Splash of Style...Macs, Photography, Design, and other Passions

Initial Thoughts on new iWeb

January 10, 2006 by debbie T | Mac Software • Web Design

iWeb is the new web design application included in the iLife ‘06 suite - I heard about this app a few days ago, when the rumor sites were reporting on it, and it did sound intriguing. But after I saw the demo, I wondered if this application will add to the growing list of bloated web pages that are already online?

Update: I did some digging today, and found an example of a generated iWeb web site. It is horrible. Just as I thought, the coding has the worst case of bloat I have seen in a long time; I imagine it is worst than FrontPage bloat.

There are empty <div> tags galore, with tons of inline CSS. It has to be a nightmare for accessibility and search engine optimization.

If you want to see the example yourself, check http://www.eggdropper.com/iwebtest/Site/Welcome.html

From what I gathered from other sources, it looks like you do not need a .Mac account to publish your own web page, but for one-click publishing, I guess .Mac is required.

Besides iWeb from Apple, there is the established Rapidweaver by RealMac software and now a new offering called Sandvox, by Karelia.

Personally, I really don’t have much use for programs such as these. I find hand-coding the most efficient way to create web pages, but for those that want a simple and cheap alternative to high-end applications such as Dreamweaver, then this kind of program might be the answer. I do recommend that anyone using these editors, also take the time and learn (x)html and CSS.

Between the three applications, Rapidweaver seems to be the clear winner over all. I have only worked very briefly with the app, but it looks to be a high quality feature rich program. They have a busy discussion forum, and it looks like very good support.

From the examples of generated web pages I have viewed, Rapidweaver does create some bloat, but the coding can be edited by hand (to a certain point). There is an excessive use of nested <div> tags and multiple tags for spacing, but at least they are utilizing lists for links menus.

There is a terrific two-part video tutorial for Rapidweaver from the ScreenCastsOnline video podcast.

As for Sandvox, it needs work, but in their defense, it is beta at this point. Publishing and configuring the host information can be a nightmare for a newbie. No surprise, the generated code is bloated in the same way as Rapidweaver (but not nearly as bad as iWeb,) and there is excessive tabbed spacing that makes the code almost unreadable. Rapidweaver appears to keep tidier code.

One good point for Sandvox is that there are a ton of pre-designed templates, and once it is configured properly, it appears to be easy to accomplish one-click publishing.

But don’t take my word, sign up for the free Sandvox public beta and check it out for yourself. (Sign up for the beta, and you will also get an opportunity for referral points towards a future purchase of Sandvox.)

Bottom line, Rapidweaver has a lot of happy customers, Sandvox has potential, and lastly iWeb is a bloated horror show.