I’ve been reading all these “alternative” posts and as a former Freeway Pro advocate I feel compelled to mention the “elephant in the room”. A text editor.
Look, I’ve been around FWT long enough to know most of you will consider this little more than white noise. Fair enough. I’ve read the “I don’t do code that’s why I use Freeway” mantra enough times to last me several lifetimes. Feel free to stop reading now. No harm, no foul.
But maybe one or two of you will keep an open mind and hear me out before dismissing an editor as “for geeks only”.
Although the circumstances that moved me away from FWP were very different from yours I nevertheless found myself in a similar search for the ideal tool with which to do my job, just like you’re doing right now. And like you I researched the WYSIWYG options at the time but in the end I opted for an editor, specifically Coda http://panic.com/coda, makers of Transmit.
Thomas’ observations of “dependancy” are similar to my experiences, the difference being I’m taking it a bit further by removing a few more layers of abstraction by suggesting an editor.
When I bought Coda all those years ago my code knowledge was, uh…far from impressive. But like others here I learned a lot from scrutinizing how FWP did its thing, and of course from the FWT community. When I finally began moving my sites (built with FWP) to Coda the “transition” was little more than me opening Freeway’s generated (HTML, CSS and js) files and looking at the code. That’s how I started.
From there I started “cleaning” FW’s code, first the stylesheets then the HTML files. This is when I really came to appreciate Coda’s split view feature: I could preview my page while editing a style and watch the changes happen immediately. It was an instant gratification type of feedback that was refreshing.
Aside from having absolute control over the end result I was able to mimic certain features like Master Pages. Contrary to popular belief I didn’t need to write hundreds of lines of code every time I created a new page. I could of course write the code from scratch or I could copy the HTML structure (or menus, sliders etc.) from an existing FW page (or anywhere else) for use as a “master” page. All I had to do was save the code as a Snippet. Then with (yes) a single-click I could create a new page ready for content. It really can be that simple.
You could create Snippets for any type of frequently used element and insert the code with absolutely minimal effort. You just need to build your personal library which is easy because FW has already created the code for you, it’s just a matter of copying it. Of course, in time you’ll probably replace Snippets with updated code you find in your travels, but it’s still just a click away. No, it’s not drag-n-drop but it is extremely efficient.
As it applies to Coda there are other built-in tools which you may in time have a use for, or not. The point is they won’t prevent you from building a site exactly the way you want.
Lastly, Coda has an oft-forgotten but deceptively useful built-in tool that could potentially be a game-changer for FW users with little or no coding experience but a lot of “How do I…” questions. It’s a lightweight real-time collaborative tool that allows you to explicitly invite other Coda users to view and edit your file. Need help integrating a slider, or some CSS or anything else? Send a link to a fellow Coda user (or a bunch of Coda users) and everyone can work on your file in realtime; you can watch them “fix” your code as you watch. It can be a tremendous instructional tool.
A programmers editor, be it Coda, Brackets, TextMate, Sublime Text…ad nauseam are usually dismissed by designers but they have the not-insignifigant benefit of being free from the limitations of layers of abstraction, or as Thomas accurately termed it, “dependance”.
Although I can now code quickly and efficiently I’m not…not someone who “sees in code” but Coda provides me with tools that allow for instant visual feedback while not imposing its own character, workflow or rules in any way, shape or form on my end product. Plus they allow easy integration of external development tools and workflows (CMS, preprocessors, version control etc.) into your projects without jumping through hoops. Take for example the app CodeKit https://incident57.com/ which is a tremendously useful and practical tool that is quite literally set-and-forget; it runs in the background. It just doesn’t get any simpler to use.
Try using that with FW. [Spoiler] You can’t.
I was in the same boat as you, and if like me you place a (very) high value on getting precisely the result you want, no matter what that result might be, then consider an editor. No, it isn’t WYSIWYG in the way you have come to expect from FW. Yes, it places a greater burden on your shoulders (at least initially). But it offers a remarkable degree of freedom many of say you want but struggle to find in a WYSIWYG app. I know what I’m taking about.
Like I said at the start, for most of you the crickets are probably chirping but I suspect there’s at least one person around here that might be thinking, “Hmmm…”. If I’m right then to that one person I would say look on the QREATiv site below for some articles on Sass, CodeKit, Git and Coda. It might encourage you to take the plunge.
And if not that’s perfectly ok too, it’s no loss to me. I’ve done my due diligence to point out the elephant. Wherever you land I wish you well.
Todd
Office (Chicago): 312.212.3955
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