To Tim, Joe, and other members of the Freeway Pro Team, on the next release of FWP can you design a better way to list Freeway Actions in the FWP menu system?
Perhaps have all of the built-in FWP actions alphabetically listed together and then the third party actions below those. I find myself constantly hunting and pecking for a specific action.
Another related issue is page actions versus item actions. I totally understand why these are separated, but it’s yet another place I have to go to look for a specific action I need.
Finding and applying specific Actions from a vast list can be a bit of a chore using the menus. Believe me when I tell you that I’ve a fair few installed!
Here’s what I tend to do;
For page Actions
Click on the pasteboard around your document to make sure nothing on the page is selected
Click the Add Action button (plus icon) in the Actions palette (Window > Actions)
Start typing the name of the action you want to apply (Upload Stuff for example) and the selection should update as you type
For item Actions simply select the item and repeat steps 2 and 3.
If you get good at this you can apply Actions very quickly.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Tim.
On 15 May 2012, at 15:26, RavenManiac wrote:
To Tim, Joe, and other members of the Freeway Pro Team, on the next release of FWP can you design a better way to list Freeway Actions in the FWP menu system?
Perhaps have all of the built-in FWP actions alphabetically listed together and then the third party actions below those. I find myself constantly hunting and pecking for a specific action.
Another related issue is page actions versus item actions. I totally understand why these are separated, but it’s yet another place I have to go to look for a specific action I need.
With so many actions, I am finding it difficult as well to remember what
does what.
It might be helpful to have some descriptive text about the action
displayed - maybe a summary paragraph or quick reminder of how to apply it
appearing in the action pane under its title. Action authors could write
it up under whatever specifications you guys create… I think this sounds
like a swell alternative to a comprehensive Actions Manual or my feverish
note-taking to remember what does what again?
suggestion is great, use it to, but i do think ravenmaniac has a point! finding the right action sometimes is a real pain.
would be so nice if they are organized a little more logical ( speaking as a woman DUH) but 3 or 4 ( incl the +) is a bit much
so i support that request !
If you click on the version number of an Action that’s already been applied to an element on the page (or the page itself) you will see whatever the developer wrote within the action-version tag. I often put a telegraphic description, as in
SublimePlayer
Copyright 2012 Walter Lee Davis
A simple way to show HTML5 video. Uses the fabulous
SublimePlayer service from www.sublimevideo.net
Walter
On May 15, 2012, at 11:58 AM, Ernie Simpson wrote:
With so many actions, I am finding it difficult as well to remember what
does what.
It might be helpful to have some descriptive text about the action
displayed - maybe a summary paragraph or quick reminder of how to apply it
appearing in the action pane under its title. Action authors could write
it up under whatever specifications you guys create… I think this sounds
like a swell alternative to a comprehensive Actions Manual or my feverish
note-taking to remember what does what again?
would be so nice if they are organized a little more logical
Well, they are logical - if you bear in mind you have folder, page and item actions. You can’t have them all munged together because they all affect the different things in different ways.
Cheers
Heather
Imagic Design * Good Design - No Compromise
email@hidden http://www.imagic-design.co.uk
Twitter @Imagic-Design
T: 01634 864017
The current sort appears to work like this. All internal Actions first, following the rules below, then all User Actions next, following the rules below:
Alpha by folder name (if you’ve made sub-folders in the Library/Application Support/Freeway 5/Actions folder)
Alpha by Action filename (often the same as, but not required to be the same as the Action name, and anyway, a single Action file or bundle can contain many different and differently-named Actions)
Alpha by Action name.
These are applied in series, not parallel, and the result is a sequence of groups (by folder name) separated by divider lines, and within those, sub-alphabetized lists of the Actions contained within. As always, the overall list of Actions is filtered by the current selection (page, item, folder, or Action tool or Insert menu).
Walter
On May 15, 2012, at 11:58 AM, Ernie Simpson wrote:
With so many actions, I am finding it difficult as well to remember what
does what.
It might be helpful to have some descriptive text about the action
displayed - maybe a summary paragraph or quick reminder of how to apply it
appearing in the action pane under its title. Action authors could write
it up under whatever specifications you guys create… I think this sounds
like a swell alternative to a comprehensive Actions Manual or my feverish
note-taking to remember what does what again?
All valid coping strategies, as expected from seasoned veteran users. I
still think that if Freeway Pro is going to require users to navigate a
forest of actions that just a tiny bit more thought could be put into how
that happens.
Of course, saying that I realize that once I learn all these new things
I’ll probably just take what I don’t use and put it in a forgotten drawer
folder.
I’ll probably just take what I don’t use and put it in a forgotten drawer folder.
And dont forget that you can turn actions off in Edit>Actions
So if you have a base document that you use (with certain styles, colours etc in it like you do Ernie) then you can have that same base document with certain actions disabled.