Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iWeb Vs RapidWeaver

R.Youden

R.Youden

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 1, 2005
2,093
40
I really want to build my own website and I was very close to purchasing RapidWeaver but with Apple bringing out iWeb I am not sure what is best to do. I eventually want to move onto more complex web design.

From what people have seen do people think that iWeb is better value for money than RapidWeaver and which do you think will be a better grounding in web design?

Any advice would be great, thanks.
 
Richard Youden said:
I really want to build my own website and I was very close to purchasing RapidWeaver but with Apple bringing out iWeb I am not sure what is best to do. I eventually want to move onto more complex web design.

From what people have seen do people think that iWeb is better value for money than RapidWeaver and which do you think will be a better grounding in web design?

Any advice would be great, thanks.
Click to expand...

If you're interested in learning how to design webpages, iWeb is not for you. iWeb is just to allow people that don't want to ever see code to share their life in a hurry.

If you're really interested in Web Design, get Macromedia Dreamweaver and a HTML book. I think Macromedia even has a 30 day trial on their site.
 
Annon said:
If you're interested in learning how to design webpages, iWeb is not for you. iWeb is just to allow people that don't want to ever see code to share their life in a hurry.

If you're really interested in Web Design, get Macromedia Dreamweaver and a HTML book. I think Macromedia even has a 30 day trial on their site.
Click to expand...
Or just use TextEdit. I learnt using Notepad in Windows.
 
howesey said:
Or just use TextEdit. I learnt using Notepad in Windows.
Click to expand...

Me too, but there is a whole spectrum of people out there who would like to build a website, for most of whom this would be overkill, as would Dreamweaver.

I think the OP has a valid question - Rapidweaver is a great tool and it will be interesting to see how it compares with iWeb. I have ordered iLife '06, so when it arrives in a few days, I will compare the two.
 
Have no idea about iWeb, but it's worth the price tag for the other apps alone. So if for some reason it's not brilliant, you've still got the others to use compared to just splashing out on RapidWeaver for one job. Just my two cents . . .

::20ROGERSC::
 
Theres a 30 day trial for RapidWeaver, you could use it for a bit and see what you think.

I really like RapidWeaver (I haven't tried iWeb yet) as it lets you do things nice and quickly. I am proficient with xhtml, css, php etc but I just can't be bothered investing the time in my personal site when all I want to do is upload and thumbnail a few pictures. In my opinion, for your personal site you just need something that lets you get the job done fast.
 
I'll tell you one thing, RapidWeaver's pages load a heck of a lot faster than anything iWeb is making right now.
 
let see some rapidweaver pages! Let's compare. I currently use iWed but it makes huge pages with crude HTML and Titanic size .png images.

For those with RadipWeaver, please post some links.
 
Annon said:
If you're interested in learning how to design webpages, iWeb is not for you. iWeb is just to allow people that don't want to ever see code to share their life in a hurry.

If you're really interested in Web Design, get Macromedia Dreamweaver and a HTML book. I think Macromedia even has a 30 day trial on their site.
Click to expand...

Definitely nothing beats Dreamweaver in terms of just what you can do - and it's generally very easy to use. However, for basic sites, there's just no reason I can find to justify to price!

I've been tinkering with iWeb (got a mere two pages up to see what I can do really:http://web.mac.com/joekarame/iWeb/Site/Intro....html), and I actually think you'll be able to do far more with the thing than just a homepage with just a few snaps etc on.

Yes, it absolutely restricts things for you, but I'm finding various ways and means of getting something out of it, for very little time outlay!
 
I think RW is better than iWeb, but it also depends on what you want. RW has many more features, from exporting to a FTP server to making custom HTML pages. Themes are more flexible in RW and all the page styles you can add also makes it a pretty good app.

I haven't' seen many iWeb-made sites yet, but those I have seen don't impress me. I mean, they look nice for sure, but what about hose huge images?

If you are looking for a really really simple site, use iWeb if you already have it, but RW will let you make small and big sites.

You can visit the site in my signature, which I visit regularly and loads pretty fast, it was made with RW.
 
The one thing I find incredibly depressing is why on Earth, for the love of God didn't Apple simply buy RW and integrate it into iLife?

It's clearly superior, looks and feels like an iLife app already, produces pages that load fast, has a great level of flexibility for those that want it and is available now.

Instead they foist an inferior beta product on to us. I just do not understand the logic.

So anyway, I guess its obvious which camp I'm in. I actually did try both and RW was a clear no brainer, which triggered a licence purchase after a couple of days playing around.

Vanilla
 
Fonts usable in Rapidweaver

Downloaded the demo of Rapidweaver this morning, and the first limitation I see that would put me off is the small number of fonts that are usable with it. Is it possible to import more fonts ? or is there a third party plug in to allow more fonts ?
 
I use rapidweaver for a number of professional and personal sites and I have to say it is simply superb. It is so easy to use and will still let you do some advanced things later on. It's not that advanced that it is at the stage of Dreamweaver, but for beginners up to medium levels (or advanced experts looking for a quick instant result!) Rapidweaver is the application.

I tried using iWeb, but it just lacks the functionality that Rapidweaver has. I did do a double-implementation, having the contents of my homepage of my personal site done in iWeb but the rest of the site and the navigation buttons around the home page done in Rapidweaver, using an iFrame. I have since got rid of this implementation, because as people have said, the pages take far far too long to load and look good. Sometimes they look really really ugly in Internet Explorer or Firefox.

Go for Rapidweaver. You won't be dissapointed. It is well worth the money.

Version 3.5 is looking good aswell, can't wait until that one is released.

www.andyjshaw.com
www.andrewshaw.net
www.williamhutson.staffs.sch.uk
 
feature-wise, RapidWeaver just plain smokes iWeb. code-wise, RapidWeaver smokes iWeb too. in the looks department, that is subjective but RapidWeaver has the flexibility of being able to actually create your own themes, something not yet available in iWeb. i'd say they are equal in the ease-of-use department. RapidWeaver is literally some of the best Mac software around. for non-coders, it's totally plug and play and for those looking to go further a few hours experimenting with customizing and creating themes would prove to be an extremely productive lesson in web design coding. i have iWeb because it came with iLife but it doesn't get much use around here. very, very happy with RapidWeaver and it gets better with every update.
 
eyelight said:
Downloaded the demo of Rapidweaver this morning, and the first limitation I see that would put me off is the small number of fonts that are usable with it. Is it possible to import more fonts ? or is there a third party plug in to allow more fonts ?
Click to expand...
That is a limitation of pretty much any web design app. If you use a font that someone doesn't have installed on their system, your page isn't going to display that font (on their computer). The fonts available in RapidWeaver are the generally accepted universal fonts for web design. If you want to use a particular font other than those, you likely need to make image files of those instances on the page to ensure they look the way you want them to in every browser.
 
I've never actually designed my own theme in Rapidweaver, but would love to! Is it hard? There are some really good basic themes but wish there were more colours or they were wider! I regularly scour the tinternet trying to find other great themes, but doing my own would be so great! Never really knew how catering Rapidweaver was to this so never tried.
 
I'm really disappointed with iWeb. The end product is basically just oversized eye candy. Websites are supposed to be functional, and iWeb pages are far from that, as they are too huge. My aunt almost closer her browser when trying to view a photopage I did because it was taking so long.

I'll stick to Rapidweaver, Dreamweaver, and Wordpress.
 
Just a quick update, did some more work with Rapidweaver last night, spent a couple hours with it, and man is it nice. Lots of options with themes I didn't know were there. Go into page preferences and you can change some colors and width, etc, right there, with no coding required. Makes it easy to adjust a template for different styles of pages once you pick one. Really slick.

I think I've found my quick site solution. I agree with an earlier comment - Apple should have just purchased Rapidweaver and made it into iWeb. iWeb produces bulky sites. Rapidweaver is much more efficient.
 
iweb vs Rapiweaver

I have been using iweb for a long time now and recently started to try rapid weaver.
I have to say that out of the two, iweb rules by far. The themes are better plus the pro themes which you can purchase for iweb are much more slick,stylish and professional looking than rapid weaver. The template themes for rapid weaver look cheap,tacky and rushed in comparison and there was not one that i actually liked in Rapidweaver.
The ease of use in iweb is brilliant with lots of options like drag and drop adding graphics ect,and i found with Rapidweaver these features are very messy! The only thing lacking in iweb is it has no contact form feature,but these are easy to find on the web for free!

Love my iweb and will stick to it from now on....Rapidweaver is being dumped in the trash basket!!!!! ;)
 
Iweb versus RapideWeaver

As today one of my website www.MHD59.com done with iweb has been on the web for years, this website has been done without any template and few code add, marketed with metadata , google and SEO tools been great.
next year i will launch all my websites utilizing rapidweaver (all redone all ready and ready to go) after using a lot ADOBE DREAMWAEVER, Great but far too much time waisted where you doing business, I MUST SAY rapidewarver been good, not great yet, IWEB been very alike rapidweaver offer much more tools in generals, rapideweaver let be honest have funny templates and limited access to change temple, BEST WAY use SIMPLE and customize everything yourself... still you need to do a lot of work (and buy lot of add on or plugins that at the end will crash your computer) in iweb you will ALL have all the tools all ready to go big difference....... BOTTOM LINE I DO NOT CARE about name, I care about to look good and be efficient so no matter what software you will use after your website been done you will have to spend some money to optomized and be on top ..........that the fact.. Iweb been much better , unfortunately, the Apple software been frop so YES the best alternative to do the job will be rapidwaever, if not go to sandvox or if you have only a short website and lot of time go to adobe........

Maximin Lida
www.MHD59.com
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back