iWeb Disappearing, What can you Use for Simple Web Sites?

I have been reading a rumour about the discontinuation of MobileMe services, and one impact will be iWeb, the apple web design software. iWeb was great web design software for simple web sites, and I used it for some time for my blog and podcast website. I stopped using iWeb about a year ago, when I learned that changing the name of the site file on your computer, changed the website address online, effectively killing off all the links I had placed all over the internet to my site.

If this rumour is correct, what should you do? Well, after finding some issues with iWeb, I looked a several different web builder applications. Some applications are very powerful, and some are very simple. I wanted an application that I could learn myself, and use to update my web site every week.

The software I am using is called RapidWeaver 5. It uses a database system that stores all the information, and then it uses themes to present the data. This allows you to change the theme (the look) of the website without recreating all the information, data and links.

This is the raw data for my web site.

This is the preview of the current theme. I like being able to choose the theme, and there are many themes to choose from. You can even buy additional themes. If you know CSS, you can edit your theme to make it individual.

One of the main reasons I choose to use RapidWeaver is that you can extend the software by buying extensions. I bought an extension that makes it easy to add products and services, and a Paypal cart.

There are many addons, and the RapidWeaver software and website makes it easy to link to these addons, and it makes it easy to install the addons. I found an addon that added a paypal cart, and it makes adding products and services very easy. The paypal cart looks great and works well.

I have looked at Sandvox (http://www.karelia.com/sandvox/), which now has a new extendable structure. When I first looked at sandvox, it was not as powerful and flexible as rapidweaver. Since then, they have substantially updated the software, and there is a plug-in area for extending the software.