First Look: iWeb ’09
It’s been a heady few months. The updates to iWork ’09 and iLife ’09 have, for the most part, been as impressive and inspiring as we’ve come to expect from Apple. I upgraded both suites the very second I could. I can’t tell you how much I love these products.
Except…iWeb ’09. (Liam looks to the ceiling, gathers his thoughts…tries not to get agitated.)
If you didn’t already know, iWeb is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) website authoring tool. It’s an end-to-end solution that makes it supremely easy to create a complete, sort-of-professional-looking website from scratch. Only, I have some issues with it. Where to begin…
I should begin by explaining something: I’m not a “lite” user. I’ve been developing websites and web applications for over a decade, and I’ve become accustomed to the power and flexibility offered by the like of Adobe Dreamweaver and (yes) Microsoft Expression Web. (Although, given the choice, I’d rather use Visual Studio 2008.) So I understand — I really do understand — that iWeb is not supposed to be competition for those other solutions. iWeb isn’t really for me. Nor does it try to be. It’s supposed to be something very simple, very easy to use. It’s supposed to be intuitive and accessible. It’s supposed to provide a seamless experience for anyone with even the tiniest bit of creative vision. And you know what — it does all the things it’s supposed to do. It just doesn’t do enough.
So, before I get agitated again, let’s take a look at the new release and feel thankful for what it does do.
The interface hasn’t change much, save for the introduction of a vertical panel along the right-hand side of the window, called the Media Browser. This gives easy one-click access to Audio, Photos and Movies on your Mac. Nothing the Media Inspector didn’t do before, except for the final tab – Widgets.
Widgets
Widgets make it quick and easy to add rich-media to web pages.
While the Gallery pages iWeb creates always have allowed users to hook-in to their .Mac or MobileMe galleries, this widget makes it possible to add a single, self-contained gallery-link to a page without the need to use iWeb’s more cumbersome “My Albums” section to your site. What you get is similar to the Events view in iPhoto; a square panel that shows thumbnails of photos in your chosen MobileMe Gallery. When you pass your mouse over the panel, you get different thumbnails of the photos that lie within. Clicking will open a new page that loads the original MobileMe gallery.
Exactly what you’d expect. You paste a link to a chosen YouTube video into a popup dialogue box. It embeds the video on your page.
I really like this Widget. It doesn’t move the earth, it does precisely what you’d expect, but it takes the hassle out of coding these things by hand. Drag this Widget onto your page and you are presented with a sheet asking for the address you want to display. You can set zoom level, and choose which user-controls are available (such as zoom controls or the Google Maps search bar).
Precisely what proportion of typical home-users are Google AdSense customers is an interesting question. I would hazard a guess it’s really not so many. In which case, this seems like a tip of the hat at providing something useful to more advanced users. Except I cannot see iWeb being used as a tool-of-choice by sufficiently advanced users (and by that, I’m referring to anyone who wants to create a truly decent, individual website — but more on that later).
You could have done this before using PhotoBooth. Only now it’s built-in to iWeb. This widget starts you iSight camera and allows you to take a photo for instant-inclusion in your web page.
Precisely the same as the iSight Photo option above. Only with movies.
I could see this being popular with websites announcing upcoming weddings and birthdays. In short — completely pointless and not exactly something the websphere was crying-out for. Still, it’s something new. Enjoy selecting your birthdate for next year and watching it automagically work out the number of seconds between now and then. And count them down. (meh)
Finally! A truly useful widget that was not previously easily-done. Except there is a catch — it doesn’t create an RSS feed from content in your page; it imports a feed from outside your site. If that’s what you want to do, this is a nice and simple way of making that happen.
Ironically, this is the most powerful widget of the lot. It allows you to construct your own HTML and generate pretty much anything you want. Of course, Apple expects you to be doing nothing more advanced than adding someone else’s banner, visitor tracking button or analytics script. If you want to embed anything more fancy than that – why on earth are you using iWeb?
Nothing to See Here…Move Along…
After the initial excitement with Widgets fades, you’ll realize there’s nothing else of any real added-value in this version of iWeb. There are only two new themes — “Leaf Print” and “Fine Line” — that would have been impressive in 1997. Today they look rubbish. Oh sure, they’re tidy and simple. But they’re not particularly exciting or fresh. Apple must know this — after all, they’re never gonna publish websites using those themes, so I don’t know why they imagine it’s alright to foist them upon the rest of us.
There I go being a power user again. I’m sure Aunty Mavis would just love Leaf Print (rolls eyes).
Going to Press
The publishing options have been expanded somewhat. As well as the option to publish to MobileMe, you can also publish directly to a third party hosting service of your choice using the FTP connectivity new to iWeb ’09. The process is simple.
Once you’ve entered and successfully tested your FTP login details, it’s business as usual.
I Do Facebook, Too!
Since iPhoto ’09 so nicely integrates with Facebook, it seems the iWeb developers felt they had to do something — anything — to get in on the action. Sounds interesting…what could they possibly do, though?
Imagine it — by hooking-in iWeb to a Facebook account, the possibilities are endless! You could scrape your Facebook Wall updates into your personal website, link your Facebook/iPhoto galleries with your iWeb site so changes in one propagate automagically to the others, synchronize your iWeb blog with Facebook’s Notes, synchronize your Applications to publish their updates to your iWeb site, synchronize your Facebook Status Updates with your iWeb home page…actually, the more you think about it, the more exciting it becomes! The possibilities just go on and on.
Unfortunately, it seems iWeb’s developers weren’t thinking about any of these possibilities, because the Facebook integration we get in this upgrade amounts to nothing more than the following line, published to your Facebook Wall, whenever you make changes to your website.
And here start the problems I find in iWeb ’09…
Crazy URLs
A perennial complaint (really — Google it — you’ll find a lot of people complaining about this for years now). Whether you publish to MobileMe or your own web server, iWeb still insists on creating bonkers-crazy long URLs. And there’s just no excuse for this, there really isn’t. For example, my personal website is http://www.liamcassidy.co.uk and my iWeb website was originally named “liamcassidy.co.uk”.
The effect this had on the final published site was a URL to a home page that looked like this:
http://www.liamcassidy.co.uk/liamcassidy.co.uk/home.html
I’ve since changed the site name to something shorter, but it’s still utterly ridiculous that iWeb doesn’t provide the option — just the option — to override this crazy URL structure/naming convention. Apple, I have a humble suggestion for you — not everyone wants to publish to MobileMe. Let your customers decide what’s best for them, and don’t make them suffer this laziness! A simple toggle in the Preferences ought to disable this kind of silliness so anyone more competent than Aunty Mavis will feel less embarrassed by the addresses iWeb spits out. This sort of thing is entirely avoidable. It’s simply shocking Apple hasn’t done anything about it.
Obsolete Themes
No one with any kind of appreciation for contemporary design, or accessibility concerns, is going to use the pre-built Themes that ship with iWeb. A very tiny select few look beautiful — but they’re still lacking. iWeb ’08 shipped with some nice new themes but, unfortunately, they dated quickly. The stingy two new additions in iWeb ’09 are laughable.
Nasty Markup
OK, this is something only more experienced web developers will care about so I won’t bang-on about it too much. It’s worth mentioning because 1) other WYSIWYG editors manage far cleaner code, and 2) there’s nothing semantic about this markup. There aren’t even any helpful comments to guide the curious. The CSS markup is packed-to-bursting with redundant markup (example: “border-top: 0px”, “border-right: 0px”, “border-bottom: 0px”…you get the idea.)
Painful Publishing
It takes forever to publish pages. Whether you use MobileMe or your own FTP address, publishing a simple 6-page site can take five or more minutes. This is ridiculous, given that any other (free) FTP software can get your files published in much, much less time. Not the “…within moments…” promised by the happy voiceover in the iWeb tour video. Oh no.
The fastest way to publish your site is to not publish it at all — by selecting the confusingly-titled “Publish to Local Folder” option. This dumps all the relevant web pages and assets into a folder of your choosing on your hard drive. This takes seconds, but then it’s up to you to get those files to a server somewhere.
As a sidenote, this may be the best way to overcome the problem with the crazy long-URL’s. Publish the site to a local folder, then use another FTP solution to upload the files to your own web server. You’ll have to mess around with links here and there to make sure the whole site works as planned, but at least you won’t have to deal with six-mile-long web addresses.
Punishing Publishing
Oh yes, and just a final word on publishing. If you don’t use MobileMe as your hosting platform, you can forget about your blog’s comments working properly. And kiss goodbye to your blog’s Search functionality. That’s gonna go, too. Seems Apple really wants you to use MobileMe.
Tough Love
It might sound like I’m bashing iWeb, but if I am, it’s only in the way a pushy parent might berate an under-achieving child for not doing as well as they could. iWeb could be, and should be, a far more powerful and impressive tool than it is today. I was expecting some interesting and exciting things with this upgrade — as it turns out, what I got wasn’t worth the wait.
I know Apple is not trying to compete with other more professional web authoring solutions, but that doesn’t excuse sheer laziness when it comes to upgrading this software. iWeb has the potential to be a killer-application. Seriously — plenty of professional web developers would be happy to use it if only it didn’t suck so bad. And, in truth, there aren’t so many fixes required, either.
Obviously, the Themes are a joke. Where Apple could shine here is build an iWeb Themes gallery, much the same as the Web Apps gallery that countless iPhone owners (myself included) practically lived-in until native applications could be installed on that device. Apple already features third-party developer software on its own website — why not showcase the best iWeb themes, too? Or, better still — why not create some really breathtaking themes worthy of that lugubrious (and indelible) credit, “Made on a Mac”?
As well as vastly-improved themes, add a long-needed fix to the crazy URL issue, CSS editing and the ability to fine-tune the (cleaner, semantic) HTML markup, and you have a web creation tool that is still simple and intuitive, yet doesn’t try to compete with the big-kids already dominating the playground. If that means releasing a standalone “iWeb Pro” package that does for my websites what iWorks does for my documents, I’d gladly pony-up the cash.
In the end, “simple and easy” doesn’t have to mean “crude and clunky.” Apple proved that with Pages and Numbers in iWork. The updates to iPhoto and iMovie (evolutionary and revolutionary, respectively) are nothing short of breathtaking. In this company of Kings, though, iWeb is an embarrassing, backward cousin.
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Yeah…I want to like iWeb. I really, really want to like iWeb…
Maybe one day.
I concur. With a few, slight modifications iWeb could be both a more useful and more elegant solution to web design. Here are my suggestions, in no particular order:
1. Allow user to create templates.
2. Allow text to wrap around snippets (e.g., YouTube).
3. Include a styles feature, as in Pages.
I’m wondering if iWeb still turns .mp3 files into .mov files when publishing a podcast episode. Horrible piece of software. Once you publish something, don’t ever expect to find any given file in your web site on the remote host. It’s there, you just have to go searching in arcanely-named folders. Argh.
I too, really want to like iWeb…but it’s still not quite done cookin’ yet.
Thanks for the comprehensive review! I thought of a quick way to circumvent the delay from iWeb to publish… and to circumvent downloading to local folder *then* upload to ftp. Why not setup a macfuse config to mount your FTP server and have iWeb dump the site directly to it and voila, it should get posted automagically right?
I, too have been using iWeb the past few days. I agree with most of your comments. But what I don’t understand is why everyone loves bashing iWeb. iWeb work great for what is was designed to do – and in my opinion it does it very well. I understand the desire to make iWeb more than it is – it seems like it COULD be more – but if you are a professional movie maker you’re not going to be using iMovie to edit you films – you’re going to be using Final Cut Pro. iWeb is not, and doesn’t claim to be, a high end web design tool. It’s for simple consumer level web page generation and with the integration with the other iLife applications, it’s a great alternative to Rapidweaver or Freeway, which both are beyond most casual users abilities. Don’t chase away the consumer level user by pointing out things that they don’t understand or won’t need to know. Click, type, drag and publish.
The tone of the review was very elitist and seemed to miss the point of iWeb – it is not intended for the professional website designer but for the casual user who wants to share his or her photos with far-flung family and friends. To that end, in my opinion, it is a fine app.
Leverenz hit the nail on the head with his comment.
Yeh, where’s the iWeb Pro that we all heard about like 2 years ago? I use iWeb for 3 websites just because I’m locked into it. To migrate my sites over to something else like RapidWeaver would be a huge undertaking and one that I’m not looking forward to do. So for now, I’m stuck with iWeb. And, I do use MobileMe, so I do like the integration.
Hi Liam,
It seems like you’re looking for RapidWeaver with added plug-ins!
iWeb Pro could definetly be something interesting and they could sell themes just like they sell lessons for GarageBand.
One thing I’m thinkering these days is that iDVD is on its way out. Lots of people are predicting a new Apple TV with a new experience. Perhaps including interaction with MobileMe? Where I’m getting at is that maybe they are working on a uber redesign of iWeb so it creates new kinds of website to display on AppleTV and manage the content you want to use and share with others, etc? I haven’t given much tought about all this but there has to be something since Apple is not going the DVD route nor the Blue-Ray one.
@leverenz & Barrie Phillips: I think you guys are somewhat missing the point. Liam already stated he knows that iWeb isn’t for the “pro” level. But what he is saying is that Apple is selling the consumer-level users short with a sub-par product. They’re offering something less than today’s standards because they know the average consumer won’t give a rip…and that’s lame.
@Josh Pigford: I had just start my Mac journey, about a year now. Going from PC to Mac, yes it is easier and i do like it. I wasn’t looking for consumer-level user computer “The I-phone would do”.I thought the Mac was for the “pro”at least thats what i had heard for as long as i can remember.Maybe i should look for something like a Dell with a different running System.
Josh – I do Mac training for a local Apple Reseller, so I guess my perspective is a little skewed. As a Mac user, I understand the “lame” part – and Apple sure COULD put a little effort into making iWeb much better product – but when you’re trying to teach someone in the baby boomer generation who has never used a computer, let alone a Mac, it’s been my experience that the more choices they have, the more confused they get. Most older consumers don’t have a point of reference when it comes to the iLife suite of applications. So, anything that is simple in it’s design, it’s interface and easily obtainable results works for them on that level. Younger Mac users do, and should, expect more. Maybe they should rename iWeb to Senior Web and upgrade to the suggested “Pro” version for younger users.
Many “Senior” web users are not as dumb as your bias supposes. Some of us are underwhelmed by the time it takes to become mildly proficient in HTML and CSS. As a senior, I’m not confused by choices – I welcome them. If I had interviewed you as a Mac trainer you wouldn’t have been hired. Aye-yup you little whippersnapper.
Does it allow you to export it, to use with something other than MobileMe?
I’m the webmaster (not a pro) for a primary school in Switzerland and have used iWeb and Cyberduck for 3 years. Impressing for me was the “layout-concept” of iWeb and the “no-problem-possibility” to finish this job and to find a successor for next summer. Helpful was the circumstance that teachers and parents generally don’t have sophisticated demands. So in a certain view iWeb is perfectly covering the basic needs.
Beside that – concerning my person – I fully agree with Liams coverage. The up-date to iWeb 09 isn’t traceable. What about freeware?
Another thing that i think is missing is the ability to post from your iPhone onto iWeb. A lot of mac owners also have an iPhone and having that functionality would definitely improve iWeb and make iPhone users happy
One thing the review didn’t mention, which is my major beef with iWeb, is the painfully long load times when you visit the page. Even when the background images etc are only few k in size it seem to take far longer than other sites. Or is it just me?
Late comment I guess, but this article is kind of wrong IMO. iWeb *is* for beginners, and suer the author went on quite a bit about how he knew it wasn’t for him etc., but then he still basically just trashes it.
Particularly laughable is the section on the “long URLs.” Sure, I can see how it’s nice to have a shorter URL and I can see how because he named his site the same as his domain, he got a ridiculous URL as well, but this is iWebs fault how? iWeb is for publishing multiple sites to your MobileMe domain, how else to keep them straight except for having top level folders named after each web?
What’s really telling though is that no one but a super duper web designer like our author here would really *care* about the length of the URL. I mean WTF? who cares how long a URL is except a picky web designer? The users would care if it was a confusing or stupid URL like the one he shows, but the users of this program wouldn’t name their site after their domain either.
I am a tech worker and a software expert but I don’t do web coding at all. So for me, the only real alternative to iWeb is Dreamweaver, and Dreamweaver is already far too much and far too complicated with too many options. What I’d like is something in between the two, but since there is nothing like that right now, iWeb is what I have to use, and it’s far from as bad as this guy makes out.
Finally, the “nasty markup” is actually the way it’s *supposed* to be so that all the code is uniform and the automatic features work properly. The kind of code the author advises us to use is neither as easy to automate, nor as human readable as the code iWeb actually creates.
iWeb is ugly-ish and this update is lame to non existent. It isn’t the best program in the world for making web sites, but for what it’s supposed to do and for the audience it was written for, it’s a perfectly serviceable program. IMO none of the gripes brought up by this author about it have any relevance at all.
I think you are being a little too hard on iWeb but your points are valid. I don’t consider iWeb to be a coding/development/design tool like Dreamweaver or Visual Studio. It’s a Web publishing platform like, for instance, WordPress. The iWeb widget functionality takes its cue from a feature of the same name that you can use to bling out your blog with feeds from Facebook, Flickr, Digg, etc.
The advantages of WordPress over iWeb are endless. But you gotta admit, the iWeb interface is way easier to use than the WordPress admin console…although WP 2.7 looks pretty spiffy. So in the end it’s power vs. simplicity, I guess. But it would be great if they’d broaden the selection of themes or at least allow greater variance in each theme…even better would be to STOP TRYING TO SUCK ME INTO MOBILEME, APPLE!!! I feel like I’m constantly being pitched to use it…in my Finder sidebar, in iPhoto, in the System Preferences menu. I hope (and doubt) that Snow Leopard installation disc will have a “No MobileMe” option.
iWeb and MobileMe are a sign that Apple needs to increase its Web 2.0 IQ.
Seems to me iWeb was designed for entry-level consumers. Nowhere is it touted to be a professional tool. I’m amazed how someone who proclaims to be a web-professional cannot even keep their own website up! Half the links on your own site Liam (http://www.licasdigital.com/) don’t even function. Really from the look of it you’d probably be better off whipping it up in iWeb.
The only fix I want is fir Apple to abandon the crazy URL’s for people choosing to publish to FTP. And for those calling the reviewer elitest? STFU.
Hi Tim, yeah, that site is being upgraded this week by another developer/designer. Lousy timing for me, but hardly an indictment on Dreamweaver, iWeb or my own skills, though I can see why you would jump on that opportunity. A weak point, though.
Re-read my article, Tim – I pointed out more than once (as have some people here in the comments) I never claimed iWeb was more than an entry-level tool. My point was entirely different. Go back, have a proper read this time, I’m sure you’ll get it.
Liam
Brendan, thanks for that. I’m amazed how people don’t get the point. Must be my own failing, I obviously didn’t make it obvious enough with the following lines right there at the beginning of the review;
“So I understand — I really do understand — that iWeb is not supposed to be competition for those other solutions. iWeb isn’t really for me. Nor does it try to be. It’s supposed to be something very simple, very easy to use. It’s supposed to be intuitive and accessible. It’s supposed to provide a seamless experience for anyone with even the tiniest bit of creative vision. And you know what — it does all the things it’s supposed to do. It just doesn’t do enough.”
Brendan, for what it’s worth I didn’t call Liam an elitist, I said that the tone of the review was elitist. I suspect though, that someone whose intellectual contribution to a discussion is STFU might have trouble grasping the difference.
I am frustrated with iWebs mangling of Analytics blocks. Has this been fixed?
“it’s still utterly ridiculous that iWeb doesn’t provide the option — just the option — to override this crazy URL structure/naming convention”
Amen, amen, amen.
Snobby web developers need love too. I guess I’m in that category. But even as an elitist web developer, I want to like iWeb. I want to have a quick and easy way to publish my dorky blog on the internet, but iWeb dumbs it down way too much. And really, all we’re asking for is the OPTION.
A lot of people care about the length of the URL, a LOT of people.
Be aware that if you have a page in IWEB09 with media content, if you simply change anything on the page and republish to a folder, you will need to rename or reupload your media file associated with that page? IWEB09 now places a dash number (example, Testaudio-1.m4a) so that you need to fix the media file name at your FTP host or delete the original and upload the new one. IWEB08 did not play such tricks, however, it did republish the entire site to your local folder. IWEB09 only republishes the changed page. Be sure to check you local media folder and compare it with your FTP host media folder. BTW, you can leave the old file up there, but it takes space and serves no purpose! Then next time you change the page, the file name number will increase for the media file again, so repeat the above instructions!
Hello. I’m a newbie to building a website and decided to try iWeb 08. Currently, creating the site using my own theme, and adding paypal buttons. My goal is to sell my art products but now finding the need to also add forms. Considering upgrading to iWeb 09. Does the upgrade allow the ability to publish to mac.com using php files? Someone said I’m going about this online shop all wrong! For instance, I shouldn’t even be using iWeb at all to sell products. Help somebody… nearly finished with the site consisting of six months of work and hundred pages thus far. Really like the ease of iWeb and hoping iWeb 09 might help me out of my predicament.
Any information most appreciative.
Cheers,
June
June – there are ways to “work around” placing PayPal buttons in iWeb ’08… but for an online storefront, that is waaaaaay beyond the ability of iWeb 08. You could set up online store elsewhere linked to your iWeb site.. but it’s not a viable solution for any more than a few items you could link to PayPal.
Being the novice that I am, I’ve found iWeb to be just about right for me, but I can see how it wouldn’t suit advanced designers–especially for commercial sites. For my purposes it’s been great, I was able to get a pretty nice site up in just a few hours and expanding it has been a piece of cake. I’ve been hosting my site on Bluehost from the beginning using a separate FTPer, so publishing to a file has always been the way for me and don’t have to wait for iWeb’s new integrated FTPer to do it–it’s soooo slooow!
My site includes a blog and I got around problems Liam mentioned above by publishing the blog pages in MobileMe and using text links in the rest of my site to get to it. I replace the nav bar on the blog pages with text links back to my main site as well. That way I folks get to comment in my blog and I don’t have to deal with all the other problems (addresses, etc.) of hosting the whole site on MobileMe.
Though mine is not a heavy duty commercial site, it isn’t just a “personal” one either… I’ve used Adsense to try and make a little money with it and I’ve found the tight integration with AdSense in 09 really great compared to 08. As good as it is though, it doesn’t have Adsense for search built in like the rest of the content formats. It isn’t really a problem though as the search widget was easily built using the “HTML Snippet” thingy in iWeb.
There is one thing I haven’t been able to get to work with Adsense for search and iWeb though–that be using Adsense for search to display search results on my own site. No problems getting it to go to a custom Google site to display the results, but haven’t been able to figure out how to get it to display using the HTML Google provides to embed on the search results page I set up. I don’t know if this is something Bluehost or MobileMe doesn’t support, or if it’s iWeb, or if it’s just me being so novice that I don’t know what I’m doing.
If anybody has any ideas, I’d sure appreciate you sharing them with me…
I’m so disapponted with iWeb. FTP updates just stopped working.
IE won’t view my site, and firefox is hit and miss.
This app is unusable.
Wish I could get a refund.
Hi Liam…
I too had the same thing regarding the url ‘problem’with iweb…
BUT… for instance, I noticed your url looked like this http://www.liamcassidy.co.uk/liamcassidy.co.uk/home.html … It can be fixed thankfully!
I’m assuming iweb automatically published all of the page folders into a root folder which you called liamcassidy.co.uk … exactly the same as me with perfectdayvideo.org.uk…
What I was doing was dragging this root folder (www.perfectdayvideo.org.uk) into my htdocs folder to upload my site… which gave me…. http://www.perfectdayvideo.org.uk/perfectdayvideo.org.uk/About_Us.html for example…
How I fixed this was to open the perfectdayvideo.org.uk ‘root’ folder (that iweb created with all of my other ‘page folders inside) in ‘Sites’ on the hard drive. I selected all of the individual files and folders within my ‘root’ folder (including the index.html file) and dragged all of them straight to the htdocs folder on the server.
So, don’t upload the root folder, upload the files as they are within it…
now I have http://www.perfectdayvideo.org.uk/About_Us.html
Hope this helps…
Derek
Mind you, I’m probably preaching to the converted (as usual) And you’ve all probably worked it out already! lol
Derek – that works in some cases. But it breaks everything in the RSS files which expect to see the site name as part of the url.
It’s a problem.
Hi Mate, No worries, totally understandable…
Main thing for me was getting the actual URL looking better.
But considering (the majority of) people are more interested in their URL looking better and their site coming up in google searches etc for people to find, then that should be fine! RSS is another great ‘feature’ in iweb but just another ‘gadget’ in my eyes because I’m not blogging.
But sure, you are definitely 100% correct about RSS, but do you REALLY need it if you are not blogging? Thought everyone was into twitter now anyway?
Mmm… wonder if you could get your twitter page into your iweb site using the html snippet tool somehow? that would be interesting to see…. Will it work?
Kinda like how you can take snapshots of sites for your dashboard…
Sorry man, prattling on now, but fair and good point there!
My URL workaround works in all cases if you’re not concerned about RSS feeds.
All the best,
D.
Murphy, I’ve just realised I said… ‘Workaround’…
And I get the point even more now, we shouldn’t have to do any workarounds!
But I suppose if your like me and couldn’t build a site using dreamweaver to save yourself, we’ll just have to live with it until apple find a way to make our desired changes to iWeb and still keep it simple…
Peace Mate!
D.
I just purchased iLife09 entirely for the FTP capabilities of iWeb. I can hand code HTML and CSS, but didn’t feel it necessary for a simple site. I am so upset at this redundant “www.kirtland.com/www.kirtland.com/home.html” that iWeb tries to create. This has nothing do do with simplicity or the uneducated user that wants to upload a few photos for grandma to see.
There is nothing confusing about giving a user the option of uploading a site folder or the contents of the folder.
As a new Mac user, I’m not liking many of the assumptions that Apple makes regarding its users. While iWeb is certainly not a professional application, there is no reason why it couldn’t be used to create professional sites. Not in its current state, however.
Joe
I’m wondering if anyone knows there’s a way to add a shopping cart or sell merchandise or gift certificates on a website created on iweb 09?
You, can create links to PayPal using the HTML Snippet widget
I need someone to talk to me like I am a two year old. I have created a web site using iweb 08 version 2.0.4. I have had no trouble publishing it and visiting it. The problem is it’s no where on the web when I search for it. Everything I read seems to be going over my head. Can anyone tell me in the simplest term’s, how do I get my site noticed? If I have to pay someone to do this, how do I find them? Will iweb 09 help? I have tried a few free web site submission sites but I have yet to see any results. I have been working on this problem for about a year. I am a beginner and need help!
Thanks
Erik – just because you “search” for something on the web, doesn’t mean “the web” can find it. Did you publish to MobileMe or to your own web server? You need to enter the exact URL (http://www.mydomain.com) in the Safari URL field at the top of the page and this will take you to the website.
OK Scott…Whats the significance of your question…”MobileMe or…own server?” Is it better to be/not to be on MobileMe, from the search standpoint?
In my opinion, it’s best to have you own site hosted on your own server. MobileMe is not designed for commerce. At it’s essence, it’s for sharing with family and friends. From the “search standpoint”, I am assuming you mean search engines? (google, yahoo, etc) Again, iWeb does not construct websites in what you may refer to as a “search friendly” way. Hope this helps. There are some work-arounds, and yes, you can now embed Google Analytics in your iWeb site, but it’s not really optimized for web searches.
I’ve been pretty happy with 08 and from reading about the problems people are having with 09, I’m hesitant to upgrade.
My biggest problem has been getting the RSS feed to work. I don’t use mobile me, and I keep reading about work-arounds but have yet to find one that works.
Any ideas?
Well judging by this iWeb has certainly split the camp as far as opinion goes, personally I get on well with iWeb, ok I’m not a professional web developer, but I trained as one way way way back in the dark depths of the nineties with dreamweaver and flash four, having left the realm of the web monkey to focus on a career in audiovisual arts, coming back to a program that lets me update my hobby blog with a few clicks & drags was great.
Yes I’ll agree some of the themes seem to have been designed by a focus group lead by Stevie Wonder & Ray Charles, but at the risk of sounding elitist ( and using my own mother as an example!) alot of users out there have the aesthetic taste of a female Ukranian shot-putter in a chubby chasing contest.
Its dead easy to just use the ‘blank’ theme and build your own images into your pages so I can’t see what everyone is complaining about, same goes for the ftp, its slow? .. so go do something else! It’s not rocket science! If people are so bothered about the amount of time things take, then they’re obviously busy enough to have something to do while iWeb uploads for them.
Another thing that the nay-sayers are conveniently forgetting, is that anyone buying a new mac gets the entire iLife suite FREE, and even if you’re upgrading, £69 for a 5 system licence for all the apps, it’s certainly not going to break the banks of what you ‘professional’ web designers charge!
Breaking it down, iWeb retails at £13.80 (taking it as an equal 1/5 of iLife),
Dreamweaver is £250… why are you even trying to compare it to industry standard programs?
Thats 18.1 times more expensive, to use a motoring analogy it is the same as expecting the most basic 2009 ford fiesta at £9995 to compare with, and perform like TWO 2009 Bentley Continental GTs at £85,000 each.
Anyway, rant over, I’m going to update my silly hobby blog with my rubbish , oh wait.. free software, then get on with my life while it uploads & not stare at it with a stopwatch.
Twogamer and others,
This is a great discussion group !
I have come accross many creative people doing creative things by starting with an iWeb blank page. There are limitations indeed but the cost amounts to $30 (one third of the bundle) Not bad at all !
I am an Industrial Designer with years of experience. iWeb allowed me to get into the basics of web design without much effort. That is, it sort of allows me to sketch out my concepts with ease. I have used my own tricks as well as what I learned on the internet. For instance, I have dropped in large pictures and then used Mac’s Command+shift+option to take pictures of the same to replace the original, thus reducing the document size within seconds.
I remember my first mac ( in the late eighties! ) when I had no scanner or a digital pad. I would sketch ideas on paper, make a transparency on the copier and then tape it on the computer screen. Then I used an illustration program to trace it with a mouse. That is, trace from the transparency in front of the screen to the screen itself using click, drag etc.
Necessity is the mother of invention, I suppose. A difficulty or Inconvenience creates opportunities to innovate and expand our creativity. In my opinion, convenience can at times lead to dependance.
What are your thoughts?
Das
I use iWeb ’08 for both our web comic website (Bell, Book, and Pistol), and for an IRC RolePlay based on the BBP web comic.
I tried using DreamWeaver, but I don’t know near enough about CSS, and DreamWeaver doesn’t have WYSIWYG or anything near it. I know the iWeb code is bad, but I tried creating something similar to the current BBP webpage with DreamWeaver, and I just couldn’t get it to work. I couldn’t come up with any way to make DreamWeaver do what I wanted.
I have the missing manual, so I’ll figure it out one of these years…
I used to code HTML by hand (HTML 2.0), but it’s been so long, and web tech has passed me by. So I just use iWeb, even though iWeb saves the images for each web page in individual folders, even if its the same pictures in the same sizes in the same places on every page…
I’d rather not have to recode the website in order to eliminate the excessive copies of files, because I’d have to do it *every time I upload a new web comic page*, and that’s a fark-load of work.
I am a complete novice when it comes to web design but I cannot help but to be disappointed with iweb! I entirely agree with the viewpoint of this article and do not perceive it elitist in any way. At first glance I too was enamored with how easy iweb appeared to create a fairly detailed website for my school group, complete with a blog, pictures, podcasts, etc. However, after researching web design for a couple days, I soon realized that I had almost no control using iweb. The themes in my opinion are very kitsch and I wish one could more easily create a more neutral theme that would work with all the various pages instantly instead of having to make a new blank page each time and adjust the layout, etc. I also cannot create forms, which is essential for my school; instead each time I would have to use the HTML Snippet widget—which does seem to be the most useful one of the bunch. Furthermore, it seems as though editing the site would be difficult if more than one person (ie teacher) were involved. For these reasons I’ve begun to look at google…
Could anyone with more experience please let me know whether I should still attempt to create my site in iweb and go through all the hoops to get what I want out of the site or try to do it through google sites? Google seems to have many more useful gadgets and it seems that email and docs are much better integrated throughout. Has anyone used both and can affirm this hunch?
Thanks
Mike – you may want to look into Rapidweaver by Real Mac Software. For what you want to do, it may be a great solution.
Most Apply applications are simple and easy to use because they are geared toward the average user. The average user is not a heavy user. I feel like iWeb is more like a light introduction to web design. Once the user gets a little more into designing pages they can move one to a more powerful tool.
Thanks everyone for all the information!
I did my site using iWeb. I have been using it for clients as well.
I have been a designer since the late sixties and my work boils down to the simplicity issues of usability. Getting found is fine but once you get there, it should not be confusing. http://www.menondesign.com is the site. Let me know what you think.
At this stage, I am choosey about my clients and I am not trying to get any business I can find. I am fine with the layout capabilities of iWeb and tweaking it as far as it will go… but could use help on other more complicated functionalities. You are welcome to reply through my site if you wish.
Das
I’m trying to build a site to entice churches etc to hire me to offer retreats, workshops, quiet days. I need to link to articles/videos I’ve written/produced, as well as to Amazon so folks can buy my books. I need to offer a schedule. I need it all to be SIMPLE — for me as well as for my users. Is iweb a good fit for me? After purchasing ilife, are there any other costs such as a monthly fee to “maintain” site?
Thank you.
I have been happy with iWeb.
My work is user based. That means, it is not a place to show off my skills (with graphics, color, movement, sound and words). It is about how easily a user can get what he/she is after. Web experience is unlike any that we have known. It is user driven
I am able to focus on simple layouts, pictures that tell the story and simple copy. I have spent more time simplifying my work than adding many “bells and whistles”. As a graphic designer, I have to work against my instincts so that the user experience is simple, self evident and credible. My site is menondesign.com. I am not soliciting any work. I am picky on that.
I do remember a time when IBM computers used DOS (writing a code) to operate a computer. Apple changed all that.
“Windows” as we know, is (still) an attempt by other computers to act like a Mac.
As the functionalities of iWeb become more prolific, simple, self evident and transparent others will be emulating it. Reason ? The mind of a creative designer does not work well with linear thinking (which code writing is). There is a major disconnect there. Luckily, things are rapidly evolving in favor of the free wheeling, lateral thinking designer.
iWeb is a small step in a great transfromation that is going on.
Our next generation screens will be interactive. We will be working with our fingers in thin air. Pecking on keys will become rare. I am not a young techie by any means. With many years of design work behind, I can see far back and also a bit further into the future. That future looks good. The key word is convergence.
Back to user issues. Our key transformation is in the distance between what we intend to do and the result. That distance is becoming smaller and the acievement is with least effort. Complicated systems will be dropped off by users – very simple ! Users drive the market as well !
Das Menon
iWeb should be taken very seriously indeed.
Nobody here as yet mentioned the great W2.0 jscript libraries which are invoked such as iWebSite.js. These Apple libraries are crafted to match the page layout interface so as to correctly render content providing a true and accurate wysiwyg experience.
In the open source world this type of functionality would require something like jQuery and its GUI library, but even then there is no sign of an equivalent page layout interface such as iWeb.(If there is please let me know).
If you can stand the extra .js page load time you can also use jQuery widgets from iWeb and get the benefits of the open source world too.
Looking at Fireworks, it will export CSS with decent divs BUT you must often hand code the html/css and once that is done you have left the wireframes behind, its a one way trip, unless there is a workaround I have not heard about.
iWeb’s output breaks a few arcane rules of best practice. Who Cares? it works very well and can be used professionally at the front end. Forget the wireframes and trying to get a client to sign off on a grey flat prototype, in iWeb the result is stunning from day one.
Rapid development is possible. Radical changes in design can be accomplished with breathtaking rapidity, and further productivity can be won if you are willing to hack your own themes into the package. Such hacked themes may break when Apple bring out a new version, BUT if you can hack, then you should find it easy to sidestep that.
Backend or eCommerce pages are best hand coded and I cant see that ever changing, but for the front end, wow this product rocks.
For ftp I use cyberDuck, which only uploads changed files, wheras with the built in iWeb ftp I sometimes get corrupted uploads. With cyberduck I can manage a change control and regression procedure.
Well done Apple. This is a tool that can be made to work despite its limitations. I can’t wait for a Pro version, and I would be first in the queue.
Michael W
Facebook update,,
its kind an only promotion like on iWeb’09 apple’s site. And unfortunately, until now, the developer just make a following line update on my wall, not inlikely status update. Huh… if its can be on my update status, i think it would be great. Because all my friend on facebook can rapidly catch my site publish update.
ignaz
Hi thanks for the article on iweb. I have iweb 08 and I want to design an art website without using Html coding something like iweb. I do not have a lot of time after work and would rather be doing art. It sounds like iweb or mobile me take forever to load when publishing. I want something simple, looks good and publishes quickly. Is there an alternative to iweb and other host than mobile me that does not require coding knowledge much and a server host that will answer questions and loads a website quickly? Have a Mac desktop 10.5.8
thank you Judy
Perhaps you are guessing it will be slow.?. I am happy. Do you mean speed of upload?, or speed when users are browsing pages?
mobileme can be a bit slow for both, and with a little configuration you can use any web host you are not restricted to mobile-me.
iWeb is perfect for a no code html generator. iWeb automatically optimises the images, which is good for speed.
However if you need a hi-resolution portfolio, then you may be better off using an on-line provider specialising in presenting and selling hi-res images on-line.
If you need more efficiency (unlikely) then try the RapidWeaver code generator using Blocks and Stacks plugins. More control means you may need dip into code occasionally. Rapidweaver is more efficient but less productive.
I still use iWeb for a lot of work, and Rapidweaver when I need full control of the code.
Judy,
iWeb does not seem to take that much time to upload. As you know, it does not require coding. It is actually fun to work with. I have been able to do some cool stuff with it.
On another note, I have been having much fun with ArtRage. I mention that because you like to do art. I enjoyed using Freehand for drawing and illustration but now it is getting phased out.
To all others,
Anyone use Transport ? I have Cyberduck also. I am not happy at all with iWeb’s Ftp program (for other servers) because I have no clue as to where it is loading or what files are getting loaded. Lack of functions and options, I guess.
Das
I meant to say Transit instead of Transport ! Sorry !
.
Can an iWeb document be opened with any other program ?
.
.
I answered my question, I guess …
Just found a comment elsewhere that you can publish iWeb into a folder and then use another program such as dream weaver to open it.
.
Wow. Lots of information. Thanks!
I did a website for my business and then optimized it using iWeb SEO Tool. It gets pretty high up in google searches (with the help of videos done by http://www.melissapahl.com ) but the super annoying redundant url is a pain. I’ve tried a few things to get around this to no avail.
Has anyone figured out a way around this so it just says the website and the page? Not the website.com/website.com/page?
Thanks!
-Jason
I agree with some aspects of the article. But people are right, iWeb is for consumers wanting to publish stuff easily…
BUT… you can also use it if you are a more power user. You are complaining about the themes? I just created something by chopping through the Modern Theme (Blog) that looks almost all my own. I used shapes to draw a navigation header, with a nice drop shadow. First I right clicked and deleted the placeholder image, then drew the navigation pane. I added a black block footer to round out the design. I put a border around parts of the page to break things up. I added pink page headers that offset, nicely, the black navigation header. I widened the page by increasing the pixel count in the width selector from the page layout inspector… on and on.
I am looking at this site now and you would not really be able to tell it was just an iWeb theme. Not only that, but with the ease of dropping in Google Adsense anywhere, it’s looking professional. I will soon add a right vertical banner where a site sponsor can advertise. I will first widen the page, then add this vertical banner by using the shape square tool. I will keep it filled in grey until someone signs up for advertising. Soon, I will just get someone to modify the xml code so that each new Blog entry page will be a certain page width and include the vertical site sponsor banner, along with the page block footer.
I am looking at this Blog now, and looking at my WordPress Blog: I like the iWeb one better. It is unique. WordPress is lame: they are all pretty much the same. Myopic and boring. Same old stuff, everybody uses. And now I don’t have to worry about navigating the slow, buggy, annoying WordPress user interface. iWeb is easier and better than WordPress, and believe it or not, more professional if you push your own design.
I wish that I could buy this I WEB, anyway where can I get this I web? is it part of the IPOD features or what, may you tell me exactly?
Here is a good article on iWeb vs. WordPress:
http://www.ryanmag.ca/Ryan/Home/Entries/2010/2/14_iWeb_vs_WordPress.html
I’m an illustrator and use photoshop primarily. When I get outside of that, I’m dang near clueless. I was in dire need of a website redo and was in the process of hiring outside help when I started messing around with the latest version of iWeb that had come on a recently acquired computer. I was amazed. It could handle everything I needed it to do. It is no doubt not the outright best solution, but for a dude who doesn’t have the time to learn to use new pro-level software or the money to hire someone to help him out, iWeb worked really well. I would be excited to see some more muscle go into the next version, but I’m really pleased with what I’ve been able to accomplish with it so far.