|
|
 - Excellent for the novice web site builderI intend this review for those with no programing or web site building experience. When I needed a web site, I found price quotes for building one to be out of my range. Further, many of the "build your own" internet web sites are incomprehensible, and it's often hard to find out what the final cost will be. For less than $100, Softpress Freeway 4 Express allows you to build your own site on your own computer at your own leisure, without having to learn computerese. I've had this software for about a year and a half, using it to make and maintain two web sites. It was surprisingly easy to learn--I was able to rough out a web site within an hour. If you've learned how to use any reasonably complex software (Photoshop, Finale, etc.), then chances are that Freeway Express won't stump you. Like most software today, the main manual must be accessed by computer. But Freeway Express comes with a "Getting Started" handbook. This is one of the clearest, best written software manuals I've ever encountered. Having done some instructional writing myself, I appreciate how hard it is to do. Kudos to the technical writing team. Softpress has an online help service that's quick and responsive. I actually got a question answered within an hour on New Year's Day. Unlike many online help services, the Softpress staff seems able to quickly grasp what I'm asking and provide the appropriate answer. There's also an online knowledge base where you can find many articles about some of Freeway's more arcane features. Although Freeway Express generally works well, it has its quirks. If you're building a very large site, it sometimes crashes unexpectedly. So save frequently. Also, Freeway's "what you see is what you get" capability is sometimes a bit flakey. I've run into situations where the browser version of a certain item in a web page didn't match what I'd built. Usually I could find a way to resolve this, but it's annoying nonetheless. I've run into these problems only when working on a large site (my web site has over 80 pages), so if your site is smaller, you may never encounter these glitches. Freeway Express is a stripped down version of Freeway Pro. So you won't get all the bells and whistles of a more expensive web site builder. One omission is that there's no provision for drawing lines, and drawing lines, at least for me, is an important part of designing a web page. But if you bring a little cleverness to the task, you can often find a workaround. (I draw lines by creating a graphic box, filling it with whatever color I want, then collapsing it in one dimension.) That being said, Freeway Express does everything I need. I can post photos, audio mp3 samples (I'm a musician), and even a video (someday I'll get around to that). For business owners, you can include a PayPal purchase button, or you can link to any other internet site. (I have a Christmas CD advertised on my site, with a direct link to its Amazon listing.) A warning: Freeway Express won't save aesthetically impaired people from themselves. If you have a good eye and some design acumen, then you should be able to make a spiffy looking site. But if you've no eye at all, then Freeway will empower you to build a dreadfully ugly site. If you're not good at design, consider using one of Freeway's templates, or you can steal (sorry, borrow) ideas from other web sites. Since I'm writing this review for those with no experience in building a web site, here are a few things I wish I'd known when I got started: 1) If you have a large screen monitor, don't use the entire screen width when building a web page. On smaller monitor screens, your web site will force people to scroll from side to side to see the full page. (When I build a web page, I don't go any wider than 700 pixels.) 2) Graphic items load slower than html text items. So when building a page, bear in mind that going nuts with graphic items means your page might load very slowly for those using dialup. Also remember that search engines can't read text in graphic items. 3) Take to heart some good advice that was given to me: "Web sites are content driven." This means that people visit web sites because they're looking for information, not a show. So rather than trying to produce a visual extravaganza, build a lean and clean site that's easy to navigate and has excellent content. By the way, when I first tried to upload my site, two well regarded web host companies gave me incorrect information for uploading. Fortunately, an e-mail to Softpress online support solved this problem. After that, uploading was a snap. For me, Freeway Express has been the way to go. I like being able to maintain my own site, and if my web host suddenly goes belly up, I've got my site on my computer and also backed up on an external hard drive. (Considering the amount of work that goes into a large web site, you might also want to further back up your site by saving it on another external source.) I also like that I don't have to go through a web master every time I want to tinker with my site. To be sure, there's a learning curve. But I found it relatively painless, and my profanity quotient while learning this software was much lower than with other software I've wrestled with. In fact, I rather enjoy tinkering with my site. So if you've hesitated to do it yourself because you think you lack the necessary skills, you may want to reconsider. Freeway Express can get you going. Softpress allows you to download a trial version of Freeway Express. So you can try before you buy. If you want to see what can be done by someone with no particular programing or design experience, do an online search for "pooretom."
|
