I picked up RealMac Software’s RapidWeaver as part of the MacHeist bundle, and had a quick project I thought I might use it for. I’ve briefly used iWeb and liked it’s very WYSIWYG editing. I thought that RapidWeaver would be the same, but better. After all, it’s got great reviews, has most of the same platform advantages, and is from an independent developer — which means someone has more time to focus on getting new features out than is probably given to a typical project at Apple or other large corporation.
(I tend to find that Apple updates even its flagship software infrequently, and such software suffers from a short attentions span syndrome after it has been out for a while. This is not a knock against Apple software, just an observation. I mean, when was the last time you saw a significant update to iCal?)
Although I’m sure that RapidWeaver is a great application — and I want to stress that I have no ill will towards it or its developers, who seem to be great — I just found that for WYSIWYG editing, it is nothing like iWeb. I made a page and it took me a while to realize I’d be editing it in form fields on a separate tab from the live Web preview. Wow, after my iWeb experience, that just seemed so much less exciting.
Anyway, I’d love to try out RapidWeaver more — especially because my brother likes it so much. However, since it seems like it is much less fun to use — lacking the same kind of direct manipulation you get in iWeb — I’m not sure when I’ll find the time to dabble. For most projects, I’d prefer a Web CMS tool with “edit this page” functionality, since that’s where I started so many years ago with Userland’s Frontier and Manila. For a quick “let me post a few pages with a defined template and include pictures,” I find iWeb attractive.