Dreamweaver vs. Rapidweaver?

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Ok, here's the deal. I have Dreamweaver MX on my computer and have made a few sites with it and will be making a few more. It works just fine for me, but some of the people I make sites for want an easy way to quickly edit things themselves. Dreamweaver (and even Contribute) are kind-of expensive for some of these people (i.e. a new small business and a non-profit org.)

I've been looking at RapidWeaver (from other posts and their site) as a program I could use/recommend to them. Remember, these people have very little or no knowledge of HTML or making websites.

Basically I hae a few questions. One, how well do Dreamweaver and RapidWeaver work going from one to the other (i.e. make a site in Dreamweaver and edit in RapidWeaver or vice versa). And two, what are some advantages/disadvantages of RapidWeaver from Dreamweaver? Thanks in advance!
 
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Going from Rapidweaver to Dreamweaver.. not a problem, now from Dreamweaver to Rapidweaver no way. You just can't do it.

Rapidweaver has certain templates, you edit them within Rapidweaver then it exports the data.. so for newbies it's a great program, but if you want a custom template then you're going to have to pay someone to create a Rapidweaver template, which is not like making a Dreamweaver template in any sense of the word.

So it's really comparing apples with oranges... a better comparison would be Rapidweaver and iWeb.. they do similar things and you have to use their templates or hire someone to create templates specific for that program.
 
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(Off-topic) You guys mean they make dreamweaver for mac?? Why the fudge do I keep hearing complaints that people won't switch to mac because they need dreamweaver?!
 
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heh really? yeah Dreamweaver has been out for Mac for.. well hmm.. 7 years? or something like that :) It's been a LOOOOONG time ;)
 
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(still-off-topic; apologies daz087) Oh! I must be thinking of flash or something... (I was sure it was dreamweaver! <shrug>)
 
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static0verdrive said:
(still-off-topic; apologies daz087) Oh! I must be thinking of flash or something... (I was sure it was dreamweaver! <shrug>)
Flash is also available for mac. Actually, all of Macromedia's main programs are.
 
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As said already, DreamWeaver vs RapidWeaver = Apples vs Oranges. You can easily edit a published RapidWeaver site with DreamWeaver but not the other way around. RapidWeaver is a great tool that falls somewhere between iWeb at one end of the scale and Dreamweaver at the other end.
 
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rs2sensen said:
Flash is also available for mac. Actually, all of Macromedia's main programs are.

Adobe already owns Macromedia, so Flash is under the same umbrella. Flash before has been available for Mac for a long while, about as long as Adobe has. What are the clients wanting to edit? Text? Pictures? If you know XML you could have them edit using a text editing program if configured correctly.
 
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deus_ex_machina said:
What are the clients wanting to edit? Text? Pictures? If you know XML you could have them edit using a text editing program if configured correctly.

They will be wanting to edit text and pictures most likely once a week or more. I don't know XML, and from what I've heard RapidWeaver sounds like a program that will be fairly inexpensive and easy for them to use.
 
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daz087 said:
They will be wanting to edit text and pictures most likely once a week or more. I don't know XML, and from what I've heard RapidWeaver sounds like a program that will be fairly inexpensive and easy for them to use.

I'm not too familiar with XML (the code is trixy) but leaving pictures, for example, up to the clients is a bad idea. I mean this in optimizing for the web and resizing. Anyone that uses RapidWeaver might shed some light as to what it allows them to do with it, whether it makes it easier to take the load off of the developer.
 
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Hmm... good call about the pictures. The client has a Mac - maybe I could create some automator action that he could drop the pictures on to adjust them appropriately? I'm not too familiar with Automator, would this work?
 
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daz087 said:
...from what I've heard RapidWeaver sounds like a program that will be fairly inexpensive and easy for them to use.
RapidWeaver is easy to use but there is a learning curve. It is more advanced than iWeb and throws some people for loop at first. Fortunately the support forum is second to none, making the learning curve much more manageable. Version 3.5 is soon to be released and I have it on good authority that this upcoming version sets the bar high for intermediate web authoring tools.
 
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daz087 said:
Hmm... good call about the pictures. The client has a Mac - maybe I could create some automator action that he could drop the pictures on to adjust them appropriately? I'm not too familiar with Automator, would this work?

If you're familiar with Photoshop, it's very similar to actions that are strung together, like a droplet that's activated. Automator 'automates' actions for Mac applications, i.e. Mail, Safari, etc.
 

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