I find myself totally flummoxed in learning Freeway. Even using the resources, I continually find things that “you are just supposed to know” that I don’t know.
Rather than drive everybody nuts, I am putting out a feeler for whether anyone here would be interested in a paid gig developing my site. This is not “greenfield” – I have content all written, I have a design, I am very clear on what I need to get done. The job really is to translate that to the Freeway 5 platform so I can then start managing the site on my own from there.
While my “new” site has some modest content and design changes, you can get an idea of what I have now by viewing www.lampion.com.
What’s wrong with the current site? I believe it is really good. As for functionality, there isn’t anything I saw that cannot be accomplished in Freeway without much difficulty.
There are definitely people on the forums who can help you out and/or do it for you.
I just have some content changes I want to make, want to make the home page a bit more of a “storefront” for content on the site and need to have the blog.
You’re right – pretty simple stuff, but i found myself getting totally lost on how to build background graphics, have stuff show up correctly. Perhaps common sense for anyone who does it for a living, but I could never get it to work right on my own.
Yes, it can be frustrating at first. I have been working on a site for over six months (much more complicated site), but it is something you can do if you read through the manual, these forums, and ask questions. I am not a professional and didn’t have web building experience before, so I know it can be done.
If not, look through the forums and you’ll see who the experts are. Send them an email and see if they’re interested. I can give you a recommendation if you want.
Thanks. I know it may be something I can learn, but time/money/benefit says time to get someone to get it rolling for me. Glad you stayed with it – I hope to get there at some point.
I know how frustrating learning any new application or technology is, especially
when you have clients and deadlines looming. Although there are many talented
Freeway designers on this list that would jump at the chance to help you out
with this project I’m more concerned with how we can make the learning
experience better.
I’ve been using Freeway so long now, since version 2, that I’ve pretty much
forgotten where the gotchas are which is a shame as these need ironing out and
maybe explaining a bit better to newcomers.
When you have the time, and the deadlines aren’t so pressing, it would be great
if you could provide us (or Softpress directly) a simple list of what you found
frustrating and where you felt the rough edges were.
Something simple like a bullet point list would be great and would enable
Softpress to address these issues either in the application or in the
documentation or web site.
Getting disillusioned with software early on can be a big problem as these early
experiences tend to prevent us coming back and trying things again.
Thanks,
Tim.
for business reasons, i still want to keep the pay-for-help request out there because I am badly overdue to get some things done on my site.
However, I appreciate your interest (I assume you are with the company?)
I will get back into it to remind myself of what I faced,but a few things from memory:
Overall, I struggled with the documentation. The video made it look simple, but it never was.
I was completely unable to get back color backgrounds to work. Some people said they had to be html, others said use a jpeg. The tutorials and documentation where silent on it.
I was totally confused about the various color handles and grid lines. What belonged to what…why some graphics were linked automatically, others not.
Rollovers never worked, even though I followed the tutorial step-for-step and even had a second person audit me to make sure i did follow the protocol.
Thanks for getting these notes down on an e-mail. It really does help to know
what users are having problems with and should help Softpress address any rough
edges as I mentioned.
Despite the official looking e-mail address and signature I don’t work for
Softpress. I’m just an avid user who has been building web content for over ten
years with the software and find it the easiest way to visualize my designs. FreewayActions.com was a project I started in 2001 to extend Freeway’s already
powerful feature set with custom tools to allow users to go further, faster
with the application. I love web design and I love creating actions that
empower Freeway users and allow them to do more in less time.
Can I ask that you create a new thread for each (or all) of these issues on the
forum? I suspect that is going to be the best way to answer them as well as
allow new users to find answers to these problems.
Thanks again,
Tim.
for business reasons, i still want to keep the pay-for-help request out there
because I am badly overdue to get some things done on my site.
However, I appreciate your interest (I assume you are with the company?)
I will get back into it to remind myself of what I faced,but a few things
from memory:
Overall, I struggled with the documentation. The video made it look
simple, but it never was.
I was completely unable to get back color backgrounds to work. Some people
said they had to be html, others said use a jpeg. The tutorials and
documentation where silent on it.
I was totally confused about the various color handles and grid lines.
What belonged to what…why some graphics were linked automatically, others
not.
Rollovers never worked, even though I followed the tutorial step-for-step
and even had a second person audit me to make sure i did follow the protocol.
I have just started with this Freeway thing and I concur there are some things that are just not easy to use. Hence I am in here trying to find the answers.
I have spent a day trying to get simple text formating to do what I want it to. I went down the route of getting the base done professionally and hence I am using this thing to do the content posting. I have passed you thread on to him so no doubt he will contact you.
Now heres is an idea a text editor that lets you see what style formating is doing in real time. Maybe I am spoilt as it is 10 years since I have not had this. Yes I know it is a code generator and experts probably love it, but boy it would have saved me loads of time.
There must be some huge benefits in using this tool but I have not found anything yet. Gosh that makes me feel better. Well back to the grind.