Freeway... No way

Freeway
1

First I’ve used many different HTML generators and editors and by far Freeway seems to use the most convoluted of any other generator I’ve used.

I use NetObjects Fusion and KompoZer when working in Windows but decided to try Freeway after a fellow Windows user recommended it from Smashing Magazine.

I find Freeway TOO frustrating and not intuitive at all. Especially for a product that claims drag and drop, visual design. When functionality for a button is spread across three dialogue boxes it is NOT intuitive AT ALL!

Page rendering is NOT consistent and despite hours of trying I could NOT get Freeway to render ONE SINGLE PAGE accurately or properly. Any other product I have used or tried renders pages accurate within a first few tries if not the first time I preview - WITHOUT trips to the forums for “special” tips.

Still don’t know what the hell to do with CSS Layout mode and Tables mode… nothing seems to elaborate on their functionality and quite frankly for $200 I shouldn’t have to dig for answers.

Tried the forums for support but didn’t get much.

Maybe someone at Softpress can point out what I’m missing but for now I frankly do not see any value in spending $200 on such an inconsistent and frustrating program.

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

2

Hi mliving,

On Jul 20, 2008, at 10:31 PM, mliving wrote:

First I’ve used many different HTML generators and editors and by
far Freeway seems to use the most convoluted of any other generator
I’ve used.

Have you read the manual and understand how to use it?

When functionality for a button is spread across three dialogue
boxes it is NOT intuitive AT ALL!

I have to agree with you there.

Page rendering is NOT consistent and despite hours of trying I could
NOT get Freeway to render ONE SINGLE PAGE accurately or properly.
Any other product I have used or tried renders pages accurate within
a first few tries if not the first time I preview - WITHOUT trips to
the forums for “special” tips.

For me, I find generally FW will pump out the page fairly accurately
if not spot on every time (there are exceptions), to be honest I am
not a prime case of a user that FW is directed at as I like some
control over the things that Freeway takes control over. I use it
mostly for dynaic sites but find it helps some times for me to put the
site together in the normal FW fashion and I generally do this in few
hours for several pages including the design (on a simple site), then
when all is how I like it I make alterations to convert them into
dynamic sites, again within FW… so yes, I find FW is very simple to
use for most sites, much simpler than any other web site building
application I have used.

Maybe you should look at the settings you have for the site, read the
manual or use a template to see some basic structure created in Freeway.

There are also some great videos (Freeway Moments) you can download
from here:
http://www.softpress.com/support/freewaymoments.php

Still don’t know what the hell to do with CSS Layout mode and Tables
mode… nothing seems to elaborate on their functionality and quite
frankly for $200 I shouldn’t have to dig for answers.

Tried the forums for support but didn’t get much.

I must say that I know of no other mailing list (forum!) for a
software application where there is so much support offered and given
form such a friendly bunch of people.

Maybe someone at Softpress can point out what I’m missing but for
now I frankly do not see any value in spending $200 on such an
inconsistent and frustrating program.

I must say what I have spent on FW over the years is some of the best
money I have spent on a software application, OK it’s not perfect but
it is * dam good *.

Good luck

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

3

HI Mliving
It’s seems to me that maybe Freeway just isnt the right application for your needs. It isnt perfect and there are some convoluted things in it, but as far as compilers go its prety good, but in the end its not what I think its whether you get on with it. As far as fourm support goes I cant really agree.
I have delt with hundreds of questions over that last few years and a lot of them have been directly within this forum and I don’t even come close to the number of emails that some of the members on this list have replyed and helped on. From my experience this is one of the few forums that you are likely to get a response quite quickly.

As far as the CSS and Table button goes. Its to give you the choice of creating your html pages completely in tables as per an emailer or you can turn on the CSS which will allows Freeway to make use and produce layers for its structure.,
Any way if you would still like to persevere and there is anything that I can help on please let me know your specific problem.
kind regards max

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

4

Milving, either you are a genius or compltely opposite.
One unhappy user against a thousand happy users is perfectly acceptable. I wouldn’t have written this message, if you didn’t like ‘Freeway’ as an application (although this is the best in its category)… but this is a forum with great bunch of peeople, always so helpful and inspiring. I have been hand-heId and guided every question I asked. Forgive my words… but it feels like… ‘if I cannot drive the car well… blame the car, the roads, and other motorists.’

On 20 Jul 2008, 8:31 pm, mliving wrote: > > First I’ve used many different HTML generators and editors and by far Freeway seems to use the most convoluted of any other generator I’ve used. > > I use NetObjects Fusion and KompoZer when working in Windows but decided to try Freeway after a fellow Windows user recommended it from Smashing Magazine. > > I find Freeway TOO frustrating and not intuitive at all. Especially for a product that claims drag and drop, visual design. When functionality for a button is spread across three dialogue boxes it is NOT intuitive AT ALL! > > Page rendering is NOT consistent and despite hours of trying I could NOT get Freeway to render ONE SINGLE PAGE accurately or properly. Any other product I have used or tried renders pages accurate within a first few tries if not the first time I preview - WITHOUT trips to the forums for “special” tips. > > Still don’t know what the hell to do with CSS Layout mode and Tables mode… nothing seems to elaborate on their functionality and quite frankly for $200 I shouldn’t have to dig for answers. > > Tried the forums for support but didn’t get much. > > Maybe someone at Softpress can point out what I’m missing but for now I frankly do not see any value in spending $200 on such an inconsistent and frustrating program. > > >

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

5

Ok, I managed to get my images to stay put on the page but now the background image move with the browser when the browser is resized.

http://www.talksudbury.com/LiveAmp2/

Sigh!

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

6

HI mlve
in your situation I would add the white area to your background image. create a document that is 800x600 and turn on the blue button so it shows CSS layout.
Then making sure you have deselected everything by clicking on the pastebord, open the inspector click on the general page setting and align the page to center, then click on the page appearance settings (the second graphic button across the top) and add your new background there, making sure you set it to center and top

Then place your other grahpics on the page by creating an html box, cmd e, to find the images and then cmd shift d to resive the boxes to the graphics size, then all you need to do is move them to where you want them to be
thats it.

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

7

Select ‘Background scrolls’ in the inspector for the background image.

I believe this is the default setting so you must have turned it off
at some stage.

On Jul 21, 2008, at 4:04 AM, mliving wrote:

Ok, I managed to get my images to stay put on the page but now the
background image move with the browser when the browser is resized.

http://www.talksudbury.com/LiveAmp2/

Sigh!

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

8

On 21 Jul 2008, at 09:18, Mike B wrote:

Select ‘Background scrolls’ in the inspector for the background image.

It sounds more like mliving has placed a background image on a page
using a normal DIV, rather than placing as a background.

Easy mistake to make - I did it my early days.

;o)

Heather

“Freeway - Web Design for All”

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

9

Sometime around 20/7/08 (at 22:04 -0400) mliving said:

Ok, I managed to get my images to stay put on the page but now the
background image move with the browser when the browser is resized.

Your page background image (as assigned using the Inspector palette)
is set to be centered vertically as well as horizontally. Just do
this:

  1. With nothing selected, click the third icon in the Inspector palette,

  2. Open the popup menu called Vertical and choose Top.
    (Tiled would do this as well, but your background graphic clearly
    isn’t intended to be tiled seamlessly.)

k

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

10

Sometime around 21/7/08 (at 09:38 +0100) Keith Martin said:

  1. With nothing selected, click the third icon in the Inspector palette,

Sorry, I meant second icon! (Where’s that coffee???)

k

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options