using freeway Copyright and acknowledgments About this guide This Using Freeway guide will explain some of the concepts Copyright © 2008 and 2013 Softpress Systems Ltd. All rights reserved. behind Freeway. It will introduce you to the intuitive The Freeway software and this documentation are copyright materials. No interface, menus and palettes you will use to import or part of the Freeway software may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language, or computer create design elements and add web functionality. language, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission There is also a step-by-step tutorial in which you will of Softpress Systems Ltd. Additional copies of this guide may be made and distributed provided they include this copyright notice. design and produce a web site in Freeway faster than you would ever have thought possible. You’ll see how easy it is Softpress Systems Ltd specifically retains title to all Freeway computer software. The software described in this guide is furnished under a license to make a multi-page web site with graphics, text and links. agreement and may only be installed, used, or copied in accordance with This guide covers the use of both Freeway Express and the terms of that agreement. Freeway Pro. Both versions work in essentially the same Softpress is a trademark of Softpress Systems Ltd in the United States and way, but Pro includes many additional powerful features. other countries. Freeway is a trademark of Softpress Systems Ltd, which may be registered in some countries. Apple, Macintosh, Power Macintosh, Where the methods of working are substantially different the Universal logo and the Mac Logo are registered trademarks of Apple they are highlighted in separate box panels. Computer Inc. All other product names are trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Further information on working with Freeway can be found on the Softpress web site. Limitation of liability Three movies of the tutorial found in this guide can be The information in this guide is believed to be correct as of the date of publication. However, our policy is one of continuous development and so found at: http://www.softpress.com/support/tutorials.html the information in this guide is subject to change without notice, and does where they are called “Getting Started with Freeway”. not represent a commitment on the part of Softpress Systems Ltd. Please note that some of the older movies were made using Freeway 5 or 6, but they are still very relevant. System requirements Freeway Pro and Express require an Intel Mac, and the minimum operating system requirement is Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or higher. Contact details Web: http://www.softpress.com/ Email: [email protected] 2 Foreword Congratulations on choosing Freeway, the most Freeway makes pages that validate as W3C-compliant design-friendly way to create web sites. Before you code, automatically. So with those worrisome aspects begin it is worth spending a little time making sure banished, you can get on with thinking about more you understand how Freeway works and how you can interesting matters: your web page designs. get the very most from this software. For further details, tips and extra Freeway Actions, Freeway’s approach to web page and site design browse the Softpress KnowledgeBase at http://www. means you can concentrate on form and function, not softpress.com/kb and http://www.actionsforge.com. spend most of your time tweaking code and worrying To tap into the collective experience of Freeway users about compatibility. Because of this, if you’ve come around the world visit the lively Freewaytalk forum at from a code-based web production background—or http://freewaytalk.net/. even a template-bound one—you may have some Freeway delivers the design freedom of high-end unlearning to do. But relax, things will almost DTP software to the world of web production, with Foreword certainly be easier and more logical than you imagine. intelligent features that make casual users, professional The biggest thing to grasp is that Freeway is an designers and free-thinking programmers alike smile in HTML generator, not an editor. You use Freeway’s delight. Make the most of it! high-end layout tools to make your designs, and Keith Martin it deals with producing optimized web page code Senior Lecturer from your work, on demand. This means that you’ll London College of Communication never have to worry about over-manipulated layouts producing awkward code, a typical problem with visual HTML editors; the output is new every time. All the necessary fixes are included to help pages For some more useful tips from Keith, see Thinking work consistently across browsers, and you’re free Design on page 19. to switch your page output from different forms of HTML and XHTML as you prefer. On top of this, 3 Contents Introduction and getting started 8 Output 20 Upload 20 About Softpress and Freeway 8 Installing and serializing Freeway 9 Quick Tour 21 Registering Freeway 10 Keep your serial number safe 10 The main Freeway interface window 22 Freeway help and information resources 11 The menu bar 24 The KnowledgeBase 11 The tool bar 25 Video tutorials 11 The site and page panels 27 ActionsForge 12 The page mode buttons 28 FreewayTalk.net 12 The hyperlink box and site buttons 28 Help desk 12 Contextual menus 29 The Inspector 30 The World Wide Web and Freeway 13 Other palettes 32 The World Wide Web 14 Tutorial 33 How do I get on the web? 14 Contents HTML–speaking the right language 14 Tutorial 1 35 What are HTTP and FTP? 15 Starting and saving the site 35 How Freeway works 15 Setting page dimensions and alignment 36 Basic concepts and terminology of the Inspector 36 Thinking design 17 Setting the page dimensions and Design plans 18 alignment 37 Page sizes 18 Setting the page background color 37 Type 18 Adding a page background image 38 Styles 18 Adding a graphic text item 39 Graphics 19 Importing a graphic 41 Optimizing 19 Adding HTML text 42 Code 19 Importing photos 42 4 Duplicating items 43 Working with Freeway 75 Importing text 45 Previewing your page 47 Creating a new document 76 Tutorial 2 48 To create a document from a template 76 Basic concepts of Master pages 48 To create a document using custom Pro only The Site panel 49 settings 76 Setting up a Master page 49 The Freeway workflow, publishing, and previewing 77 Naming pages and files in the Site panel 50 To upload your web site 77 Working on a Master page 50 Working with pages 77 Adding pages to a site 51 To create a new master page 78 Title and file names for pages 51 To create one or more new site pages 78 Adding content to our new pages 52 To delete a page 78 Applying hyperlinks 54 Working with items 78 Previewing the site in a browser 57 To create an item 78 Tutorial 3 59 To delete an item 79 Contents Graphic hyperlinks 59 Parent/Child relationships 79 Creating a rollover navigation menu 59 To create an item that is the child of Creating a simple photo gallery 62 another item 80 Other types of Action 66 To make an existing item a child of Uploading your site to the web 68 another item 80 Different ways to upload a site 68 To group several items together 80 Required information for FTP uploading 68 To ungroup items 80 Required information for uploading to a Aligning and distributing items 80 local server using File Copy 69 To align several items 80 Uploading your files using FTP 69 Manipulating items 81 Uploading using File Copy 70 To resize an item to fit its content 81 How files are uploaded 70 To rotate a graphic item 81 Troubleshooting upload problems 71 Changing an item’s appearance 81 Dedicated FTP tools 73 To set the background color of an item 81 Deleting files 74 Changing how an item will output 81 Creating a directory or folder 74 To change the type of an item 81 External files 74 To set the alt text of a graphic item 82 FTP applications 74 5 Working with Tables 82 Inserting items into a text flow 88 To resize a column or row in a table 83 To insert a graphic item into a text flow 88 To change the number of rows or columns To insert an HTML item into a text flow 89 in a table 83 To center an in-flow HTML item within its To merge cells into one 83 containing item Pro only 89 To split cells 83 Working with Styles Pro only 89 Working with colors 83 To create a new style 90 Colors in Freeway Express 83 To edit an existing style 90 To apply a color using the color palette To apply a style to text 90 in Freeway Express 83 To delete a style 91 Colors in Freeway Pro 84 Permanent and temporary styles 91 To apply a color in Freeway Pro using the Hyperlinks and anchors 91 color palette 84 To create a hyperlink 91 To apply a color that is not already in To remove a hyperlink 92 your document using the color palette 84 To create an anchor 92 To create a new color 84 To remove an anchor 92 To edit a color 85 Working with forms 92 To delete a color 85 Working with graphics 85 Freeway Actions 93 To import a graphic into an existing item 86 Manipulating graphics in graphic items 86 What are Freeway Actions? 94 Contents To position a graphic within its containing The different types of Actions 94 item 86 Applying Actions 94 To scale a graphic to the size of its The Actions palette 95 containing item 86 Installing Actions 96 Working with other media 87 Working with Freeway Actions 97 Working with text 87 The Rollover Action 97 To enter text into an item 87 Rollover options in the Actions palette 98 To import text from a file into an item