Freeway 5 Pro web design software ?? Rapidweaver??
Discussion
6 replies
Posted by Harley Goldman on November 17, 2008 at 6:18 PM
Does anyone have experience with Freeway 5 Pro web software? Or Rapidweaver? I have been trying to learn Dreamweaver, but I am just not that motivated. I designed my current website with off-the-shelf software (Web Studio 4.0), but it lacks CSS and does not have a simple shopping cart interface.
I have no desire to learn HTML. I have little enough spare time as it is. Some type of drag and drop software that does the HTML for me sounds far more appealing.
Does your web host have a 'site builder'? If so, you might give it a try.
I am using MS Expression Web v2. It is pretty powerful and supports Asp.Net (Windows hosting platform only) and PHP, and has very robust support for CSS. You can download a free trial Here . There is also a link on the page that gives retail and upgrade pricing.
HTML is not that hard. EW has a 'split view' where you can see the html code and the WYSIWYG pane at the same time. When you click on an element in the design pane, the code will hi-lite in the code view. It's a nice learning aid.
There are many 'shopping cart' implementations out there. EW does not have one, but will support editing them.
-P
Posted by Richard Ditch on November 17, 2008 at 8:22 PM
I played around for some time with Freeway 4 Pro, and attended a presentation by their people at an AMUG meeting a few months ago. But you still needed to buy a plugin to get a good gallery function, and I found it took more time than I wanted to spend to lay out my page graphics and navigation features. So, I didn't upgrade even though I had a discount code for it from the presentation.
Instead, I used RapidWeaver 3.6 with one paid plugin. If I was running 10.5 instead of 10.4.11 I'd have gone to RW 4.
If you find an existing template in RW that you like, buy one of the many $10-20 themes from other vendors, or can modify an existing theme to meet your needs, you should be quite happy with RapidWeaver. My entire site at richditch.com was built with it on my PowerMac G4. The only add-in I purchased was "Accordion" which uses some java script to make the collapsing sections in many of my articles.
Send me email if you want to talk more about it.
Posted by Robert Cable on November 18, 2008 at 11:34 AM
Hello Harley,
I recently switched to a Mac and finally realized it was time to stop using Frontpage. I felt the same way about Dreamweaver, so I gave RapidWeaver a try. So far I like it. For $80.00 to & $140.00 (depending on the additional plug-ins you may want) I think it is a great program. It is easy to use, flexable, and comes with good support ( have only needed it once). I just made my new site with it. As I learn more about the program I'll "spiff up" my site more.
Posted by Harley Goldman on November 19, 2008 at 11:29 PM
Thanks very much for the input. Your responses are much appreciated. I downloaded the trial version of Rapidweaver and will give it go and see how it works for me.
Posted by Richard Ditch on November 22, 2008 at 11:01 AM
If you haven't bought RapidWeaver yet note that there's a good deal on it through MacZOT this weekend.
Posted by Richard Ditch on December 13, 2008 at 12:04 PM
And another deal on RapidWeaver 4 as part of the holiday bundle at MacUpdate through Dec 17.
Discussion
6 repliesI have no desire to learn HTML. I have little enough spare time as it is. Some type of drag and drop software that does the HTML for me sounds far more appealing.
Does your web host have a 'site builder'? If so, you might give it a try.
I am using MS Expression Web v2. It is pretty powerful and supports Asp.Net (Windows hosting platform only) and PHP, and has very robust support for CSS. You can download a free trial Here . There is also a link on the page that gives retail and upgrade pricing.
HTML is not that hard. EW has a 'split view' where you can see the html code and the WYSIWYG pane at the same time. When you click on an element in the design pane, the code will hi-lite in the code view. It's a nice learning aid.
There are many 'shopping cart' implementations out there. EW does not have one, but will support editing them.
-P
Instead, I used RapidWeaver 3.6 with one paid plugin. If I was running 10.5 instead of 10.4.11 I'd have gone to RW 4.
If you find an existing template in RW that you like, buy one of the many $10-20 themes from other vendors, or can modify an existing theme to meet your needs, you should be quite happy with RapidWeaver. My entire site at richditch.com was built with it on my PowerMac G4. The only add-in I purchased was "Accordion" which uses some java script to make the collapsing sections in many of my articles.
Send me email if you want to talk more about it.
I recently switched to a Mac and finally realized it was time to stop using Frontpage. I felt the same way about Dreamweaver, so I gave RapidWeaver a try. So far I like it. For $80.00 to & $140.00 (depending on the additional plug-ins you may want) I think it is a great program. It is easy to use, flexable, and comes with good support ( have only needed it once). I just made my new site with it. As I learn more about the program I'll "spiff up" my site more.
Thanks very much for the input. Your responses are much appreciated. I downloaded the trial version of Rapidweaver and will give it go and see how it works for me.