This week at Macworld San Francisco, SoftPress Systems will demo the latest version of Freeway 3 at their booth in the MacTech Pavilion, Mike Fellows of SoftPress told MacCentral.
The new version of the Web design software is built for Mac OS X; a final version is due to ship in mid-2001. What’s more, the current version of Freeway is available exclusively on the Mac platform.
“We believe Mac OS X is a great leap forward in operating systems that will deliver major benefits to our customers,” said SoftPress Systems Managing Director, Richard Logan. “The remarkable robustness and ease-of-use of Mac OS X reflect exactly the qualities for which Freeway is renowned.”
Freeway 3 has limited support for AppleScript, allowing common tasks to be automated. It offers capabilities in multilingual Web-site production via support from Apple’s WorldScript technology, and users can select from a wide range of language encodings for individual pages in a site.
In version 3, Freeway Actions have been extended with a built-in JavaScript interpreter. SoftPress introduced the Actions technology in Freeway 2 to simplify the process of adding complex coding and scripting for such applications as production of dynamic content, connecting Freeway sites to databases and developing controls for content such as QuickTime, Flash and Shockwave.
Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop files can be imported directly into Freeway, where they are automatically converted into Web-ready formats. Freeway can also use Photoshop plug-ins to import and export a wide range of non-native graphic formats, while Photoshop scanner plug-ins allow images to be scanned directly onto a page. A multimedia preview feature combined with an extended set of behavior options for QuickTime and Flash content gives users greater flexibility and control in incorporating multimedia in Web pages, Fellows says.
The recommended retail price of Freeway 3 is maintained at US $299. A fully working 30-day trial version of Freeway 3.0 is now available from the SoftPress Web site.