Good point Trey, but Coffee Club offer both working big and going small and vice versa, I personally prefer the former but see merit also in the latter
Dave Streeten
freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
For months I have been in a dilemma of trying to decide what to do next as far as building anymore websites for my clients. And for months I have been trying to check out the alternative softwares for this. Though I am using the Adobe CC package, I do not want to get stuck into having to forever keep it. (In other words I am not using Muse.)
I was recently given a huge project by my best client and I had to tell him that I did not have my web editing software anymore and was checking out new apps. For about a month I thought that I would be going with Pinegrow, but I simply do not know HTML and CSS enough to even attempt using that software. Then I was within hours of buying Sparkle when I found out about SoftPress coming back to life. YES!!!
I always paid for the upgrades to FW Pro when they came out and bought Exhibeo too. So keep the upgrades coming and I will keep paying for them!
freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
With big-to-small I don’t see a point to the lowest breakpoint in FW having any content at all. One thing I’ve had to contend with was that the small-to-big approach of Hype is the opposite of FW. If I had set up different heights for various breakpoints (important with the narrowest breakpoints) Things would be jumping all over the place when I resized a window or zoomed. I’ve had to make all my Hype projects have identical heights across all breakpoints.
When I can work from the minimum size and stretch it I knowhow things will fit. Working from the opposite direction requires jumping back and forth, tweaking and re-tweaking. If FW can support both, that would be great, but if it were only one direction I find that small-to-big saves time (but I do like the big-to-small inheritance of the style sheets).
freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
Really glad to hear that Freeway might have a future. I’ve been trying Rapidweaver and see its potential but find the learning curve (and cost) is steep for this aging (75) webmaster. I really have enjoyed using Freeway and hope I can stick with it. I will be glad to pay for upgrades as well.
freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
To any FW users who are over 39: Adopt the Jack Benny approach. It works for me.
freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
Yes, yes, yes! Just found the revival news purely by coincidence. Hope it all works out and cheers Freeway people.
freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
I’m certainly happy, too for this audience having their beloved application back.
The last half year taught me a lot. It mainly taught me, that a good amount of people all across available platforms and applications simply do not know what responsive design is. Neither from the technical nor from the design approach.
It has even been declared as the “FUTURE” of web-design some lines above.
Yes, the RESPONSIVE element is the future and I guess where SP (and myself) were lagging.
Responsive has been described the first time back in 2010 (A list Apart by Ethan Marcotte), and with introduction of media queries in CSS3 in 2012 it’s available for to use. The future isn’t now (or in future), the future is 5 years old. Some could call it the past - or even standard.
I started web design at the age of 39 or 40 - nearby 10 years ago. I knew nothing!!! Even less. FreewayPro taught me, that you can walk in slow steps. But Freeway taught me as well, that those steps doesn’t necessarily need to be bigger or even faster to reach a goal. It simply taught me walking target-oriented.
The key knowledge of successful web-design is being aware, what “positioning” or placing an element (mostly a green rectangle) means - literally. Ask yourself: “What is the purpose of this element?” How shall it react if it is displayed in different conditions (smaller canvas, bigger canvas) and how shall it finally interact with other elements on the same canvas (the one below - or to the right).
Rather than searching for an “alternative” you could have had an invest in this. Or you even should. Because it is important for all applications out there.
I heartily fought pro FreewayPro and its concept of creating responsive design. But these days I think, that it isn’t flexible enough to attract people - say below 39 - giving it a go. And who will substitute all those current user once they retire?
That’s the future up to my definition - and fighting with 49 is painstaking, if not to say pointless.
Cheers
Thomas
freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
Tell you what… Thomas if you really want very very VERY old responsive design
have a look at this… its the earliest form of responsive design I know and it comes from an era of basic html.
Have a chuckle… but you can’t argue the fact that this old design is a real pioneering responsive site.
https://web.archive.org/web/20040325033617/http://www.fleetlanguagecircle.org.uk/
max
freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
Max -
If you were to bring that forward about three years, that would reflect the state of the consumer site for the place where I work when I signed on six years ago - a large manufacturer of high-end consumer products (occupying a 40 acre facility) that positions itself as being the very best in the entire product category. This outfit did not have Ethernet until 2003.
freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
Yep - Max I certainly agree.
To be honest, I even know an older one. It still exists and is:
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html
I recently tried to explain, that we do not have to MAKE a page responsive, all we have to do is to KEEP it responsive.
But you know what? Nobody understood me.
Cheers
Thomas
freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
Age isn’t an issue to me, Whether I’m 20 years old or 60, it is irrelevant. Creativity has no age in my mind. You either want to move with the times or not. I keep up to date with most of my programs as it’s my business and I am totally compatible with my other colleagues. I do agree that RESPONSIVE scared the living crap out of me when I got FW 7 and I lazily opted out from learning, but now want to get stuck in. I saw a client yesterday and they showed me their new responsive site and they were more knowledgeable than me - DOH! Of course there are added restrictions etc, but whether I like it or not, I WILL learn it and utilise it with as much flexibility as I can within what I currently do on FW and continue to earn money by doing so. Just saying… (Dave Streeten)
freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
I have to say I began to lose all hope in you guys not returning. But and if all goes well your return would be much appreciated more than you think. There are many mac users that rely on your great product/s and have got used to using FWP etc… I don’t think I in particular have the time to use or redesign my (half finished) website with another product. keep the upgrades coming and I will pay for them. I understand that for what ever reason you going out and HOPE THAT THIS IS NOT GOING TO BE THE CASE - You guys are great!! Please come back and I know your product will someday be realised by many more.
freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
It’s not a matter of losing interest in Freeway or it’s community; it’s a matter of tools getting old and not sufficient anymore. Softpress’ Freeway just didn’t made the cut anymore. Years and years of adding feature requests to the beta list, none of the important ones still aren’t honoured.
I wrote this comment 9 years ago (March 2008), but I could have written it yesterday:
I’m sorry to start about this, but hey … an honest opinion from an enthousiast user.
It’s coming up, an upgrade from Freeway 4 to 5. But what is really coming up? No major anything. All bugfixes, and a handfull of savvy actions.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m very keen with the Scriptalicious actions. Ajax functionality in Freeway. This really could be the start of a whole new Freeway. What more can be added? I’m really excited about this one.
But Blogger templates? Hmmm … I don’t see the bigger picture here. Same goes for the graphic effects en background images. Nice but … no, just nice.
CSS Menu’s aren’t new to Freeway. It has been here allready, it just has been updated. That’s what it says on the website as well … updated this, updated that … but nothing groundbraking, nothing that makes Freeway 5 an upgrade rather than an update. There hardly is anything honestly new. Dozens of bugfixes should be just monthly updates or whatever.
I would rather see something that brings Freeway back where it was before: ahead of the competition. Let’s be honest; however it has been asked for numbers of times: you can’t get to the generated code unless you use Tim’s Source Code Snooper. Why? Why not put this into Freeway? If you don’t want to look under the hood, just don’t! But at least hand the opportunity.
Same goes for CSS and stylesheets. Why give just a couple of selectable options and hide the rest behind the Extended button? Why make people write the code in ‘Extended’ while you can perfectly should be able to do this in the Styles?
Take a look at Coda or CSS Edit … those app’s don’t just look amazingly ‘Leopard-like’, they work perfectly and give you everything you need to handle code, stylesheets, whatever. This is what Freeway lacks … that ‘something’ that just completes the whole picture, interface-wise as well as functionality. Freeway 5 is perfectly stable, works like it should, it’s more that fine. But -to me- nothing compared to Freeway 4 stands out so much that ‘you just have to get Freeway 5’.
I will buy Freeway 5 … ofcourse I will. It still is an amazing application, wich does everything it promises, even more. But after using Coda and CSS Edit I’m just affraid that we are getting behind. Freeway doesn’t deserve that, it was and should be number 1 (or at least top 3).
Still a proud user, Richard
Sad fact is that Freeway within years struggled with that MacApp legacy, but even though there was a 8-year gap between FW5 and FW6 … nothing happened. We kept trying to work with the tools we had, even though they weren’t that sufficient … but hey … even with FW5 you were able to create adaptive/responsive/fluid websites. And fact is that even though the hardcore FW users kept pushing requests and reports to Softpress, hoping something would happen. It just didn’t.
I can only hope Jeremy gets it.
– Richard
freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
I have little doubt that Mr. Hughes “gets it.” Freeway was merely held back my its MacApp roots. Rebuilding it in Swift will be no small undertaking, assume that is even what SoftPress2 is up to. But whatever is built in Swift by them should be far better than anything produced on MacApp when running on our modern Macs in this day and age. The only matter will be how long it will take to develop such an app. Even small changes to Freeway took ages in the past. But I don’t know if that was due to MacApp or something else. I guess we need to wait and see. But there must have been some light seen at the end of the tunnel for SoftPress2 to have been created. I doubt it was revived on a whim.
–James Wages
freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
You’re absolutely right, my friend.
freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
Allow me to post my two cents, Thanks first for returning to build Freeway for the users that enjoy it, I read lots of these emails (sorry not all) and I have learned from the many great users here, from what I see there is no way for Softpress to exist if their only target is the PRO designers making a living from this app, they need guys like me as well, I buy every update but only update my one web site once every year or two. So with that being said I do need/want features that are the Freeway best but can not afford to pay a subscription for my extremely limited use. I don’t think I am alone in this as I’m sure Softpress has more that 15-25 users. I fully understand what the Pros want and actually need to a lesser degree than me. I would like some of those features too but will never learn CSS or HTML. So I hope all you PRO users get what you want and need but that Softpress can still remain within reach for guys like me.
Thanks, Studiodave
ps: a quick search on my system shows I have 106,891 emails from Freewaytalk going back to 2008
freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
FW doesn’t force users to go beyond their comfort zone. It could still build flat static sites as before, if I wanted. For those who prefer to keep things easy, the only relevant changes in the UI have been in various sizing options (flexible, etc.).
For those who need to keep things simple, the best thing is to hang on to earlier versions. I manage one static site, for example, that was designed on 5.5 and is not in need of conversion to something newer. If there are any small tweaks needed, I launch 5.5. For all my other sites I use 7.
freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
Again I must say that I am much relieved to learn that my beloved Freeway Pro will be around now maybe much longer than me! (I was terminal two years ago at this time and ended up getting an experimental aortic heart valve popped in without open heart surgery)
Years ago, like in 1997 I knew that sooner or later I would not be able to continue doing my electrical contracting and the isolation of ceiling mounted surgical microscopes and started to study SEO in the summer of 97, a year before Google was on the net.
Being SEVERLY dyslexic I can not do any real coding and never intended to learn it really. I bought my first computer that same year because I saw it all coming together, the decades long visions in my head, multimedia and broadband. It was finally becoming possible and it was a very exciting time for me and though I had a very complex business dealing in the world of micro surgery, I did not have all that much intensions of using the computer for business as I did to learn multi media and the web.
Next month makes it twenty years I’ve been using a computer, always a Mac. My first three paid for applications were Photoshop 3, QuickTime 3 Pro and Netscape. (Yes, I paid $35 for Netscape!)
The amazing thing about the Mac and the applications made for it, especially back then was the fact that all you needed was the thoughts in your head and the determination to make it happen with multi media. You picture in your mind what you want and tell that to the software and then the software itself writes the code. PERFECT!
Started using PageMill around 2000, moved on to GoLive and a few years later got screwed on GoLive 9 and in January 2009 I started using FWP as my web software. The beauty of FWP is that you do not have to be a “pro” at anything to make a website basically as you want. Granted, I am not an artist and have little graphic training whatsoever, so my web design is not the best visually.
But here’s where I found FWP to really help me make most of my living these days. It really allows me to create my style of organic SEO that puts my clients at the top of the search results on the first page. To me the very most important aspect of any business website is the careful plotting and planning of building a solid foundation in SEO and then build the design around the needs of the SEO for that client.
My clients’ competition all mostly use WP or another CMS web builder and I find that truly puts me to the advantage right from the start. A complex “backend” can and does really screw with SEO and you’re best not to use it when you can.
The way that I can manipulate how I want the directories in a site, how I can name the URLs and many other little things that are just common sense to my SEO seem to be a tough thing to maneuver with the CMS systems. And the search engines are not reading a ton of crap before it finds the SEO parts it wants to read like it does in a CMS.
Granted, I need to learn more HTML and CSS now these days. But after a week of trying to use Pinegrow, I am so GLAD that I can still use FWP and keep doing what I have been doing!
freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
Another great thing about FWP is that there are so many great inspirational people using it.
freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
This was a very nice surprise. Glad I was putting off transferring my few sites to Rapidweaver or Blocs. Now it’s business as usual for me.
Thank for that!
Anyway, anybody happy that Softpress is back, head to their Marketplace and purchase something, just to show you’re glad they’re back!
freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at: