Oh PS. Here's my advice for making the best, top-notch, professional websites on the planet fast and for little money. Use the programs "Flux," "Hype," and "Pixelmator" in conjunction. With that trio, you've got the equivalent of about $1,000.00 worth of the unbelievably overpriced Adobe software - for about $165.00!!! I personally think the results are even better than with the Adobe equivalents, and they're a heck of a lot more fun to use. Even for experienced designers, using Adobe software is torture. I personally want web development and design to be an enjoyable experience myself, and it should be. Trust me, that's the magical trio - Flux, Hype, and Pixelmator. I'd personally have Coda there as well, but it's not at all necessary.

This product looks really cool, but I'll be damned if I can figure out how it works. I need a video tutorial.

This web design app is very cool, very different from all the others. It allows you to change the design of ANY existing website since it can work with the HTML and CSS code that is already there. Yes, it has no file format of its own and does not rely on special formatting, structure or comments placed inside the HTML. This feature alone makes Flux priceless IMHO. And the code it creates itself is very clean — just as you would write it by hand.

The second great feature is that you can in fact write the code by hand, inside Flux, but you can also use drag and drop and mouse manipulation — and you can jump between the two styles in a second, whenever it pleases you. This is the second great thing about Flux that I haven't seen elsewhere in such a powerful and seamless way.

The third positive thing I want to say is that everything else is, IMHO, done right, too. Flux looks and feels like a real Mac app, since it is a real Mac app. Including Javascript and scripted actions into your HTML is also nicely supported (it even ships with common libraries like DoJo and jQuery and stuff like Flowplayer, and you can add more). It can work directly over FTP and SFTP, supports creation of Wordpress and concrete5 themes, and so on.

Does it have a steep learning curve? Yes, perhaps for those who are not web developers.

I mean, this is a serious tool for professionals. If you don't know HTML nor CSS nor Javascript, then you don't need nor want to see any source code, but instead you want to be given a boatload of templates to choose from and a lot of guidance. Those people should in fact be better off using apps like iWeb or Sandvox.

If you are a pro, then you know HTML and CSS, and the learning curve for Flux should really be a non-issue since the interface is nice and intuitive, and there are quite a few tutorials and videos, too.

If you despise tools like iWeb because of their lack of flexibility and the really crappy and bloated HTML and CSS they generate which is a nightmare to tweak manually — then Flux is definitely for you.

Flux is also actively developed with a lot of updates, which I personally find important. Note that the Flux version in the Mac App Store often lags a bit behind, so I recommend getting Flux through a different channel.

After tinkering with this for awhile, I've got to say it's a decent program if you don't know a lot of HTML and/or don't want to mess with the coding. That being said, it's pretty stubborn when I do try to tinker with the code; it's still fairly buggy at times; and if you're used to coding by hand it can seem awkward with a few annoyances when using it as a Coda/TextMate/Espresso style editor.

What I do like about it and what I think it is good for, is being able to experiment and play with code that you aren't entirely comfortable with, haven't really grasped or just flat-out don't know. I like using it when I've been stuck with div positioning, as I can do it visually with Flux and then compare with what I've already coded. Similarly, with jQuery, I've wanted to learn but haven't gotten around to it; I can play with it in Flux and view the code and results to pick bits of it up that way.

Overall I think it's very overpriced given that it still has quite a few quirks and could have more in the way of default templates (a la RapidWeaver) for a WYSIWYG; for a text-based code editor, its bugs really annoy when I'm trying to manually edit code and I prefer programs like Coda. I bought Flux at a MacZot discount of $55, and frankly I think that's more along the lines of what it should be offered at, rather than the $100+ price tag it has now.

I am curious to know why the version (3.1.7) which was included in recent MacUpdate promo package in December 2010 is over 150 MB in size, while the newest update version (3.1.15) is less than 80 MB.

Did the version that was bundled with the promotional package include both PPC and Intel code? Does the subsequent updater intelligently determine the target machine and download only the code for that machine? Or, was half of the code tossed out, and, if so, why?

I keep getting an annoying error message after each manual updates. Anyone else getting an Update Error! message when using the Check for Updates option. Should I delete and reinstall?