Should we shift? iWeb – the Features
There was a recent blog post which said that Opera study: only 4.13% of the web is standards-compliant.
The blog also included a small bit of extra info which said that of the web pages that were available on the sites, those made with Adobe Dreamweaver were less than 4% compliant with the standards whereas those made with Apple iWeb had a compliance rate of a whopping 84%.
This prompted me to do a bit of research on iWeb. Now since I’m a Windows user, I haven’t experienced any of the features that have been mentioned here but I have tried to mention those features which Dreamweaver (as far as my knowledge goes) does not automatically do.
Let’s begin then. Have fun reading it.
Web widgets
With iWeb, it’s easy to add live content from other websites — like videos, stock tickers, and news headlines — directly into your web pages. So you can create pages that are informative, interesting, or just plain fun.
A world of possibilities.
A growing number of sites offer embeddable web widgets. So if you see a YouTube video, stock ticker, weather report, or any other cool widget you want to add to your website, iWeb makes it easy.
Easy as cut and paste.
If you’ve ever cut and pasted text, you can add a web widget to your iWeb site. Just copy the widget from the web and paste it right onto your web page via the HTML Snippet window in iWeb. Then place it anywhere on your page, as you would any other canvas object.
Live previews.
Once you paste a web widget into your web page, it’s instantly “live.” You’ll see it in action before you publish your site, so you’ll know exactly how it will look to your visitors.
Always up to date.
Once published, a web widget remains linked to its source, so it updates automatically. Your web pages stay up-to-the-second without any effort.
Google Maps and Google AdSense
iWeb makes it easy to incorporate some of Google’s most useful features. With just a few clicks, you can add a fully interactive Google Map to your site. Or you can place Google AdSense ads on your pages and get Google credits every time a visitor clicks.
Instant interactive maps
Put a Google Map on your page with one click and enter the desired address. Then pan, zoom in or out, and set the map to street, satellite, or hybrid view — what you see in iWeb is exactly what will appear on your page.
Break into advertising.
It’s easy to place relevant Google AdSense ads on your site and earn credit when visitors click them. Just complete the simple Google registration process, choose from a variety of ad formats and colors to match your site, designate areas on your pages, and ads will magically appear.
Perfect placement.
Google Maps and Google AdSense ads behave just like any other object on your canvas. You can move them around until they’re placed exactly where you want them. Your pages stay beautiful as they become more helpful. Or profitable.
My Album Pages
It’s so easy to create new photo and movie pages using iWeb that you’ll probably create quite a few. But don’t worry about your site’s navigation growing too cluttered as a result. My Albums will keep things perfectly organized and easy to find.
All together now.
A My Albums page lets you quickly and easily index all your photo and movie pages on one elegant page. Your visitors get an overview of all the media on your site without having to dig around.
Make it yours.
Your My Albums page is fully customizable. Adding and reordering albums is as easy as drag and drop. You can swap picture frames with a click and change rollover animations to get just the design you’re looking for.
A visual delight.
Your site’s photo albums and movies have never looked so good. The My Albums page is sleek, interactive, and designed to show your photo albums in the best possible light.
Theme Switching
Apple-designed themes in iWeb make it easy to create a stunning website, page after page. It’s also a snap to refresh your website at any time by switching themes. All it takes is a click.
Your theme, your choice.
iWeb lets you choose from 26 Apple-designed themes, including eight brand-new ones for iWeb ‘08. Each theme contains templates for all the pages you’re likely to need: welcome, blog, photo albums, podcasts, about me, even a blank page if you want to start from scratch.
Switch at will.
You’re never locked into a theme. Just select a different one from the theme chooser and your page design updates automatically, giving your site a fresh new look.
Alrite … that just about sums up the stuff which I was interested in with respect to Dreamweaver. Seriously, after going through its features, I am very much tempted to shift over to the MacOS and try the iWeb out.
How ’bout u?
Lemme know.
