Fireworks 2004 - Knife Tool 
Fireworks has a 'neat' tool called the Knife tool that lets you cut a straight line through a vector object. The different sides of the object may then be treated as two separate vector objects that could be moved, rotated, duplicated, or any thing you can do with a single object. Let's see how it works.
First we make a simple drawing of an oval with one of the vector tools.
Note that the selection of the object with the mouse will display the Property box for that object.
In this case, the fill is red with a black stroke (border) of 1-pixel.
The fill type is Solid.
Once the object is created with one of the Vector tools that you want to slice,
select the knife tool from the tools panel on the left.
Then make a 'slice' through your oval object by clicking and dragging your mouse. The 'cut' will be made at the intersection of the line and the oval.
It is important that you de-select your object by clicking the mouse off the oval.
Your line 'slice' will appear to be removed...but it is still there.
Fireworks will remember the location of the slice!
Now click on the Select arrow and you are ready to split your vector object.
If you click on the oval and drag slightly to the right you will see the cut.
Once you have made the selection, you can also move the objects apart with the arrow keys on pixel at a time. The objects are independent and may be further developed as two separate objects.
Some examples using the Knife Tool:
Steps: Sliced yellow oval - filled one part blue - rotated blue object - copied yellow shape - added drop shadow to all - arranged in order Steps: Cut and separated a yellow rectangle - added a blue circle - arranged blue circle behind the two yellow objects. Steps: Multiple slices made to a yellow oval object - filled opposite objects blue - located a black rectangle in the background
You should experiment with several shapes and cuts to see the visual effects you can achieve. It is interesting to see what happens when the Skew and Distort tools are applied!
