Sandvox better than iWeb and RapidWeaver
So what makes Sandvox better? I looked at some websites created with it and they don't seem to load any quicker than sites created with iWeb. Both of these are WYSIWYG code generators.
I did a thorough comparison of Sandvox and iWeb a couple of years ago, and found that Sandvox was way better in almost every way. It's been a while since then, so my memory of iWeb is a bit shaky, but here's what I remember:
1. Sandvox sites are ordinary documents, and you can save them where you want, e.g. in the Documents folder or on Dropbox for use on another Mac with Sandvox installed. This avoids confusion with iWeb "Domain" files.
2. Sandvox is more reliable with 2-byte languages. Japanese-language sites created in iWeb often have dead internal links because of a bug with the handling of folders and pages with Japanese-language names, even though iWeb gives them those Japanese-language names by default.
3. Sandvox has an easy-to-understand and very flexible site hierarchy based on "Collections". A blog is a Collection, as is a podcast, as is a photo album. As well as creating pages within Sandvox to populate these Collections, you can also drag in audio or video or photos and Sandvox will handle them intelligently. Note that pages are aware of where they are in the hierarchy, so links to enclosing items and so on are updated automatically and intelligently. I don't remember the details exactly, but in iWeb I remember having to update some of these by hand, in a way that struck me as totally lame.
4. Code injections allow more advanced developers (of whom I am not one) to do more advanced things with their site.
5. Exported sites make sense. I can look through the folder and basically understand what Sandvox has done.
6. Better native themes. This is of course subjective. In fact, my criticism of Sandvox is that the themes are a little too design-intensive, such that if I ever came across a site with the Sleepytime, or Erratic, or Branching Out theme, I would feel that I couldn't really use that theme. Fortunately, some third-party developers are bringing out some more vanilla and adaptable themes.
7. Unlike with iWeb, the developers of Sandvox are identifiable human beings who appear to feel responsible for their product and whom it is possible to persuade to add a feature or take a certain direction.
It would be great if other Sandvox fans could add to or correct the above as appropriate.
