[Pro] EASIEST and QUICKEST alternative

Freeway
101

Forget about Freeway, Softpress and what might have been. Choose an alternative and don’t look back.

This reminds me a bit of that old search for “good, cheap and fast” where you can only have two of the three.

If you want it “cheap and fast” WordPress is probably your best option, but you give up some of the design control and there are other downsides. You could find a free theme and probably have 50 pages done by Monday. Whether it’s enjoyable or not depends on the various criteria you set.

In a situation like yours I would start by looking at your existing site, then decide what functionality you need in the foreseeable future. On a 400 page site I’d be prioritising quick and easy with a simple stipulation that it must be mobile friendly.

For “quick and easy” Blocs is looking very attractive. It lacks the outright versatility of Rapidweaver at this stage but they are making fast progress. I cannot comment on other apps.

My only concern is what will allow me to produce a decent looking site that performs well without going stir crazy in the process. It’s just a tool to help you achieve a goal, much like a photographer choosing Nikon or Canon.

They all have weaknesses and you have no control over the way these companies are run so you just have to get stuck in and hope for the best or learn to code by hand. Start downloading trial software and give them a go. Within a few days you’ll know what suits you best.

Ashley

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102

Drat - my last disappeared into the ether.

I’m drowning in options here.

Does Blocs support iFrames?

I must be able to embed my crowd-sourced map - everything pivots around this research work.

http://www.turnstone.tv/tuf1.html

The whole site all looking dodgy now because 7 has reverted much text to Times (again), and some other stuff has gone west too - like text getting bigger on roll-over (who ever wanted that!?)

Thanks

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103

I added the words “Blocs iFrame” to Google and it looks like it can be done. Blocs Iframe Tutorial (Youtube Video And Google Maps Embed) - YouTube

Ashley

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104

Ah. Blocs only give you a 5 day trial!

It will take me weeks to get my head round each of these alternatives - I’m a slow learner, and it will even longer because they are all superficially similar, which makes them even more confusing for someone like me.

The more programs I try the worse it will be, but I’m loosing countless thousands of hours of work in FW - work upon which everything I do depends.

It’s all a bit of a trial, really.

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105

OK thanks - that looks encouraging - though how I’m going to add all the stuff I need around and on top of it, if I even can, is a very different matter.

I need to be able to overlay boxes of text on top of the iFrame, but still have the map working. The map is hosted by someone else who built it for me. It’s very clever but one size doe not fit all so I need to customise for different users - easy in FW, but goodness know how feasibly in all these zillions of alts.

:frowning:

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106

Why not write to the developers of a few apps or ask on their forums and specify what you need to do. Then ask whether it can be done and how?

Ashley

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107

That’s a good idea, thanks.

I think I’ll start by trying to narrow down the options here, as there seem to be a lot of people who have tried some of the alternatives - then I can go looking for confirmation.

So, in order of importance my hopes would be for:

• No coding at all

• iFrames support

• Copy and edit pages

• Drag and drop WYSIWYG elements (that can be placed on top of iFrames as in Freeway)

• Place elements where you like, not just themes or templates

• Ability to open a file exported from Freeway (HTML, CSS or js - whatever these are!)

• One-off purchase (I sometimes go long periods with little income)

• User forum

• UK phone support.

Do most of the above apply to any of the below?

Blocs,
Sparkle,
Rapidweaver,
Pinegrow,
Flux,
Coffee Cup,
Mobirise,
Brackets,
TextMate,
Coda,
Dreamweaver,
SublimeText,
BBEdit,
Espresso,
Chocolate,
Wordpress,
Macaw.

Others?

Thanks

Tom

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108

If you want UK phone support I suspect that will be a very, very short list. Also you want no coding but list various text editors.

Having looked at your list I would give Rapidweaver serious consideration and look at CoffeeCup plus Blocs. I don’t know enough about CoffeeCup to offer any great insight but they are well established.

Rapidweaver is capable but you may well achieve the results you want with Blocs, while spending less.

Ashley

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109

I can tell you which ones to knock off the list right away in response to your first criterion:

On Aug 27, 2016, at 11:46 AM, TomBliss email@hidden wrote:

• No coding at all

I believe these meet your first criterion, to varying degrees:

Blocs,
Sparkle,
Rapidweaver,
Pinegrow,
Flux,
Coffee Cup,
Mobilize,
Dreamweaver,

Dreamweaver is an odd bird. It does have a “coding side”, but it also has a pure WYSIWYG interface as well. I have not used it in many many years, but the last time I did, it made really kludgy code that was in no way as nice as Freeway’s, or a hand-coder’s. If you can get a trial version, it is worth a try, only because it is the most mature product in this space – it pre-dates Freeway by a year or so, although it was owned by a German company called GoLive at that time, and was later bought by Adobe.

The following are all text editors, with no WYSIWYG controls (plenty of visual feedback, but no drag and drop design tools):

Brackets,
TextMate,
Coda,
SublimeText,
BBEdit,
Espresso,
Chocolat,

Wordpress,

Wordpress is a CMS that you install on your server, and unless you really really like a particular template, editing or changing it will be a strictly coding prospect. You could buy the Wordpress version of Pinegrow (which I have not tried, so I cannot vouch for) and see if that gives you enough control to edit or alter the design of an existing template, or create your own from scratch.

Macaw.

Macaw was purchased by Invision, a company that makes an online prototyping (not design) tool. I have a copy of the original version here (I paid for the Kickstarter), but they never really sanded off the rough spots before they stopped developing it as a stand-alone app. It’s also disturbingly cross-platform, like those “apps” made in Adobe Air. None of your Mac shortcut muscle memory need apply! I don’t know for sure, but I believe it is becoming a specialized tool for building Invision prototypes, rather than an HTML generator.

Others?

Thanks

Tom

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110

Thanks both. Very helpful. I will explore further. Tom

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111

Ever since I heard this news I’ve been searching for an alternative. I think I may have found one. What is especially interesting about the one I’ve found is that it can open the sites we’ve created in Freeway.
I’ve found one YouTube video that lays it out pretty well. It’s about 20 minutes long and the first 16 minutes are worth paying attention to.
The application is Flux 6. Requires El Captain. Have a look at the video. Flux V Web Design App for Mac: Review - YouTube

And here’s the site for the Application. http://www.theescapers.com/product.php?product=flux
Free download.

Looking forward to what you all think of this.

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112

Sorry I missed the Flux references from before. The fact that it can open our files seemed a plus to me.

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113

The reviews for Flux are not encouraging -

I’d give it a go regardless, but I can’t see how to 'open the sites we’ve created in Freeway. ’ Presumably you’re talking about some file exported from FW not the FW file itself - or is this a direct import from the web, as Sparkle will be able to do soon, I believe, in which case it could open any site, not just those created in FW?

I’m currently looking at Sparkle and liking it a lot.

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114

Flux can open and edit HTML files. Freeway generates HTML files, but Freeway does not save HTML in its .freeway file. That is the distinction that matters.

If you, as a Freeway user, are accustomed to opening a single document file (the YourSite.freeway file) and having an entire site, then you will not find any other application than Freeway that can do this trick.

But if you are more concerned with working on a site that was once generated in Freeway, but is now a folder full of .html files (your actual Web site, as uploaded to a server somewhere) then you will be happy with lots of different replacements as discussed here.

Walter

On Sep 2, 2016, at 4:14 AM, TomBliss email@hidden wrote:

The reviews for Flux are not encouraging -

Download Flux for Mac | MacUpdate

I’d give it a go regardless, but I can’t see how to 'open the sites we’ve created in Freeway. ’ Presumably you’re talking about some file exported from FW not the FW file itself - or is this a direct import from the web, as Sparkle will be able to do soon, I believe, in which case it could open any site, not just those created in FW?

I’m currently looking at Sparkle and liking it a lot.

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115

Just reporting back on Sparkle. I’d like to recommend it strongly, because it’s really very like Freeway, nicer to use, and it does many even most of the things I needed from Freeway, plus a few more. But there are couple of issues which prevent me giving it 10/10, so I’ve shared those with the guys - hoping they can fix the deal-breakers, at least, soon. (They’ve been very helpful and positive about improvements).

I do think Sparkle will probably be my final choice, but just in case - has anyone any opinions on html egg?

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116

has anyone any opinions on html egg?

Just had a very brief look at their site and while the blurb looks promising none of the examples sites in their gallery are responsive - apart from the one that is now a WP site!

If you just want to throw up a basic non-responsive site it might be worth a look but after this I wont even bother to launch the Demo.

D

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117

Hi

Any recommendations for an app that will enable secure login for certain pages on a website and an easy native CMS?

Elizabeth

On 10 Sep 2016, at 5:54 AM, DeltaDave email@hidden wrote:

has anyone any opinions on html egg?

Just had a very brief look at their site and while the blurb looks promising none of the examples sites in their gallery are responsive - apart from the one that is now a WP site!

If you just want to throw up a basic non-responsive site it might be worth a look but after this I wont even bother to launch the Demo.

D

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118

an easy native CMS

Not quite sure what a native CMS is - can you expand?

D

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119

Hi Dave

Not a third party add-on CMS.

kind regards
Elizabeth

On 10 Sep 2016, at 8:41 AM, DeltaDave email@hidden wrote:

an easy native CMS

Not quite sure what a native CMS is - can you expand?

D

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120

Not a third party add-on CMS.

Really a Topic for its own thread.

CMS are different things to different users.

Are you saying you want a standalone package, like WordPress, that is ‘the Site’ rather than provide the integration between your content (FW, RW generated etc.) and user created content.

When I asked you to expand I was really hoping you would provide the bigger picture of what you are trying to achieve as there are literally hundreds of CMS methods/apps/services.

A new Topic ‘Which CMS for my Project’

D

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