On Rapidweaver and WYSIWYG editors

I can’t complain, really. I’ve been using Realmac Software’s Rapidweaver to maintain DaddyDaze since the site’s inception. There are many things I like about it, like the cheap price and ease of use. There are several things I don’t like as well. Alas, as a person with no formal training in web design (and an even worse EYE for web design) I’m forced (like many others) to use one of these inexpensive, WYSIWYG apps. Where is this going? Ok, I’ll just say it.

The Rapidweaver themes are butt-ass ugly.

They seem to target one group and one group only with their designs, and that’s Mac-toting teenage boys. Most of the default themes have aquafied, aqua-licious aqua goodness built right in! If you want glistening pill buttons, shiny tabs and lots and lots of blue, Rapidweaver is for you. Since I’m not blogging about Apple Computer, I don’t want a site that looks like it was designed by Apple Computer (and circa 2001 Apple Computer at that). There are legions of third-party theme developers out there, but it’s more of the same. The designs have a very tech-heavy slant. I’m writing about my two kids. How about something that says, “kids?”

The folks at Karelia software are hard at work on Sandvox, which is another of these inexpensive, consumer level editors. It’s still in beta (and has been for a long time) and I download each new build. They do have a couple of kids’ themes, but Karelia has gone in the opposite direction – it’s like a romper room explosion (see above). I mean, it breaks the Cute-O-Meter. No, thanks.

Next is Apple’s iWeb, part of the new iLife suite of applications. It’s got a long list of pros, most notably the seamless integration with iPhoto and iTunes. There are some cons, too, like no permalinks, no comments, the weird blog layout and the major annoyance of only allowing you to update your site from one machine, the one used to originally create it (actually all three apps do this). Plus, the templates just don’t to it for me. One thing I’ll say: Apple makes the most gorgeous “travel” templates. If you ever go on a trip, you’ll have the most stunning website/movies/photo galleries/DVDs as a result. I don’t know who Apple thinks I am, jetting off to European destinations at the drop of a hat, but I have two little kids, which makes that thing sort of difficult completely impossible.

What’s a nerd to do? As you can see, I’ve updated Daddy Daze to yet another theme that I don’t like. Please, developers of the world, make a theme for us end level users that isn’t butt-ugly. Or better yet: Include a theme editor with your applications! I mean, an honest-to-goodness, drag-and-drop theme builder for people like me who want to do this. I’ll happily use Rapidweaver/Sandvox/iWeb if I can easily make my own themes that look and do exactly what I want via an official editor. I’d say you all have the “publishing” part down. Now let us “design.”