How is iWeb '08 to use?

[pw1981]

I am looking for a WYSIWYG web page design tool. Nothing fancy, just to keep the family up to date.

I know it can publish to MobileMe... but can it publish to other servers? I have a hosting account for my domains and would rather use that server. Can it upload via FTP settings?

All in all, how is the program to use? Simple? I only know of one web page thtI have ever visited that was made with it and it would NOT load in IE6 or IE7, only FF or Safari.

 

[sickmacdoc]

I am looking for a WYSIWYG web page design tool. Nothing fancy, just to keep the family up to date.

I know it can publish to MobileMe... but can it publish to other servers? I have a hosting account for my domains and would rather use that server. Can it upload via FTP settings?

All in all, how is the program to use? Simple? I only know of one web page thtI have ever visited that was made with it and it would NOT load in IE6 or IE7, only FF or Safari.

Well I can certainly say that the version included in iLife 08 (v. 2.0x) it much more capable than the original iWeb 1.x that appeared with iLife 06. It is quite easy to use and although it has some notable limitations, it will be fine for many people (including me).

It certainly can publish to any hosting site- you "publish" your site to a folder rather than publishing to MobileMe via a separate selection in the menu bar. Once it is "published" to a folder on your hard drive, you then use an FTP program of your choice to upload the resulting files to your own host.

There is a site that shows several hundred examples of iWeb created sites that I stumbled across that you would probably find of interest. It can be found at http://www.iwebusersites.com/Home.html

BTW- virtually everything that IE has problems with can be fixed with workarounds. I continually check sites I am working on in both Boot Camp to check under XP and on a Vista based PC laptop as well.

It would seem to me that the use you described would be good fit with iWeb's capabilities and along the lines of what it appears to have been designed for in the first place- and you get the benefits of the other iLife programs for the same price.

 

[A Pittarelli]

i find it a lot like iWeb '07, but with one less number. in all seriousness its much easier and i personally find that it works a lot better

 

[dazzer21]

How is it at handling fonts?

 

[sickmacdoc]

How is it at handling fonts?

Well, it handles them like in a pretty standard fashion, in that if you use one of the standardized web fonts (Arial, Helvetica, Times Roman, etc. which are indicated in a section of the Font Selector in iWeb) they will appear the same on any computer with those fonts installed and will load fast.

If you choose to use a non-standard font iWeb will convert that text box to "graphic text" (I think that is what they call it anyway) with which the text will be defined as a graphic. The upside to that is that you can safely use any font you have and it will be viewed correctly in any browser- but the downside is that it will be loaded as a graphic when anybody views your site rather than fast loading text, slowing the overall loading speed for your site. If your site is not graphics intense this may not present a speed problem for you, but if it is this is just one more delay which may chase users away. Kind of a tradeoff which I try to address with minimizing the number of instances of graphic text on any given page.

 

[sickmacdoc]

Regarding the "graphic text" vs. non-graphic text issue, I just remember a page from a site that I am working on for a friend that uses both. The word "Services" at the top is graphic text and the rest is standard Helvetica, so you can see that both types can exist fine on the same page. The menu text is defined by the template used which can only be changed by creating a custom menu and hiding the template produced menu BTW.

http://www.errors.thinkhost.com/ultnew/Ultimate_Outdoor_Creations/Services.html