Anyone use iWeb instead of Dreamweaver?

[eclipse]

Confess your sins, you sold an iWebpage to a client, didn't you?

No really, there's a thread over in Mac apps on iWeb, and as a newbie but "burnt out" GoLive web designer (that is, I started in GoLive but gave up web design when it kept quitting on me), some of those iWeb pages are looking clean and people are saying iWeb is really easy to use.

Would anyone use iWeb for their own design studio web-brochure say?

 

[iMpathetic]

I don't know, but I wonder if it's a good program. I wouldn't mind learning, I plan to open some forums with my friend when I'm 15, in a year or so, assuming it's worth learning, that is.

 

[ChicoWeb]

No. And if you use iWeb to create a web site for a client, and you sell yourself as a web designer, you should re-think your profession.

 

[JSchwage]

I agree with ChicoWeb. If you're using iWeb or Rapidweaver or some easy website creator tool, you should even be in the web design business. I, being a web designer, personally just use Adobe Fireworks for my graphic design tool. All the rest of my time is spent in TextWrangler looking at pure code.

 

[eclipse]

I agree. But surely we are about design, not code? I was joking about selling an iWeb page to a client, but was half wondering if any hard-corps web designers got sick of playing with code and just sometimes wanted to blog about something without coding all day!

BTW — I really like Chico's "10 things to think about" for webdesign, and agree that having that sort of stuff spelled out on one's home page really helps educate clients. Seems to be half the battle in getting clients to come around to stop thinking they know how to design and start telling us what they are about.

 

[JSchwage]

I agree. But surely we are about design, not code? I was joking about selling an iWeb page to a client, but was half wondering if any hard-corps web designers got sick of playing with code and just sometimes wanted to blog about something without coding all day!

BTW — I really like Chico's "10 things to think about" for webdesign, and agree that having that sort of stuff spelled out on one's home page really helps educate clients. Seems to be half the battle in getting clients to come around to stop thinking they know how to design and start telling us what they are about.

Code is half of what web design is. If you can't code, then you aren't going to get far. Sorry if my post sounded like I was emphasizing the coding aspect. I spend about the same time in both my graphics and text editing programs.

 

[eclipse]

I can't code. I'm not a trained designer, but a design assistant. My wife's so busy doing the real core of our business which is print design that she leaves me to look into the web-site stuff and the first (and last) web-job I did was a nightmare because while she looked after the look of the website, I had to run the implementation. I tried to do so without any code, but GoLive kept crashing. It was horrible!

So I thought Dreamweaver had CSS implementation tools that basically did away with code? I'll be learning Dreamweaver in a few months when we've sorted out some $$$ and business systems stuff, and I can finally upgrade my computer AND Adobe CS to 3.

 

[ezekielrage_99]

I use iWeb to create wireframes and demos for clients, it's so easy to use, looks good and is very fast to set up a very basic structure, clients do respond well to a basic idea that they can "surf" with the proposed product and see the look and feel. This has saved me many hours of redesigns where the client has thought of something where it wasn't obvious until they start using it.

I don't use it to create the final product because it just isn't good enough for that, but from a planning POV it can be used very successfully.

 

[ocbo41]

iweb can be a decent way to quickly mockup a site. I find (using the trial) that Sitegrinder 2 can be even faster for a mockup.

But no iweb's pages are amusingly bloated for resale.

 

[MegaMan1311]

I've only built one website for a client with iWeb, because they wanted to be cheap on the site, and I was not going to code and build a site by hand that I was not going to get paid in full for, so I made a quick and dirty site with iWeb instead.

The only reason I can see building a site out of iWeb for a client is the above.

Anyways, if you are not looking to learn how to code and it is your own business's site, not someone else's site, then go ahead and build it out of iWeb. Its your business's site, so its your choice.

However, if you are building a site for someone else, then don't use iWeb as your main program to build sites under normal circumstances.

If you design websites for a living, and you want to use iWeb to build all of your sites, then get used to coding, because you should not use iWeb much at all.

 

[Digital Skunk]

I was stopping by the forum to get some inspiration for designing my new site. I am a freelance photog and I don't know jack squat about web design other than how to export HTML and upload it to a site, yadda, yadda, yadda.

For me personally, I use iWeb and just deal with it because otherwise I'd have no site at all. I am glad that Apple at least gave us the opportunity to start from scratch. It sucks because it's just basic HTML but it gets my work out there in a form that isn't MySpace, FaceBook, or any of the other crappy "Internet Communities"

I paid for the .Mac account and I use iWeb because it's easy and it's quick. Nothing more than that really. When the money starts rolling in from wherever and I have the time maybe I will design my own site using Flash/Dreamweaver/ etc. or pay one of the talented guys on this site to do it.

For now though... iWeb is king of my web presence.

 

[Island Dog]

I use Rapidweaver, and I use it for small business websites.

Sure there are more "professional" apps like Dreamweaver, but no need to pay for something you don't need.

 

[nfocus design]

I played with iWeb when it first came out. I find Dreamweaver much easier and it gives me more control.

 

[Z.Beeblebrox]

No. And if you use iWeb to create a web site for a client, and you sell yourself as a web designer, you should re-think your profession.

Agreed. If you wanna play around with a wedding website, personal blog or a family album page, then use iWeb and have fun. However, if you are selling your services as a "design professional" and being paid by a client as such, then you should work in a professional program. Design professionals are called such because they are competent, highly-skilled, trained people who know the ins and outs of design programs and how to utilize them (along with a strong design aesthetic) in creating good, solid work. Just as I would not send my client's print work to Kinko's, I would never use iWeb to design their website.

 

[7on]

I use iWeb to create wireframes and demos for clients, it's so easy to use, looks good and is very fast to set up a very basic structure, clients do respond well to a basic idea that they can "surf" with the proposed product and see the look and feel. This has saved me many hours of redesigns where the client has thought of something where it wasn't obvious until they start using it.

I don't use it to create the final product because it just isn't good enough for that, but from a planning POV it can be used very successfully.

Now that's a nifty idea, haven't thought of using it for proofs

Aside from work (DreamweaverCS3) at home I use GoLive CS. And that reminds me I have to update my portfolio site (It's still the same one I did in college and all in table layout sans CSS)

 

[ezekielrage_99]

Now that's a nifty idea, haven't thought of using it for proofs

Aside from work (DreamweaverCS3) at home I use GoLive CS. And that reminds me I have to update my portfolio site (It's still the same one I did in college and all in table layout sans CSS)

It has saved me so much client hassle as well, the client has a very basic mock up that they can "surf" with on a designated site. They can get a feel for how the site navigates, looks and will be set up, and they can give me feedback on what needs to be added/etc.

iWeb is great for a development POV, but I would still never use it to create the "real" web site.

 

[janitorC7]

I think you are looking at this to black and white...

I have never designed a page in iweb and sold it to a client.... but I have turned a design into an iweb template so that a client could use iweb to change their site, yes, it messed up the code quite a bit, but it was what they wanted to use, I suggested my usual corse of action which involves primarily textpattern, but they wanted iweb.

I think that iweb could be good for this kind of thing if it is improved upon