Apple's iWeb

[scrivener]

Have any of you played around with Apple's iWeb program? I needed a quick placetaker for one of my websites (database was down) and threw a pretty classy-looking page together in minutes. It was pretty cool.

I needed a front-page for my algebra II website, so I picked one of iWeb's templates, played with the images and text, and in less than an hour had it pretty much how I wanted it. I like the results. Yes, I know that if enough people use iWeb, it will be a piece of cake to spot an iWeb-created page, but I haven't seen too many myself, so what the heck.

The drag-and-drop image-replacement interface is nice; I'm not pleased that you have (I think) to import images to iPhoto in order to do this, but I can live with it. It would be nice to be able to view the source code and make changes that way; If there's a way to do it, I haven't found it.

Overall, about as easy to use as ComicLife, and while I won't rely on it for very many things, I like having it.

Anyone else playing with it?

[tutusue]

Re: Apple's iWeb

I haven't played with it myself but I did watch a demo at MacMouse Club and was thoroughly impressed.

I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing that, eventually, anyone will be able to spot an iWeb site. As long as people have an easy way to get a personal or small business web site up and running while still personalizing it, so be it.

[scrivener]

Re: Apple's iWeb

If you're curious about iWeb sites, mine is at algebra2.net. The links don't work yet, and I'm not hyperlinking from HT (I don't especially want Google to find it), but I got this together in just over an hour.

[tutusue]

Re: Apple's iWeb

Very cool!

[tikiyaki]

Re: Apple's iWeb

Nice looking site. I've built a little iWeb site for myself, but haven't put it up on the web yet. Very easy to use and customize. You can still tell it's an iWeb site but they have a nice look to them.

[Bard]

Re: Apple's iWeb

Nice! It even looks good in Lynx. I always check stuff in Lynx just because I used to use it a lot, and I have a blind friend who have taught me a lot about navigation frustration on graphical sites

I played around with iWeb a bit while I was waiting for my stuff to transfer to this machine I got recently. It seemed pretty nice. Better than FrontPage for sure! I've heard it tends to make bloated web sites though, for not cross-linking images from different pages and such.

[scrivener]

Re: Apple's iWeb

I've used iWeb for a few other things, and am growing to like it more and more. I definitely like having it as one tool in my toolbox. Some things I didn't know about a few weeks ago that I'm enjoying now:

• Some of the graphic text wouldn't edit in the page-editor; I considered this a flaw because I didn't want the world "blog" anywhere on my work (I detest that word!), but I found that renaming the page in the sidebar changes that text for me, so what was once a flaw is now almost a feature. I say almost because I don't like the messy URL created by a page-title with spaces and punctuation.
  
• iWeb keeps track of all my iWeb pages and sites, organizing them in ways that make sense and keeping everything in sight without having to do any navigating for files I might have saved in weird places (something I struggle with all the time with my other sites).
  
• Changes to one page automatically update other pages, quickly and smoothly without my even being aware of it most of the time.
  
• Graphic elements in the page templates can be maneuvered, so that if you use a template on more than one page within a site, you can vary things by moving this flower here, or duplicating that star a few times and clustering them there, or eliminating those bars and polka-dots altogether, and it's all click-and-drag WYSIWYG. Very nice.

One thing I'm not stoked about but can live with is the way I (think I) have to upload the entire site when I make changes just to one part, including graphics and older, untouched components. I'm not sure there isn't a way around this, to be honest, but the way iWeb "publishes" my site to its folder is a bit mysterious to me, so I'm a little worried about what might happen if I try just to upload the part of the site I think I modified.

Over all, it's been fun exploring it and the HT NFL Pick'em gave me a good excuse to try a few things I've been curious about, like regular web-page updates.

[Bard]

Re: Apple's iWeb

One thing I'm not stoked about but can live with is the way I (think I) have to upload the entire site when I make changes just to one part, including graphics and older, untouched components. I'm not sure there isn't a way around this, to be honest, but the way iWeb "publishes" my site to its folder is a bit mysterious to me, so I'm a little worried about what might happen if I try just to upload the part of the site I think I modified.

A lot of people have been complaining about this. I bet it gets fixed in a later version. If you have the access you could also use rsync to update only the changed files. Speaking of which... time for my backup

[Hapaguy]

Re: Apple's iWeb

is iWeb only available using a Mac? can i use it with my PC? I have a mac.com account, trial version for 60 days, in anticipation of finally getting a Mac!

[LocalMotion]

Re: Apple's iWeb

is iWeb only available using a Mac? can i use it with my PC? I have a mac.com account, trial version for 60 days, in anticipation of finally getting a Mac!

iWeb is part of iLife which is Mac only and comes with every new Mac purchased

also from previous, you don't have to have your images in iPhoto to drag and drop them into iWeb, you can drag and drop them from ANYWHERE, even a webpage.

personally i don't use iPhoto cause i use Aperture (i'm a photographer) but hated the fact that i couldn't use my photos with all the other iLife apps with ease... thanks to Aperture 1.5 and the new iLife updates, Aperture is added into the iLife suite of programs to use!!

iWeb is pretty good and will get better, but if you want to take it a step further, with more customizing, etc, another great website program for Mac is Rapidweaver

I use iWeb, Rapidweaver, and Freeway Pro to setup my websites