LEV  I'm not sure RapidWeaver is aimed at pro web designers like MACLOVER1.1. A BBEdit/Espresso/Coda/Whatever IDE is beyond the capability, or indeed the time-investment, of many thousands of people (I'm one of them) who use the web as a fairly basic communications tool. If you have all those hand-coding, Flash, Java etc. skills, I'm sure you'd find RW limiting or be annoyed by its insistence on its own way of doing things.

But for users like me, it, and its competition like Sandvox, are a godsend. I want to get stuff up quickly, whether it's support material for my students or stuff for my own websites. The difference is that MacLover knows what he wants and understandably gets frustrated if he can't do it; if I find I can't do it *easily*, then I'll just do something else.

I agree that buying plug-ins and themes can rapidly run up a hefty bill but for most owner-drivers, they're a luxury, albeit a fun luxury. You can get something presentable and effective with just the basic app. What you *can't* do with RW or Sandvox is generate something as fugly as a M$ Front Page standard horror. And for some reason RW & Sandvox seem less... well, less grandpa-with-pix-of-the-little-kiddies than iWeb.

In other words, I guess it's a sort of SOHO app for people who don't need (or can't afford) the services of a pro but don't want to look like berks with pix of Miss Pussy-Paws playing in the snow. And it does that very well, and pretty simply.

I suppose it would be like me recommending heavy-duty apps like Tinderbox or Screenwriter to people who just want to write the occasional letter. They'd rightly complain about the learning curve & wouldn't care about the power of the apps because they wouldn't have any use for that power. Do *you* care about being able to have character names on the same line as the dialogue? No, and why should you when you're typing up an invoice? But I do.

In the end the trick of reviewing, which we all tend to forget from time to time, is to make our first question: "What is the developer trying to do?" In this case, I guess the answer is to produce a reasonably WYSIWYG, reasonably simple but extensible web design app aimed at the small business or owner-driver. By those criteria I think RW does it well. By the criteria of a pro, it's probably a bit frustrating.

BTW, to the Flash guy: we all feel your pain but in a straw poll among friends I discovered that the message they least like to see is "Loading Flash..." and that most likely to cause cynical laughter and a click followed by a rapid exit is the "Skip Intro" box...  
(Version 4.3.1)

ESPIRIDION  Being critical of RapidWeaver will probably result in multiple "frowns" but here's my review.

I recently created a website, and used Freeway Pro, Sandvox, and RapidWeaver. RapidWeaver 3.5 was my first web design application, later on I purchased Freeway Pro. I may buy Sandvox but I'm not sure yet.

The best tool for the job -FOR ME- was Freeway, without a doubt.

Here are some of the issues I had trouble with while using RapidWeaver 4.3:

-Not very intuitive. This is not always a problem. I believe in reading manuals and watching tutorials. Still, there aren't many options under "Preferences." The "Page Inspector" yielded more options. "Setup" was another option that did not address what I was looking for. "Setup" does not have a Cancel button, so there's always some processing going on even without making any changes.

-Preview did not always work for me. I tried 3 times to Preview my site in Firefox, and RW took me to Firefox but there was no website to preview. It worked fine when I chose Safari. Still, it has a severe limitation; Preview seems to offer a single page preview, but it was impossible to actually preview the whole website and navigate through it. I just got the following when clicking on a page: "Safari can’t find the file."

Previewing in Freeway worked fine and allowed me to preview the whole website while navigating through it.

-I could not find a theme that worked for my simple needs. For example, I wanted a Menu which expands when the cursor is placed over it, and displays the submenu items. Modern Grunge, Tiger Pop, and other Themes have this functionality, but the finished product looked terrible, perhaps because of the narrow columns and long submenu text.

I'm sure I could do a lot of things if I spend more time using RapidWeaver, and spend some money on Themes and Addons. But why?

When I first got RW it was a $50 application, typically available for much less. Its price then increased to $79. Themes and addons are still extra.

For creating some websites quickly and easily it does work. For MY needs it was frustrating. More importantly, the finished product was not as professional as the one I got with Freeway.

RapidWeaver seems to be more comparable with Sandvox, and I preferred to use Sanvox.

The RW community is great, so it's relatively easy to find answers from other helpful users.  
(Version 4.3.0)

MACLOVER1.1  Hi, my situation is a bit different, I only do Flash websites (guess I'm one of those hybrids that likes design and code)... but need to provide alternate basic html content for those people still allergic to the idea of installing Flash, or those with possibly weak computer configurations or those who for whatever reason do not want Flash (though in my area and with my clients' target audience it is rarely an issue). So basically I needed something to quickly make pages for those unlucky few, so they still get the basic useful information and not feel completely left out. For some time I used RapidWeaver.. I had tried iWeb but found it too basic at the time. However over time I spent quite a little bit of money for various RW plugins, and the cheap app became less cheap... then iWeb grew into a more complete application... the point is that I much prefer iWeb now which I find more intuitive, more fun and which fits my needs without any additonal plugins. For more freedom in design I could also advise Flux (also developped in the U.K. btw... it is a different animal, and the learning curve is a bit steeper.. but still everyone who creates web pages should take a look at it too... really). Anyhow unless Rapidweaver morphs into something that somehow brings me more than iWeb.. who knows, but for now it sits on the shelf.  
(Version 4.3rc1)

IAMDORIAN  To set the record straight, I am an illustrator and designer who pioneered electronic publishing. I watched as BBs gave way to primitive (and horrible ugly) HTML web sites, and now to CSS, Flash animations and every kind of scripting language you can imagine. I don't write code. Period! Never cared to, even though I can understand logic statements. My strength is in design and all that goes along with that, and I don't want to 'code.' This holds no joy, nor interesting challenges for me. My lifetime (what's left of it) is too precious to spend typing. So, this is one application I understand.

How well do I understand it? Well . . .

The first time I sat down and began using it it required the usual 'learning curve' you'd expect from a unique GUI. However, in one long evening-into-morning session, I had a good looking preliminary web site up and running. This is the strength of RapidWeaver.

The plug-in developers (those whose products I am supporting) are responsive and clever, the themes base is constantly growing, and I cannot praise the concept behind this application enough. And yes, I have worked a tiny bit in early versions of GoLive a well as DreamWeaver. This approach is pretty intuitive, the pages are clean and load fast, and . . . work!

If you're trying to get real work done, and you don't think that coding is the 'cats' meow,' then I highly suggest that you give this inexpensive, (fairly) intuitive and creative little application a spin. I did. I think it was one of those great little (minimal) investments which have simplified my life. (If you want to see what I cranked out in one night – less additional copy – see my SpagyricArts dot com site).

Highly recommended. I'd give it six stars if I could.  
(Version 4.3rc1)

EDB  @ Kennedy ... "If you want to create a web site from a blank slate, you're out of luck. RapidWeaver forces you to use one of the included themes to which you can customize to your hearts desire. How hard would it have been it allow the user to use a blank page?"

I must be missing something but if I'm not mistaken you can choose to use an HTML page style and if you look in the Page Inspector and select the "page" (small icon top right) you can choose not to "Apply the Theme". Choosing this option leaves you with a Blank page that won't preview since it has no coding.

So your above quoted complaint isn't correct.  
(Version 4.3rc1)

MILESLONG  Again kennedy, i don't have a clue what your comment means about you CAn design a website from scratch but you CANT design one without downloading their developer tools and learning their software.

Well, I hate to be the one to break this to you but you have to learn somekind of software before designing and coding a website. I don't care if it's dreamweaver or textedit, you have to use software to design and implement a website.

When referring to developer tools you mean Theme SDK, that is for designer who wish to build their own templates and sell them as themes usually. I can take a nice RW template or any other for that matter I purchased for around $10 and then transform it into something that doesn't even resemble the original template (in a good way sometimes).

There are also blank templates that have no theme at all and you just code away, this isn't the developer SDK (which is free by the way).  
(Version 4.3rc1)

CHELSEL  I've been coding raw HTML and JavaScript since 1996. I've coded probably a few hundred thousand lines or more by hand. I come from a family of artists but I wasn't gifted with the same skills in visual design and creating an attractive website has always been a challenge for me. I can say however that RapidWeaver is perfect for me. It lets me whip up a beautiful site design quickly and easily. If I need to go in and tweak things then I have full access to the code. The people who said you can't change the themes don't know what they're talking about. This is a great piece of software.  
(Version 4.2.3)

MILESLONG  I think the two guys below me need to at least really try the software before writing such inane comments. You CAN build pages from scratch, there at least three different themes which come to you blank and you simply design away to your hearts content, yes, a blank canvas.

Secondly, every single theme available is modifiable. If you guys know so much about coding then you would have figured this out by now. The themes simply allow a nice looking quick template for those who aren't coders. If you are handy with code, the great themes available save you tons of hours in design and writing lines of code.

They have the best support for any software I have ever tried and if you want an answer to a problem, just go to the forums and you will have experts answer it for you within minutes usually. The only negative about Rapidweaver is that sometimes it does act buggy on my sites during design but I use an insane amount of javascript. Most people won't ever even notice this issue. Doesn't affect the way the site performs on the web either.

Again, you need to try a product before slamming it, really inaccurate posts, probably competitors or something.... Here are links to just some of the blank themes available, several are FREE as well...

http://www.realmacsoftware.com/addons/themes/blocksbox/

http://www.realmacsoftware.com/addons/themes/notheme/  
(Version 4.2.3)

EIFFEL  OK for amateurs, but buggy, as long as you're happy with your stock design layouts (you will not be able to change them by the way).

Pointless for web designers - too restrictive/difficult to get inside. Bugs hurt too, and add ons/upgrades all cost money.

One last thing: Come on - if you claim to be a web designer and use this product for clients be honest: you're a hack and they should be doing the website for themselves for 1/10 the price.  
(Version 4.2.2)

BDKENNEDY1  Raise your hands if you are sick and tired of evaluating WYSIWYG web software and coming up empty-handed.

If you want to create a web site from a blank slate, you're out of luck. RapidWeaver forces you to use one of the included themes to which you can customize to your hearts desire. How hard would it have been it allow the user to use a blank page?

Many of the cool plugins cost money on top of the cost of RW and still don't allow me to do what I want.

I am extremely frustrated...

Goldfish Pro: Has WYSIWYG down pat, excellent user interface but no support from the developer.

Freeway Pro: Most developed but buggy and clunky, overly-complicated interface.

RapidWeaver: Best most professional user interface but can't create a site from scratch.

Will someone please buy these 3 companies, combine the software and give us a single, excellent WYSIWYG program without having to install 1700 plugins? For god's sake why is this so difficult?  
(Version 4.2.1)