I need an iWeb alternative

It is MobileMe that is being discontinued. iWeb is an application and you can still continue to use it - there is no need to change. iWeb works with both Snow Leopard and Lion.

If you already have a domain name registered through GoDaddy, then it makes sense to purchase hosting from them so that you keep everything under one roof. It will make it a lot easier and you can then just upload your site directly.

As for alternatives, the closest to iWeb would probably be RapidWeaver, Sandvox or Freeway Pro/Express. However, as these do not have import facilities as iWeb does not, then you will have to re-build your site from scratch if you use any of these.

Other alternatives where you would not have to do this is something like DreamWeaver or WebDesign. However, to use Webdesign, you need to know about html coding.

Any alternatives that you use, you would really be looking at a re-build, so stick with iWeb for the time being. It will still work as apps tend to do and you'll then only need to move your site from MobileMe to GoDaddy for publishing.

I went from iWeb and Mobileme to Sandvox and Machighway.

I found Sandvox to be a lot like iWeb, just watched a couple of tutorials and started.

I had to transfer by starting from blank pages, but copying and pasting what I could. That was a hassle, but truth be told, the remaking of my site was helpful to me.

Sandvox is now on the App store I think, and is a little cheaper than on its own site.

I had the domain name thru GoDaddy, but transferred that to Machighway, to keep everything organized. If you do that just remember that it really will take a couple of days for the transfer of the domain name to take effect. I took down my old site figuring the change would happen overnight...no such luck.

For the record, I am glad I had to change. Machighway costs half as much as Mobileme. I have no doubt that if iWeb had been continued it would have been world class, but as far as anyone can tell, it is like iMovie 06, useful but not supported.

Hugh

godaddy is a good place to publish your site. You can upload your site to godaddy and it can potentially stay there forever, so all your work would not be lost.

I don't think there's any way to transfer your iWeb site to another format.

wordpress is another alternative web builder.

You can import your published files into code entry style software such as WebDesign, Taco, BlueGriffon etc but there's not a lot of point to this.

Applications like iWeb, Sandvox and RapidWeaver cannot build sites suitable for portable devices and this looks like becoming the most popular way to view websites. If you depend on your website for your business you need to think about this sooner rather than later.

The sheer amount of code produced by apps like iWeb makes them unsuitable for this purpose along with their inability to produce a flexible layout.

Your site also depends, to a certain extent, on the availability of the flash plugin. This used to make sense but flash is becoming almost as redundant as QuickTime since a lot of portable devices don't suport it.

HTML5 will allow us to produce more efficient code and plugins are a thing of the past due to the need to conserve battery power in portable devices. Apps like Sandvox and RapidWeaver claim to be html5 complient but this is really meaningless since they produce too much unnecessary code for even a simple website.

I wouldn't rush to replace iWeb with a similar app. Why do you think Apple have stopped supporting and developing it?

Freeform, artistic designs like yours are, unfortunately, rare on an internet overloaded with all these boring, regimented column layouts built on templates. Its not too hard to build fluid layouts with images that adapt in size to the screen width. The problem is that most people don't have the time or inclination to learn all this stuff and nobody has come up with an app that makes it easy - yet!

Update your media players, cut out all the wasteful image/text effects, optimize your files and wait for the next big thing in web design.

So what do YOU recommend for now?

Waiting for the next big thing in web design is not an option if you have to have a live website!

What is your recommendation for an iWeb alternative? Something that is as versatile as possible, but can also be operated by a non-coder?

Suggest you take a look at RapidWeaver, Sandvox and Freeway Pro/Express all available from the Mac App Store and you can download trial versions of them.

Either this or stick with iWeb. You don't need to change.

It really depends on what type of website you have.

iWeb and similar apps are probably OK for the "standard" website with text and images. If your website includes other media such as movies and music, you need to work a little harder. Displaying these using the QuickTime plugin was never the answer and, nowadays, neither is flash. YouTube (and its far superior rival Vimeo) seems to be the easy answer and, it probably is if you want your site to look like a zillion others.

Online site builders, like the much touted Weebly, don't provide the answer either. Weebly uses the standalone version of the Wordpress mp3 player and an ancient version of the JWLongtail video player. Both are way out of date and won't function on most portable devices. Far from being free, except in their most mundane form, this method of site creation is a lot less versatile than using applications such as iWeb and will end up a lot more costly in the long run.

A lot of the emails I get are from musicians who use HostBaby wanting to change to iWeb. The main reasons being the high cost of a HostBaby site and the lack of ability to produce a unique design.

Having looked "under the hood" of some of the designs that claim to be suitable for all devices, I'm not impressed. On the other hand, if you create a version of your site suitable for cell phones using the available online resources, your going to have to accept their almost non existent ability to play media.

Right now, I wouldn't recommend any direct replacement for iWeb. As I mentioned previously, why replace iWeb with something that's equally redundant such as SandVox and RapidWeaver or the hopelessly antiquated Freeway? Ask your self why Apple is quitting on iWeb. It would make an interesting topic in this forum!

Making the move to code entry style software is not as difficult as it appears to be. Most of the so called professional designs out there are built from "templates" in the form of stock CSS stylesheets. Modifying them is a no brainer compared with trying to produce a template for an app like iWeb. Most of the code entry style software is WYSIWYG and, the better ones, show the changes in real time.

If you want to stick with drag and drop, you'll need to wait for the next big thing. You don't need to change but the problem is that standing still is equivalent to going backwards!

Thank you!

Roddy wrote:

Making the move to code entry style software is not as difficult as it appears to be. Most of the so called professional designs out there are built from "templates" in the form of stock CSS stylesheets. Modifying them is a no brainer compared with trying to produce a template for an app like iWeb. Most of the code entry style software is WYSIWYG and, the better ones, show the changes in real time.

Thanks for your explanation. What would you suggest as the best, easiest, code-entry application for a simpleton like myself?

I guess the one concern with sticking with iWeb vs. migrating to something similar but with ongoing development is that there's less risk an update to the Mac OS will break it. At some point, on a future version of the Mac OS, iWeb simply won't work, and whatever is online will be frozen. (or, you will need to dedicate a legacy OS installation to servicing it). Hence, interest in RapidWeaver, Sandvox and Freeway Pro/Express, I guess.

Thanks again.

Making the move to code entry style software is not as difficult as it appears to be. Most of the so called professional designs out there are built from "templates" in the form of stock CSS stylesheets. Modifying them is a no brainer compared with trying to produce a template for an app like iWeb. Most of the code entry style software is WYSIWYG and, the better ones, show the changes in real time.

Roddy pointed me to a site that offers stock css layouts, Download free CSS templates - Free CSS Templates, and using one of those templates (which includes the index.html file, graphics used in the template, etc.) and Rage Web Design seems to be one of the better alternatives to iWeb.

I'm just experimenting with it but I know Roddy has done a lot with that approach.

OT

I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendations or links.

Having Sandvox but not an iPhone, I asked them about it's usefulness on a mobile device. Here is their reply:

"Apple's iPhone offers a fully functional web browser. Sandvox sites are fully compatible with the iPhone.

Most Sandvox designs also offer an optimized "viewport" setting for the iPhone. This allows the iPhone to know the width that your site should be displayed at and thus sets the zoom level optimally. Sandvox handles all of this automatically for you.

One limitation of the iPhone (and the iPad) is that it cannot handle Flash files. Therefore if full iPhone access is required for your website we suggest you avoid using Flash files where possible. Instead, consider using a Video object loaded with an iPhone-compatible video file if appropriate".

All I can say it that I am one of those who really found learning code difficult and not necessary. A template based application like Sandvox works well and is a good alternative for those of us who want to put up a simple site.

Hugh

There's no question that iWeb will continue to work for quite some time - iWeb '08 still works for some! Its the fact that it can't produce the type of website that is becoming more and more important that made me decide to move on to something more versatile than drag and drop style software.

I do expect to see some developers creating suitable software using the techniques made possible by HTML5 but I don't see any around right now.

I chose to go with Rage WebDesign because it is WYSIWYG and the latest update makes life really easy by having the ability to highlight the appropriate code when the user clicks on an item in the prview window.

Unlike iWeb, this software has the ability to use plugins which can be easily created for more or less anything. This is far more versatile than using widgets which have proved to be problematic and restrictive in iWeb.

WebDesign has a number of basic templates included which provide a good starting point for new designs. As OT has pointed out, there are a huge number of existing ones out there and you are more likely to find something unique that you can adapt to your own purpose than you will with drag and drop style software. An iPad layout is in the works.

What Sandvox are suggesting here can easily be done with an iWeb site by inserting the meta tag into the html files post publishing and can probably be done more easily with an html snippet. However, this doesn't make a website suitable for viewing on an iPhone.

Remember that cell phones use touch for navigation so the links have to have a fairly large target for the users fingertip. Phones also need specilized links for making phone calls and sending emails. Contact forms need alternative input types that launch the appropriate keypad - alphabetic or numeric. How does Sandvox suggest you get around the user input problem? Contact forms are an essential ingredient in almost any type of website.

The way in which people view and use websites on a phone are different from on a PC. You have to provide alternative versions either by creating a separate portable version or by providing device specific stylesheets.

Remember that there are other portable devices that do use flash. Website media content is fairly useless unless it can be viewed on the majority of devices. This means that we are going to be stuck with using fallback codes for quite some time and Sandvox are not alone in their failure to provide an acceptable means of getting media to play for the majority of visitors. What's the point in going to the trouble of creating a unique website and then sticking a YouTube movie player on it - or worse, using QuickTime or an obsolete flash player.

It's been 4 months since the last activity on this thread and I'd be interested if there's any more movement on the keep/abandon topic.

I've been using iWeb for the self maintained portions of my websites and do enjoy it's ease of interface with iPhoto, etc. http://extras.freebornguitars.com . Theses pages and their media portions all seem to work fine on my portable device (iTouch).

I've been casually looking for a replacement for iWeb simpy because it doesn't have a "slider" style photo album page. I'd be fine with the onboard slideshow format if I could skip the "album page" with it's little stack of pictures foreplay, and go directly to the actual slideshow. Wowslider does what I want, but I tried to contact them about compatibility and never heard back. I find it odd that Apple, who pretty much invented the "slider" interface with iTouch and iPad don't have it as an option to view a slideshow built in iWeb... I'm also not crazy about the limitations on layout of the header/ links to pages format. Kind of clumsy....

There are quite a few JQuery based sliders that can be used in iWeb with a little modification. Here's Wow...

http://www.iwebformusicians.com/Banner-Slideshow/Wow-Slider.html

Note that in this case an iframe is used and its size has to be wider than the slideshow to accomodate the pop out thumbs.