HOW TO REDUCE ANIMATIONS IN MACROMEDIA FIREWORKS

After opening the Fireworks program, select the file you want to reduce.

From the top menu select: MODIFY, CANVAS, IMAGE SIZE
the following screen will appear

You want your RESOLUTION always to be 72
Change the PIXEL DIMENSION width (a range from 150-300 usually works)
Note: the more complicated the animation, the larger the original file size will be; thus the smaller size you want to reduce the picture to)

Double check to be sure that right under settings under Optimize (the right side of your screen) shows AnimatedGIF

To Save your new sized image, from the top menu select: FILE, EXPORT, (browse to where you want the file saved), You may want to change the name of the file slightly if you are not totally comfortable that you have made the changes correctly (i.e. I usually add a -2 behind the file name).

Check to see if the new file is of a more optimum size (i.e. 50kb or less is best)

To close your original file: FILE, CLOSE
(select NO when prompted if you want to save the file)

Original file size = 105kb, 294x233 pixel size
Optimized file size = 41kb, 150x114 pixel size