Deborah Woehr

I’ve been looking for an easy way to create websites for quite some time. But none of the software programs I tried (Mac or PC) worked the way I had hoped they would. They were cumbersome, and the end result was poor. I was elated when I discovered blogs, but you can do so much with blog software. WordPress is great for building simple sites, and I probably could do more with it if I had the patience (and time) to master HTML and CSS. Forget Dreamweaver; that program is way too intensive.

The fact is, I don’t. I’m a writer and a graphic designer, not a coder. Earlier last year, I found a program called SiteGrinder, which allows you to create websites directly inside Photoshop. I was ecstatic until I realized that the developers hadn’t upgraded their program for Intel Macs. The year went by, and I became busy.

Then in January, I got curious about SiteGrinder and found that they had since upgraded to include Intel Macs. However, I didn’t have the budget at the time. I was searching for Mac software on Amazon yesterday when I found Freeway. I had tested it back in 2003 with frustrating results, but the single review made me curious. So, I went to their website, read pages of glowing reviews, and decided to download their trial.

While I’ve yet to test out making roll-over buttons and other technical tweaks, I was very impressed with how easy it was to create my landing page. If you’re familiar with page layout software, this program will be a cinch for you to learn. The hardest part was coming up with the design concept. Once I solved that, it was a matter of importing the design I’d created in Photoshop. Now, I have to start all over again for the rest of the pages, but I will finally have the main site exactly as I’d always envisioned it.