Any good iWeb tutorial sites?

Hi Everyone,
First off, is there a GOOD iWeb help website that anyone can recommend. Mac's site is very vague...I've designed websites for many years and only recently made the switch back from Windows to Mac, so I've got the added frustrations of trying reacquaint myself with the OS. Here's a few questions I have in order of importance.

1. How do I make tables?
   I tried and tried to get this one page to set up correctly just using click and drag and I had to resort to a table, but the table constantly gives me problems--mainly because what I do is create the basic look in iWeb, save it to my local drive then upload to my server and use my server's code and WYSIWYG tools to adjust the table. There's GOT to be a better way.
   
2. One of my pages won't scroll, so the bottom of my page isn't visible.
   It worked at one point but then I added some additional content at the top of the page and it stopped working. This is the same page that has the table issue.
   
3. The Navbar won't update.
   I added an additional page to the site, but it won't show up on the Navbar. Also, the Navbar breaks the them image when viewed in IE. I'm using the Elegance theme for her in case that makes any difference.
   
4. Backward Engineering Doesn't Work?
   At one point, I had a page the way I wanted it on the server, but wanted to have it on my computer so I could work on it locally, so I saved it with the same file name its always had in my local drive, but it refuses to show up in iWeb. What gives?
   
5. What's the best way to upload to a server when you're running multiple domains other than on MobileMe?
   I have my main website, but I also have another one for a friend and when I tried to use the Publish option in iWeb, it was a total disaster! It wiped out my webpage and the files paths were incorrect for my friend's page, so everything loaded wrong. Once I had that under control, I went and redid my personal page and then MY page was showing up on HER URL! The way things are set up, my webpage is in the public_html root and hers is in public_html/lovingtheanimals (she is an animal reiki practitioner).

I really like iWeb and the templates that come with it, so I really want to learn how to use it exclusively without all of the middle steps of saving it to my drive, uploading it, and then working with the html from a different editor. I completely stripped the site off of my server last night and am going to do a fresh upload today, but I'm just thinking I've got to be making it harder on myself than it needs to be. Can anyone help me or point me to a website that could help me learn the program a bit better and/or addresses the issues I have?

Thanks!
Deana

muincat said:

...I've designed websites for many years...

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To be blunt, that is your problem. If you have been designing websites for years, you really shouldn't be using iWeb. If you really want to use the templates iWeb has, create it, export it to a folder and make changes by hand. iWeb is really only useful for people who are really new to web design and, as you have found out, can be extraordinarily frustrating for seasoned web designers.

Wow, um...thanks for your...help, was it? Have you ever heard of "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all?" What a rotten way to welcome someone new to the forum.

While I don't recall this site helping with the layout so much, it is very helpful with all the other stuff.

iWeb FAQ - Tutorials, Tips & Tricks

Thanks, I'll check it out

Hey, thanks for the nice reply than the previous one. I'll go check out that site.

muincat said:

Wow, um...thanks for your...help, was it? Have you ever heard of "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all?" What a rotten way to welcome someone new to the forum.

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I think you might have misinterpreted Vansmith's comment. What he was trying to say is that iWeb is a very simplistic tool and is very limited, particularly for someone with significant web design savvy.

I would tend to agree with that assessment and would suggest something more along the lines of RapidWeaver or even Dreamweaver (although the latter is infinitely more complex).

muincat said:

Wow, um...thanks for your...help, was it? Have you ever heard of "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all?" What a rotten way to welcome someone new to the forum.

Click to expand...

I was by no means trying to be inconsiderate and I apologize if you took it that way. I was just trying to highlight the reason why you seem to be so frustrated with iWeb.

Agreed, Van was just stating that iWeb is more for beginners who know little about Web Design and that if you are a seasoned Web Designer it would probably hold you back.

muincat said:

[*]How do I make tables?

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Not quite sure myself as I have never used them so will leave that one to someone else.

muincat said:

[*]One of my pages won't scroll, so the bottom of my page isn't visible.

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If you have a text box on the page, drag it down so that the size of it covers the bottom of your page. The reason this happens is because iWeb cannot see the content you have put there (for some reason) and therefore doesn't recognise it.

muincat said:

[*]The Navbar won't update.

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Open up Inspector and make sure that the box marked something like 'include this page in navigation bar' is selected.

muincat said:

[*]Backward Engineering Doesn't Work?

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iWeb uses Domain files to edit your website. It only exports to html, it doesn't open it.

muincat said:

[*]What's the best way to upload to a server when you're running multiple domains other than on MobileMe?

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You need to save your iWeb domain files in separate places (according to what project your working etc.) otherwise your single Domain file will contain every website you are working on.
In iWeb '09 it has built in ftp.

iWeb is a simple 'just add content' programme and I think that you should be using something else bordering on the lines of dreamweaver.

Ah--Classic case of tone not carrying over in text.

Sorry, I took that post the wrong way. As usual, its hard to understand tone with text only. Thank you to everyone who clarified this for me.

Thank you, True Bassist for your point by point answers. You all have helped me get a better understanding of how this works. I have made many websites in the past, but it has been awhile and it was always on a Windows computer. I'm doing this "favor" for a friend before I've really gotten a chance to reacquaint myself with Mac and Mac programs.

iWeb does take a little while to fully understand everything and is quite different from anything else. I still don't know how to use everything!!

The iWeb learning curve

Yah, it would be nice if Mac gave a bit (well ok A LOT) more information in their tutorials.

There are some decent tutorial sites out there but you do have to do a bit of digging to get the best of them. Still, there's nothing like sitting down with a piece of software for a few hours and pressing all the buttons =]

I am also a person new to iweb and not too computer savvy...
i have created webpages in iweb and want to save them to a DVD so I can have them checked before putting it on the internet. I do not have an account to place the pages on the internet.
Can anyone tell me how I can save to another folder so I can burn to DVD? I have iweb 3.0.1.
Thanks

there is a program which does not have templates but you can change source code as well as layout its completely free! search for nvu.