Hi Jeremy, will breakpoints tabs be automatically created in the edit window when I open my freeway file in Xway? Or do I need to set them before I import my file?
Hi Fay,
Xway does not support Freeway-style breakpoints, so any breakpoints that you add in your Freeway document will be discarded. Instead, Xway provides direct support for CSS flexible layout (flexbox layout), which allows you to create flexible layouts that will adapt to different device sizes (phones, tablets, computers). Instead of creating multiple layouts for separate breakpoints, Xway creates a single layout that works on different devices.
Many of the Freeway templates which were (and are) sold on marketplace.softpress.com have been converted to Xway templates, using flexbox layout instead of breakpoints. Xway templates are available for free from our website.
That said, it is occasionally useful to tweak flex layouts using breakpoints, and one of the Xway templates (Health) does this using CSS Markup in the Page Inspector. Xway 1.1 (later this year) will have more direct support for breakpoints via Media Styles sections in the Page and Box Inspectors.
Hi Jeremy, I have designed my own template and have several breakpoints across my freeway site and different images, hype animations etc… sized for those different pages. I’m feeling a sense of panic… as I’ve been hanging on for Xway to open freeway files… Are you saying Xway 1.1 will allow different items on breakpoint pages and you will be able to alter them? Is Xway only going to show me my default page from freeway when I open the file?
Hi Fay,
Xway will import the default layout.
We’re not planning to go back to Freeway-style breakpoints. They required a lot of additional work to create multiple layouts, and also presupposed that there are standard sizes for phones, tablets, etc., which is no longer the case. They also required a pre-defined set of breakpoints, which isn’t the case with Xway 1.1 breakpoints.
Freeway was originally designed to create table layouts that could be displayed on computer screens. Over the years, we added support for (simple) CSS layouts, but it was difficult to create flexible (inflow) layouts.
If you have created your own template using flexible (inflow) layouts, Xway will import that along with styles, links, and content. It’s also relatively easy to convert a breakpoint-based Freeway design into a flex-based Xway design, which is what we did when we converted Freeway templates into Xway templates. There are step-by-step tutorials for Xway, including a tutorial on flex layout.
Xway has improved support for master pages, compared with Freeway, so it is helpful to use a master-page design that distinguishes between content that appears on every page (header, menu, footer) and content that is different for each page (main and sections that are added within main).
What you could do is to download a trial (30-day) version of Xway, and work through the tutorials to get an idea of how Xway works. There are step-by-step written tutorials on our website. If you prefer to work with video tutorials, there are draft versions of the Xway Tutorial, Xway Menu Tutorial, and Xway Flexbox Tutorial. You could also download and install Xway templates, and see how these work by previewing them in a browser. Safari has a useful feature (“Responsive Design Mode” in the Develop menu) that shows how a website will look on different devices.
I should also mention that there is an appendix in the Xway User Guide which deals with importing Freeway websites. You can read the user guide by choosing Xway User Guide from Xway’s Help menu.