I’m in a rut.

No, not in my love life or anything like that. I just keep finding myself falling back on old software that may not be ideally suited to the task, but I’m familiar enough with that I’m willing to put up with the quirks for the sake of not having to relearn how to do everything.

In this case, I’m looking at using my old copy of Fireworks 3, the (vaguely) object-oriented for-the-web image manipulation software from Macromedia. (Remember them?) It was released a decade ago, positioned in the market as a sort of competitor to Adobe’s ImageReady, itself a companion to the mighty Photoshop. The key reason I’m leaning toward Fireworks is that you can copy attributes from, say, a text box and paste just those attributes to another object in the same or another open image. This will allow me to create effects templates for the project.

Part of me is thinking, though, “Fireworks 3? That’s so ten-years-ago! C’mon, there must be something newer!” Sure. I could use the current version of GIMP. That’s the only other option within my budget. It would, however, necessitate learning a whole new interface and figuring out how to do the things I want all over again. I don’t know if it’s worth the trouble. On the other hand… how long do I want to stay bound to an old software product?

For now? I think I’m going to stay with the “don’t fix if it ain’t broke” philosophy. If I want to get the new project off the ground in a timely fashion, then I don’t want to switch from fixed to rotary wings shortly before takeoff.

(Wow. That metaphor almost gave me airsickness. And I wanted to be a writer when I grew up? Huh.)