Every new Mac since 2006 comes bundled with iWeb, Apple’s program for quickly designing websites. At first, a number of web developers (myself included) were excited by this announcement, but when we actually tried this program ourselves, it became apparent that this was not going to be a tool that existing and already-knowledgeable web designers were going to embrace. There’s no interface for editing any code, and even when you look at the source of any published iWeb website, it looks horrible. iWeb doesn’t use any kind of external CSS file, instead opting to use the style=”" attribute on every single element. Furthermore, it converts text and things into complex images, and all that stuff. In fact, I think Leo Laporte said it best on MacBreak Weekly 52: once you use iWeb, you’re locked in. Without a doubt, iWeb is just an app aimed at an audience that is completely foreign to the idea of building a website.
Enter RapidWeaver. RapidWeaver is a WYSIWYG editor produced by Realmac Software, which is similar in form to iWeb, however it offers its users more control, produces cleaner code, and is overall an application more suited to serious web development.
If you’ve ever used iWeb, you should be able to figure out RapidWeaver fairly well (although there are some notable differences). One improvement that RapidWeaver offers is that it saves your websites locally as individual documents (.rw3), which means its fairly easy to switch between different websites in RapidWeaver. Each website can have an unlimited number of pages. RapidWeaver is interesting in that it offers different page types as packages. There are ones available by default (Blog, Contact Form, File Sharing, HTML Code, iFrame, Movie Album, Offsite Page, Photo Album, QuickTime, Styled Text) which should cover most necessary uses which range from ones for novice users who want to get their media online to more advanced users who have HTML/PHP and want to run with it. RapidWeaver also includes a number of themes, providing an almost-Cover Flow interface (though there’s no animation in here) to browse through them. The RapidWeaver Add-ons site contains additional themes and page types for download, so it’s fairly extensible.
What actually makes RapidWeaver different from other WYSIWYG web editors is that, well, it’s not WYSIWYG. When you select a page type, you’re actually presented with a form under the Edit tab to provide the info necessary for the page. On a Blog, you’re provided with a form to write new blog entries and a form to manage your entries. On a Photo Album, you’re provided with access to your iPhoto library to select photos to use. Page types like Styled Text or HTML Code just provide you with a big text box for entry, etc. Some page types have a “Setup” button which you can click for additional options for that page. RapidWeaver also has an inspector window which let you specify more advanced website settings, most of which iWeb doesn’t offer.
RapidWeaver also has a code panel which lets you see the code it’s outputting. Although RapidWeaver doesn’t let you edit this code panel, it does let you copy it, which means that you could use RapidWeaver as a starting basis for your website, at which point you could copy the necessary code, make your tweaks, and then publish it yourself. All RapidWeaver themes are 100% XHTML 1.0 Strict, which is nice for the rest of the web community. 
And, of course, there’s a Preview tab to let you see just what your site will look like.
RapidWeaver is also very flexible with publishing a site. iWeb was only able to publish to .Mac or to a folder, which means if you didn’t use .Mac, you would be on your own. RapidWeaver also has integration with .Mac publishing, but also bundles built-in FTP support so you can publish and update your website without needing an FTP client. (RapidWeaver can still export your site to a folder if you want to.) RapidWeaver also uses a technique that tracks your changes once your site is first published and only publishes your changes, thus reducing the time it takes to update.
RapidWeaver is an excellent app for quickly designing a beautiful website, and has features and simplicity that both experienced web designers and brand new web designers will love. It doesn’t come for free on new Macs like iWeb does, but if you want a little bit more power, or if you have plans to graduate to more of a do-it-yourself setup in the future, RapidWeaver is definitely worth the investment.
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