I’ve watched this thread with interest and empathise with both sides
of the argument. I think one of the problems is that many of us are
used to using sophisticated design and dtp applications that have
loads of whistles and bells, generally work very smoothly and have
multiple undos that seem almost endless. And yes, I too would welcome
that in FW.
However, you need to consider both the purpose and memory hogging/
purchase cost overhead of these applications, which reach far beyond
the platform for which FW is intended. FW is a code generator that
apes dtp style design and allows those without coding knowledge to
plunge straight in and those with some coding knowledge to further
modify its output. For those of us who have used it since it’s early
iterations, it has come a long way and remains a stable platform for
serious web design. Bear in mind, RapidWeaver, et al, are template
based. That makes them easy for things like forms and galleries and
you can modify templates to some degree, but are still pretty
inflexible in the real world, whereas FW gives you real freedom of
design.
In a serious multi-seat set-up I expect to see all the tools in
action, including Dreamweaver and Flash, but for those of us who work
alone, on cost alone that is prohibitive - never mind the power of our
Macs. So you are right to look elsewhere if you can’t make FW do what
you want - though that doesn’t mean, in other hands, it might be
possible.We should all learn to use the tools we have within their
limitations and to the best of our ever growing ability and be ready
to outsource, occasionally, to meet a client’s need.
Constructive criticism is good and I’m sure that is what has been
intended throughout this thread. FW will never be a panacea for all
and the Softpress folk are unlikely to have the development budgets of
Adobe, Apple and MIcrosoft. Likewise while some small developers can
produce small applications of extreme sopistication, FW is aimed ad a
commercial mass market in web design that puts the designer first and
produces a quality package at a very affordable cost.
For me, I’ll live without multiple undos and some of the high end
techniques in favour of a little more sauce (or should that be
source!) for CSS and CMS. But then, I’m a Daft Old B****** who took up
web design at a time when most folk would be planning the twilight of
their working life.
As to specifics, whatever is designed, we are at the mercy of
countless variations of browser/monitor set up and there will always
be occasions when the design breaks, but if, like Ashley, you know
your target market well, you can design for it knowing what range of
set-ups are likely to be there and discount the ‘exceptions’ . With a
good nod to SEO, you will be found and seen by the right web audience.
And a final word - let’s just hope that Softpress are well tuned in to
this thread and maybe there will be some welcome additions along the
line.
Hopefully fairly soon? 
Colin.
On 2 Dec 2009, at 09:37, Ashley wrote:
… but after 5 pro versions of the software there are many points
that should have been addressed some time ago and multiple undos is
a glaring omission before we even start to look at some of the
clever tricks that are now possible with design programs in OS X.
Thanks
Ashley
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