Hi Jeremy, I wish it would import my Freeway document without breaking it. I still run Freeway 7.14 on Mojave (paired with your great Exhibeo app) even though I’ve ported to Monterey because there is simply no other WYSIWYG editor that works so beautifully and easily for us few visual artists left from dinosaur days. I know you developers consider Freeway old news and “bloated” with “work-arounds” and actions but I wish they had just rebuilt it rather than killed it - all it needed was better memory improvements, maybe some tinkering behind the hood - everything doesn’t need to be dynamic. With Xway, the major problem and significant hurdle is that you can’t move the elements around on-the-fly to suit your layout like you can with Freeway. Even today, no other software comes close to what 32 bit Freeway does. I still use it because it just makes sense and lets me position elements exactly where I want them. I’m not a developer, just your avg designer. 
Hi Iggy,
This is essentially a layout issue. When you open a Freeway document in Xway, Xway imports most of the content (text, graphics, styles, links etc.), but loses much of the layout. I’ll try to explain why this happens.
Freeway’s original purpose was to convert DTP-style pages into web pages that would closely match its DTP layout (historical note: Freeway developed from an earlier DTP program called “UniQorn”). Freeway’s UI would have been familiar to anyone who had previously used Quark XPress: draw boxes on a page, add content, and publish. The way that Freeway recreated DTP layouts as web pages was to construct invisible tables to hold the content (table layout).
However, the problem with using tables for web layout is that they are essentially inflexible: they might grow and shrink vertically, and perhaps horizontally, but they cannot reflow in order to adapt to different screen sizes. This wasn’t a big problem initially: most people viewed websites on computer screens, and you might assume a minimum width of 800 pixels (SVGA). But it became a problem when people started using mobile phones and tablets. If you have an inflexible website that is (say) 900 pixels wide, the only way that a phone browser can display it is by shrinking it so that it is virtually unreadable, or by requiring users to scroll horizontally as well as vertically. Most people browse via mobile devices these days.
The way to create a flexible website is to use CSS layout. It’s possible to do this in Freeway 7, using inflow CSS boxes along with a complex system of breakpoints, but it isn’t easy. I used to advise Freeway users to start with a template. We used to sell flexible Freeway templates, separately and in bundles. They’re still available, but I don’t recommend buying them. Most of them have been converted into Xway templates, which are free.
Xway uses CSS layout rather than table layout, so it’s much easier to create a flexible website in Xway than in Freeway. The introductory tutorial shows how to do this. There is also a tutorial that covers a more advanced form of CSS layout (“Flexbox”), with additional layout possibilities.
So what happens when you open a Freeway document in Xway? If you used CSS layouts in your Freeway document, Xway will preserve them to a large extent, but if you used table layouts, Xway will import the content but discard the layout. What you can do in this situation is to create a flexible layout and copy the content into the new layout. You can start with a template, but it is a good idea to work through the introductory tutorial so you have a basic understanding. In the end, it’s a similar process to what you might do in Freeway - but instead of creating an inflexible layout and adding content, you create a flexible layout and add content.
I’m old enough to remember using Back Draft to create flexible layouts in Freeway.
Xway does take a little while to get used to (like all new software) but it’s an absolute joy to use, I definitely wouldn’t want to go back to Freeway now.
I wish I could easily move the elements around to “place” exactly where I need them, I tried and tried and just couldn’t get Xway to do it or behave…as I said, I’m not a developer…it’s not even complicated stuff I need it to do.
This is my Freeway-built site: gezabrunow.com (please ignore some of the “item naming” laziness involved should you visit it). Thanks, Jeremy, I remember some of the great scripts you made back in the day. I miss Softpress.
I was a Quark Express user, that’s why I liked Freeway way back when! And then Quark got all high and lofty and stagnated with hubris, then everyone went to InDesign…and now they’re moving to Affinity Publisher. Anyway, I had all the templates and bundles but just ended up laying everything out more like a Blog with images, your Exhibeo really streamlined it.
Anyway, thanks for your very long, gracious reply. You’ve always been a gentleman and scholar. I wish I liked Xway but I don’t. Sorry, it’s just not user friendly and so inflexible (ironically) for a layman (ironic again, hah hah. But don’t kill the messenger. I feel bad about not warming to it. I’m sure it’s a great site builder but I need a site designer.
It looks great on my computer screen, but I can’t view it on my phone because it’s inflexible - so everything is shrunk to fit. It wouldn’t be so difficult to recreate it as a flexible site in Xway. If you want to place text and images side-by-side on a large screen (e.g. your About page), but have them reflow on a small screen, flex layout is the way to do that.
There is a section called “Media descriptions” in the Flexbox chapter of the Xway User Guide which deals with this, but I don’t recommend diving straight in. It would be a good idea to work through the introductory Xway tutorial and the Xway flexbox tutorial first.
You can actually do that. Now that you’ve shared your website, I see that it doesn’t actually use table layout on the pages I’ve viewed. It’s using absolute-positioned boxes (called “layers” in Freeway). I think you created it with the CSS Layout button selected in the Freeway toolbar.
To create an absolute-positioned box in Xway:
- Insert a box by clicking on the Insert Box tool in the toolbar
- Change the position from relative to absolute in the Position popup in the Style section of the Box Inspector
Once you’ve done this, you can reposition and resize the box exactly as you would in Freeway. If you want to resize the height, you need to give enter a height value in the Dimensions section of the Box Inspector - but it’s generally better to leave the height undefined, so it resizes to fit the content.
I don’t recommend doing this, because your site will still be inflexible, and people won’t be able to view it on a phone - but if you want to create an inflexible Freeway-style site in Xway, you can!
Many of your pages contain Exhibeo galleries. If you have the original Exhibeo documents, you can export them as Xway components and reimport them into an Xway site, where they will behave identically.
If you have specific problems importing your Freeway site in Xway, send me a cut-down version via a file-transfer service (send the file transfer link to support at softpress dot com), along with the resources, and I will take a look at it.
Thank you for all your advice. I will try to make a little version of my site, just one page but Xway really intimidates me and seems like a stubborn mule that won’t let me rearrange things. Yes, I use layers, never liked the table layouts. I don’t mind flexible as long as it doesn’t break the pretty layout. You are right it previews small unless you hold your phone horizontally,t hen it’s fine.
I so relate. I am several months into giving up my beloved Freeway Pro and learning Xway, very very slowly. I am beginning to get the hang of it, but it’s been a mighty struggle. Thanks to the support here, I will get there. I only design my own site.
Xway defaults to inflow (relative-positioned) CSS layout, because this allows you to create flexible websites that adapt to different devices. You can’t drag relative-positioned boxes to random positions in Xway or in Freeway.
Freeway defaults to non-inflow (absolute-positioned) CSS layout - so long as you turn on the CSS Layout button to avoid using table layout.
The only thing you need to do in Xway if you want to create an inflexible layout (and position boxes anywhere on a page) is to change the box position from Relative to Absolute.
it previews small unless you hold your phone horizontally, then it’s fine.
I struggle to read it horizontally without reading glasses. It’s also hard to navigate when the links are so small.
Thank you so much for your response, Catherine, nice to know I’m not alone in this! Oh how I wish Freeway Pro had been built 64 bit from the beginning like many other apps from the same time were!
We’re veering off-topic, but there weren’t any 64-bit Macs in existence when Freeway was created (Freeway 1: 1997). Apple introduced limited support for 64-bit apps in 2006 and more complete support in 2007. They dropped support for 32-bit apps in 2019 (macOS 10.15).
What killed Freeway was that Apple discarded a whole set of 32-bit APIs that Freeway relied on. When OS X replaced classic macOS, Apple created two API frameworks: Carbon, which was an updated set of APIs that classic macOS apps were based on, and Cocoa, which was a different set of APIs taken from NeXT. Freeway, as a Mac app, adopted the Carbon framework. Some years later, Apple decided not to release a 64-bit version of Carbon (which they had already created) and it became impossible for Carbon apps to transition to 64-bit. Eventually, Apple dropped support for 32-bit apps, and it was no longer possible to run Freeway (or any other 32-bit app) in modern versions of macOS (10.15 onwards).
Hence Xway: a new application that is designed to be like Freeway, but is based on modern web standards. Xway is written in Swift (Freeway was C++) and uses Apple’s Cocoa framework.
Iggy, when this inflexible problem started happening years ago, at least a dozen, I got someone on Fiverr to write me a script. I make TWO basically duplicate webpages, one for desktops and one for smartphones. The script is a “redirection” script, so that when someone using a phone is going to one of my websites, the redirection script forces the phone to the “mobi” webpage.
My mobi pages are always 600 pixels wide. When I was making around 200 websites for a large client, who was really concerned about SEO, I would get the mobi version of the desktop website its own .mobi domain. .mobi - Wikipedia This really increased the SEO power quite a bit!
This is a Mexican restaurant website that I am working on now, there are just over 70 webpages, half are for the smartphone pages. I finally figured out why my Spanish text kept getting corrupted by Freeway Pro 7, I cleared all the text choices and then made sure that one the UTF-8 was implemented. That did the trick and I just fixed most of the website and its schemas today.
Take a look at the same URLs on your computer and your phone. https://elytaqueria.com/
I am severely dyslexic and need a visual web editor like Freeway. I went from PageMill to GoLive to Freeway Pro and have been stuck here ever since. From what you have said about Xway, I am hesitant to learn it. I want everything to stay where I put it; in other words, WYSIWYG.
Also, I do not do code, so I do not mess with CSS. For my schemas, I use Claude. For my sitemaps, I use Scrutiny, which I have to run again very soon. SEO tool for Mac and Macbook : Scrutiny, a link checker, SEO, Sitemap, spelling and much more : Entirely human-written software and Downie 4 is the excellent downloader that I use. Downie - YouTube Video Downloader for macOS - Charlie Monroe Software
Here’s the redirection script that I have been using:
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
if (screen.width <= 800) {
window.location = "http://ToWherever.com";
}
//-->
</script>
[Edited to display script.]
Hi Robert,
As I’ve mentioned previously in this discussion, Xway does allow you to create inflexible websites if you wish to do that. The only thing you need to do is to convert boxes from being relative positioned to absolute positioned. To do this, choose Absolute from the Position popup in the Style section of the Box Inspector.
If you’re happy creating duplicate versions of every web page, you can continue doing that, in Xway or in Freeway.
Ultimately, a 600-pixel wide website is going to be shrunk before it can be displayed on a 400-pixel wide phone (e.g. iPhone Pro), so it won’t be as easy for users to browse as it would be if you created a flexible website.
I tried to find this, but verbal/text instructions do not work well for me. I need to SEE what you are trying to say! I do not do code, I avoid CSS, and this is why video instructions are needed for apps like this to be more understandable. The thing about my Mobi style is the fact that it dramatically increases the SEO factors. When I was doing this years ago for a large client, I would sometimes have the first page of Google search results only listing my sites, both desktop and mobile. So, does your one sentence explain the entire page, or each box, or what? One sentence is just not enough to understand what you expect for me to do. I do not see it! Like when I cannot do something in Photoshop and Premiere, I watch numerous videos on YouTube until I understand.
Here’s a short video, showing the following steps:
- Insert a box (using the Insert Box tool in the toolbar)
- Choose Absolute from the Position popup in the Style section of the Box Inspector
- Move and resize the box, using the mouse
- Insert some text
We don’t recommend creating inflexible web pages. Xway defaults to flexible (relative-positioned) layout, but it doesn’t prevent you from creating an inflexible layout.
It is like we are using two different programs. I do not see anything like your video on my website.
Robert
It is like we are using two different programs
We are using two different programs!
I’m using Xway and you’re using Freeway.
I was trying to show how you can create an absolute-positioned box in Xway. Freeway calls absolute-positioned boxes “layers”.
I read your replies, Robert and enjoyed them thoroughly…EXACTLY. If Xway was built so it truly was WYSIWYG and did the math, coding and heavy lifting behind the scenes after you created your movable elements layout (via “layers” or whatever the descriptor du jour is for it), I would like it but it doesn’t…it expects you to be a developer not a designer. Thanks for confirming my reality as well. It’s simply not a replacement for Freeway. We need a 64 bit Freeway replacement. I love Exhibeo though.
I keep pointing out that it does: you can create “layers” in Xway - except that Xway (along with the rest of the world) calls them absolute-positioned boxes. If you want to create an inflexible (“WYSIWYG”) layout in Xway you can do that.
But you can also create a modern flexible layout, so that people who try to view your website on a phone won’t struggle to read and navigate. If you don’t want to start from scratch, you can use a template which is already flexible.