iWeb alternatives are really not alternatives!

[the7th1]

Hi there! I have used iWeb for apprx 6 years now, and maintain 3 small websites with it. Having absolutely NO CSS/HTML skills what so ever, this is the perfect tool for me. I have been looking all over for an alternative, since Apple do no longer update iWeb. I have tested RapidWeaver, Sandvox, FreeWay etc etc. Unless I buy a PRO version (hundreds of dollars) there is litterally no alternative as easy to use a iWeb for me. I do not like the templates that come with the "Express" versions. And there are MANY limitations. In iWeb there may be limitations to styles/formats etc, but with some drag and drop excersises this is quickly done, and I do not feel limited at all. And I can actually start completely from scratch with just drag&drop. Files are stored easily etc. Everywhere else I test, I have to get used to a somewhat more complicated scenario. iWeb is simplicity at its best. Am I the only one missing a point?

[hikeNM]

Originally Posted by the7th1

Hi there! I have used iWeb for apprx 6 years now, and maintain 3 small websites with it. Having absolutely NO CSS/HTML skills what so ever, this is the perfect tool for me. I have been looking all over for an alternative, since Apple do no longer update iWeb. I have tested RapidWeaver, Sandvox, FreeWay etc etc. Unless I buy a PRO version (hundreds of dollars) there is litterally no alternative as easy to use a iWeb for me. I do not like the templates that come with the "Express" versions. And there are MANY limitations. In iWeb there may be limitations to styles/formats etc, but with some drag and drop excersises this is quickly done, and I do not feel limited at all. And I can actually start completely from scratch with just drag&drop. Files are stored easily etc. Everywhere else I test, I have to get used to a somewhat more complicated scenario. iWeb is simplicity at its best. Am I the only one missing a point?

Boy, we're gonna get flamed here probably. But I agree with you completely. Nothing else out there to me is as easy or nice looking for the amount of effort required. Personally, I'm staying with iWeb until the bitter end in the false hope Apple will revive it or something comparable.

In fact, after having iCloud for a while now, I really really miss MobileMe (ducks under a chair while things are thrown at him). To me, the entire ecosystem of MobileMe was light years ahead of iCloud.

Losing iDisk, Gallery, and iWeb was not good and I'm still really surprised that Apple ceded that market.

[HarryPot]

Originally Posted by hikeNM

Losing iDisk, Gallery, and iWeb was not good and I'm still really surprised that Apple ceded that market.

At least Gallery is coming back.

As for iWeb, it is a great tool for personal sites. And also for businesses that don't want to spend in a website, and want to create their own website. And as you said, there's not many alternatives.

Aside from that, learning HTML/CSS is a great thing. If you have the time, it's definitely worth it.

[snberk103]

First... I have no experience with iWeb. And I do use the Pro version of Sandvox.... but not the other packages you've noted. With that said...

I think some of your issues with Sandvox are misplaced.

I don't think they have a Pro/Non-Pro version any more. It used to be that you needed the Pro version to muck about with HTML... now it's all included. Mucking about with the HTML is, however, not at all necessary - and in fact they don't really make it easy.

You can get a bunch of free templates for Sandvox from their 3rd party developers. Most of the available templates -and there are lots of them - come from 3rd parties, and most have a selection of free ones. The templates you pay for can be as cheap as a couple of dollars.

If are mucking about with where your files are stored, then change a setting. I forget where it is - but it is in the inspector and it puts all the media files you use into one 'Sandvox' file container. Your entire site, media files and all, are contained in a single file. It's biggish file, naturally, but it can be shared as is. And no file management required. I use this setting because I store my web-site files on Dropbox so that I can edit a web-site on either my laptop or desktop.

Sandvox may be less simple than iWeb... but it can't be that much more difficult. I have no web building training and maintain both my own and several other people's web-sites with it.

[the7th1]

Originally Posted by snberk103

First... I have no experience with iWeb. And I do use the Pro version of Sandvox.... but not the other packages you've noted. With that said...

I think some of your issues with Sandvox are misplaced.

Sandvox may be less simple than iWeb... but it can't be that much more difficult. I have no web building training and maintain both my own and several other people's web-sites with it.

OK - maybe I'll take another look at Sandvox.... It's just a shame with iWeb though...

[the7th1]

Originally Posted by hikeNM

In fact, after having iCloud for a while now, I really really miss MobileMe (ducks under a chair while things are thrown at him). To me, the entire ecosystem of MobileMe was light years ahead of iCloud.

Losing iDisk, Gallery, and iWeb was not good and I'm still really surprised that Apple ceded that market.

I never really used MobileMe, but I use the FTP uploader thats built into iWeb. Works flawless... Again, simple and easy...

Like you, I do hope (naively?) that Apple will some day relaunch iWeb...

[snberk103]

Originally Posted by the7th1

OK - maybe I'll take another look at Sandvox.... It's just a shame with iWeb though...

Yep. Didn't use iWeb myself, but I've had other applications pulled out from under me. You just gotta move on... sometimes the replacement applications are - sometimes - even better than the old ones ...

There's a good community here... just post your questions.... and ignore the noise-makers. I don't often read this forum, but PM me with an occasional question.

IIRC Sandvox has a trial version....

[saltspringer]

Maybe it's because I DO know html/css, but I HATED iWeb and cheered when I heard Apple was discontinuing it.

More likely, though, it's because I had the misfortune of trying to fix a broken iWeb site. At one point the site would just stop uploading changes, and that was it. Never did get it fixed, and since the code that iWeb generates was unintelligible to man, machine and beast, it couldn't be fixed with anything else. The poor schmuck that owned the site had to start over from scratch.

I felt it was an blemish on Apple's reputation for good software and applauded them for killing it.

[m00min]

Yep. There's no real substitute for knowing the markup/code. I stopped using Dreamweaver a decade ago when I realised the preview window wasn't previewing any kind of reality, I was using it as a rather hefty text editor.

[saltspringer]

Well, I was kind of unhappy when Adobe killed GoLive in favour of Dreamweaver, but I've mostly gotten over it.

GoLive had a couple of very cool features that I really liked:

the css 'grid' system for laying things out

the 'smart' Photoshop and 'smart' Illustrator thing, which allowed you to drop Photoshop or Illustrator files into a layout and it would automatically create the web-ready image files. You could freely resize an image, and it would re-generate the image file.

The latter thing I can do just as efficiently a different way, but the 'grid' thing was so cool - and as far as I know unavailable in any other program - that I still occasionally fire up GoLive to use it.

Mostly, though, I use Coda for just about all of my web work. Just a brilliant editor, and I haven't even gotten around to upgrading to the new version yet.

[Baytriple]

I use Wordpress. Which is free. All you have to do is buy a domain name and some space on a server. Most of these servers these days are wordpress enabled.

Then you go to themeforest.com and pick one of the amazing websites to customise.

Takes a bit of learning but you get an A1 looking website that can be content managed.

[m00min]

^^ Swings and roundabouts, I was upset they killed off Freehand. I still rate it over Illustrator.

I use Espresso for front-end dev work because of its killer CSS features. Thinking about it Espresso might be a good tool to use when getting into CSS, it's a bit like Firebug, you can click on elements and see how stuff is put together.

[m00min]

Originally Posted by Baytriple

I use Wordpress. Which is free. All you have to do is buy a domain name and some space on a server. Most of these servers these days are wordpress enabled.

Then you go to themeforest.com and pick one of the amazing websites to customise.

Takes a bit of learning but you get an A1 looking website that can be content managed.

If you don't want to bother with hosting you can use WordPress.com and pay a yearly fee to map your own domain to your site. You don't have to worry about keeping the software up to date as all that's taken care of.

[saltspringer]

Yeah, I'd agree that WordPress is the option for those that don't want to, or can't code.

And as the previous poster pointed out, if they host it, you don't even need to worry about doing the updates - although with WordPress, the updates are dead easy.

----------

Originally Posted by m00min

^^ Swings and roundabouts, I was upset they killed off Freehand. I still rate it over Illustrator.

Oh, I started using Illustrator from version 1.0, but did like some of FreeHand's features. But I guess I'm now kind of hard-wired to think in Illustrator and LOVE the program - though Adobe, not so much...

[Undecided]

Originally Posted by the7th1

Hi there! I have used iWeb for apprx 6 years now, and maintain 3 small websites with it. Having absolutely NO CSS/HTML skills what so ever, this is the perfect tool for me. I have been looking all over for an alternative, since Apple do no longer update iWeb. I have tested RapidWeaver, Sandvox, FreeWay etc etc. Unless I buy a PRO version (hundreds of dollars) there is litterally no alternative as easy to use a iWeb for me. I do not like the templates that come with the "Express" versions. And there are MANY limitations. In iWeb there may be limitations to styles/formats etc, but with some drag and drop excersises this is quickly done, and I do not feel limited at all. And I can actually start completely from scratch with just drag&drop. Files are stored easily etc. Everywhere else I test, I have to get used to a somewhat more complicated scenario. iWeb is simplicity at its best. Am I the only one missing a point?

Nope, I totally agree. I looked at those other packages too, and none seemed better than iWeb to me. There may have been a feature here or there that was better (like having master pages) but overall iWeb was easy, looked fantastic, and with some clever tricks it was possible to embed some very neat things.

iWeb still works as far as I know, though, so you can still keep using it.

My own web page needs have basically ended luckily (I'm more about just the domain with Google-hosted email these days).

[frocco]

Sandvox to me was not that feature rich.
I needed Shopping Cart management, inventory, products and mysql connectivity.

[hikeNM]

Really? That's awesome! When did this come about?

Originally Posted by HarryPot

At least Gallery is coming back.

[BaldiMac]

Originally Posted by hikeNM

Really? That's awesome! When did this come about?

Shared photo streams are coming with iOS 6. They are accessible on the web. That's probably what the poster was referring to.

http://www.apple.com/ios/ios6/#photostreams

[hikeNM]

Ahh. Not quite the same.

Originally Posted by BaldiMac

Shared photo streams are coming with iOS 6. They are accessible on the web. That's probably what the poster was referring to.

http://www.apple.com/ios/ios6/#photostreams

[GR33NIE]

I'd go with RapidWeaver over iWeb anyday, I'm no CSS expert either but for basic things you can find most of it on the web anyway

[donlab]

Try silverstripe.org or wordpress.org with a snazzy theme on a hosted solution. Setup and support is well documented.

If you want to avoid the setup, try a wordpress account from wordpress.com or google sites or blogger.

Edit: Another way to cut down on the complexity is to move to a domain registrar with intuitive admin tools. I like hover.com very much.

[jonharris200]

Do you have an iPad? If so, you can use our great new website builder app Simpl - it is really simple! www.simpl.com Plus, we updated it with a great new feature just yesterday.

Originally Posted by the7th1

Hi there! I have used iWeb for apprx 6 years now, and maintain 3 small websites with it. Having absolutely NO CSS/HTML skills what so ever, this is the perfect tool for me. I have been looking all over for an alternative, since Apple do no longer update iWeb. I have tested RapidWeaver, Sandvox, FreeWay etc etc. Unless I buy a PRO version (hundreds of dollars) there is litterally no alternative as easy to use a iWeb for me. I do not like the templates that come with the "Express" versions. And there are MANY limitations. In iWeb there may be limitations to styles/formats etc, but with some drag and drop excersises this is quickly done, and I do not feel limited at all. And I can actually start completely from scratch with just drag&drop. Files are stored easily etc. Everywhere else I test, I have to get used to a somewhat more complicated scenario. iWeb is simplicity at its best. Am I the only one missing a point?

[filmbufs]

Originally Posted by Undecided

Nope, I totally agree. I looked at those other packages too, and none seemed better than iWeb to me. There may have been a feature here or there that was better (like having master pages) but overall iWeb was easy, looked fantastic, and with some clever tricks it was possible to embed some very neat things.

iWeb still works as far as I know, though, so you can still keep using it. .

I'm not a programmer and more of a designer, so when it came to finding a program that would actually let me create what I wanted rather than conform to a lot of coding rules, I was ecstatic in discovering iWeb. I was able to create workarounds for the few limitations I found. I LOVE iWeb.

I was surprised when Apple decided to no longer support iWeb. Because of that, I haven't upgraded to any recent iLife version. Question for those who might know - If I do upgrade my iLife, can I still keep my version of iWeb as a separate app? Will uninstalling my current batch of iLife automatically kill my iWeb app? If so, how can I install a backup?

[Peafreen]

Nevermind

[Artful Dodger]

To filmbufs you can still use iWeb as I still do. I have iLife 11 or whatever was the last one to have iWeb on the disc which is how I have it installed on my October 2011 iMac. I just put in the iLife disc and installed it and then installed all my templets from other vendors that I had purchased over the last few years and everything still works great.

I know someday it might not but for now it's all good. If you have it on disc I would just install it and use it like you have been.