How I found RapidWeaver
23/06/07 11:08
When I was trying to
figure out what to use to finally build my web site I
looked at a number of offerings. I've had Dreamweaver
for a long time. But Dreamweaver is really overkill
for someone like me. It's like shooting an ant with
an elephant gun. Besides, I wasn't interested in
spending a lot of time building really complicated
sites ...
When I was trying to
figure out what to use to finally build my web site I
looked at a number of offerings. I've had Dreamweaver
for a long time. But Dreamweaver is really overkill
for someone like me. It's like shooting an ant with
an elephant gun. Besides, I wasn't interested in
spending a lot of time building really complicated
sites with lots of fancy bells and whistles. I just
wanted to spruce up my own humble site, maybe have
one carefully selected bell and an occasional
whistle, and to be able to make changes whenever I
felt like it without having to go back and spend
hours studying documentation about how I'd built the
site in the first place.
First, I tried iWeb. Being a Mac user, I get iWeb for free. Well, okay, it came with the Mac. That's not exactly "free", but still .... At first I liked iWeb. It's easy to use and has a simple drag and drop interface. Like most Apple products, it's simple, elegant and to the point. Unfortunately, also like many Apple products, it's aimed at people who have never seen a computer before. Basically, iWeb is for someone who wants to put up a flat, one or two page site that will never be indexed by any search engines. It doesn't support meta tags. I mean, c'mon! How hard is it to add that in? Oh well, that was a deal breaker for me, so on I went with my search.
I then ran across a little product called Goldfish from Fishbeam Software. Goldfish is a lot like iWeb, but better in that it has some of those features that iWeb is missing (such as meta tags). I played around with Goldfish for a bit. I ran into something that I couldn't figure out, went to look at the manual and found that there is none. Wha...? No manual? Well, okay, I figured I'd check their on-line forums where other users compare tips, notes and experiences. Every product site now has forums. They're an awful lot cheaper even than outsourced, thickly accented customer support. Alas, there aren't any forums for Goldfish, either. I then took a closer look at the Fishbeam web site and noticed that it's something that even iWeb could have built. Adding to that impression is the fact that searching the web for Goldfish does NOT result in the software app being anywhere near the top of the search list. Obviously, they haven't figured out meta tags, either. And that gave me no confidence that their software would do a very good job of things.
And so on went the search.
I happened across a product called RapidWeaver from RealMac. The RealMac web site was much more impressive than the Fishbeam site, and both the company name and the product name come up at the top of searches. I downloaded RapidWeaver and was instantly impressed. It is very easy to use, highly intuitive, and fully supported at RealMac by ample documentation and excellent user forums. I spent a day playing with the demo version.
It was Don McCallister who cinched it for me. Don is the owner of ScreenCastsOnline, a company that produces on-line videos illustrating how to use numerous software products. He has done about 10 videos teaching RapidWeaver, each about 15 minutes or so and covering the basics all the way up to some fairly advanced stuff. I watched 3 of his videos, was even more impressed with RapidWeaver, and promptly bought the product.
And that is how I found RapidWeaver.
First, I tried iWeb. Being a Mac user, I get iWeb for free. Well, okay, it came with the Mac. That's not exactly "free", but still .... At first I liked iWeb. It's easy to use and has a simple drag and drop interface. Like most Apple products, it's simple, elegant and to the point. Unfortunately, also like many Apple products, it's aimed at people who have never seen a computer before. Basically, iWeb is for someone who wants to put up a flat, one or two page site that will never be indexed by any search engines. It doesn't support meta tags. I mean, c'mon! How hard is it to add that in? Oh well, that was a deal breaker for me, so on I went with my search.
I then ran across a little product called Goldfish from Fishbeam Software. Goldfish is a lot like iWeb, but better in that it has some of those features that iWeb is missing (such as meta tags). I played around with Goldfish for a bit. I ran into something that I couldn't figure out, went to look at the manual and found that there is none. Wha...? No manual? Well, okay, I figured I'd check their on-line forums where other users compare tips, notes and experiences. Every product site now has forums. They're an awful lot cheaper even than outsourced, thickly accented customer support. Alas, there aren't any forums for Goldfish, either. I then took a closer look at the Fishbeam web site and noticed that it's something that even iWeb could have built. Adding to that impression is the fact that searching the web for Goldfish does NOT result in the software app being anywhere near the top of the search list. Obviously, they haven't figured out meta tags, either. And that gave me no confidence that their software would do a very good job of things.
And so on went the search.
I happened across a product called RapidWeaver from RealMac. The RealMac web site was much more impressive than the Fishbeam site, and both the company name and the product name come up at the top of searches. I downloaded RapidWeaver and was instantly impressed. It is very easy to use, highly intuitive, and fully supported at RealMac by ample documentation and excellent user forums. I spent a day playing with the demo version.
It was Don McCallister who cinched it for me. Don is the owner of ScreenCastsOnline, a company that produces on-line videos illustrating how to use numerous software products. He has done about 10 videos teaching RapidWeaver, each about 15 minutes or so and covering the basics all the way up to some fairly advanced stuff. I watched 3 of his videos, was even more impressed with RapidWeaver, and promptly bought the product.
And that is how I found RapidWeaver.
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