Review:
Freeway 3.5.6
Reviewer: Cliff Hollis
Edited by: Mike Dixon (5/20/03)
Publisher: Softpress Systems, Ltd. ($229 download price; $169 edu. download price; CD extra)

What you see is certainly not quite what you get with Freeway. The name implies a little more ease of use than what really happens when you create a web site with this software.

The software ran flawlessly on the test machine. I would think a much lesser system would work fine. Specifications call for a PowerPC and at least Mac OS 8.6 with only 25 megabytes of hard drive space so it won't tax your machine by any means.

This software package came with great promise. It is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) program that offers quite a bit of functionality. It is not quite as intuitive as other web site software programs. From the start your site is built into one file called "my project". This includes all pages with your site and this concept was difficult to grasp at first. All individual pages are listed once you open the project and things look a bit more ordinary from there.

I am a Dreamweaver user most of the time and have used BBEdit, Homesite, and a couple of other related applications. Freeway does not allow for the viewing of the generated HTML code so I am not sure if it is bloated or relatively clean code. I was able to open pages made in Freeway in other applications in order to see the code if you need to do that after pages are built.

The application itself seems a bit clunky at first. The controls were not obvious but the instructions were easy to follow and after a few pages it was easy to navigate my way around the software. It was extremely easy to put graphic elements into pages with two simple boxes, one for images and specific fonts, and another for HTML type that would change with the page size. If you want a specific font and you type it into a graphic box that you draw on the page, Freeway converts that text into a graphic eliminating the need to create text graphics in Photoshop or some other graphics program. This was a large help in streamlining the production of pages.

A unique feature included with Freeway is prescripted actions. Over 75 actions (which are javascript snippets) were readily available on the Freeway site (www.softpress.com) and they allowed you to generate DHTML and do ordinary things like insert different media types and file types. Inserting file types included Filemaker Pro files, Director files, among others. You also used actions to accomplish mouseovers and other ordinary things. They seemed to be a mixed bag of easy and hard. I tried to put some real media files into a page and was required to write a Meta file. I never got the .ram file embedded and gave up. I was able to put the annoying page shake on a page and it worked fine so some action scripting was easy some was not. The concept was a valid one with use should result in great results.

After some use I grew accustomed to the layout and it made more sense. The graphic interface showing how your site linked together was helpful. When you start a site make sure you follow the instructions about creating the separate resource and media folder for your site and storing all elements in the media folder. This makes things more streamlined and easy to publish your site. Uploading the site was a snap! Perhaps it was the easiest thing associated with Freeway. Simply choosing the upload command brings up an FTP dialog box. Fill this in with your info and the site is off to your server. Having this in a simple command was nice. It's certainly easier than Dreamweaver’s long process to define your site.

The only real bug seemed to be after publishing a site a graphic was cut up and did not line up. This was a consistent problem with a site viewed on several machines.

Even if the program is a bit clunky at first and perhaps not as streamlined as others you may have used, it seemed to be a solid performer. Some things were difficult like the file embedding while other things were easier. I would easily recommend this program to someone who has no interest in coding or even learning HTML. As a WYSIWYG program it accomplishes this goal.