Pro only

Using layers

When starting on a new design, your first choice will often be whether or not to use layers. Which begs the question: When should you use layers, or perhaps more importantly when shouldn’t you use layers? It is your choice. No-one can make it for you. But I can say this much: Working with layers, in Freeway, gives you more precise control over the layout of your content, and what you see in the layout mode is very close to what you actually get when uploading your site to the Web. Really.

Working with layers in Freeway Pro also means that you unleash all the Freeway Actions, including those that are only available for layer items (makes sense, doesn’t it?)

So— How Does It Work?

You have the option to choose HTML 4.0 a) when you create a new Freeway document, b) in the Toolbox or c) in the Document Setup window. This selection is necessary to be able to use layers. You can also choose to have a mix of layer and non-layer items by checking or unchecking the layer checkbox in the Inspector palette with an item selected. This option is only available when you have chosen HTML 4 as output level.

The flip side of using HTML 4, to be able to use layers, is that people with older generation browsers, newer handsets such as WAP phones, PDA’s and, most importantly, visual aids like screen readers cannot see your site as you have intended. This is something you need to consider. What is your target group like? Which type of browsers do they primarily use, and so on. If you’re unsure of this, it may be that you’re better off not using HTML 4.

And What’s This CSS Thing?

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) means gaining style control, within certain limits, of HTML text and other items (borders, backgrounds, cell behaviour, etc) through the use of styles. For example, you can create lightweight rollover effects with HTML text by using CSS. On the whole, using HTML text has a number of advantages over graphic text. The big disadvantage is font limitation and —at first anyway— style limitations. The style limitations can be alleviated to some degree with CSS. Normal use of CSS with Freeway is done through the Styles palette. You can create and edit style classes for text appearance, paragraph set-up, lists etc, as well as colour styles. Other ways of using CSS includes clicking one or more of the “Extend” buttons that are available in a number of places in the Freeway GUI. To use the Extend feature means having to manually insert code, so we discuss that in a separate guide.

There are also a few Freeway Pro Actions that lets you use fairly sophisticated CSS, such as the External CSS suite by Walter Davis and Paul Dunning’s CSS Suite. Recent addition is of course the Div-a-Tron action, featured previously.

To learn more about layers and CSS in Freeway, start by reading the Freeway manual, pages 99-102 and 181-184.