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SOFTWARE

Softpress Freeway Pro 6 - Powerful Web Design Software For Mac

6/12/2013 11:10:56 AM

HTML 5 by design

Softpress Freeway has been around for many years, but for those who don’t know it, this is a visual, DTP-style layout application that creates ready-to-use web pages and sites form your page designs. It’s a coed generator, not a code editor, which is a key distinction: it won’t edit existing HTMK files, but it will create optimized, standards-based web code from the layouts you make. BBEdit this isn’t, but for making visual site designs and rapid prototypes, it’s difficult to imagine anything faster. Freeway 6 is a web layout tool that’s still ideal for designers, but some of the new and enhanced features should make it worth investigating no matter where your interests lie.

Softpress Freeway Pro 6 - Powerful Web Design Software For Mac

Softpress Freeway Pro 6 - Powerful Web Design Software For Mac

One of the nib-news additions to Freeway is its support for HTML5 and XHTML5. Pages can be set to output to these standards (the latter is clean XML Synax, ready for parsing) as well as HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0 in strict and transitional formats.

HTML5-specific support at the item level within pages is handled well, too. For example, MP3 audio files and videos encoded as h.264 are produced automatically as HTML5 audio and video and the required code structures are made for you on output. The Inspector palette –Freeway’s main point of control for any selected item provides options for selecting alternative source files, and the included Video Extras plug-in ‘Action’ helps set up fallback options for Flash, placeholder graphics or text messages when the preferred HTNL5-managed media can’t be presented.

Freeway’s layout abilities have evolved over the years. The latest step adds responsive-style web design tricks to the bag; layouts and elements can respond relatively intelligently to different platforms and browser environments. To start with, inflow items (elements managed inside text-flow structures) can be controlled more easily than before. Previously, working with in-line-based designs was an exercise in frustration, so this is a very welcome advance. HTML boxes (the closest equivalent to text boxes in a DTP page) can be set with minimum and maximum heights and widths, and the sizes and positions can be set with absolute, relative and percentage values. Pages have similar options: as well as standard fixed and flexible settings, they can be given maximum and minimum widths, and any flexing or slinging elements in a layout will work within that, not beyond.

Style setter: CSS handling has been extended. Some is managed through the Inspector palette, but there’s an extensive range of options in the Edit Style dialog. On the left, the Site panel shows either your pages and folders or all the elements in the current page

Style setter: CSS handling has been extended. Some is managed through the Inspector palette, but there’s an extensive range of options in the Edit Style dialog. On the left, the Site panel shows either your pages and folders or all the elements in the current page

Semantic structural control is front and center in this release. Individual layered items can be set as ‘address’, ‘article’, ‘aside’, ‘footer’, ‘header’, ‘nav’, or ‘section’. These are no longer div structures in the generated code: they’re specific semantic elements that can be addressed directly as required, whether that’s through CSS styling or as part of a full-blown CMS integration.

Form controls have been given similar attention. Text fields, for example, can be set to one of more than a dozen different types, including password and file upload, each with relevant customizing options. For example, fields such as email and URL can be set to use regular expressions sophisticated pattern matching for validation. You’ll still need to relevant form processing scripts, but complex form layouts are quick and easy to build.

Objects of desire: Controlling the size and responsive web design behavior of elements in layouts is done with the various options in the Measurements and Dimensions parts of the Inspector palette, and switching the Site panel to Page mode gives a convenient object-level view of everything in your design

Objects of desire: Controlling the size and responsive web design behavior of elements in layouts is done with the various options in the Measurements and Dimensions parts of the Inspector palette, and switching the Site panel to Page mode gives a convenient object-level view of everything in your design

The software’s design credentials are as strong as ever: support for native Illustrator and Photoshop files with automatic optimization to web formats, grib and guide structure creation, and master page support for efficient template-driven design and production. CSS support has been boosted, with the addition of transparency and shadow controls, as well as a range of typographic fine-tuning tricks. Custom web fonts aren’t handled directly, but there’s a free Action that adds support for this.

Existing Freeway users will be very happy with the fully externalized CSS option and enhanced master page behavior. Objects on master pages and the page settings themselves are now more intelligently managed. At the basic level, master pages work the same as in any DTP tool: elements and settings made on a master page are applied to the related ‘child’ pages in a template-like, time-saving manner. Freeway’s take on this concept is sophisticated, with simple unlinking and relinking of both objects and page attributes to and from their master page origins.

The controls and output options are very impressive, and the code is robust and well formed

Freeway has struggled to gain acceptance with hardened coders in the past, as they don’t generally trust HTML-generating software. However, the controls and output options Freeway 6 offers are very impressive, and the code itself is robust and well formed; it’s proving surprisingly useful for rapid prototyping work. Designers generally don’t have any such qualms about having grunt work done for them. It can be useful to know something about HTML when fine-tuning designs for optimal output, but it’s certainly not a requirement, and the way page designs are turned into reliable web pages is impressive.

Softpress Freeway Pro 6 Specs

§  From: softpress.com

§  Needs: OS X 10.6 or later

§  Pro: Optimized, standards-based HTML generation – Design-oriented production features

§  Con: Doesn’t edit HTML

§  Best of breed

§  Price: $157

§  Verdict: 5/ 5

 

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