Mac users - anyone using Rapidweaver or Flux?

[greenbarn]

As the title says, I'd be interested in views on using either or both of these MAC only web page building packages. I'll have some more specific questions if anyone does use them - there's nothing like user experience for an insight into something.

I've spent a few hours so far with the demo version of Flux; it's pretty much a drag and drop WYSIWYG, but it produces clean HTML code and you can mix WYSIWYG and hand coding. It requires some understanding of HTML and CSS; I have a bit, but use it very infrequently so hand coding is a learning process every time, hence my interest in Flux.

Rapidweaver I dabbled with some time ago and can't remember much about it; it requires less knowledge of HTML (maybe none), but spits out its own code. It's very much template based, and has a lot of add-ons. Maybe a bit restrictive? And I don't know how well it works with existing hand coded web pages? It's a lot cheaper than Dreamweaver and reckoned to be much easier to get to grips with - and I really don't want to go through a major learning process when I open a package once every few months, so for the amount of use I'd have Dreamweaver is out.

So - any users?

[KathyG]

I'm in the same boat as you Patrick! Set up my site in DW 7 years ago and as you say, every couple of months or so when I update it, I've always forgotten everything I ever knew about DW! It's very complex and I probably use about a tenth of its capabilities so would love something simpler. Wordpress is the only other one I use and I don't find that very intuitive either although I know a lot of others do......

Haven't heard of either Flux or Rapidweaver - haven't been looking though - so I'll go and investigate and will be very interested in replies to this post. Sorry that was no help whatsoever was it!

[greenbarn]

Sorry that was no help whatsoever was it!

Nope. Absolutely none. But I'll forgive you.

FWIW, I'm still playing around with Flux - the demo version seems to be complete, and good for 30 days. I've been trying to get more familiar with how it works, and there's a level of frustration with the (lack of) documentation, although they do seem to have a decent forum. Not that unusual, really, but I believe Rapidweaver has good documentation (I could be wrong).

Anyway, I thought I'd try something approaching real life and loaded a copy of my existing website into Flux. I opened a page with some pictures - Flux displays the page in its final form, but with all sorts of handles and tags - and also picked the option to show the HTML code simultaneously. I selected a picture and dragged it to a different position; the HTML code updated the position parameters exactly as you would by hand, except that I spend ages guessing at position values and reloading a sample page to check, move it a bit etc etc.

So this simple exercise allowed me to grab an image (should work for most/all other elements), reposition it by eye with a WYSIWYG and still end up with code that's indistinguishable from hand coding, and could therefore be used by anyone; you don't end up with a bunch of funny stuff that can only be edited by one package.

This might suit my needs........ more playing needed.

[Martha]

I will apologise in advance for this but.....

MAC is an acronym, short for Media Access Control. Or the makeup company
Mac is an abbreviation of Macintosh, which is the computer.



Anyway! Rapidweaver is the cutdown Dreamweaver? seems like a good plan to me - I can imagine that using DW is a bit overkill. But it may have a habit of inserting its own junk code into pages, which is galling.

I used to build everything with a mix of DW and hand coding but switched to WordPress for personal stuff which I really do find much better - keeps the design simple.

Is there really a major need for anyone to hand edit the code?

[greenbarn]

I will apologise in advance for this but.....

MAC is an acronym, short for Media Access Control. Or the makeup company
Mac is an abbreviation of Macintosh, which is the computer.

Okay, you've got me bang to rights; it's a fair cop, but society's to blame.

Anyway! Rapidweaver is the cutdown Dreamweaver?

I don't think there's a connection (could be wrong); RW is Apple only (neatly avoiding the McTrap ) s/w, which seems to be regarded as more of a grown up iWeb than a cutdown DW. I think.

I didn't build our website, I took it over a while ago and it's hand coded HTML and CSS, so I learnt (and forgot, then learnt again......) enough to make much needed changes. I don't know if RW will handle existing stuff that's HTML and CSS; if not, it would entail starting from scratch - hence my own interest in whether Flux will suit my needs (and my woeful level of ability!)

ps I've now edited the title and downgraded MAC to Mac i.e. no longer shout level.