Softpress Releases Freeway 5.5 Preview

Softpress Systems has released Freeway 5.5 Preview, a free evaluation version of its upcoming paid-for upgrade to the award-winning web-design products, Freeway Express and Pro. With its visual design model and powerful new features, Freeway makes it easy to create beautiful sites and email newsletters without the need to write code. Preview versions of both Freeway Express and Freeway Pro are available from the Softpress website.

"We are delighted to release the Preview of Freeway 5.5," Softpress Managing Director Richard Logan said. "With several groundbreaking new features, it's now even easier to create modern, leading-edge websites, email newsletters and presentations in Freeway. Both professional and novice web designers will benefit from the innovative and improved tools for the creation of rich, dynamic and standards-compliant pages."

Freeway 5.5 New Features
Alongside Freeway's extensive existing feature set, Freeway 5.5 has a compelling range of new functionality including:


Freeway Showcase:
Showcase offers even absolute beginners thousands of fully-customizable options so that they can effortlessly build professional, feature-rich galleries and slideshows from scratch in just minutes. Import images for use into the application, via drag-n-drop (from the Finder, or from iPhoto/Aperture libraries displayed in the app itself), or by direct import. A wide variety of appearance and layout options are available including borders, shadows, reflections and more. Supports common web image types as well as TIFF and native Photoshop files.

Relative Page Layout (Pro-only):
Users can create complex CSS layouts that respond appropriately when content on the page changes in size or is added/removed dynamically - without needing to learn CSS. Simply visually design page layouts and have confidence that they will work properly every time.

HTML Email Generation:
The Create Email Action allows users to design emails and newsletters with fewer restrictions. When the page is published, Freeway will convert it into "email-friendly" HTML that can be opened up in Apple Mail, or dropped into a sending service such as MailChimp or Vertical Response.

Site Search (Pro-only):
Easily add a simple yet powerful search facility to your sites. With no server-side technologies used, this effective search functionality can be used on all sites, even those hosted on MobileMe.


Search Engine Sitemaps:
The Site Mapper Action will keep search engines up-to-date by automatically generating Google-friendly XML sitemaps, and Yahoo! URL lists, each time you update your site.

Amazon Affiliation:
Connects your site up with Amazon sites that will pay you cash for all sales originating from your site. Amazon USA, UK, France, Germany and Japan are all supported.

Improved Upload:
Freeway now supports secure uploads through SFTP and FTPS, in addition to existing upload methods (FTP, MobileMe and File Copy).

New Templates:
New and improved templates - all of them free and designed by world-class designers exclusively for Softpress and Freeway. The preview version includes three new templates - more will be included in the release version.

Pricing and Availability:
Freeway 5.5 Pro and Freeway 5.5 Express are both available for pre-release purchase from the Softpress Store. Full versions of Freeway 5.5 Pro can be purchased for $229 (USD), and Freeway 5 Express is $69. Pre-release upgrades from earlier versions of 5 to 5.5 are offered at prices starting from $25 for Express or $49 for Pro. Those who qualify for education, senior or non-profit discounts will receive a coupon for a full 20% off any listed Freeway price. For discounts on multi-seat installations, contact sales.

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