MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.
Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/839
106 MacDirectory
REVIEW | CREATIVITY
If you are like most computer users,
chances are you know virtually nothing
about creating a Web page. If you are
curious enough to download a demo
version of the Web giant Adobe
Dreamweaver, the power and complexity
will probably terrify you. On the other
hand, Apple's iWeb may be okay for
blogging or an online photo album, but it
doesn't really have very much to offer. If
you are a mom-and-pop business owner
with limited skills, neither solution is
acceptable. An excellent middle ground
solution is found in Freeway Pro and
Freeway Express from SoftPress.
The first thing that stands out with
Freeway is its ease of use. Freeway
operates much like a standard layout
application and has a friendly, accessible
feel similar to Apple's Pages. To create a
basic site just place things where you want
them and then preview the site. Freeway
automatically generates optimized code
for you. You never have to worry about
the code and you don't have to worry
about the clutter of overworked code, as
everything is regenerated whenever you
preview or export the site.
On the other hand, Freeway Pro provides
full support for standards, including
cascading style sheets –and you can
create a full-blown CSS site. You can also
jump into dynamic content via JavaScript
or SSI. While Freeway is not an HTML
editor per se, you can also insert HTML
and edit it via the HTML Markup Box.
An additional feature of Freeway is the
ability to apply enhanced functionality via
an actions palette that makes it easy to do
such diverse things as add a photo frame,
apply various compositing and
photographic effects, insert an e-buy
button, create a rollover, or even an
iPhone map link. You can also apply
functionality to multiple pages via folder
actions. Actions can also be saved and
shared, many of which are downloadable
from the web as freeware and shareware.
There are many other appealing features
large and small, such as automatic
masking of email addresses; optimization
for iPhone and iPod Touch; support for
RSS, Google Maps and AdSense;
antialiased overlapping content,
transparent compositing, text and object
styles, Unicode support, automatic on-the-
fly image slicing; and such features as
master pages, e-commerce, and
generation of standards-compliant HTML
and XHTML.
One thing that is lacking is its inability to
import existing sites, but considering the
benefits of Freeway's layout-oriented
approach this is understandable. If there is
any other issue worth mentioning, it
would be the need for the user to pay
attention to their mousing, as the
combination of contextual palette content
and double-clicking on objects can be a
bit confusing to newbies.
For $79, Freeway Express does not offer
the bells and whistles of Freeway Pro but it
does offer some support of CSS, various
actions, and other subsets of Pro
capability but the price is very affordable
and the results are good enough for most
personal sites and many small business
sites. With a SRP of $249, Freeway Pro
offers serious professional features at a
reasonable price. This is about $150 less
than the leading web authoring
application, but for those who are not fire-
breathing web monsters, Freeway Pro
offers a lot of power and at a reduced
learning curve.
It should be stated that Softpress knows
how to do things right. Along with the
application CD, the oversize CD case
accommodates a, 118 page, full-color,
glossy, spiral bound manual with tutorial
that makes it very easy to get up and
running. Spend Saturday on the tutorial
and you can easily get an enticing site of
your own up and running in a day. As for
support, the manual and online help are
great, and the email support service is
both responsive and hassle-free.
While Freeway Pro holds its own in the
easy-to-use category, it does have a lot to
offer, which involves a learning curve and
requires time spent with the manual and
tutorials. In contrast, those who are new
to website design, Freeway Express
provides a great introduction and can
produce some nice-looking sites.
FREEWAY PRO AND FREEWAY EXPRESS > WEB AUTHORING FOR
THE REST OF US, REALLY
Product Freeway Pro and Freeway
Express
Made by SoftPress