RapidWeaver
Realmac Software ( http://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/)
Almost two months ago the nice folk at Realmac Software gave me a license key to look at their web authoring application, called RapidWeaver. The software is great, though I hardly had time to look at it and I feel rather guilty about it – here at MyMac.com we try to turn around reviews quickly and efficiently and I feel like am letting everyone here down. Let me just apologize, very publicly, to Realmac Software, for not upholding the high standards they have every right to expect from us.
So far all I can tell you about RapidWeaver is that it is a great application, its very intuitive to use and it seems flexible enough to support those, who’d like to explore a little more about web programming. You can drop in some html code and it will know what to do, I tried it with a bit of code that would drop in a Google Map into a page.
One of the biggest benefits of RapidWeaver is its extensibility, not only will you have no problem to find the most awesome templates for your page, but you can extend RapidWeaver with new functionality. Yes, you’ll have to pay for it, but most seem reasonably priced and they are provided by proper third party developers. The type of support that iWeb could use, but doesn’t seem to be getting anytime soon.
I was fascinated with iWeb for all but a week, until I realized its limitations. I haven’t seen the new iWeb and I know that Guy Serle is just telling you how to make the best of iWeb. Haven’t seen it, visit this page on MyMac.com. You’ll find it very interesting.
So there are plenty of tools out there – iWeb that comes free with iLife, and RapidWeaver, that comes at a modest US$ 49 / or € 36.51. Will I continue to explore RapidWeaver – yes of course, I will want to let you have a full review, the up and down, but it might be a bit longer. And here is why:
Let me start with the biggest problem
I like to tinker around with html code
If you have been editing web-pages for as long as I have, you might sometimes feel like RapidWeaver is holding you back. Just remember that this application wasn’t written for those of us, who’ve learned to create their web pages in a text editor. Still the heritage of typing your tags sometimes can be very strong and lead to minor frustrations. Those are the moments that I need to remember that this isn’t a tool that was designed for me and I will need to remind myself that the beauty of RapidWeaver is the fact that you don’t have to get your hands dirty with html-code.
It is one of those things that can be a curse. I remember the “good old days” of FrontPage Express, the code was so horribly bad, that you would sometimes use it to create code quickly, just to spend twice as long to clean up that code. FrontPage, which I used as part of Office 2000 on my Windows PC was a bit better, but not perfect.
Mostly I am using GoLive these days, it gives me a great combination of using both a quick WYSIWYG editor, and lets me tinker with the code to my heart’s content.
Still RapidWeaver is awesome and I just need to find the time to get the review done. This brings me directly to my next reason
I am just too busy these days
Sometimes it sounds like the silliest excuse ever, but I have hardly any time anymore. I got engaged just two months ago and look forward to getting married next March. The wedding date is just under five month away now and I am telling you, there is so much to think about, so much to prepare, that you wouldn’t believe it. And from what my friends, who got married already tell me, I am not even scratching the surface of the wedding preparations yet.
I have also started to travel a lot for work again. This month is a good example, in the office for one week and out another. I look forward to Saturday, when I am flying to Detroit and traveling on to Ann Arbor for some company meetings next week.
I will get to do some essential Apple shopping, I want a copy of iWork, I’d really like an iPod touch, but can’t justify the expense. I’d love a new iMac, but that I’ll get in Germany. Well, I will surely use my time for some shopping, the Dollar is cheap and I look forward to spending time in Michigan.
So, this blog entry has gotten me nowhere nearer to completing the RapidWeaver review, but maybe I have been able to wet your appetite and get you to check it out. Let me know what you think about RapidWeaver and maybe I can use it for the review.
Thanks for understanding, I promise to finish the review ASAP.
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