Extended Reference for Freeway 7 questions

I’m trying to work my way through the Extended Reference for Freeway 7 gude.

On page 5, paragraph 3, it says: “Now click on the Tablet: 768 button, make sure nothing is selected on the page, then change the Width of the page in the Measurements panel of the Inspector to 768 (which will make the page the same width as the media width we’re using).”

However. There is no way to change the “Width of the page in the Measurements panel”. In the Width drop down box you can only select Fixed, Flexible, Max, Min or Max/Min.

Can anyone please explain this? Is the guide wrong or I am just being stupid here?

I feel that this is an important part of the learning process.


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Is the guide wrong or I am just being stupid here?

D


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Thanks D.

What is also needed then is to have Align set to None and Width set to Flexible which is not explained in the reference.

Thanks again.


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You dont need to set Align to None and Width Flexible to adjust the width of the page!

D


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Align None and Width Flexible is an Inflow Layout* technique… at least it
is in my book!

*Inflow, Inline, Box-Model…


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I might be being a bit dumb here, but if you click outside the page area, then you can set the page width.


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Unfortunately, the reference guide doesn’t tell you what to select for Align and Width type at this stage in the tutorial.

This would have been a good place in the tutorial to explain what those 2 parameters do exactly. Maybe it would add too much complexity for page 5. I am just the frustrated student here.

I will go with Align None and Width Flexible for now.


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On 5 Dec 2014, 7:54 pm, grantsymon wrote:

I might be being a bit dumb here, but if you click outside the page area, then you can set the page width.

… not if you select Width Maximum which was set in mine. Only Max W could be entered as a value. Width couldn’t.


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Well I finished the Extended reference guide and I am now more confused than ever.

The simple Inflow example in the Extended Guide creates a HTML item that is always 1 pixel to the right. A few hours of trying to track this one down, leads me to believe that this is a bug.

I fully understand the concept of the inflow approach as it a simple concept that Thomas’s excellent introduction video shows.

I had a look at the Esperanto template and attempted to move a few things about and resize some items. I just got frustrated and felt like I had never used FW before. Nowhere in the Reference Guide does it detail the meaning of the item handle dots colours. By experimenting you sort of figure it out but there is stuff I just can’t find out from the one short video that is available and the FW7 Extended Guide. From what I can see there is no other Softpress FW7 specific training material available.

I downloaded the Backdraft Demo and was greeted with a breadth of fresh air creativity that is just missing from FW7. However, when trying to move stuff out too much I still got tripped up by needing to understand what FW7 is all about.

I won’t even begin to mention pass through graphics!

FW7 is just not intuitive and there are a multitude of tick boxes that need configuring in the correct way for it to work. FW7 badly needs an optional assisted wizard type of approach. I.e. You could be asked if you want to create a responsive site, if Yes, then you choose a Master page size, auto add a HTML box in Inflow mode, respond to how it will behave at Default size only and then add each element from drop down options. Such an approach will quickly get you to a working Master page. There should be an option to automate this stuff. Computers are very very good at doing it this way.

I am really regretting upgrading to FW7 and not following my better judgement. I have spent too much time already and I am nowhere near ready to start creating a new site. I have now tried all of my existing Freeway sites and not a single one of them works in FW7. The error messages I get do not provide enough information to try to correct whatever is wrong.

FW7 is advertise as “Simple”. That could not be further from the truth. It is complex and really demands a proper training program to use it. The support video and single file specific to Fw7 do not provide that.

Life is too short to have to relearn how to use your old tools. I want tools that are easier to use to make new current stuff.


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Long stalked this list here - and am basically not interested to put my two cents in ever and ever again:

The simple Inflow example in the Extended Guide creates a HTML item that is always 1 pixel to the right. A few hours of trying to track this one down, leads me to believe that this is a bug.

If it is - I recommend either to put something live - so the experts are able to investigate what’s going on or to contact tower’s support directly.

I won’t even begin to mention pass through graphics!

… which is a pretty cool concept once you got the gist. All you need is to prepare your images matching the final sizes (but struggled for different reason as well with it).

FW7 is just not intuitive …

Hm - basically I’d call it as intuitive as all versions before but is indeed growing.

Point is that FrontEnd developing changed massively - so Designer’s attitude should do as well. If not, masses of “WebDesigners” will disappear from landscape. A pity - but an unchangeable matter of fact.

This is called progressive enhancement.

It is complex and really demands a proper training program to use it. The support video and single file specific to Fw7 do not provide that.

Once again:

The basics are OFF version 7 - I started with them (can’t recall correctly) somewhere in version 4.5.

Cheers

Thomas


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On 8 Dec 2014, 9:05 am, Thomas Kimmich wrote:

Point is that FrontEnd developing changed massively - so Designer’s attitude should do as well. If not, masses of “WebDesigners” will disappear from landscape. A pity - but an unchangeable matter of fact.

I’m interested to hear in what way you feel this has changed Thomas? (Not being a web designer for anyone by myself (and the missus) I’m not directly affected, but very curious.

FW7 has sucked me into a much greater understanding of web design, although still lightweight compared to you professionals. I think it’s been a phenomenal upgrade. I’ve been fudging my own websites using FW since vs 1.0, but have never before gone beyond the most basic sites … nevertheless a complex process of course. The big carrot to take me further has been the responsive nature of FW7. If this had not been the essence of FW7, I would quite probably have moved away to purchasing a template based site, just as most of my colleagues in the photographic business do.


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###Short answer:

People persist on creating pixel maps. That’s what they’re used to do - something that doesn’t scare them. Pixels are static, attitudes are static and both entering the dynamic world. This can make dizzy - just as using an escalator - backwards, pissed.

  • Content vs. Items
  • Text vs. Pixel
  • Dynamic vs. Static
  • Usability vs. Appearance
  • CSS vs. PNG
  • JavaScript vs. Flash
  • DIV vs. Tables

and all the rest I forgot.

###Long answer:

I’m not a professional. I’m doing web and all this design stuff behind my time (yes - I do have a regular job - often off design, it’s just one part of it).

For exactly this reason, I needed (and still do) a very strong time management.
So I swallowed everything and all to shorten it. I restricted myself to the very basics - Walter would call it a “Just Work”.

The biggest difference to the past is, that we create semantics and content these days. When I started doing web-design, a webpage was literally a pixel map - nothing else:

Borders had been pixel, shadows, backgrounds - colors and even text had been pixels - content was reduced to “keywords and description” which was very easy to manipulate.

So often enough, a web page was just an adaption of the latest flyer we created for clients - nothing else. This was easy stuff - slicing psd files mostly.

This had been the golden days of WYSIWYG - and we were in-mid. But from the very first beginning I knew, that placing stuff wherever I want is comfortable - but not efficient. Corrections had been a pain in butt whenever client said:

I need one line more!

So I decided to dive in that demonized quirks mode - and did hard (although I had an excellent screencast resource). I was shocked, how high the shitstorm level was, when you named it: “BoxModel”.

This was in 2010 or so - even a year earlier - can’t remember exactly. But this gave me a mass of new tools and insights.

The interesting part is:

A big bunch of Freeway-users complaining, it’s hard to crack to use, are way longer member of this board than me (2009). I simply wonder what they did during all this time (except of ignorance and damnation).

In early 2012, there had been a thread here where we tried to start to deal with Responsive Design in Freeway - better said:

Walter, Ernie and me.

The result of this “first responsive Freeway page ever” is still alive:

http://www.kimmich-dm.de/templates/liquid/index.html

Today - different talents are required:

Good authoring - nice typographer - analyst and project manager because we’re creating responsible design.

Things never depend on a specific app or tool - but feels so good to know having an app that allowed me doing nearby everything - even still WYSIWYG - a new, slightly different golden age of it. Perhaps.

Cheers

Thomas


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oh - and herby forgot the gist:

It never was a question of version number or features.

Cheers

Thomas


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I was shocked, how high the shitstorm level was, when you named it:
“BoxModel”.

Ouch! And yet, it still sticks. :slight_smile:

Shameless plug for my first responsive page (followed by its own
shitstorm of people begging me to release a responsive template. Thankfully
I am wiser than that.)

http://cssway.thebigerns.com/projects/context-responsive/


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