Re: GWD Feedback!

[dartmoti...@gmail.com]

HI, where would we be able to see the roadmap to avoid duplicate requests?
Thanks,
C

[Jaz]

Hi,

We wanted to make sure we didn't guide the discussions by publishing what we're planning and in what order. We really want to hear about the work our users are engaged in and what their first thoughts are on GWD improvements, changes, etc. If you see comments requesting something you already want, feel free to click the Me To! button under that post.

thx!
jaz

Jasmine Rogers
Program Manager, GWD

[mikefre...@gmail.com]

One basic (but important) feature I'd like to see is the ability to resize the window. As it is now, the window is taller than my screen size. I can't get my screen resolution any higher, and I can't resize the program's window, so this makes the anything on the bottom portion of the window very difficult and inconvenient to access. This is on Linux Mint 17 (both Cinnamon and MATE desktop environments). Perhaps just reducing the GUI element sizes by a few pixels each would help, if you can't make a resizable window.

[bjornar...@bannerboy.com]

Hi,
For making ads this is what I really miss in GWD:

- A working loop solution for ads. With number of loops.
(The solutions posted in this forum is not working good enough)

- Copy all keyframes or some of them. Move multiple keyframes on multiple objects.

- Make the program faster, the 2 sec lag on click are super irritating.

- Make the selected divs easy to click and access.

- A good solution for making new verisons of banners from a master-banner or template. If you make it easy to do this the program will rock. Else it will be (for us) almost useless.

- The problem that the program changes values, or redo input. When I set opacity to 0, it not cool that the program changes it back to 1, or just dont want to change it, and you become forced to delete the keyframe and make a new one to get it to 0.

- The * on the filename-tab that on Adobe products indicates that the file is not saved since the last change, are something that I miss.

[tdso...@gmail.com]

Great Work

Waiting For Final Product

[asia.pacif...@gmail.com]

Hi,
This looks really promising but needs a lot of work before I throw away Blend, Dreamweaver etc. My issues (although maybe my not understanding how it all works):
- You can create html, js and css but there is no way of linking them other than manually putting them in the html. I click on add css style sheet and this does not do it.
- When you edit css and js there is no sidebar.
- Everything seems to be done with html inline code and styles. This is at odds with the requirement for development of Chrome apps (which I would have thought this would be very useful).
- The claim of being a WYSIWYG responsive and fluid editor is incorrect. The elements created have no styling to make this happen (inline-block, float, width 100% etc). Also there seems to be no way of adding media queries other than manually. You need to be able have this as a property you can select in the UI.
- User interface is fixed and not practical. No way of resizing or moving sidebar areas.
My overall thoughts are that it could be useful for making mockups only. I would love to see these added features so that it can be used to make not only a mockup but also a finished UI with project file structure already correct. This would be really handy and fill an enormous gap in the market.

[Jonnie Grieve]

Hi Jaz,

As you know I have been a big enthusiast for Google web designer since it came out on Beta back in October, and I still am. However I haven't used it as much as I would have liked as the program is still not equipped to do what I do first and foremost which is to make websites.


As far as the kind of work I do, I'm a front end web designer.  I design websites first and foremost. I code straight by hand, not even utilising Dreamwaver anymore. I use notepad++ as my coding platform. I said before I agreed with the name (which has been somewhat cotnrovertial in the past) Web Designer because making ads is a part of web design these days. So I've no issue with that, but I long for a time when GWD is better equipped to help people design websites.

In the short term I'd love to see a more user friendly code engine used for coding in GWD.  I know the code is generated mostly by GWD so i'm not sure how practical this would be but I do feel we need better syntax highligting on our code. I mentioned I use notepad++ to write my code, other editors are out there of course but in notepad++ there is a nice system where the editor organises elements and CSS styles like a document tree so you can show and hide your code as and when you need it.  I would like to see something like this in GWD.

I'd also like to see better supported for repeated keyframes. Currently the only way to repeat keyframes is on each layer and even with filling up your layers with invisible keyframes where content is not seen you don't get the same effects on repeat

Keep up the good work with, as I still think with work Google is onto a great thing with GWD.

[PNG]

Some things we would like to see:

- Rulers & Guides

- a simpler way to update assets when they've been modified outside of GWD

- a simpler way to loop an entire animation

- being able to select multiple layers and applying the same easing/duration of animation

- being able to create masking 

That's all I can think of for now but will add more if we come across more roadblocks.

[junk...@cartoonlounge.com]

A few things.

1. Add or remove frames from the timeline, so that you can more easily adjust the timeline.
2. Select multiple keyframes across layers.
3. A library for the images and assets, so you could edit those.
4. Fix the current bugs. Added images and they assumed the size of the image on the layer below. Sometimes editing one keyframe applies edit globally, sometimes not.
5. Being able to use multiple windows. Would love to be able to open the stage in it's own window.
6. Being able to add "actions" or scripts on frames, like being able to go to a certain frame.
7. Allow the "Master layer" to control looping for all the sub layers.

Now, having said all that, Adobe Edge does a lot of this and is pretty awesome, but...at the cost of much bigger file size. If you are using this to develop HTML5 banner ads the the file size is the thing and keeping it low is important.

[junk...@cartoonlounge.com]

Forgot to add, side by side code view/design view, would love to be able to see my changes in real time, instead of flipping back and fourth.

Also, better control of fonts and being able to edit in the design view.

Over all it is really had to select what you what if you have a bunch of layers, and fonts especially seem to not play very nice in the design view.

[Jaz]

Hi All,

Just wanted to let you know, we're reading each and every message and it's really amazing stuff. I'm going to put together a quick preso of the feedback for our team.

Keep it coming!

thx

[Chef LeeZ]

The issues we have found and the work arounds we discovered are detailed in our related blog. 

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6390937482675558980#overview/src=dashboardare 

and

http://chefleezgwd.wordpress.com/

They are pretty much the same on both.

A short list of fixes 

When editing word containers: 1) enter text disappears on save  2) to change a hyperlink on text has to be entered to the code and it may not be saved and viewable it is quicker to retype the text and add the new hyperlink then delete the old one.

Ads included on an HTML page do not resize with text on android following a screen content size adjustment and the text floats in windows see http://kruzon.com as this is the only site we have left an ad on. 

It is suggested that to include video they have to be of specific files extns and youtube embeds do not work. We would have to change the format of dozens of exisitng videos to include on our recipe pages so we just link to them instead.  i.e. http://www.chefleez.com/Recipes/Thai_Glass_Noodle_Salad_%28Yam_Wun_Sen_Gung%29.html

None of the components are functional in an HTML page.

Including a search function in the code view would be truly useful.

We look forward to these fixes.

[asia.pacif...@gmail.com]

Another issue. The pages won't resize on mobile devices because the following is missing from head:
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">

[Chef LeeZ]

The page resizes fine... it's the ads that don't resize (zoom in and out and in and out a second time) with the rest of the HTML page and text if scrolled on the page float up and down over the ad ratehr than the whole page scrolling together.

[st4...@gmail.com]

How do we stop it auto-installing to the C drive. Apart from being ridiculous behaviour from any installer, it just makes the product unusable.

[David Worman]

The gwd-s...@google.com address should have an auto-responder setup so that people at least know their emails are received.  I had applied to join the first call for beta testers via that email address as directed and received no response until Jaz told me here my email had been received.  When the call went out for additional testers behind a proxy I again emailed that address, and again my best guess is that my email may have been received but only because I didn't get an error status or failed to deliver returned to me by the mail server.

At this point it seems like this Group is a far better way to communicate than email.

As an aside, I'm usually fairly excited about using Google software, especially early in it's development.  With this product it's really hard to be excited, or even care.  Since I've never seen the launch screen there's really nothing to get amped up about, and the version available in the repo is already outdated without making new builds for Linux available.

So far the only thing I did get excited about was discovering that if I run google-webdesigner I get the white screen of waiting.  If I run /opt/google/webdesigner/webdesigner I get the white screen of waiting, but I get the Google Webdesigner icon in the title bar and my application list.  That's the extent of my experience with software so far.

Anyway, autoresponder for the support email address we're supposed to be using would be useful.

[Jaz]

Hi David,

My apologies for the lack of communication, there is zero excuse for that on my part. I have added an auto-responder and replied to your message via gwd-support. We were actually discussing your email this morning, I should have taken the appropriate step and contacted you though!

Let me connect with QA and see what we can do, but either way I'll respond back to you tomorrow morning via the gwd-support email.

thx for your patience and sorry for the trouble!

[Jaz]

Hi st4,

I replied to your request here: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/gwdbeta/SKE8s7IVycU/GVetrGeCxAcJ
but wanted to make sure I gave you a response on this thread as well. We definitely understand your frustration and I've forwarded this to the dev who works on our installer. We're also logging this as a customer feature request. As soon as I have more to share I'll update both threads.

thx!

[David Worman]

Jasmine,

Received your email(s) and another inviting me to the beta.  Installed a proxy server into my LAN, but GWD didn't care about that one bit.  After resolving an issue with libudev.so.0 by removing the package and symlinking libudev.so.0 to libudev.so.1 GWD is now up and running beautifully.  I've sent a more detailed email to the team covering the error messages I received and the steps taken to correct them.

Thank you, personally, for your very direct involvement with the community.  Despite the very obvious frustrations I've had trying to get GWD to launch it's still readily apparent that you care for the community as much as the product.

- David

[Jaz]

Hi David,

Thank you so much for helping us to test, and being patient while we work out all the kinks! I also very much appreciate the note about my involvement, I do truly love our product, team and our community.

Now that you have GWD up and running, please let us know of any feedback you might have!

Have a wonderful weekend!

[james.s...@gmail.com]

I am another user on on Linux (Ubuntu 14.04/Mate Desktop) that can't see the bottom half of the application window. My screen resolution is 1366x768. It'd be great if I could resize the window.

[Brendan Orr]

After watching the I/O Keynote I'm exited about the direction things are going.  As Material (and more specifically the Polymer framework) are getting hashed out and implemented; could we see integration within GWD?

Basically adding a panel with the components or perhaps a wizard that creates different common layouts.  Possibly even adding pallet of the built-in icons and other components.

[Jaz]

Hey Brandon,

We're pretty excited about what Material can do for the design world as well. I've logged your suggestions and also passed them on to our Eng Mgr.

thx!

[pben...@pricegrabber.com]

I would like to see GWD take over from Flash for when it comes to creating banners and a expandable ads. It is so much easier to use and less fiddly than flash.
What id like to see would be:
- All the IAB formats included as templates.
- Keyboard shortcut for hand tool to be space bar.
- Mousescroll to be zoom
- Doubleclick Studio components for GWD, such as the standard enabler.
- Ability to add tracking into the banner.
- Built in FTP
- Ability to publish straight into Doubleclick Studio
- Ability to import files such as images within GWD instead of opening up a separate window

Thanks
Paul B.
UK Creative Display Director

[luis.and...@gmail.com]

Hi everybody, greetings from Costa Rica!

I am new here and I hope to have your support when I need it.

Have a wonderful time there!

Best regards,

Luis

[kaycee.li...@gmail.com]

I would just like GWD to work!
I have a client who is wanting to test, but unfortunately i've been unable to get it to work.
I recieved an email to be a proxy tester, but I can't access the link provided to get the zip file.

[David Sanchez]

I want to thank you for making this program. A big part of my day-to-day is creating web banners for several clients and many brands. Programs like yours are time savers. Also, having an option outside of Flash is something that I'm extremely grateful for. Please keep moving forward with this. 

[David Sanchez]

Also, I noticed that when I resize a div and I have objects inside that div, only the object on the outside transforms. As supposed to all objects transforming together. 

[David Sanchez]

Keyframes. an object shouldn't move unless a keyframe has been applied to its timeline. This helps a lot in preventing any accidental position movements. I noticed that if I accidentally moved something when it doesn't have a keyframe then it affects the rest of its timeline.

[David Sanchez]

The Scroll bars reset when there's movement between keyframes. It's annoying. Fix? Attachment for reference.

[Jaz]

Hi,

kaycee, I've asked our QE what the issue is, I'd like to understand a bit better why you were unable to access the test build.

David Sanchez, thanks so much for using GWD and providing awesome feedback, I'll look into these and if there is a workaround, I'll post it. If it's a bug, then I'll file those internally.

[David Sanchez]

Thanks Jaz, I appreciate you guys working on GWD and I'm happy to participate during beta. Lots of love guys.

[Jaz]

You're very welcome David! Love the feedback you're sending, very detailed and thoughtful, thanks for that!

We have some exciting new features coming out very soon, we're so excited!! Can't wait to share!

[ftruj...@gmail.com]

Fix the White Screen proxy problem and then maybe we can use the tool to evaluate.

[Jaz]

Hi ftruj,

Totally understand the frustration and yes, we're beta testing and working on the fix as I speak. The testing has gone well and we believe the fix we have for the next build will resolve the issue. We're releasing soon, so please hang in there and thanks very much for your patience!

[ag...@elespacio.net]

Hello GWD Team,

Looking forward to the new version, with 'responsive' factor taking in consideration (hopefully).

If you can provide a tool which can introduce 'some' agility into the process of building HTML5 banners, you will concur the world :-)

When is the new release scheduled for?

KR, Agnes

[Romain Bontemps]

Hello to all the members of the GWD team !

I tried the app recently and, for now it's fine. As a developer, I can manipulate the generated file easily to add some magic, but i thinking about our non-dev folks and I have some ideas that can help them a lot!

First, I think it will be good to access the different tag element (at least as target) in the event creation; It would allow the user to, for instance, move a picture, change a text, add a special css class, etc.

Secondly, about the different gallery components, it could be a good idea to have a property to set it to an infinite loop. Also, adding "next/previous frame" action for these component could be a major improvement.

Another thing (but I saw that it was already discussed before) is the implementation of custom components / custom events, so that our dev team can create or reuse components for our designers, making them able to do a lot more !

Last but not least : being able to go to a certain keyframe by an action. It could help there is multiple interactions on the same screen.

Tanks a lot,

RB

[Jaz]

Hi Romain,

Excellent feedback!! I cannot say much, but you are going to really like our next update :-) Stay tuned, it's coming very soon!

[David Sanchez]

You're welcome guys, I completely devoted last week to learning GWD before hitting a few walls. I'm very excited to experience the new updates as they come out.

[paul...@google.com]

I didn't see the I/O demo - do you have that available to share?

I did road test the tool a few months back to generate some HTML 5 animations and had some mixed results. Maybe some of these issues are already in the updates?

PROS
Ability to generate the HTML 5 / CSS code from a WYSIWYG window - great!
Fairly easy to import image layers.

CONS
Difficult to create templates.
HTML 5 animation is not optimal - jerky motion when compared to my hand coded version.
Includes 3d transforms code unnecessarily.
CSS naming (automatically done by GWD) is clunky and human-unreadable - makes editing a chore.
Didn't include support for div layers with background images or text transforms - or I couldn't find it :)

NOT COMPLAINING - it's so cool to have a super light-weight free alternative to that adobe stuff and can't wait to see what's next!

[Jaz]

Hi All,

The new version of Google Web Designer is now available. For those with the white screen issue, can you please:

1. Set your proxy settings
2. Re-launch GWD (ensure you have auto updated to v1.1.0.0723)


If you continue to experience issues, please let us know!

thx

[Jonnie Grieve]

Loving the new GWD so far, although I haven't had a chance to delve into it too much yet but there are some nice new features that set it apart from the previous version.

I just have a few feedback points to make for now,
 
Please have have show/hide layers and layer locking always visible.  I still think if we get into big files we could easily set up the show/hide and lock all layers button to the part of the timeline that always shows even if you have to scroll through layers. There's space for them in the panel (unless other things are planned for that space)

Publish to Adwords option. Although I assume we can still do this outside of GWD if we set our assets to publish to local and then put it on Adwords.

Removing labels from timeline. If labels are too closely lined up on top of each other, there's no dialog box on right click to remove it! This might be a bug that needs looking at.


General Observation: I like that when you drag the blue playhead in the timeline it now updates realtime. I can't remember if it did that before, i don't think it did.

That's all for now, I'll be sure to give more feedback later  :)

Jonnie

[Jaz]

Thanks for the feedback Jonnie, I'll submit these into our bugbase. You are correct on the general observation, you can now scrub the timeline, woot woot!

[Pintos]

Hi

I have to say this is a great product and easy too.Did i mention free.Adobe feels heavy and GWD feels light.Catch my Drift.Anyway Loved it from the start only one problem that came up was the dotted line.Tried several ways to remove it and it just did not want to go.Can I get some Help on that.And a feature request too keep you busy on this Effective and Simple Program,Easing and Tween Styles so we can just give Adobe the Boot.

Thanks for and to GWD.

[demian...@gmail.com]

i thinks go to basic in code

. separate css file and js (i like jquery framework too)

. masterpage

. responsibe desing for 100% width pages, and preview for diferents resolution like adobe reflow

.precision form control, for expand this pages width php.

is a few thinks what i see in minutes of use. thanks!

[dhruv....@namshi.com]

It would be great if you can provide some more options for banner animations/text animation/transitions and template database. :)

[Neil G]

I can't get tap to call to work. I'm testing it on an Android phone with the creative running through DC Studio and it doesn't do anything when tapped. I can't seem to get phone numbers to open in the dialer no matter what method I use.

[ninjaqe]

Hi Neil,

Can you please let me know the mobile  OS version you are testing this  on ? Once to tap on  Tap to call component area  it will open up a  dialer  to Call .  Can you please provide  us some more details so can I debug the issue . 

 If you are testing this on a desktop  ( Studio preview on desktop)  then  you should have some  calling apps installed  like Skype .

--Sukhbir

(GWD Team)

[romanar...@gmail.com]

Hi. New GWD version spoiled all our recent works. Now, when we are opening old files, created in old version of GWD, all pictures starts shaking, about 1 px in all directions. Could you give me the install file of all version, without possibility of update. We must start our advertising soon, all of our material is not presentable =(

thanks.

[Sukhbir Kaur]

Hi ,

Is the  Image shaking issue reproducible  in all the browsers or just Chrome ? 

If this is  only in chrome then  please see the  forum link below  for the details and workaround  .  

 https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/gwdbeta/MzIoSbdSSw4/FWEwp9p0K-oJ

Or else please send us your  GWD source files  at gwd-s...@google.com so we can debug it further  ?

Thanks

Sukhbir

(GWD Team)

[matt.h...@gmail.com]

Neat product with some distinct advantages over Edge. We've just started working with GWD at my company. We've had issues with these ads behaving correctly after being uploaded to our ad server and put on our site. Line-height is off, and the ad is often overlapped by page content. Our developers have been able to fix some of these problems. But, there are issues with every ad. Know this is supposed to work with DoubleClick and with the integration, things probably work a little more smoothly. But, for those of us not using DoubleClick, is there something we can do when publishing or when setting up the file that would make uploading these ads to other ad services easier? Not complaining about a free product. Overall, digging GWD. Thanks!

Suggestions:
Timeline snapping
Auto keyframe option
Color picker

[Jaz]

Thanks for the feedback matt.h.

We're a little bummed you're running into issues. Would you be ok with sending us one of the files (source file, not the published zip) that created an issue (gwd-s...@google.com)? We'd like to take a look. If it's on the latest version of Chrome, we may have a fix: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/gwdbeta/MzIoSbdSSw4, if not, we'd like to take a closer look and see if we can help resolve.

[roel.w...@gmail.com]

Hello Jaz,

I want to create animated infographics with Google Web Designer

What i'm definitely missing is the ability to add Sound to the timeline. Adding video would be usefull also.

The next request would be morphing elements.

Tia
Roel

[romanar...@gmail.com]

Now everything is fine. I hope gwd will grow further. if you wold like to see my animation in GWD you can watch it here http://virogroup.ru/html5-banners/

thanks for help, bye!

[alexej.f...@haufe-lexware.net]

Hi,

I'd like to suggest alpha/color to be able to animate. Also grouping several elements together (like a box with text in it) so I don't have to animate every one of them.

Thx

[matt.h...@gmail.com]

Thanks for getting back to me! We're thinking the problem may have to do with the enabler.js. When we set up these ads, we specify a generic environment (as opposed to the DoubleClick environment), because these ads aren't going to DoubleClick. When you do this, the published html does not include the enabler.js. What do you think? From what we've read, the enabler is key, and could be the reason the ad is not working as it should.

Question: When we set up our files at the start (BTW, you should have an option to change these document settings at any time), should we specify a DoubleClick or generic environment?

The ads we're testing are for testing purposes only. If our developers can't figure this one out, we'd appreciate any help you could provide. The ads show up fine in the browser (for the most part). The real problem is getting them to show up correctly and behave correctly after we've uploaded them to our ad server and pushed them live to our site.

Thanks! We're excited about GWD. Can't wait to work out these kinks.

[geus...@gmail.com]

Hi,
First, this is a marvelous tool, thank you very much!

At the present though, I am completely stopped in my tracks by the lack of scroll bars in the resultant web pages. (I am using multiple HTML page mode, though single page mode yields the same result.) It must be missing some magic word, that apparently most everybody else here knows, as no one else seems to be complaining about this. Can you please tell me how to get scroll bars to appear in the browser? (Chrome, IE, FireFox, all behave the same way. No scroll bars, just a dotted line - also truncated to the browser window size - around the content.)
Thanks,
George

[Anand Jha (Vizury)]

Does it work for retargeted banners(which fetch product images and related info from a CDN)

[mcd...@gmail.com]

would love to see some form of masking options in the layers in advanced animation mode.

[x.g.]

This is a great program, thanks for making it. As someone who does a lot of DoubleClick ads, it's great to have a tool like this, especially for HTML5, and especially for free. So thank you very much!

All these suggestions are based on v1.1.1.0730, so ignore anything that's been fixed since the new update. I hope this helps, and doesn't sound like complaining. I wouldn't say anything, but you asked for feedback so here goes:

FUNCTIONALITY 

- copying keyframes would be awesome.

- duplicating layers would be great.

- I’d love to have an option for the CSS property “display” (none, block, etc) in the Style panel. I use the display property all the time.

- I'd really love to have a "reset" button, especially for images that get stuck in an animated position when you remove keyframes. The reset would remove all transformations and put it back to 100% scale, rotation 0, opacity 1, etc.

- it would be great if Code View always dropped a text cursor. The first time it would drop at 1,1 but after that it would remember where you were editing and scroll to that spot. If I’m editing something on line 578, then switch to design view real quick, then back to code view, I’m back at the top and have to find where I’m working.

USER INTERFACE

- in the Style panel, the “Border” options take up a lot of space. They could all be collapsed into sub-menu like “Margins” and “Padding” are. Nobody uses borders that much. 

- On the timeline panel, there are 2 different icons for the same “loop” functionality. On top, next to the play button, loop is a traditional closed oval with arrows. But on each layer, the loop icon is a half oval. To avoid confusion you could use the same icon for both.

- The layer "loop" icon doesn’t show you whether there’s a loop active or not. Whether the layer loops or not, it doesn’t change. In practice, the loop icon should behave like the master loop icon - greyed when off, white when on.

- The layer “lock” icon looks similar in both locked or unlocked position. Maybe make it white when locked and grey when off?

- When you select a layer, it is highlighted by a slightly darker shade. Since the selected layer will hijack keyboard commands, it could be marked more clearly, like red or white.

- if you add an action to “GotoAndPlay to a timeline label”, the label doesn’t show up in the events panel. All that’s listed is “action > GotoAndPlay > page1” so if you have multiple GotoAndPlay actions (goto beginning, goto end, goto loop) they all look identical in the panel which is confusing. (I have a screenshot of this which is easier to understand)

- it would be great if when you drill into a layer, the layer’s ID shows up in the breadcrumb, so it's more informative than just "DIV > DIV > DIV"

- Timeline scrubbing could be made so that clicking anywhere in the top timeline and dragging scrubs, instead of having to grab the playhead specifically. 

- The bottom horizontal timeline scrollbar can be hard to grab sometimes, and you end up dragging the whole program instead of scrolling.

That's it, thanks for listening. I love the program, great job guys.

[x.g.]

Hey man, just a heads up that you can animate alpha with the "opacity" property in the CSS panel. You can also group things by making a DIV and double-clicking it, which will open up a new timeline. 

[Mariko Ogawa]

Hi x.g.

Great feedback and suggestions especially on UI as well as functionality. 

- Timeline scrubbing could be made so that clicking anywhere in the top timeline and dragging scrubs, instead of having to grab the playhead specifically. 

I wonder if this is how it is implemented. If not, please explain.

- The bottom horizontal timeline scrollbar can be hard to grab sometimes, and you end up dragging the whole program instead of scrolling.

Mouse wheel or track pad should be also effective to scroll. I understand it is a bit small click area for the scroll bar.

Thanks so much.

Mariko(GWD team)

[x.g.]

Thanks Mariko, 

It's really great to be able to give you guys feedback on such useful program. Thank you for listening to the community. From my post you can probably tell I'm a front-end / UI designer, so I have a lot of opinions about UI, and they're mostly just details and polish.

- Timeline scrubbing could be made so that clicking anywhere in the top timeline and dragging scrubs, instead of having to grab the playhead specifically. 

I wonder if this is how it is implemented. If not, please explain.

Almost. but not quite. Right now, in GWD if you click the little blue playhead and drag it, the timeline will scrub. Great! If you click anywhere else in the timeline's rule bar, the playhead will jump to that point. That's great too. But if you click somewhere else in the rule bar, and then drag, the playhead does not follow, and does not scrub. Traditionally, in programs like Flash and After Effects (and Premiere, and Final Cut, and you name it), the playhead will jump to wherever you click in the rule bar, and it will keep following your mouse until you release the mouse button. So if you drag, it will scrub. I can scrub any part of the timeline in a single click, and I don't need the accuracy of picking up the little playhead, which is the biggest problem. So in GWD, it creates two issues: 1) when I click somewhere in the rule bar and the playhead just drops and won't scrub, it feels like it's not working as expected; and 2) when I want to scrub I have to exactly pick up the playhead which may take a few clicks, and that feels unresponsive because the hitarea is pretty small.

 

- The bottom horizontal timeline scrollbar can be hard to grab sometimes, and you end up dragging the whole program instead of scrolling.

Mouse wheel or track pad should be also effective to scroll. I understand it is a bit small click area for the scroll bar.

Agreed, I ended up using my trackpad to horizontal scroll and just abandoned trying to use the mouse.  

Thanks again!

[pete...@gmail.com]

Hi Jaz

This may have been mentioned by others but a key feature that I would like to see is to be able to...

- Select multiple keyframes across layers and importantly, copy and paste between GWD files.

If I have made a complex animation in a Div and wish to use it in other Ads that I'm creating I can't copy the keyframes or Div and paste into a new file. I either have to recreate the animation or strip down a previous Ad to get this animation again. Either way this missing functionality is holding me back from being able to move forward with GWD. Currently from a production point of view, it is too time consuming.

If there are any suggestions for alternative workarounds to my current problem please let me know.

Thanks
Pete

[vadim...@gmail.com]

I wish that it was possible to create websites. Web page.
I want to add a block to ask him a shadow, roundness, and transparency.
I want to create buttons and fields subscription.
I want to create a slider on this page.
I want to create accordion.

I want a full program for creating websites.
You have already done just need to add functions.

[Vadim]

Please do a video tutorial 

How to Create a Landing Page and place on the Internet. 

Landing Page for the desktop and gadgets.

[Vadim]

Please add a free pack of icons. 

The greater the better. 

Will need to create websites, buttons, web interface, banners and etc.

[Vadim]

1.Add the opportunity to shadow a block of text. 

Dent and bulge. Inner and outer shadow.

2.Add css animation for blocks and text.

http://daneden.github.io/animate.css/

3.Add me to your team. 

True, I do not know much English. 

But I know the Ukrainian and Russian.

[Vadim]

Please make the library. 

That it was possible to save the object as a library for use in other projects. 

Also make standard library templates. 

Akordion. Block the social buttons. Conventional slider and the whole width of the page.

Do you already have a block components. But I would like so that you can create your own components and share them. 

For example take the form to collect contact (lead form) with the ability to indicate which email to send applications out of shape.

[Vadim]

Do as the picture 

A lot of time is spent to twist up and down. 

Hand starts to hurt when the mouse twist here and there. 

And then also on the arrows to press to turn to deploy. 

It is necessary that all the important settings compactly placed and you can quickly see and adjust.

[josef]

I know theres been an update recently but heres my wishlist

• UI-based support for custom fonts
• A @font-face solution that works in Firefox
• An easier way to call custom js from a particular point in the timeline
• A way to scale to a numeric quantity e.g. 135%
• Editable transform point
• Text is still a bit hard to select and edit
• Code View and Design View viewable at the same time
• A way to import layout from Photoshop psds would be helpful - Celtra has an Photoshop Action which outputs a json file with layout data which can be imported along with assets
• Improved code editing features such as find and replace, code completion and auto formatting. Alternately better integration with external text editors.
• The IDE shouldn't rewrite code when you switch to design view - seems to remove comments etc
• Published files can't be opened in GWD. I can see why but this causes bad workflow.
• Publish to DC Studio is a little hard to use sometimes - can't edit creative name, have to rewrite it.

[gabrie...@gmail.com]

Hi, i see there is no css corner animation possible, in Edge it is, so that would be an interesting feature. also, some text predefined letter animation would be nice. i mean something like in LetterFx jQuery Plugin. i don't know if shape morphing is possible, that would be also very nice. Also image in a shape, like powerclip in corel draw.

So the requests:

-css corner animation
-text predefined letter animation like in LetterFX or even more
-shape morphing
-image in a shape(like powerclip in corel draw)
-predefined animations and often used mouse events somehow easy to reach(like url link click)

[gabrie...@gmail.com]

...and BLUR ANIMATION, as well as other filters, you can take all from Edge Animation.

[Jaz]

Vadim, Josef and Gabriel, awesome feedback thanks so much! I'll pass this onto the team!

[jyai...@gmail.com]

Hi Jaz,

I have only used it for about half a day and I'm still playing around the basic functions. So far this is what I found:

1. Text tool - why does it create layers of span automatically whenever I try to edit font (or anything else like doing center alignment) of a previously created div? I have to manually go to code to remove the spans and copy whatever css style applied back into the original div.

2. External CSS (and probably JS) files don't work. Well technically it works, except that you need to close and reopen the html file for the css changes to kick in visually in design view. Worst thing is you can edit all the styles you want in design view, but nothing got changed in code in both the html and css file - now users can happily spend half a day styling and eventually realize nothing is actually done. Doing a quick search I realized this has been reported, but it is around a year ago, just wondering if it's still in todo list or at somewhere at the bottom of the list. I am also aware Google encourages not using external CSS but it is still on the developer him or herself to decide that after weighing the pros and cons.

Thanks.

[Jaz]

Hi Jai,

Thanks very much for the feedback and questions, I've pinged one of our text and css guru's to help answer.

[tim...@gmail.com]

I'm excited to see how this project turns out. I primarily build websites with the help of designers because it makes my job so much easier. I would use the page builder version with multiple pages and integrate it into my sites and blog accounts with Google to utilize the entire platform available. I think this is the best thing to happen with google in a WHILE from my perspective.

Obviously this project is in the beginning stages but here are the things I would like to see.

- Open APP development and plug in's for this software such as:
- Photoshop, photo editor integration to import export pictures
- Ability to scale pictures
- Custom TEXT formats

- Ability to easily INSERT objects such as pictures, outside HTML you can scale in the "design" section

- In web design, ability to specify number of pages going into web design
- Toggle between pages worked on

- MORE Drag an drop integrated features such as text spinning
- Shapes to be able to create menus

- HOTKEYS
- HOTKEYS (For us frequent users makes all the difference)

I believe opening this project to app delevopers would make the developers of this particular job's projects 100% easier and you could choose the highest rated apps to recommend to users!

[cowhu...@gmail.com]

Hi and thanks for putting so much effort into this tool. I've worked previously with Adobe Edge which is kind of the same. I work in an environment where every kb matters, smaller and less data files would be nice. But my biggest problem is this: I seem to be having issues with i-frames. I can write an i-frame around an edge animation in notepad and it works. GDW however doesn't seem to find the content. Maybe a hint as to what I am doing wrong?

[gabrie...@gmail.com]

why does it take so long for a new version? there are so many bugs out there, you could post some in between beta releases. for example, the delay when you have 2 pages and set a transition. there is a buggy delay, everything goes random...

another question. why don't you make it open-source, so the community can contribute, like blender for example?

i really cannot understand this, google is such a big company and this very useful tool develops soooooooo slow...

[Vadim]

I also think for a long time. 

For example, for blocks of text and need shade. 

You also need to bring order to the location of the right blocks. There's a lot of chaos, it is inconvenient to use.

[Jaz]

Hi,

We definitely understand your frustration, waiting for updates is never fun! While we do try and update pretty often, there is always going to be an unfortunate delay between when users request features and when they are rolled out into the tool. We absolutely appreciate every piece of feedback we receive and we are listening.

Again, we truly appreciate your patience and we're looking forward to the next few months (and years!) of very cool features and bug fixes we're planning to release.

thx!

[Vadim]

Add one new function, and update. 

It is easier and faster. 

And also I would like on the site see your roadmap.

[gabrie...@gmail.com]

there is no excuse for not updating for 2 months now. no program in the world is perfect or complete, so that is a very easy excuse. as some people suggest, make just some changes, like fixing lets say 5 bugs, or add 5 features and post the update. that would be a reasonable time span. one beta update/month should be enough, but you can update it also. look at blender, they make updates almost every day, they put even the release-versions from 2,72, 2.72a and today 2.72b in just 2 weeks. but there is already a 2.72c beta release from today already on the server. that is really a professional approach. and there is a huge request for a WordPress/Joomla implementation, i hope you focus on a main feature like this. many people work with a cms, so without an easy integration, the program will remain a second option. there is something like Lush - Content Slider for WordPress build by a single person, one single person, can you imagine that? i mean, you are a team and not able to make a WordPress version?

[Chef LeeZ]

Sorry, We couldn't give the project more than year without fixing it's very basic text editing problems. Such emotional frustration whenever you attempt to edit or after first creation try to change something.  

We've moved on to wordpress.org  ..   wordpress has a free module to help you attain better SEO PAGES. but for some reason not al the code is visible withinit's editing screen and most attempts to ad code to this screen have failed.

Sorry GWD .. 

[gabrie...@gmail.com]

first of all, i don't accept to be called frustrated, just because we "teach" you how you could improve your product. secondly, please learn a bit of english -> "more than year", before you call other people frustrated. if many "frustrated" people tell you something is right, you should consider at least changing something. this is a feedback forum, so you have to accept also some critics. i expect your apologies for calling us frustrated and you can make us happy with a new version. i think also, Google should supervise the amount of work you actually put in this project, if you are paid for that. a very good way to quantify that work, would be, like user vadim said, to make one single change and update the product, so everybody can see the time lapse you are changing the product. but i think, you don't want that kind of transparency, don't you?

[David Worman]

It's really a shame to see all the entitlement and (for lack of a better term) bitchiness in this Group.  I'm appalled at the recent treatment of Google employees.  How dare anyone demand anything of a team that is developing software and giving it to you for free.  I think Jaz and her team deserve praise for their engagement with this community, and they are even more deserving for not giving this group the finger and moving on to a project where they'll be treated better by the direct beneficiaries of their many hours spent working.

Some of the posters here should be ashamed of their conduct.

[Vadim]

The guys do a good job.

Instead of criticizing, let's we shall discuss how we can help.

[gabrie...@gmail.com]

david, you are completely wrong !!!-> "How dare anyone demand anything of a team that is developing software and giving it to you for free".

These people are employees by Google, they get good money from Google. Google is giving you the software for free. Now, i am a shareholder by Google, so i am a part of Google and you could say, I GIVE YOU THE SOFTWARE FOR FREE and they are just indirectly my employees. That's why many people are confused concerning freeware. Nobody works for free. We, the shareholders give this tool for free.

[David Worman]

Vadim has the right idea here.

gabrie...@gmail.com is that sense of entitlement I mentioned.  I should have just kept quiet, I can't stand that attitude but I won't keep commenting and turn this thread or Group into a flame war.

Thank you GWD for your hard work, and my apologies on behalf of the ungrateful.

[tim...@gmail.com]

I like the fact that you are making an attempt to try and comment as if you were a moderator or employee of Google. Which, obviously you are not. Please don't confuse people and try to play how well WordPress works because it DOESN'T work. Number one, you'll never be first on google no matter how much work you put into your dingy wordpress website. Secondly, if you're going to use a blog website, use BLOGGER.COM. Blogger.com is owned and operated by google and will allow you to utilize all of their platforms. Wordpress is for Elementry school kids with limited knowledge. Thanks and have a nice day.

[tim...@gmail.com]

This comment was directed at @Cheif LeeZ ^^^

[tim...@gmail.com]

Lastly, I'd like to add that, although many people believe this is the only platform being worked on is seriously uninformed. Since the engineers at Google have more class than to defend themselves, I'll do it for them.

Google Web Designer is one of many products that are being integrated onto an ENTIRE platform of many extremely useful tools. Have patience because when it is complete, you will understand why.

Let me fill in the naysayers on what has been in progress along with this project, because they are obviously clueless.

***** An invite-only BETA for domain hosting. I am currently Beta testing this, and already found all of the bugs. This project is about ready to be launched. If you'd like an invitation, feel free to post your email address and I will send you an invite. (I'm limited to only 5 invitations)
https://domains.google.com/about/

***** A free Website from Google, still in the building phase.
https://sites.google.com/

***** And finally, for the people who think blogging is their key to a million dollar business:
http://www.blogger.com

When you integrate all these tools together, once they are finished, you have a plethora of free platforms to build your foundation on. Couple those with the projects in Google Docs, Google Drive, Gmail, Vocie, Google+, Google Places, Business, now you have everything your company will need for online communication, Marketing, SEO, ALL FREE. Except for the domains you have to buy obviously.

I would go more into detail about what the platforms and possibilities are, but those are things you have to explore for yourself.

Patience is a virtue. Understanding is a necessity.

P.S. Thank you GWD team for all the hard work and keep it up!

[Jaz]

Thanks everyone for your comments, both constructive and encouraging! We love being a free tool, we enjoy hearing from you directly and we're pretty excited about releasing more features for you to use, play and debate about :-)

[Jaz]

Just a quick note, we've just launched a bug fix release, check out the post here: http://goo.gl/IqFNX8