iWeb Publishing Solution in El Capitan

Wyodor who posts on this forum is probably the best person to help you with that, but as he has also stated, don't hold your breath for any solutions for an unsupported product - 4 years now, so why bother?

However, remember that the fix may not be that simple, as it is to do with the interaction between iWeb and El Capitan.

Perhaps time to move on?

Lisa and everybody else:

I made a useful discovery, until we figure out how to restore total functionality. In my case I have found that any Shape imported from the iWeb menu will disappear when I link it. But if I import Shapes from Pages, even when they are linked in iWeb, they will remain visible. Unfortunately importing a Text box from Pages causes the same problem as in iWeb. But what I have been doing is putting a Pages shape, linked, behind an iWeb text also linked and getting the same effect we used to get beforehand. The only caveat is that Color Fill needs to be added in Pages, whereas all other features, such as Border, Size, Shadow and Opacity can all be controlled from within iWeb. It's really an easy solution. I use Pages a lot for the preliminary graphic design that ends up on iWeb.

Great discovery!!!!

Ethmoid:

Thanks for your ongoing and sagacious following of this topic. I sent a separate message to Lisa about a useful discovery I made using Pages, but I would like to address your input a bit differently. It's my strategy to drill down to the problem so precisely that a super-techie [perhaps like you?] will have a light go on and figure out what happened. Let me explain. I have two identical iMac's side by side. One I upgraded to El Capitan, the other I left at Yosemite [to play it safe]. Every other feature is identical. But as with the other folks in the discussion group, when I publish from the El Capitan computer, linked Shapes from iWeb won't appear. When the shapes are imported from Pages and linked they do appear. With Yosemite, there is no problem, period. So it seems to me that we are smart enough as a discussion group to get more detailed than it's an iWeb El Capitan issue. Something specific got disabled or removed that affects iWeb Shapes.

As a parallel, when Mavericks came out, Quicktime plugin files were put into a Disabled Plug-ins folder of the Internet Plug-ins folder under Library [I'm sure you remember that]. A similar discussion brought out a solution [Duh, remove them from the Disabled Plug-ins folder]. So I'm hoping some super-techie will stumble across this thread and identify the one minor, minor thing that changed between Yosemite and El Capitan. Common super-techies put on those thinking caps!

Like so many others I have close to a 1,000 pages of web material, and have indeed started using EverWeb, even working with its developer to point out missing features that are important to me as a designer, etc. I agree that as it gets better and better it already has features that I wish iWeb had from the beginning [such as Master Pages]. But it doesn't solve my immediate situation. Luckily, I have simply switched to my Yosemite iMac for web publishing; but others may not have that luxury. [I've even contemplated reinstalling Yosemite, but that's another story]. Again, thanks for monitoring these discussions. I feel a solution is imminent.

Richard

This is what I am trying to do. My Linked buttons in iWeb have disappeared. Can someone direct me on how to import a Pages shape to an iWeb page?

Bob:

I'm sure you've already discovered that the solution is your typical Copy and Paste [or Command C and Command V, if you prefer that manner of copying]. As I've described elsewhere, when you generate your shape in Pages [or *any other program that creates shapes] deselect everything, such as Border and Shadow, since those you can add back on in iWeb. But you do need to create the Fill in Pages before you transfer it to iWeb. Once in iWeb you can still change proportion, add a border and add shadows and duplicate endlessly. For some folks this may mean doing this just once for an entire website. [One could create an unpublished iWeb page with a number of pre-formatted shapes.]

If you use non-rectangular shapes [such as a circle], you will need to do a bit more experimenting if you wish to have a border. You may need to add that, too, in Pages, since iWeb treats the border as a rectangle. Luckily it treats shadows correctly.

*This trick works with any program that generates shapes, including MS Word and even EverWeb [for those who like a sense of irony]. I picked Pages because everybody is likely to have it installed on their computers and because its functionality is similar to iWeb.

But for the more serious graphic designer I have to share the good news: Canvas Draw [from ACD Systems] is back for the Mac [after a lapse of several years] and it is better than ever - I mean it is stunning!. For those who have been told they need Adobe Illustrator but gasp at the cost and complexity, Canvas Draw is the inexpensive answer. It combines precision technical features, such as an architect's CAD program, with freeform illustrating capabilities, opening up a whole new potential for beautiful website design. Anything you create can be imported back into iWeb. [No, I don't represent the company. Just like all of you, I simply want to create the best designs possible, where I'm in control of the program, rather than the program controlling me.]

Happy New Year!

Richard

Thanks for the reply Richard, but I had already tried the Copy/Paste from Pages to iWeb, & the only thing that copies to iWeb is the text. I cannot put the colored rectangle from pages on iWeb. I must be missing something.

To make it work, you need Pages from iWork '09.

With Pages '09 you can make a nice webpage, like this one :

http://elcapitan.byethost17.com/Pages/The_Collector.html

You see, with every new version of an Apple application, you get fewer features and the ones that are available are crippled.

So everytime you watch a keynote and cheer, you're fooling yourselves.

I have Pages 5.6.1 that came on my new late 2015 iMac. Are you saying I need to create my whole web page on Pages, and then transfer the page to iWeb?

I was hoping to just create the button on Pages & put that on iWeb for the hyperlink.

Bob:

You have the right version of Pages. In fact any version would work. You don't need to do anything different - it's still all in iWeb. I was talking about Copy and Paste a Shape from Pages, not a Text Box. [I just now tried the Text Box from Pages and you're right that doesn't work, but that isn't necessary.]

The Text Box still works in iWeb, when linked, for the text, but not for the background fill. So for those who would like to link both text and a background the idea is to import the background shape from Pages into iWeb and then slide linked text in front of that shape. See example, where I formatted the menu bar in Pages using Gradient Fill and imported to iWeb to add shadow and the linked text.

Thank you for your patience. I was inserting a Shape on pages, selecting the color, and then adding text. Then my copy & paste only pasted the text. I just did the shape with color & it transferred just fine. I am now good to go.

You need to use your imagination.

Here's a site I made in Pages five years ago. With a custom menu added :

http://wyodor.byethost8.com/roodhout/

Some links are broken, so igore that.

And if you want PHP added to your iWeb Site, read this :

http://responsive.2kool4u.net/misc/iweb/

Bob:

As a final hint, make sure the size of the iWeb text box is as small as possible, because even though its background is "invisible" it can still block the hyperlink of the background shape imported from Pages. I've modified the example to show how the linked text is the smaller dashed blue line.

Richard

I too discovered my linked boxes were no longer publishing correctly when I published direct to the host server via iWeb's in-built FTP service.

Publishing to a local folder and then using Fetch to push to 'Put' on the server has restored normal service even though rather frustrating I can no longer use the direct publish facility.

Is there anyone clever out there who can figure out what is going wrong with the FTP publish mechanism?

It's obviously some conflict between El Capitan and iWeb that affects the direct publishing, but why bother to find out, because there is not likely to be any fix for it with iWeb being an unsupported and unuqdated product?

If publishing to your desktop and using Fetch to upload to your server works, then continue to publish your site this way and you won't have any problems.