the preceding and subsequent states are dimmed so that you can distinguish them from objects in the current state.

    By default, Multi‑State Editing is enabled so that you can select and edit dimmed objects in other states without leaving the current state. Use the Select Behind tool to select objects in states in sequential order.

    You can adjust the number of states visible before and after the current one by clicking the Onion Skinning button and selecting a display option. The Custom option allows you to specify the number of states and to control opacity. Use the Multi‑State Editing option to select and edit all visible objects. Deselect to edit in the current page only.