“It hasn’t been a great year for iWeb users,” Adam Berenstain reports for Macworld. “Apple’s lone Web design app wasn’t updated with the release of iLife ’11, and future versions—much less a successor—are in doubt”
“Even if iWeb’s prospects are as bad as they seem, there’s more to creating websites on the Mac than just one program,” Berenstain reports. “Whether you’re looking for an easy-to-use iWeb replacement or a more sophisticated program with more powerful features for you and your site’s visitors, a host of applications is available for every skill level and budget.”
Berenstain reports, “Here are some of the highlights and how current iWeb users could find them useful.”
Read more in the full article – in which Berenstain covers Dreamweaver CS5, Freeway 5 Pro, Hype, MacFlux 3, Muse, RapidWeaver, Sandvox 2.1.6, WordPress 3.0, and iWeb ’09 – here.
It would be great especially with such integration as we have seen lately for an advanced iWeb component!
SAVE iWEB!!!!
When I was making my first attempts at a few web sites, I bought Sandvox, Freeway Express, Goldfish and Rapid Weaver.
The early versions of Sandvox were appallingly buggy; in fact, they should never have been released. Nowadays, the program is fast and stable. I use it for a simple family web site.
I created my business site with Freeway Express (I’ve no need for the Pro version). The learning curve is fairly steep, but it’s quite powerful.
I haven’t bothered to update my copies of Rapid Weaver (I prefer Sandvox’s WYSIWYG interface) or Goldfish (which the article doesn’t mention).
I’ve seen some nice sites created with iWeb, and I hope Apple updates it.
I have been using Freeway Pro versions for years now and have built about a dozen sites with it, all without having to learn any HTML coding. It might not be right for Walmart or Target’s sites but I have never run into a roadblock creating whatever I wanted to.
Yeah…I really like Freeway but their code is verbose and inelegant. CSS and text support is good though and Hype snippets are easy to incorporate if you keep control of folders. Just don’t try and open a Dreamweaver site in Freeway however.
I still miss the ‘up and running within an hour’ aspect of iWeb.
haha, thankfully I wouldn’t know “verbose and inelegant” code if it bit me. All I know is that the sites I build seem to work very well for viewers and I can build and refine them easily to look any way I want with Freeway Pro now that I have learned to use the program.
I do hope Apple will keep iWeb alive as it was a very good option for a great many folks, even if it is too limited for my use.
The article misses an elegant web solution for photographers;
Aperture will create simple, graceful web pages displaying photos, and videos, and text, with just a few clicks.
I have used Rapidweaver for a few years. Very powerful program and fairly easy to use but don’t be deceived by the price. You have to spend 50 – $150 more in “add-ons” to really make is usable. The add ons are amazing and the program works great with them but without add ons your site will look WORSE than iWeb.
The iWork suite and iLife suite (specifically iWeb) are Apple’s orphan children. iWork is woefully out of date, especially for simple synching documents between machines/devices. Hard to understand Apple’s lack of current initiative given the significant financial resources available.
Pages in particular needs a grammar checker.
That’s a big part of why I still use MS Word. Not that the grammar checker is always right, but it does catch most of my stupid mistakes.
We need iWork ’12!!!
Yep- very disappointing. Excited about my new iPhone’s potential, but what’s going on with iLife in general, Logic, iWork… Must we buy Adobe and Google apps?
All of the “iWeb replacement” options work for some people, but there is only one iWeb. As far as ease of use is concerned, nothing else even comes close.
@NHL: Didn’t know that Aperture can make simple web pages. Thanks for mentioning it!
Nothing in web design is as easy as designing the bulk of a site in iWeb, exporting it to the Finder or to FTP, and tweaking the code to your heart’s content. There’s nothing that can’t be done.
To my knowledge, there isn’t a good replacement for iWeb in the market yet. iWeb lacked some functions but you can pretty much do as you pleased with iWeb without needing an instruction manual. I put up an elegant website my very first time with iWeb. I tired Freeway, Sandovox and Rapidweaver but couldn’t get anything done with those. iWeb was very simple and I’m afraid it spoiled me. I will continue using it until someone makes something better.
Save iWeb!
Haven’t done much if any web site design myself, but I know the developer of SandVox, and he’s a first-rate software engineer. For what it’s worth.
-jcr
I created my business website on iWeb. For a complete novice to web design, it is a godsend. New customers are surprised that we are such a small company, assuming by our slick website that we are much, much bigger than we are.
I’m really quite distressed about what is going to happen to iWeb. It annoys me that Apple in some respects are becoming like Microsoft – launching a great product and touting its huge potential with great fanfare, then promptly loosing interest, leaving a legion of dedicated users out on a limb.
One of the few things that pissed me off about Apple. Killing iWeb is stupid. It’s so easy every family member can use it. I was hoping Apple would keep it and create a pro version.
Like many others I have cycled through those mentioned in the article and found that none really worked for me. I’m no designer and my only needs are simple sites with a few pages of information. I’m not going to dwell on the issues I had with any of these but I will mention a couple that have worked well for me: Shutterbug from Xtralean, which does pretty decent photo albums, and Website Painter, which can be found on Macupdate.
Mike
Come on!
The ball has been in Apple’s court for far too long on this.
Web development is too important to ignore.
So is basic DTP for the rest of us.
I believe that Pages can be enhanced to allow proper, detailed page design which can then be exported in formats optimised for print and web publishing. It already does a reasonable job exporting to ePub, if you follow a few simple rules of document construction.
Pages is the key.
Web Pages
Print Pages
ePrint Pages.
One app, one effort, many outputs.
This is why iWork is so seriously delayed imo.
When I first got a Mac, the single standout feature that made me buy it was Hypercard. It allowed me to create original content that was interactive, stunning to look at and easy to use.
Then many years later, iWeb looked so promising that I spent real money specifically in order to get iWeb and it gave me the ability to create fabulous web content. I had previously tried and eventually given up on creating web sites, but iWeb made it possible for my first attempt to be a really good looking twenty page site which I created that first evening.
iWeb has become another Hypercard. Both were unique and I would have thought embodied the very essence of what Apple is all about. They both allowed inexperienced users to create content without any prior experience. I simply cannot understand why Apple killed off both products so prematurely.
Billions of devices to enjoy the web are made by Apple…
WE need a simple, elegant web (and an App) design program to create content for these devices. Just sick of the B.S. websites out there lingering around in old school clunky non-intuitive design.
We do need “something” from Apple for web design a little more robust than iWeb.
….SOMETHING!
I worked for Apple’s tech support about 13 years ago. Apple’s dirty little secret at then time and now, is they have little to no development programs for software….beyond writing operating system code which is all done in Cupertino. The rest of the world can go soak its head as far as those eggheads there are concerned, and frankly folks, you can’t let those guys out into the sunlight, society isn’t ready for them. IWeb is an amazing product and I will continue to use it over anything else from here on out along with WordPress to update the masses….peace.