Download magazine - Jonathan Hoyle

RealMac Software's RapidWeaver 3.2: High-Speed Template-Based CSS Web Site Development Software
reviewed by Mike Swope
RealMac Software
http://www.realmacsoftware.com
$35 USD
Released: December 2005
Target Audience: General Macintosh users to professional web
designers who want to build feature-rich web sites quickly.
Strengths: Resembles iApps in appearance. Distributed with 25
themes out-of-the-box. Possible to create custom templates. Produces
high quality (though "canned") web sites right out of the box. Predesigned additional RapidWeaver templates and add-on plugins
available for purchase from several sites. Users can also make their
own templates if they are familiar with web programming and
conventions. No FTP software required. Automatically checks for
updates. Incredibly easy to use. Fun, too! If only every application
were this powerful, easy and pleasant to use! Apple should acquire
it!
[Editor: iWeb from Apple requires a .Mac account. RapidWeaver
does not.]
Weaknesses: Works differently than other web development
software so that getting started at first may confuse experienced web
developers, unless they are familiar with Apple's family of iApps.
Several oddities and unexpected "gotchas". See the next release as
version 3.5.
What IS RapidWeaver?
RapidWeaver is a template-based web site development application modeled after Apple's award-winning iApps
(iTunes, iPhoto, iDVD, iChat) so that it is somewhat familiar to Mac OS X users. RapidWeaver produces valid
XHTML 1.0 and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Level 1 and Level 2 web sites. Both are modern web standards and
becoming ever more popular with web designers and developers for the features and control they provide over a
site's appearance and, in some cases, interactivity, such as cascading menus.
RapidWeaver ships with 25 templates (some are samples from 3rd party theme developers which must be installed
before they can be used) and 10 page styles with which to build web sites. A few of the templates are identical
except for minor differences, but all templates are professionally designed (like Apple's iDVD themes) and provide
superb results. They range from a template resembling Apple's tabbed web site to multi-colored sites. If no one
knew your site was a template, no one would be the wiser. The 10 page styles also offer some variety for different
types of web pages, including blog, contact form, file sharing, photo album, HTML, and styled text. The fully
configurable contact form requires PHP on the site host and will not work with .Mac accounts. PHP is a common
feature on Unix and Linux-based web hosts. The blog page style is also advanced and supports Podcasts!
MPN, LLC 2006 macCompanion
Page 66
February 2006, Volume 4 Issue 2