I design many of my graphics using Microsoft PowerPoint, as it is one of the easiest packages to use, and has lots of good clipart. Unfortunately it does not produce good-quality graphics. For example here's an example of a file I produced for the Handbook of the Internet book (note that it is not complete):

This file can be easily imported into Fireworks (or Photoshop), and gives a much sharper looking graphic, such as:

To highlight the difference I've expanded the graphics. First in PowerPoint:

and with the Firework's graphic:

You can see that the text is much smoother in Fireworks, and the shadow is also more realistic. Another big difference is in the display of graphics. For example the key looks much smoother in Fireworks:

Fireworks key	PowerPoint key

Thus a good method of producing graphics is to use PowerPoint to import, and draw graphics, and then export them into Fireworks (using cut-and-paste, or exporting to PNG format).