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Controlling your site set up

Starting a Web site

When you start a Web site in Freeway, you can either plan the layout, structure and content before you start, or develop these aspects as you work - it's up to you.

It's probably a good idea to have some basic information before you start, though, such as the width of screen you want to work within, and an idea of what the main sections of the site will be.

The most important thing to appreciate before you start a site in Freeway is how the process works, especially if you have tried other Web publishing software before. Freeway operates differently from most other Web publishing software, and if you assume some things incorrectly, you may be led astray and waste time needlessly.

Freeway workflow

Freeway does not edit HTML files, and cannot import existing sites directly. Using Freeway is like using DTP software. In DTP, one creates a document which can only be read by the parent application, and then prints it as PostScript (usually) to create the printed output. In Freeway you define documents, which again can only be read by Freeway, and are then exported as HTML and Web-ready graphics for viewing in any Web browser.

Creating a new site

To create a Web site, you first create a Freeway document, which you save on your hard disk, and can name anything you wish. This document will contain the material which will be used to generate your site, and it doesn't need to be transferred anywhere. Within the document you create, you may define as many pages as you like, which each correspond to an HTML Web page which will be created when you export or "build" the site. On the pages you can create items which may contain text, graphics, multimedia content, or just get exported as colored graphics or lines.

You can also define Master Pages which are used to define the basic appearance of the pages in your document. Any items which appear on all the pages in a particular section can be created on a specific master page, which is then applied to one or more of your document pages. The items from the master page are copied to each document page where they may be further edited if required.

Within a document, you may also define folders and sub folders, to organize the physical structure of your site hierarchically, if you require this.

The most important aspect aside from the layout and content of the site is the navigation through the site. Web publishing differs from conventional publishing primarily in the user experience when the "reader" views the site.

With a printed document, all the pages are accessible to the reader, and they can do either of two things with the material. Because the pages are bound in sequential order, they may follow a straight path through the material if they wish - most likely, this would be the author's intention. Alternatively, they may choose to dip in and out of the material at any point they choose. This is possible because all the material is available at one time, and the reader simply has to open the publication at the required page.

With the Web, the pages you create are normally accessible ONLY if one knows what they are called, so that the visitor to a site can enter a specific filename as their destination in the browser, or if the visitor follows a link to the page. If you do not set up a link into a page, the visitor will likely never see it, or even know that it is there. Designing a Web site is therefore more like designing a building than creating a printed document - designing pages without links into them or out of them is like creating a room in a house which has no doors or windows. Just as all the rooms in a building must have doors so that people can enter or depart to another room, pages in a Web site must have links to other pages. By defining links between your pages, you decide the alternatives that people have for where they can go next.

Publishing your site

Once you have created your document with its pages, page contents and links, there is yet no way for anyone else to view your pages unless they have Freeway too. The aim is to construct a Web site on the Internet which people can access and browse using Web browsers. To accomplish this, you first have to generate the pages from the document as HTML files, and then transfer the resulting files to a Web server.

Creating the actual site files is accomplished by publishing your document as HTML. You do this using either the Preview command or the Publish command.

When you build the site using either of these commands, you need to specify a destination folder which will hold the exported site files. You will normally Preview your site regularly, and when you do this, any new pages or any elements which have been changed are re-exported. If you delete a page from the document, the HTML file and associated graphics are removed as well. Freeway remembers what files should be there using a small file called _Siteinfo which resides in the destination folder, but it doesn't matter if this file is lost, as the information is also stored in the document.

For information on this, see the chapter Publishing your site.

To create a new site, you use the New command on the File menu, which brings up the Document Setup dialog. This allows you to specify the basic settings for the new site.

Document setup

Using the Document Setup dialog box, you can specify parameters for the Web site including the basic page format for your site.

Displaying the Document Setup dialog box

You can specify the site setup when you first open a new document (choose File/New) or change the setup of the current document (by choosing File/Document Setup). Both these methods display the Document Setup dialog box.

The following section tell you how to use the Document Setup dialog box to specify your site.

Selecting page size

In the Page cluster at the top of the dialogue box, the Screen size popup menu offers a selection of common computer monitor screen sizes. Select a size from here if you want to work with Web pages which will fit into a computer screen (your readers will not have to scroll to view all of the page). You can use the Width and Height text boxes to specify other page sizes. Freeway works in point sizes which equate to pixels.

Setting margins

Enter the margin values for your page in the Top, Bottom, Left and Right text boxes. Tab to move between boxes.

Site requirements

The Site cluster allows you to specify whether you want to use DOS file names. Click the check box on, if you do. You would use DOS file names if you plan to place your Web pages on a DOS or some UNIX servers.

Here is an example of a filename

and the equivalent DOS filename using the DOS file names option in Freeway.

Finally, you need to specify the Site Folder. This is the folder in which Freeway will place the Web page files generated from your Freeway document. Click on the Site Folder button to display a dialog box which allows you to either create and name a new folder or locate and select an existing folder. When you have the folder listed in the button labelled Destination Folder, click that same button. This specifies the folder.

Click OK to confirm your settings. Freeway displays the first page of the new document.

Setting up Master pages

You will probably want to use master pages in your site design to ensure consistency across the pages on your site. In sites with a few pages, one master page will be used through the site. In more complex sites, your will want to use different master pages for the different sections of your site.

Controlling your site set up

Viewing your site using the Site palette

The Site palette displays the folders, pages, master pages and the structure of your site. Display the palette by choosing Site from the View menu.

The palette is interactive so you can use it to add, delete and rearrange pages and folders.

Adding folders to the site

You may want to add folders to your site to help organize the files:

1. Choose Page/New Folder... or click on the triangle on the Site palette and choose New Folder....

2. Enter the name of the folder in the dialog box and then click OK.

A new folder is added to the document and shown in the Site palette. You can move the folder and add existing pages to it by dragging icons in the Site palette.

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