RapidWeaved - I weave rapidly

Theme Review: Neutron by GWDI

2008-05-08T13:23:00.000-07:00

Aside from the BlocksBox review a while back, I haven't been reviewing RapidWeaver themes, and I hope that's something that changes beginning with this new review of Neutron by GWDI. GWDI has built-up a nice portfolio or RapidWeaver themes, and by browsing the previews you will see that they are quality themes that should not disappoint. GWDI was kind enough to provide me with its newest theme, Neutron, for review here at RapidWeaved.

Theme Style and Options

Neutron is a clean, flexible theme that doesn't rely on heavy graphics to get the job done. You receive a good amount of theme variations, including: width of 600-1000px, logo placement, body text alignment, title alignment, fonts, font sizes, line height, sidebar placement, and color-picker support. I especially appreciate the range of width options, font sizes, line height and color-picker support. The font size options actually give you pixel measurements for the smaller sizes and EMs for the larger options -- so regardless of which "font-measurement camp" you are in, you should be satisfied. :) Color-picker support covers pretty much everything and there are 6 additional built-in styles to get you going.

Neutron has nice logo support through RapidWeaver's Site Setup panel. I added logos of several different sizes and shapes -- both square and rectangular, and they all appeared perfectly. The header itself is not one complete image, but a repeating horizontal image that boasts a nice vertical gradient, overlaying whatever header color you choose through the color-picker. This means you won't be adding full-size custom headers, but I bet you could pull something off using the RapidWeaver's logo feature.

There are 3 levels of navigation in Neutron. The primary navigation bar is located at the top of the layout just above the header, with the 2nd and 3rd nav levels appearing horizontally just below the header. As far as content is concerned, Neutron has styles for all 6 Headline tags and a nice script-like font styling for the blockquote. Of course you can do a lot of text customization using the available theme variations. The line-height option is a nice touch and I'd like to see that available in all themes.

Quirks
There's a small number of minor quirks I encountered while testing the theme. The theme's default styles gives you some text color issues, specifically in the nav bar where the inactive page link is a dark blue on black, and in the footer where the hyperlink color is white on white. Of course these can be quickly adjusted with the color-picker so it's very minor. Apart from that, you might see a few confusing results when using the color-picker. Adjusting the Title Text also adjusts the breadcrumb and footer hyperlinks with the same color, and Link affects the H1-H3 tags (not H4-H6) in addition to the links, even though I don't have the H-tags linked. You will also want to adjust the line-height variation for the blog page, otherwise the two lines of the blog title (title and date/category lines) run into each other -- more significantly in some browsers than in others. Speaking of browsers...

Browser Compatibility
I exported a sample Neutron site and viewed it in Safari 3, Firefox (Mac & PC) and IE6 & 7. Aside from a minor issue in IE6 everything looked great in all browsers. As I mentioned above you'll probably want to increase the line-height for the blog page, though. The IE6 issue is that the container extends out to the right an additional 5px or so, creating a thin, vertical line to the right of the header and all the way down the page. It blends with the content and footer areas since it is the same color, but it sticks-out on account of the header being different. There is a separate stylesheet for IE6, so it's likely a quick fix to eliminate this issue.

Conclusion
Neutron is a great, clean theme with a lot of flexibility and very little to be concerned about when it comes to bugs. I took a quick peek at the main styles.css document and it's very cleanly coded and CSSEdit-friendly for all you theme modification freaks... *points at self.* Thanks again to GWDI for the opportunity to review Neutron, and I definitely look forward to its future offerings.

10 Questions: Chris of Varsis Studio

2008-03-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

Chris of Varsis Studio has been busy developing the highly anticipated CoverFlow plugin for RapidWeaver. Well-known for their 3rd-party theme offerings, Varsis Studio has their first plugin in the late stages of beta testing. Chris was kind enough to field some questions for this RapidWeaved interview. Enjoy!

RapidWeaved: To my knowledge you are the first developer of both themes and plugins for RapidWeaver. What do you enjoy about developing for RW?

Chris: I am not the only, but only one to make a somewhat sophisticated plugin. Josh Lockhart made a Yahoo search plugin [RapidSearch].

I enjoy everything about developing for Rapidweaver. I don't have to handle much on the back end but it has been a large learning experience, from beginning to start. I started doing themes a long time ago, and enjoyed that. I like mostly the large community and helpful people, I know how much help it is for people to get one-on-one experience and I like to do the same for customers and for my themes. Also, I enjoy others doing the same respect for me. I love doing this, and being a part time job has paid off a fair bit for me, as I don't have too many large, long breaks it helps to be doing this.

RapidWeaved: What was your motivation to branch into plugin development?

Chris: I wanted to learn something new, and I did and I still am learning. I have learned a lot on the way.

RapidWeaved: Before you started the CoverFlow project you asked the community what plugin they'd like to see. What was it about CoverFlow that made you decide to take it on?

Chris: CoverFlow seemed to be something new and innovative. It also was the most popular request I noticed, and I happened to find a lot of helpful stuff in creating the plugin; also got an experience in Flash which I did learn awhile back but never used it. It [Flash] has evolved a lot in the last few years.

RapidWeaved: Not only did you involve the RW community in deciding your first plugin, you've made everyone a part of the entire development process. You've made the betas public from very early on and have possibly the longest thread on the support forum! How has the experience been with making this process so public?

Chris: I have enjoyed it. I wish I could do themes like that, unfortunately there is no way to secure development on a theme, unlike a plugin. I like to implement what the community wants, not what I want, and it does seem to be very helpful to work, and also giving people the public beta gives them a chance to tell me what they would like or need.

RapidWeaved: Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all the feedback and requests?

Chris: Sometimes, yes. It has been overwhelming in-between school and this. But I try to get back on everything, and fulfill as many requests as I can though some are hard to do, or are almost impossible to do within coverFlow.

RapidWeaved: What makes you consider and address one feature request over another?

Chris: I try to weed out the impossible ones over the possible ones. It is hard because most of them are possible, but I try to get the most needed ones, or most requested.

RapidWeaved: What are some of the challenges you've faced during development?

Chris: I have had to learn how to replicate the users experience, but I have had to learn how to fix the problems. This is technically my first project, and learning the RapidWeaver API is like learning a new language. I've had to learn how to do everything just about from top to bottom.

RapidWeaved: Any projections on when CoverFlow could go final?

Chris: I hope to be getting close to the final here. With Flickr going to be supported in the next version, I hope the requests will finally slow down.

RapidWeaved: Have you started to consider what your next plugin might be?

Chris: I have considered it, but I haven't found any ideas which I will enjoy as much as this one yet.

RapidWeaved: Final question: Ben vs. Dan in a sock wrestling match. Who do you put your money on?

Chris: Who's the bigger guy? LOL I have never met them in real life so I don't know, but just for the sake of it, I would say Dan!

BlocksBox & JonasThemes

2008-02-26T13:27:00.000-08:00

I've recently had the pleasure of working with the BlocksBox theme and talking with its developer, Jonas of JonasThemes. BlocksBox is probably the most unique of all the available RapidWeaver themes in that it is a blank slate -- no menu, no content containers -- and pretty much relies fully on the Blocks plugin from YourHead. The power of Blocks, combined with BlockBox and its variations, allows the RapidWeaver user to essentially develop their own theme and website with little limitation beyond their own imagination.

BlocksBox is literally a blank page when you first bring it up in RW's Preview mode, but there are categories of variations that allow you to quickly style the layout for your website. The variations in the Theme Inspector include: background color using the color picker, a custom background image, background image position, background image repeat (horizontally, vertically, or both), top spacing, header logo, font, font size, text color and styling using the color picker, photo album styling, blog styling, file sharing styling and contact form styling. These variations let you define some constants throughout your website, but everything else can be as dynamic as you wish since it is all added through Blocks.

RapidWeaver users are so accustomed to the navigation menu being one of the defining features of a theme that it can be a bit awkward to envision a theme without a navigation menu. The Blocks plugin provides the flexibility to create your menu with BlocksBox -- using plain text, image text or images you've collected or created yourself. Blocks' mouseover feature for images presents some particularly exciting options for your navigation menu where you can create some really cool hover effects for the menu options.

For my testing I created a splash page for a website using BlocksBox. I used a repeating image horizontally and vertically for the background of the site and placed the logo in the top left-corner of my Blocks page. I then added some text in a text block and added some text images I created in Photoshop for the menu options. Using the mouseover feature I animated the menu links by having them change colors on hover. In about 20 minutes I had a nice-looking splash page that doesn't look like something normally created in RapidWeaver. The BlocksBox-included variations made it especially easy to accomplish an attractive background without knowledge of CSS.

As it exists in its current version, BlocksBox is quite a powerful tool for creating a completely original website. The limitations I noticed were on account of what is expected to exist in a "normal" RapidWeaver theme. Typically a Blocks page will be the content area of your website that fits into a structured content container, but in the case of BlocksBox the Blocks page is the website, so that means that you will need to create the containers and divisions of your site's layout using lines and/or graphics if that's what you want. Graphic designers or people with some graphic skill will benefit when using BlocksBox -- not to say that BlocksBox users need to have graphic design skills to create something impressive. By the way, there is a nice showcase at the JonasThemes website that will give you some examples of the power behind BlocksBox.

Jonas has given me a beta version of his next update to BlocksBox, and at first glance it appears the new features will address some of the perceived limitations. At the least the update presents options that will make the design process even easier, so I look forward to the public release of this update in the future. And speaking of Jonas, I asked him to answer a few questions for me and so I will close-out this article with some insight from the BlocksBox Man himself!

RapidWeaved: How did your idea for BlocksBox come about?

Jonas: At first I build websites using the standard RapidWeaver themes. But after making about three websites I wanted to be able to have more influence on the layout. Because of the predefined layout in RapidWeaver I was forced using iWeb instead. But then I missed all the great page-styles and plug-ins, so I switched back and found the solution in using really minimal themes in combination with Blocks. I still wondered why there was no theme made specially for Blocks. I contacted Isaiah from Yourhead and he was shocked as well that no theme-developer created it yet. At that moment I never wrote a single line of code but three weeks later the first (not so stable version) of BlocksBox was launched to my own surprise.

RapidWeaved: What were some of the challenges you faced while developing the theme?

Jonas: The biggest challenge was to learn all the necessary code (.plist xhtml and css) and at the same time writing the BlocksBox-theme. I learned a lot during the development. And actually I still do not like writing codes but that's why I wrote BlocksBox.

RapidWeaved: How dependent is BlocksBox on the Blocks plugin? Can the theme be used without Blocks?

Jonas: BlocksBox has been written with Blocks in mind. BlocksBox can't function normal without it. Due to page-blocks most other page types can be imported into the Blocks pagestyle. BlocksBox makes Blocks a lay-out editor instead of just a content editing plug-in.

RapidWeaved: Since you started with a virtually limitless theme, do you see yourself creating more themes in the future?

Jonas: I am having some more theme ideas but at the moment I want BlocksBox to be better and more customizable first.

RapidWeaved: What are your plans concerning updates/upgrades for BlocksBox?

Jonas: I am currently working on a major BlocksBox upgrade. In the new version people do not need to enter the theme if they want custom background and it will also be possible to use the standard RW menu-system. Due to my study it may take some more time then originally planned but it will be sweet. Besides the theme the website will be updated as well with a lot more information.

Week in Review: February 3rd- 9th

2008-02-13T13:08:00.000-08:00

In case you missed it...

Plugin Announcements
CoverFlow
Work continues on this plugin and is now available at version 0.6.2.

Theme Announcements
Theme 010
The newest release from Theme Weaver.

OHM 1.1.2
A minor but important update to the Rapid Ideas theme.

Gothic 3.0.1
Another theme update from Rapid Ideas.

Week in Review: January 27th - February 2nd

2008-02-05T19:41:00.000-08:00

In case you missed it...

Plugin Announcements
Accordion 1.3.1
The outstanding Accordion plugin has been updated with the latest version of Mootools.

Carousel 1.2 Beta 2
This update to the beta corrects a bug relating to Internet Explorer.

FlexibleList 1.0.2
This update is mostly bug fixes with one new feature supporting Blocks pageblocks.

PageTOC Update
This update adds the smooth scrolling feature as an option.

CoverFlow
Progress continues on this awesome plugin which is now at version 0.6.

RapidGuestbookTdb
This version of the guestbook plugin functions without a MySQL database.

Theme Announcements
Headliner
RapidWeaver Themes has updated this theme to be fully compatible with RW 3.6.

Golden Gate
Michel Honold releases another free theme.

Alpha Theme Update
RealMac has updated its built-in Alpha theme, fixing an Internet Explorer issue.

Gary and the venerable RWT

2008-02-04T20:59:00.000-08:00

seyDoggy: RapidWeaverThemes.com (RWT) is one of the original, if not THE original third party developer of RapidWeaver themes; what's it like to be able to fly that banner?

Gary: Well, to be completely honest I try not to fly that banner very often. As you know Dave Cantu was the original owner of RWT and I feel a little funny about claiming to be the first.

seyDoggy: For those that don't know, Dave Cantu cut his theme dev teeth on the now defunct Site Studio (a forerunner of sorts to todays RapidWeaver) before he founded RWT. How did you come to be in the captains chair at RWT?

Gary: Well, where do I begin ... way "back in the day" when RapidWeaver was still in version 3.0, I began using it for some small personal sites. In those days there were not very many 3rd party developers (only Dave, Charlie, Michaelangelo and Scott) so I was naturally intrigued with their themes. But around June or July of 05 there was some pretty strong dialog on the forums about 3rd party themes and how you could and could not use them etc... So much of it seemed really stupid to me so I decided to start my own little business developing themes. I was already familiar with html and was learning the ins and outs of css pretty fast. In the early days, it was seyDoggys' "abLe" theme, RapidIdeas "Diamond" theme and Multithemes themes that really opened my eyes as to what could actually be done with an RW theme. After some time, Dave approached me about buying him out and things just fell into place.

seyDoggy: For a while you ran both Pioneer Themes (your "own little business") and RWT in parallel. Is this still true today or has RWT pretty much absorbed Pioneer themes?

Gary: Originally my intentions were for it to be the other way around. I wanted for Pioneer to be the "mothership" and eventually do away with RWT. But I soon realized how powerful a name can be. (example: I could sell the exact same themes on Pioneer and RWT and the sales from RWT would be 10 times what Pioneer would be)

seyDoggy: You and I have seen RapidWeaver come up from being a small time app with a great community, to a critically acclaimed app with an unbelievably vibrant and lively community. Do you think you would be developing themes today if RapidWeaver were just as big but without the great community?

Gary: I seriously doubt it. A great part of what makes it so rewarding is the RW community. Dan and Co. have done an outstanding job of creating a RW "ecosystem".

seyDoggy: You probably have the most extensive theme library of any pro 3rd party developer. What drives you most to be as prolific as you are?

Gary: The monthly bills I have to pay ... lol, but seriously, usually it goes something like this. I see a website that I like and I say "ooh, I bet I could do something like that" and so I will sit down and try. A lot of times I will get an e-mail asking for a particular type of theme and I try to oblige.

seyDoggy: Where do you see RapidWeaver and RWT one year from now?

Gary: Boy I wish I knew ;). I am they type to always see the big picture. As I see Apples market share growing more and more that tells me that Realmac and RapidWeaver will only grow. They have a strong product and a great community. I think that that will bode well for the developers who have stuck it out. (You and me would be included in that list) As far as RWT ... there are so many things I would like to do with RWT but the but we're a prisoner to the name. Our Name will always be "RapidWeaverThemes". Where we go has a lot to do with where Realmac goes. If version 4 brings us some much needed changes then there will be a lot of room for expansion. If version 4 is pretty much the same then it will be harder to expand.

seyDoggy: What changes in RapidWeaver have impressed you the most since RW 3.0, and what changes do you think are still needed?

Gary: Well, the most obvious change would be the addition of the Color Choose that 3.6 brought. I would also have to say that the 3rd party plug-ins that are now available have been the most welcome change. I would like to see RW add native support for more navigation menu's as well as native support for 2 sidebars. Being able to do more in the footer area would also be a welcome addition. Gone are the days when RW was just a good "bloggers" web app. It has become so much more and I would like to see RW incorporate those into version 4+.

seyDoggy: Final question, I promise... wings or drumstick?

Gary: Drumsticks for sure.

Week in Review: January 20th -26th

2008-01-29T20:11:00.000-08:00

In case you missed it...

Plugin Announcements
CoverFlow
Varsis Studio continues its beta of this plugin. Currently at version 0.54, CoverFlow now supports Blocks.

FlexibleList 1.01
This plugin has been updated and includes a number of bug fixes as well as a few minor features.

Blocks 3.1.1
More proof that Isaiah never rests -- Blocks has been updated with a few bug fixes.

Carousel 1.2 Beta
As if more proof was needed, YourHead updates its plugin to use Mootools 1.1.

Theme Announcements
Modernity
Josh Lockhart returns from a lengthy hiatus with his newest theme.

Gothic V3
Rapid Ideas updates its Gothic theme with many new features.

DC GarageBand 1.5
This theme from Dave Cantu is now RW 3.6 compatible.

Theme 009 R3
Theme Weaver has updated its newest theme with a couple of minor changes.

Month in Review: December 18th - January 18th

2008-01-21T12:42:00.000-08:00

The Christmas and New Year's holidays, along with a recent bout with the flu, has prevented me from my regular weekly posting of the latest RapidWeaver news. Nothing seems to have prevented the developers from working hard over the past month, though! So in an attempt to play catch-up, here is a list of the most important announcements from the past month.

Plugin Announcements
CoverFlow
This awesome new release from Varsis Studio is still in beta, but it has a very promising future in the RW community. Based on Apple's CoverFlow feature in iTunes and Leopard, this plugin will add some great style to your RW website.

Carousel 1.2 Beta
YourHead has released a beta update to its popular Carousel plugin. This update includes the newest build of Mootools and adds some additional support.

Kwix 1.0
Kwix comes out of beta with its first full release. This plugin utilizes the Mootools javascript library to create stylish animated menus. See further down in this post for info on Kwix Styles.

Blocks 3.1.0
Isaiah must never rest! This release of Blocks is described as a "culmination of many refinements," with more details available at the YourHead Blog.

RapidForum and RapidIframe
Dominique has developed a couple of new plugins, with RapidForum being the answer to a widely requested plugin for some time now. It utilizes the PBLang forum and is an easy solution for integrating a forum into your RW website.

FlexibleList
Nilrog has created a new plugin that allows the user to organize content into a list, with many advanced options available to make it more powerful.

RapidAlbum 1.0.3
The update to this very popular plugin squashes a number of bugs and adds the LightWindow template as a new option.

Theme Announcements

Theme 009 from Theme Weaver

Theme 008 from Theme Weaver

Sandwich and Sandwich Slider from Henk

3isles from Henk

Element Theme Series from GWDI

Slix and Pinewood from GWDI

DC Agency 1.7 from Dave Cantu

Gleam from weaverthemes

seyDoggy viEw 3.6

Jay Strip from New Ending Studios

Hamburg from Michael Honold

Indian Summer from Michael Honold

Gras 2 from Michael Honold

Coffee from Michael Honold

Blueball High Def Colors 36

Blueball Paradox 36

Miscellaneous

Adam at Elixir Graphics has released some new icon packages as well as launching the new website The Icon Lab. Free icons and stock icons will be available there -- they should be great additions to most any website created with RapidWeaver.

In other design news, YourHead's Kwix plugin has received some nice Kwix Styles -- graphics used to style the Kwix menu. These styles can be found here, here, here and here. Some of these are available for free from 3rd-party sources, while others are for purchase -- including some official styles from YourHead.

Review: Adding Sound to Your Website

2008-01-21T07:04:00.000-08:00

I need to start out this tutorial review by saying I’m not a big fan sound on web pages. In fact, I hate it when I’m innocently surfing along, click on what might be an interesting link and am assaulted by some crummy keyboard generated auto-playing MIDI cover for “Another One Bites the Dust”. You know what I’m talking about, we’ve all been there. Oh and if your site is guilty of this egregious violation to my ears, STOP IT!

Okay, deep breath............

As averse as I am to the above, on-click type sounds on web pages are okay in my opinion as long as they serve a purpose and are used judiciously. I’m not about to define what judicious is but will say that “I know it when I see it”. With that in mind I decided to try adding some sound to one of my websites and it just so happens that Vince (aka wizeman of V2C Studios and rwReview.com) kindly posted an excellent screen cast tutorial of how to do just that using JavaScript snippets that he wrote and SoundManager from schillmania.com.

Vince begins his tutorial by recommending anyone not familiar with JavaScript (me) go to w3school to learn the basics by working through one of their tutorials, but he also states that if you follow his instructions closely you should be able to complete his SoundManager tutorial. That’s what I did and I completed the tutorial with everything working as it should. I am going to check out the w3school JavaScript tutorial when I get a little extra time (says this as if it will ever happen).

The only real problem I encountered was mostly my fault but I’m also going to blame RapidWeaver as well. I’m not going to go into the gory details but if you’re interested in reading about my publishing problems, check out this forum thread. Sufice it to say I wasn’t thinking when I decided to work through the tutorial and I just applied it to the site file that opened when I launched RapidWeaver. This was an as yet unpublished site and was quite large. Like I said I’m not going into details.

The tutorial was very easy to follow and Vince has a pleasant voice and an easy-on-the-ears speaking style. Vince clearly lays out the steps involved and I was able to understand what was going on with very little effort. I have a site in mind that I think I’ll be able to incorporate some sound so this was a fun and useful tutorial indeed. Check out Vince’s SoundManager tutorial and many more at his rwReview.com website.

Thanks Vince!

Review: RWcss by Larry Pollock

2008-01-12T11:11:00.000-08:00

When Larry Pollock (aka Sundog on the RW forums) released RWcss last September I immediately purchased the book. Since hopping aboard the RapidWeaver train I’ve long wanted to learn some CSS and knowing Larry’s reputation as one of the CSS code gurus on the RapidWeaver forums, I figured I couldn’t go wrong.

Unfortunately, shortly after I bought the book, my non-RapidWeaver life intruded and I only had time to briefly skim the book. With the new year I made sort of a mini New Years resolution to thoroughly read RWcss and work through the tutorial (remember the promise I made to myself in my Videobox tutorial review?). Well I finally did it and here are my impressions of RWcss.

The book comes as a 73 page PDF which Larry has thoughtful laid out in such a manner that you can print and have it bound. I’m too cheap to do that and a PDF is just hunky-dory for me. When you unzip the package you’ll find four items:

The RWcss Book PDF itself

a Basic RapidWeaver Theme

a CSS FIles folder (containing a 23 page PDF of basic CSS code, a Rich Text document of CSS used in the book which is especially good for copy and pasting along with the tutorial, and Rich Text document containing Greybox CSS)

a “Demo & Tutorial Stuff” folder (containing a Rich Text document of the CSS used in the demo, the demo site RapidWeaver file and all the images used in the demo).

The book is divided into three parts: a basic information section, a full theme modification tutorial and a reference section choked full of links to external resources. Larry recommends that the reader read through the first part “several times” and this is good advice. I read through it a couple times and during the tutorial, I went back and reread parts. Surprisingly, it’s a pretty easy read. By that I mean, considering the content (CSS code) and it’s intended audience (CSS newbies like me), it was interesting and not too heavy. Larry has a nice writing style and I was able to follow along and understand what he was saying with very little effort.

In the first part of the book Larry lays the foundation for the tutorial by going over and explaining the basics of CSS. He explains how browsers interpret CSS and how RapidWeaver theme styles affect what is displayed. The rules for how styles “cascade” (CSS stands for "Cascading Style Sheets"), are laid out and Larry explains some of the terminology used when discussing CSS.

In this first section Larry also takes us through modifying a theme using example CSS code entered into the Custom CSS box in RapidWeaver’s Page Inspector. Many of his examples included screen shots graphically showing what the results look like. He also briefly touches on some of the features third party theme developers include with themes, like custom header options, as well as using RWMultitool.

Larry then goes on to briefly explain some common CSS terminology and corresponding “parts”. This is where it gets a bit deep and it was very helpful, as Larry suggested, to reread this part. He also touches on page specific CSS in this section as well as including a developer “tips” section. This last part was a particularly interesting read.

The next main section of the book is the tutorial. Larry lays it out in a fairly straight forward fashion that is quite easily to follow. For the most part you’re copying and pasting code from either the book itself or from the included CSS rtf to RapidWeaver’s Custom CSS panel. I’d suggest not bothering with copying from the book and just using the CSS rtf. The reason being that when you copy from the book, you’ll sometimes inadvertently (and unavoidably) copy some of the tutorial text.

For the most part, the tutorial went as intended. I did encounter a couple minor problems but nothing that prevented me from completing it. The first popped up (literally) when I went to load the RW tutorial file. I got an RW error pop up message that said “Could not find theme. Could not locate the theme...” I immediately emailed Larry and he responded within an hour. The fix was as easy as applying the Blog Pop duplicate theme that I’d created in the previous step to the blank RW demo site file.

The next minor problem I encountered was when I modified the QuickTime page. This step came late in the tutorial and Larry doesn’t go into a lot of detail on these later steps. Larry doesn't include a movie file for this page (I’m assuming for size reasons) so I just added my own in Edit view. I’ve never used a QuickTime page so was unprepared for the result: the movie completely took over the page, overlapping most of the navigation menu.

Lastly, because I was copying from the CSS rtf file, the instructions and accompanying screenshots in the book didn’t exactly follow the results I was getting. For example, in the book, Larry tells us to past this code into the Custom CSS panel:


 #pageHeader { 
  background: #005400 url(assets/redrock_golf.jpg) no-repeat top 
  left; 
 }

Next he states to add this code to the #pageheader CSS:


 height: 244px;

In the CSS rtf file, however, the height attribute was already included in the code. This really is no big deal and I immediately knew what was going on.

All in all it was a fun exercise. My tutorial site turned out pretty much how Larry illustrated. There were a couple minor bumps in the road but nothing that I couldn’t figure out by myself. Larry was quick to reply to my one support question and had I thought about it a little bit, I probably would’ve been able to find the solution on my own.

If I were to make one suggestion, it’d be for a more in depth discussion of CSS terminology and the corresponding mechanics. For example, I’m still not entirely sure what Selectors are and what they do, and Larry mentions divs but never really explained what they are and how they fit into this whole CSS thing. This, of course, might be beyond the scope of this book. I’m sure there’s a “CSS for Dummies” that I could pick up that delves more deeply into this sort of thing.

I highly recommend RWcss, especially if your a relative newbie to RW and are itching to modify themes a bit. You’re not going to completely learn CSS from this book and I’m sure this is not what Larry intends. What you are going to learn are some fundamentals and you’ll walk away with a good basic understanding of how to use CSS in the Custom CSS panel. If you’re like me, you’ll also probably walk away with a desire to learn more. I can’t wait for RWcss II (hint, hint Larry)! At $14.95 (USD) RWcss is a steal and you can get at Larry’s InsideRapidweaver.com website.

Editors note: A CSS selector is the html element that you are applying style to. In the case of:
#pageHeader { 
 background: #005400; 
}
"#pageHeader" is the selector as it is the item in the html that you want to change the look of.

A "div" or <div> tag defines a division in the in the document that is a block level html element, meaning that by default, it exists on it's own in the document, occupying the full page width (unless we style it otherwise). It is a common element in RapidWeaver theme development used mainly for layout.

An Interview with "Sundog"

2007-12-26T14:59:00.000-08:00

Larry "Sundog" Pollock was kind enough to entertain some questions for my latest interview. Sundog is well-known for his contributions to the RapidWeaver community, including outstanding support, the inside RapidWeaver website, a book and a new theme called Squeeze. Enjoy!

RapidWeaved: First off I'd like to ask a couple of questions concerning your involvement in the RapidWeaver community. When did you begin using RW and what was your previous experience with website design?

Sundog: I started to notice RW in the summer of 2005. I was using Dreamweaver but had become frustrated with the time it took to make changes to a site. But I had a hard time at first understanding how RW worked. Also, at that time the number of themes was very limited. When RW 3.2 was released in the fall I finally purchased a copy. But it still took me a month to really let go of the DW way. RW revitalized my desire to learn, build and expand my knowledge of all things "web". It made it fun again.

RapidWeaved: You are the lone "Prodigy" in the forums with an absurd amount of posts -- a majority of which are answering questions or providing some type of support to users. What drives you to be so involved and help so many people?

Sundog: LOL, I had no intent to get involved with the Forum at first. I tentatively posted a few times when I saw something I thought I understood. It was not until Tom Beardmore, the big Kahuna at that time, and a group of other folks announced they where going to take some time away to build a Learning Center on RW that I said I would step up to the plate as best I could and take on the support questions. At that time everyone thought that might be 30 to 60 days. I thought "I can do extra support for that time". As it turned out Tom had to take care of LIFE and has been unable to return.

I quickly found out that I really enjoy helping folks. But if everyone knew this one thing, they would all be trying to help: "The Teach Always Learns More Than The Students!". When folks ask a question I get the opportunity to say to myself "how would I do that?" Then I get try it out. Especially in the first 1.5 years. But the learning continues. Bottom line, I get back more than I give.

RapidWeaved: You created inside RapidWeaver as another resource for the community. How did you come up with the idea for the site and how did it evolve?

Sundog: I had shied away from doing anything that might require my support and add to my work load. I have a business that is in 5 countries already that is outside of the tech community. It was on a trip in July driving from Seattle to San Diego that I woke up and told my wife I was going it write books about RW and how to use it. I started writing ideas down as fast as I could write. It just sort of happened all at once, I had the desire and clarity and just "knew" I was ready to do this. I mentioned this to Nik (Sarge) and he offered the domain he had been sitting on and transferred it to me.

Since I had not built a theme from scratch and wanted a special look for Inside Rapidweaver I ended up having ADHD Graphics do some mock ups and the rest is "history".

RapidWeaved: RWcss, a book you wrote about modifying themes, took your support a step further. Can you describe the process of writing the book?

Sundog: That is interesting. I have written marketing pieces and ads for years. But, I had never written a book. Let alone a technical manual! I truly felt I have so much to learn my first pause was "who are you to write a how to book?!". Finally I thought "if not me, then who?!"

The way my mind works is to just sleep on it for a few days and then let an outline flow out on paper. I keep adding notes and thoughts about what RWcss should be like. Then I just simply start writing! I know it may sound strange, but I sort of let it flow out without edits at first. While doing this I start to get more ideas and see what may be missing.

RapidWeaved: What was the most difficult part of writing RWcss?

Sundog: The real hard part for me, and the part that takes the most time, is editing and perfecting. You have no idea how many times I looked it over, had it looked over by 3 other folks and then by me again several times. It is a process very much like reading code, word by word, line by line. I start with a larger scan of each page in hard copy making notes and then I go very slow over it again, and again... And much like software, it is never perfect but at some point you have to release it into the "wild" and then you will get the rest of the info you need to perfect it.

RapidWeaved: You recently took another step and entered into theme development. What has been your experience with that so far?

Sundog: First off I have to give huge Kudos to all the Developers who have been doing this for a while. It is a very different process from doing modifications of existing themes. I have modified lots of them. But starting with a blank theme SDK, CSSEdit, PlistEdit Pro and Textwrangler is a different animal for sure. I really found out my weak areas of understanding and had some frustration at times when I hit a wall and could not solve an issue. IE6 and 7 gave me some pause but I managed to get over it with some sage advice from Gary Byrd at RapidWeaverThemes and Chris over at Varsis Studios . I also received some nice advice from Giuseppe Caruso at Bonsai Studio and Henk Vrieselaar . OK, I drop their names and URLs as they deserve the acknowledgement!

I'm ready now to do more. Squeeze is a foundation theme. Next I will start doing some with interesting images and graphics. Hope to find a niche and style of my own.

RapidWeaved: What, if any, reservations did you have as you considered developing your own themes?

Sundog: Support. Do I have the time to do the support needed? Also I had to ask the same question as I did with the book, "do I know enough to write good quality themes?" The answer is one I have known for years. "You will never know it all until you are involved". In other words, there never is a time before before diving in that you will have enough information to feel totally comfortable. It's the old "arm chair quarterback" thing. It is easy to give advice and criticize from the sidelines but you truly won't have the knowledge unless you're on the "field".

RapidWeaved: How has the response to Squeeze been so far?

Sundog: Just fine. I would say moderate sales right now. Hey, it's the Holidays, there are lots of themes on the market and Holiday Specials going on too. Folks prioritize their $. I think in the long run it will sell well.

RapidWeaved: Any further ambitions you're considering for 2008?

Sundog: Weelllll, YES! But if I told you, I would have to kill you! (lol, not really). I do have a project in the works that will be announced in the next month I believe. It is a joint venture with a well-known person in the community. It will be something that will evolve and expand a lot over 2008.

I will do more themes and get more books out too I hope.

And I hope to keep up on some of the support on the Forum too. The Forum has matured nicely and I find I am needed less and less as there are more and more folks who can answer the questions. This is good. As my post count shows, I was doing a lot almost everyday. Now I get to let the community take it on. I am sure others who have been doing support for the last few years along side me feel the same too. We can be more selective and jump in where needed. One more thought on this, as RW grows and matures further I think you will see folks like myself being more specialized. I love CSS but have a few other areas I would like to expand my knowledge on.

RapidWeaved: Last question. It's summer in Arizona and you have to choose one: your hat or your sunglasses?

Sundog: Sunglasses! Definitely. Keep me away from the sunglasses counter. Keep Maui Jims away! I am a sucker for nice looking SGs. Hey, the difference between you and me is, I make these look goooooood!

All the buzz

2007-12-22T19:29:00.000-08:00

We are so proud to announce that we have made the front page of DesignSnack! We are tickled pink that this design and concept are being accepted like they are. So far we've graced the pages of CSSTux (friendly to the cause of course), The DailySlurp, MostInspired, and DesignSnack. We could also mention that we have been Stumbled Upon and blogged about countless times.

I hope all this buzz means we're doing our job because we sure love to do it!

We've been slurped!

2007-12-19T04:52:00.000-08:00

I can hardly contain my excitement. Like any parent, the creator of a web site or design project is proud when he sees his creation succeed. That is exactly how I feel right now after realizing that not only did RapidWeaved.com get slurped on the DailySlurp for December 18, 2007 (a great honor in web circles), but one of the sites we featured on the front page did as well, which I am sure is no coincidence.

I want to congratulate the whole RapidWeaved.com team for making this project such a great success straight out of the gate. Thanks to Joe and Ryan for their excellent contributions. The showcase is the purpose of this site but their content is what gives this site it's depth, meaning and credibility. Without these guys this site would just be another old showcase site.

Working through VideoBox

2007-12-18T17:46:00.000-08:00

Que the Mission Impossible music...

Dah dah dahn nah, dah dah dahn nah
Dah dah dahn nah, dah dah dahn nah, etc.

My mission this week, and I chose to accept it, was to work through and then review a user contributed tutorial from the forum. Judging by all the forum questions inquiring about Lightbox, LightWindow, Slimbox, graybox, thisbox and thatbox, I thought a tutorial involving one of them might be a good one to work through. On my sites I use either the built in Lighbox triggers of Loghound's excellent PlusKit or one of the templates included with Scott Mackie's wonderful RapidAlbum but there are many folks who don’t use those so I thought this would be a good area to work in. Plus, I’d previously not tried to integrate any kind of “box” effect with video.

The tutorial I worked through was done on VideoBox and posted by kbbrux. On the main tutorial page kbbrux posted a basic introduction including a link to where you can download the necessary VideoBox files as well as a bit javascript code that needs to be copied and pasted into your project. kbbrux’s post then links to the actual tutorial, a screen cast he has hosted on his own site.

He starts out stating that he’s using RW’s Alpha theme and that he’s been able to get this to work with Silk as well. Well of course using a stock RW theme just isn't good enough for me. I have to muddy the water and use the theme I’m currently playing around with, Henk Vrieselaar’s gorgeous Vertical Image 1 theme. I generally have a test site already made up that I switch themes around on, install and play with new plug-ins, snippets, etc. It so happens that I’d just bought Vertical Image so that was the theme loaded on my test site.

I watched the screen cast all the way through once and then went back and started it over, following along on my own test site. To get VideoBox to work with RapidWeaver is very simple (or so it seemed). First, I download the VideoBox file kbbrux had linked to in tutorial post on the forum. The file came zipped and when decompressed contained a single video folder. This folder and all it’s contents needed to be placed into the themes Css folder so I right-clicked on the theme in the theme drawer, made a duplicate and then right-clicked on the duplicate theme to “Show Contents.” Once the folder contents window opened I dropped the video folder into the Css folder.

Out of curiosity I opened up Vertical Image's Css folder just to see what all was in there. In kbbrux’s video tutorial he was using Alpha and there where three other subfolders in the Css folder. Not so with Vertical Image which had no less than 24 folders. Hmmm..... What are the odds of this working without a hitch and not conflicting with any of those other files?

The next step was to copy the javascript code kbbrux had posted in the tutorial and then to paste that in the Custom Header box in the Page Inspector. Why it goes in there and not in the custom Javascript or CSS box I have no idea. Bear in mind I know little html and absolutely NO Css, Javascript or any other kind script for that matter. One of these days I WILL work all the way through Sundog's RWcss book... One of these days...

Next it was time to actually add the video file to my page. First, you have to add the video to the page as an asset, which I did. Once again, however, I veered off course from the tutorial and attached the video to text I had entered into a Text Block. kbbrux used a Styled Text page. In the Add Link dialog box, I named the link, pointed it at the video file asset and in the rel box typed in vidbox 640 480 as the tutorial instructed.

This is where things went bad. When I previewed the page VideoBox opened up but my video didn’t play. I published the site anyway hoping that might fix things but it didn’t. I figured for sure that my straying from the tutorial by using a different theme and a block page was the cause of my troubles so I started again from scratch using Alpha and a plain old styled text page. Same result! What the heck?

In the tutorial, kbbrux used a .mov file and the file I was trying to use was a .mp4 file. Could that be the problem? My dog knows more about JavaScript, Css and html than I do so I wasn’t about to open up the page in an editor to troubleshoot. Its all greek to me and I wouldn’t know what I was looking at anyway. Instead I recorded a new screen capture movie but made sure to save it as a .mov file. To keep things tidy, I placed the video in the same folder as the one I’d stored the original .mp4 file and proceeded to repeat the tutorial. Still no joy!

What had I done? I’d run (quickly) out of troubleshooting ideas. Out of sheer desperation and unwilling to admit defeat I dragged the video file to my desktop. I don’t know why I did that, I just did. I guess I figured it couldn’t make anything worse. I re-added the file via the Assets window and previewed one last time. It worked! I then tried it in Vertical Image and it worked there too although the VideoBox window opened up kind of behind the sidebar nav menu.

I have no idea why it worked but I will tell you the folder I kept the .mp4 in originally is four levels down in my Documents folder. My theme test file is in a different folder altogether so it’s not that the video file has to be in the same folder as the RW file. I still have no idea why this makes a difference but I’m happy I finally got it to work.

All in all it was a fun and quick tutorial to work through (at least it’d be quick for most people). The only thing I’d change is that when kbbrux is typing in the Add Link drop-down sheet, it’s very hard to see what he’s actually typing. The screen cast seemed to be sized approximately 640 X 350 which would be okay if the camera was zoomed in a little more on the action. As it is the whole RapidWeaver screen is shown. A slightly larger movie or more zooming would make this screen cast easier to watch.

Other than that, the tutorial is short, concise and easy to follow and it adds a really nice effect to videos you might post on your own site. After having failed in my first couple attempts, things went smoothly and as planned as soon as I moved my movie file to the desktop. Not sure why I had to do this and it certainly wasn’t kbbrux's fault.

Speaking of kbbrux, he’s posted eight other screencast tutorials on his site. They’re all equally informative and well done. You can check them out on his RapidWeaver screen-casts page. Thanks kbbrux!

Week in Review: December 10th-16th

2007-12-17T13:09:00.000-08:00

In cased you missed it...

Plugin Announcements
RapidGuestbook 1.1 update
v1.1 of RapidGuestbook has been released. Updates include more security, anti-spam, labels for each field and some general fixes.

Kwix Public Beta
YourHead's Kwix plugin is still in Public Beta and Isaiah has provided good information on the plugin in this thread.

Blocks Beta 3
Isaiah has been busy releasing beta versions of Blocks. These updates mainly address issues related to Page Blocks.

Theme Announcements
Bionicle
Will Woodgate and idotter.ch have released a new theme called Bionicle. The theme offers many variations and is available with a $2.00 discount until the end of the year with coupon code BIONICLERELEASE.

Squeeze
One of our favorite RW community members, Sundog, has released his first theme. Squeeze is a minimalistic theme with many options, including a Splash page. Thanks to Larry's amazing speed in all things, the theme is already available as a Version 2 release.

Bloop! update
seyDesign has updated its Bloop! theme. This patch fixes a javascript issue in the HTML template that would not allow external URLs to open in a new window.

Diamond update
Rapid Ideas has released and upated to its Diamond theme. This update adds a number of features, including: custom colors for the navbar in the sidebar, styling of the blog cloud tags, implementation of the pngfix javascript file for IE6/Win and other IE improvements.

Jumsoft Themes
Jumsoft has continued to update its themes that were first introduced in the previous Week in Review. The update includes Movie Album support, support for float image left or right, colorpicker support and the ability to choose font family and size. Initial response from owners of the themes is positive, but there still appears to be a bit of work left to do before these themes are completely ready. We will keep potential buyers up-to-date with the progress.

A moment with Dominique and RapidTable

2007-12-14T21:14:00.000-08:00

Despite the Atlantic ocean and 7 hours separating us, I had the pleasure of talking to Dominique of MEGE-SERVICES about his new RapidTable plug-in. Dominique lives in France so the interview was conducted via instant message and despite a bump in the road or two (both of us typing at the same time) it was a fun and enlightening experience.

I started the interview out by asking what the reason was behind developing RapidTable. Dominique explained that he wanted a way to list all of the wines he has in his personal collection on a website. He already had a MySQL table of his collection on his Mac and just needed a way to list them on a webpage. He also wanted to develop for fun. Being a wine lover myself, I expressed my envy of all the wines listed on the RapidTable demo pages. Dominique confided that he doesn’t actually own all those wines listed. It’s just part of the demo.

Back on topic, I then asked him who he thought the target audience for a plug-in like RapidTable would be. He thought that in addition to using it for displaying things like the contents of a wine cellar, anyone needing to display a list of things like events, addresses, and links, would find RapidTable useful.

“RapidTable is a simple thing. It’s not very powerful but it’s doing the job.” says Dominique.

He then went on to say that he developed the plug-in for himself but thought that others might be able to use it.

I asked Dominique how long, from inception to official release, did it take to develop RapidTable. He wasn’t able to give me an exact answer since the process consisted of many stages and was a culmination of many other technologies, all of which Dominique had to learn in the process. He started out wanting to learn MySQL and SQL, then learned to develop in PHP using the CakePHP framework, PHPMyEdit and PHPBuilder. Finally, he turned to the RapidWeaver SDK (Software Development Kit).

“I’m still learning and it’s hard for me because I don’t like Cocoa ;-).”

Ultimately, Dominique estimated that it took him about a month to create the actual plugin.

With all of his recent plug-in releases, RapidTable, RapidGuestbook, RapidMap, I was surprised to find out that Dominique doesn’t develop software for a living. When I asked him what kind of response RapidTable was receiving, Dominique stated that this was the first time he’d developed software for sale but is happy so far.

Finally, I asked him if there was anything else he was working on that he’d be able to give us a hint about. He stated that he's working on something that would integrate existing internet software like forums into a RapidWeaver site. He’s also exploring CMS (Content Management System) as well as RapidWeaver themes.RapidTable is available from MEGE-SERVICES for €11.

I want to express my thanks to Dominique for taking time to talk to me about RapidTable. This was the first time I’d ever done an interview via instant message and it was an interesting experience. I learned a lot about his great new RapidWeaver plug-in, RapidTable. I also learned that even a short interview takes a long time when you’re instant messaging.

Inside YourHead

2007-12-11T20:46:00.000-08:00

I had the pleasure of contacting Isaiah of YourHead with some questions about RapidWeaver plugin development. YourHead has been a staple in the RapidWeaver development community over the past 2 years, and has just released a Public Beta of its newest plugin, Kwix, which is sure to be another great success in the tradition of YourHead offerings. Enjoy!

RapidWeaved: Last month you celebrated 2 years of developing for RapidWeaver. What's been the best part for you?

YourHead: I think my favorite thing is when I bump into a random web page generated with one of my plugins while browsing. I really enjoy seeing what people build with my tools.

RapidWeaved: If you had to choose, which YourHead plugin would be your favorite?

YourHead: Oh, that's easy, Collage. It was my first plugin, and the plugin that I needed myself. Plus I like its simplicity.

RapidWeaved: Which plugin has been the most difficult to develop?

YourHead: Blocks is by far the largest, most complex, and most time consuming. I've spent more time on single pieces of the Blocks interface code than on whole other plugins.

RapidWeaved: What factors come into play as you consider a new plugin idea?

YourHead: I like things that will have a wide appeal to a variety of websites. I really like that the base plugins that come with RapidWeaver aren't targeted at one specific type of web page and I like to make things that further that tradition.

RapidWeaved: Blocks is, in my opinion, the most indispensable of all 3rd-party RapidWeaver plugins. Has there ever been a conversation about including it in the RW package?

YourHead: I think for one single day you could buy a RapidWeaver and Blocks package deal. It didn't last very long, mostly just for logistical reasons. I think things will remain that way for a while yet. But I work very closely with the RealMacSoftware guys, now. More closely all the time.

RapidWeaved: You partnered with yabdab to create PayLoom, perhaps the most widely-requested plugin. How did that partnership come about?

YourHead: I met Mike at a MacWorld right after releasing Collage. He had been asking some questions about plugin development while working on PayLoom. At some point, I'm not sure I remember how, we decided it would be fun to team up. I think Mike figured it would get to market a bit faster with me on board and I figured that the first e-commerce plugin was pretty important and I wanted to be a part of it. It was fun and our skill sets complimented each other. It definitely sped things along.

RapidWeaved: Your newest plugin, Kwix, is now in Public Beta. How has the response been so far compared to previous releases?

YourHead: Very positive. Lots of downloads so far. I'm already surprised at the wild things people have done with it.

RapidWeaved: Kwix won't replace a theme's menu "out-of-the-box," but do you foresee that as a possibility in the future?

YourHead: Plugins really only change the "content" area -- so it's not possible for a traditional plugin. But Javascript makes nearly anything possible -- so you never know.

RapidWeaved: Any comments on what might be in-store for YourHead in 2008?

YourHead: I think RapidWeaver 4.0 will bring big changes to everyone. I don't really have any inside info, but I think that will be the biggest news of 2008.

RapidWeaved: Last question. Steven Seagal or Chuck Norris?

YourHead: Another easy question. Answer: Bruce Lee, of course.

Design Snack Listing

2007-12-11T08:47:00.000-08:00

I have submitted RapidWeaved.com to Design Snack, a user-controlled web design showcase, and with your votes we should be able to make it to the approved section on the site. So if you like RapidWeaved.com and think it's cool and sexy, give us your vote HERE.

Another Introduction

2007-12-10T23:00:00.000-08:00

Hey intrepid RapidWeaved.com readers! My name is Joe, also known as JailerJoe on the RapidWeaver forum, and I'm honored that Adam has asked me to contribute to RapidWeaved. I can’t even begin to tell you how much knowledge I’ve gained from hanging around the RapidWeaver forum. The folks there are so friendly and eager to help it’s amazing. My hope is that I’ll able to give something back to the wonderful RapidWeaver community via this blog and website.

I’ve been an Apple geek since buying my first Mac way back in 1992 (an LC II running at a blazing 16Mhz) but I’m a relative newcomer to RapidWeaver. I snagged a copy during the first MacHeist, which if memory serves was going on just about this time last year. Prior to discovering RapidWeaver I used .Mac’s Homepage and then later iWeb for creating web pages. Nothing fancy, mostly just family photo galleries.

As much as I think I’d like it, I don’t make my living designing websites with RapidWeaver, although I’ve recently landed a couple paying gigs which is really cool. To pay the bills and keep my kids fed, I’m a corrections officer in a county jail, so you can pretty much expect that my contributions will be coming from the perspective of a newbie. You can also imagine that Lockdown and Lockdown have two entirely different meanings to me.

Enough about me! Thanks Adam for allowing me to be part of this. I’m happy to be here and excited about the future of both RapidWeaver and RapidWeaved!

Week in review: December 3rd-9th

2007-12-10T14:25:00.000-08:00

This is the start of a weekly installment covering the announcements and popular subjects in the RapidWeaver community for the previous week. Commentary on each subject will be brief, with in-depth reviews of new releases posted separately in the near future. So, in case you missed it...

Plugin Announcements

RapidTable
A new plugin from Dominique of MEGE-SERVICES, RapidTable displays a MySQL table on your website. Look for more information on this great plugin in the near future here at RapidWeaved!

RapidGuestBook
Another new plugin from Dominique of MEGE-SERVICES, RapidGuestBook adds a simple guestbook to your website. The plugin uses PHP and MySQL.

RapidAlbum 1.0.2 update
Scott has updated his popular RapidAlbum plugin to version 1.0.2, fixing a problem importing Caption metadata and adding support for a new metadata token.

Kwix Public Beta

Isaiah at YourHead has been busy once again with a new plugin that is sure to be an instant success! This one is called Kwix and utilizes the MooTools JavaScript framework to create ultra-cool animated menus. It is now available as a Public Beta. Look for more information on this plugin in the near future here at RapidWeaved!

Theme Announcements

EZ 4 and EZ 5 from RapidWeaverThemes
Gary at RapidWeaverThemes has been busy lately with a number of new themes. EZ 4 and EZ 5 are minimalist themes with tons of variations to help you make your website unique.

Flashy from RapidWeaverThemes
In addition to EZ 4 and EZ 5, Gary has announced something completely new in Flashy. This theme will allow you to easily add a custom Flash banner to your website. The theme hasn't been released just yet, but we'll let you know when it's available for purchase!

Jumsoft Themes
Jumsoft has joined the RapidWeaver developer community with its release of 3 RapidWeaver themes: Mental Image, Patronage and Rainbow. The previews are very promising, but be warned that these aren't quite up to RapidWeaver 3.6 standards, yet. Jumsoft has been progressing with theme updates and we hope to see great things from them soon!

Miscellaneous

Graphics Chat
In other news, the RealMac Forum has added a new forum section called Graphics Chat. This should prove to be a valuable addition as RapidWeaver users share their knowledge of graphics and links to online resources.

That does it for the first installment of the weekly digest. More to come next week!

An Introduction

2007-12-09T17:03:00.000-08:00

Howdy to the outstanding RapidWeaver community! My name is Ryan, better known as "ryanbsmith" on the RealMac Forum, and it's a pleasure to be contributing to the newly launched RapidWeaved. I began using RapidWeaver 2 years ago and have been developing websites with the software ever since. It's no secret that the community provides amazing support, and I'm excited to be giving back in a sense with contributions to RapidWeaved.

A few random tidbits about myself: I currently run my own business designing websites, doing I.T. consulting and offering various digital media services. I live in Texas so I figured I'd satisfy the cliché with a "howdy" to start things off. Just to clarify, though, I hate country music and have never owned a cowboy hat. In addition to website design and other geekery, I love playing the guitar and percussion, watching football and basketball (go Cowboys and Mavs!) and would probably be considered a movie snob, though I don't expect everyone to like the same movies I do.

A big "thanks" to Adam for launching this site and I hope my contribution does its part to make RapidWeaved a great resource for the entire community.

My first and possibly last post

2007-12-07T12:46:00.000-08:00

So here is the deal. I want RapidWeaved.com to be an impartial place to come and see what RapidWeaver users are building, who's themes they are using, what's new on the forums, etc... As the owner of seyDesign.com, I can't very well pose as impartial can I?

So it is my hope to get a handful of bloggers to take the helm and steer this ship to calm, serene waters. If you think you're the one, read this post here and let me know.