General question - searchable tips

Freeway
1

I am a newbie to Freeway, and finding it terribly frustrating finding out how to do basic things, like create a style sheet for text, get text to wrap around a photo, etc, how to keep that damned “combine graphics” button from going on by itself, and messing me up every time I try to move something.Your get the idea…

The knowledge base is nearly worthless because it is so detailed and full of technical bulletins, it is really not a basic teaching tool. The tutorials are charming in their own UK way, but do not address many of the activities associated with basic site-building. Most of the tutorials, as well, are focused on Express, not Pro.

Am I missing some resource that allows me to do access a searachable “manual” of Freeway features and tasks?

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2

Hi SkipII

A very warm welcome to Freeway and FreewayTalk.

Sorry that your Freeway experience thus far hasn’t been all that you wanted.

If you can give a little more detail as to what you have been using to create web content prior to Freeway, or if it’s a new venture for you, we can then provide a little more focus for your questions and needs.

The Cook Book - The Freeway manual in PDF format is a good starting point rather than the knowledge base. As it’s more focused on the basic ingredients of the software rather than the 89 options you can choose to create a soufflé which the KB will provide, but this can be a little to much when all you want to do is make an egg omelette :slight_smile:

Another option is point to a page that is online now that you want to create, once we know the meal you want to make, the rest will be a lot easier.

Kind regards - RogerG

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On 26 Dec 2008, 4:32 pm, SkipII wrote:

Am I missing some resource?

Possibly a little patience :slight_smile:

Freeway does an excellent job of protecting the user from making the many mistakes that are possible. Yet still keep a non-template based piece of software to create whatever design you wish.

Many users have approached Freeway from a DTP design background, and many functions follow well trod paths in making up a page. So they can easily get the basics done.

As RogerG said, reading the manual, test and follow tutorials and your knowledge will grow with experience.

If you post some example pages online we all can see exactly what the issue is and can help you.

I don’t think any of us has learnt everything (apart from maybe Walter!), and sharing ideas and problems helps us all.

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Sorry I am late responding to your very kind offer of help.

How do I post a page on-line for you to see?

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RogerC,

As well, thank you for your offer to help.

What is the “KB?” you reference in your note?

My biggest frustration is that things don’t seem to work as the tutorial say they will – and many of the tutorials are focused on Express, not Pro.

I continue to have very basic questions that I cannot seem to find in various tutorials. Things like:

How to keep text from going all the way to the edge of text boxes.

How to keep graphics from automatically combining.

I just need to spend more time with it but I am looking for the best resource to have at my side. I am not finding anything that is searchable in any practical way.

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KB refers to the Softpress Knowledgebase at Docs - Softpress Talk

Happy New Year from Scotland.

David

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Hi Skipll … I’m a real beginner but I watched all of the tutorials (just to get a feel but without really understanding) and then worked my way through the exercises in “UsingFreeway 5” then I started to build a simple site or 2, often came here (Freeway Talk) for specific advice and occasionally watched the videos again, as my knowledge grew, so did my understanding of what was going on in the videos. As well as the knowledge base there’s the big manual that RogerG referred to, it and loads of other things are here:

http://softpress.com/support/usermanuals.php

… it’s at the top of the list and if you cannot handle searching ‘on-screen’ you can get it printed-out quite cheaply.

Again, this forum is excellent, I cannot tell you how many times I’ve come across a problem put a word or two into ‘search’ and got to read loads of excellent ‘free’ advice.

Good luck and I hope you find Fway just as much fun as I do … Roger

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Oh and yes … Happy New Year everyone …

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Sometime around 31/12/08 (at 14:31 -0500) SkipII said:

My biggest frustration is that things don’t seem to work as the
tutorial say they will – and many of the tutorials are focused on
Express, not Pro.

This does seem to be a definite weakness. Perhaps the tutorials can
be flagged more clearly as to whether they’re for Express or Pro, and
also maybe some Pro-specific ones can be added as well.

How to keep text from going all the way to the edge of text boxes.

This was actually answered, but it was a little brief.

Basically, the effect you want can be achieved by giving the box some
‘padding’. In design and layout terms this equates to the text inset
feature in Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress.

  1. Select the box that contains some text
  2. In the Inspector palette (first tab), type “5” (without the
    quotes) into the Padding field, found in the Dimensions section.

That’s all you need to do. Once you apply this (hit the Return or
Enter key or just click somewhere in your document) the text in the
box will be offset inwards by 5 pixels.

How to keep graphics from automatically combining.

Graphics will automatically combine if they:

a) overlap,
b) are not layered, and
c) don’t have their Combine Graphics box (Inspector palette) unchecked.

If two overlapping graphics are layered then each item will be output
complete, on its own, in the layout.
Transparent ‘cutout’ areas and translucent areas (shadows, etc.) will
be rendered using the page background colour. GIFs can use crude
1-bit transparency, but this doesn’t help with ‘partial’ transparent
areas such as shadow effects. PNGs set to millions of colours have
full 8-bit transparency that allows for true shadow translucency, but
the file sizes can be an issue.

If two overlapping graphics are not layered but the Combine Graphics
checkbox (found in the Inspector palette; select one graphic to see
it) is UNchecked then the graphics will be sliced up into a flat
jigsaw puzzle, cut along the borders of the graphic that’s set not to
combine.
This produces the sliced output that allows for rollover areas within
what appears to be a larger graphic.

I hope these pointers help.

k

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