Rapidweaver Tips
RapidWeaver Tip #14: Theme Styles [Screencast]
Tuesday 07 August 2007
It's screencast time folks! Todays one looks at Theme Styles and Master Styles in RW 3.6.2. Click here to get started, and you can download the file directly from this link. Thanks, as ever, to Adam at Elixir Graphics for sponsoring this screencast.
You can view a Lo-Res version here, but I'd highly recommend downloading the MP4 file instead, as the quality is far greater.
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Smart Block Ahoy!
Thursday 07 June 2007
One of the first things to take shape this week, and there are a few that I hope will see daylight soon, is a new smart block. You see that little Twitter box in the side bar? Well, how would you like that on YOUR blocks page?
Behold 'Twitterbox' (I thought Twitterblock would be a little predictable).
Here's the Smart Blocks UI. Because the documentation is included, I'd thought about not leaving any on the web, but here's a complete run down of UI to clarify things.
Block Title - This is the title that will appear at the top of the Twitterbox. So long as a username is entered in the box below it, it will link to your Twitter page. Otherwise it links to twitter.com
Twitter ID - This is NOT your username. Instead it's the 6-digit number found in your updates RSS feed. To find this out, go to twitter.com and however the RSS link in the bottom left:
Mine is 714033 (and you can follow me here on Twitter).
Username - is the bit you add to the twitter.com/ URL to get to your profile. Mine is nikf
# of Tweets - This is the number of Tweets you want to display. Note that it's intended to be 1 only (the CSS doesn't show bullets in lists) for simplicity. If you're wanting more than one, either play with the CSS that's in the block, or contact me.
Border - The colour you want the border
Border Width - The width of the desired border (no need to append px - it's done in the code by default). Putting 0 obviously gets you a borderless window.
RapidWeaver Tip #13: Muted Tubes
Friday 11 May 2007
One of the perennial questions encountered seems to be 'How can I get auto-loading music to play on my website'? The short answer is simply 'don't do it'. Here's the long answer (Hint: it's roughly the same as the short answer. Just with swearing and a bit of detail).
Introduction
Ever since the days long before the gawdy monstrosity that is MySpace came along, people have been able to poison the internet by putting sound files somewhere on webpages (MIDI files, anyone?). Some people even hide the bloody things via CSS or other joys - they're the worst - as when I visit the site, if I can't switch the god-damn thing off, I'll just close the tab and never return. People's justification for it is generally "I want *this* ambience when people visit my site", and that's OK when it's you visiting your site. But how often are you really going to do that when it's a live site, and you're burning bandwidth serving some (presumably legitimately licensed) media up? Bandwidth, whilst being a something that might be at the back of your mind, is the least of your worries.
How Are You Playing It?
Your first answer is "I'll just pop in some tags somewhere on the page". The first problem here is, if you're on a frameless HTML page, perhaps like this, that the audio will cut out when they navigate to a different page. There goes the ambience you so wanted. Oh, sure, you could use frames and put the media player in its own, and ....... bleurgh. Have fun sorting that out. So, you want to have a cohesive user experience, the ambience to stay intact, and the audio on the page regardless of the content. That means Flash - something that's incredibly useful, but also so incredibly annoying as a user to have to interact with. My favourite example of all things wrong with Flash is, ironically, the Adobe store. Half Flash, half HTML and ColdFusion, it's a slow loading dinosaur that, thanks to the Flash sector, renders the 'Back' button mostly useless. And Flash also likely means loading times. With the average user wanting to wait no more than around 4 or 5 seconds for a page to load, if your Flash page loads slowly at the expense of audio (remember, not everyone's sat on top of an academic network like yours truly) people will simply not bother. Flash also removes the ability to navigate to bookmarked 'subpages' and if people have to faff around and re-navigate your (likely poorly implemented Flash UI) every time they visit, again, they just won't bother. Trust me. I don't.
What now?
You Know My Name (From Casino Royale) by Chris Cornell
Don't you dare f**king interupt it!
Introduction
How Are You Playing It?
Your first answer is "I'll just pop in some tags somewhere on the page". The first problem here is, if you're on a frameless HTML page, perhaps like this, that the audio will cut out when they navigate to a different page. There goes the ambience you so wanted. Oh, sure, you could use frames and put the media player in its own, and ....... bleurgh. Have fun sorting that out. So, you want to have a cohesive user experience, the ambience to stay intact, and the audio on the page regardless of the content. That means Flash - something that's incredibly useful, but also so incredibly annoying as a user to have to interact with. My favourite example of all things wrong with Flash is, ironically, the Adobe store. Half Flash, half HTML and ColdFusion, it's a slow loading dinosaur that, thanks to the Flash sector, renders the 'Back' button mostly useless. And Flash also likely means loading times. With the average user wanting to wait no more than around 4 or 5 seconds for a page to load, if your Flash page loads slowly at the expense of audio (remember, not everyone's sat on top of an academic network like yours truly) people will simply not bother. Flash also removes the ability to navigate to bookmarked 'subpages' and if people have to faff around and re-navigate your (likely poorly implemented Flash UI) every time they visit, again, they just won't bother. Trust me. I don't.
What now?
Now that we've eliminated pretty much every 'in-window' option, you may think "Pop-up"! Not so fast, there. Pop-up blocking is a standard feature of web browsers nowadays, so getting a window open when someone visits your site is actually pretty tricky, and unless visitors are visiting to hear samples of your audio work, they're not likely to want to open the window anyway. Yes, that 'ambience' you so desire is going down in flames pretty quickly.
There's more than just the technical reasons for avoiding this auto-loading all singing-all-dancing idea?
Yes. It's not the numerous technical hurdles that make it futile to put auto-loading audio or video on your average site - there is one more I've not really mentioned: that Microsoft's ActiveX controls (used by Flash et. al. on Windows) no-longer auto-start as the result of the Eolas patent spat. It's the fact that by putting on auto-loading audio, you're showing a fundamental lack of respect to your visitor. That's me. I, like many, many others no doubt, surf the inter-web with iTunes open and blaring media of my choosing. When you're visiting the site for a movie, audio is expected, so I'm completely willing to pause iTunes as I want to see that content. But if I'm visiting a BBQ sales website, I won't want to interrupt my listening to put up with whatever tune you think is appropriate. If I come across a site that does auto-play audio, or for that matter, ANY audio-visual content when it's not expected, rest assured by only visit will be a swift one - and when I leave, I'll run like a bat out of hell.
I'm not anti-audio - I'm a musician for goodness sake - but when it comes to websites, please do us all a favour: leave the auto-playing media out. Please.
You Know My Name (From Casino Royale) by Chris Cornell
Don't you dare f**king interupt it!
RapidWeaver Rant: Internet Explorer
Friday 27 April 2007
The history of Trident (the rendering engine behind Internet Explorer) is an amusing read. Worthy of mention are the facts that Tasman (the IE for Mac engine) was actually more standards compliant than the windows-only Trident (presumably at the time of its release) and that the latest Office 2007 HTML edit & rendering engine is unsurprisingly worse at standards support. It also talks about Microsoft's Expression Web product - which claims to have 'the most accurate rendering engine available today'. That's great, Microsoft, it really is. But it really ought to be shipped and forcibly installed on Windows systems for Internet Explorer's rendering around the world before it actually means jack-sh@t - although I must admit I'm intrigued by this claim and part of me wants to see for myself what it's like. Too bad it's Windows only, and I lack (for the time being) Parallels!
People have asked me whether I believe Microsoft should just simply stop IE development and aid Mozilla and WebKit development, and whilst the 'mac-based web developer cliché' makes me pray for that, my ultimate reaction is 'no'. Competition is healthy - it keeps companies hopefully wanting to make better, ever more innovative products - just as the Zune is some sort of competition for the iPod, and Xbox 360 is for the Wii. All I want is for IE6 to die a short, and highly painful death. If you are a Windows user who has chosen not to install IE7 - please, please, please do so. Whilst IE7 may not be Firefox, it's a huge improvement over IE6 - standards support is better, some transparent image support, and, finally, tabs - although the UI is somewhat confused and certainly a departure from IE6. Whilst you may not think it matters, your choice of browser does. It makes peoples lives less stress free and allows designers and developers to spend time doing what they want with a project, not trying to fix the inadequacies of a comparatively out-dated browser.
RapidWeaver Tip #12: Upload Speedup
Wednesday 25 April 2007
I'm afraid I can't really take credit for this one, but it's definitely worth sharing! Susan has posted a tip for speeding up uploads (and perhaps also exports) - and could well reduce RAM usage. It's rather simple: Turn off the 'Category Post Count':
Why? Well on every blog sub-page this count is shown to be a precise number. If you remove the numbers, the old pages don't need to be updated with a more recent number! If you find this tip useful, I'd recommend you go by Susan's two sites: AnyDanger.net and her new T-Shirt store (selling out of print Threadless tees - of which I've picked up these two) - the imaginatively named WoiWoiWoi.net.
Vote for RapidWeaver!
Friday 20 April 2007
Disclosure: I am an employee of RealMac Software :)
![[Blog Photo] Marketing Monkey](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/199/466044380_27b2fc7265.jpg)
Screencasts: Podcasting to a Computer Near You. NOW!
Monday 09 April 2007
I'm delighted to announce that my RW tips are podcasting! That means you simply need to subscribe in iTunes, and never worry about missing an episode again! Awesome - the link below requires iTunes.
Click here to get started!
No April Fool
Wednesday 04 April 2007
You'll recall a couple of days ago that I mentioned a forthcoming RapidWeaver theme. Well the wait is now over: Chris at Varsis Studio has released 'Creamy' - and purchasers are being entered into the draw until 30th April. So run, not walk, and go have a look at the theme which is being sold through SeyDesign!
Congratulations on the release, Chris! (More Details here)
Congratulations on the release, Chris! (More Details here)
RapidWeaver Tip #11: Site Path Settings (w/Video)
Monday 02 April 2007
Firstly, thanks are in order. After the last screencast so many people gave me feedback, and I'm so very grateful for all the feedback. Thanks to everyone! Site Path settings are a common problem in RapidWeaver, so I've put this little tutorial together with some common hosts' settings put in to show you what to do for Globat, MacDock and DreamHost.
This episode is sponsored by ElixirGraphics - thanks to Adam @ Elixir for his support!
This episode is sponsored by ElixirGraphics - thanks to Adam @ Elixir for his support!
Get your screencast here!
RapidWeaver Scoop: The Only Blogger Not to April Fool You
Sunday 01 April 2007
My sources tell me we can expect to see a new RW theme land 'soon', with the developer entering the first 250 buyers into a draw to win a RED iPod Nano (4Gb). I couldn't possibly tell you who, but this is no April fool (I confirmed with the developer before 1/04/07 :-) ). It's been a while since we saw this particular developer spinning us some CSS goodness, so I look forward to seeing it 'soon', and so should you!
RapidWeaver Tip #10: Make Your Homepage 'index.php'
Saturday 31 March 2007
There's been some confusion recently on the forums about how to set up your designated homepage as 'index.php' instead of 'index.html'. Note: This will require a PHP capable host (and will not work on .Mac) If you open up the Page Inspector for your homepage (in my case, this blog page) and go to the 'Info' tab, you see the 'File' option greyed out and non-editable.
So how to fix this? Go to the Site Setup (Cmd + 1) and choose 'Setup'. Then simply edit the Site Details' 'Index Page' option to index.php as below, and you're all set!
RapidWeaver Tip #9: Publishing Settings
Sunday 25 March 2007
Whilst I wrap up the second screencast, this tip struck me. If you're having trouble publishing with RapidWeaver, then this might be helpful to know. RapidWeaver actually includes another publishing 'framework', so if you're having problems publishing, switching the frameworks might help you out! To change the FTP framework, simply open RapidWeaver preferences (RapidWeaver -> Preferences) and toggle the 'Use NcFTP Framework' preference shown below.
RapidWeaver Tip #8: Web 2.0 Playground
Monday 19 March 2007
In tip #3 I outlined 'the tools we use', however today brings me to a short gem of an online CSS editor (that actually does so much more too). It's certainly no match for CSSEdit, but if your browser of choice isn't Firefox (I'm a Camino and Safari Mac-ite), this will certainly be of interest. CSSfly is a tool that, despite the name, allows you to 'easily edit and modify websites direct, and in real-time in your browser'. I've only just stumbled upon it myself, but it looks pretty damn nifty, and is particularly handy for moments where you're perhaps not at your own computer.
RapidWeaver Tip #7: Contact Form
Saturday 17 March 2007
![[Blog Photo] Nik is ill](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/180/424402070_c0830ec414_m.jpg)
So, today I was sat at the MacBookPro with the flu (as you do) and thought to myself, hang on, what if I could answer a holy-grail-esque RapidWeaver question: How to hide the pesky contact form AFTER it's been sent?
You may be thinking to yourself 'Nik, you've drunk too much caffeine, slept too little, and had quite a lot (although, I'd like to add, a well-within-safe-level) of Lemsip Max' to think that such a question could be challenged, never mind answered.
But it has..
:)
How to Hide the Contact Form after sending a message:
1. Copy the code below, and remove the space from after both the <'s:
< style type="text/css" media="all">#content form { display: none; }< /style> 2. Open your Contact Form page's setup option.
3. Go to the Form tab, and paste the code above alongside the message for 'Sent':
4. Click 'OK'.
5. Publish the updated form and check it works.
5. Think about how you can also use this to add more CSS to the 'Message Was Sent' message and the that appears after you've sent the form....
Thanks to David Chartier for testing this (pity those who get IMs from me asking them to test things)!
RapidWeaver Tip #6: Why Use PHP?
Tuesday 06 March 2007
In my last post, I talked about how to set up PHP permalinks for blog entries, yet didn't really explain why this is useful. As a number of people have been in touch about the missing 'why', I thought I'd post a follow up on PHP before I release the next screencast. It should be noted that my experience of PHP is, er, limited, and I'm not handwriting all that much PHP, but still enough to justify adding .php extensions to all 374 posts on the blog!
If you look in the sidebar for the entry, you'll see two things:
I'm the sort of person who writes a few lines of code to save myself time in the future, even if it takes up more time now. I wanted there to be a random link and ad shown on each visit without any action on my part after publish, save for adding new links and ads, or deleting them. The setup for the page goes something like this:
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact me!
If you look in the sidebar for the entry, you'll see two things:
- An Amazon ad box
- A Random Link box
I'm the sort of person who writes a few lines of code to save myself time in the future, even if it takes up more time now. I wanted there to be a random link and ad shown on each visit without any action on my part after publish, save for adding new links and ads, or deleting them. The setup for the page goes something like this:
- Create a .txt file with HTML for each ad on a new line. This is a very simplified database. Upload to webspace.
- Enter PHP onto page, ensuring it refers to the location of database file
- Ensure page has a .php extension.
- Publish.
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact me!
Screencast Update: HiRes Now Available
Sunday 04 March 2007
It didn't take that long to fix, and no hosting upgrade needed. Get it here!
RapidWeaver Tip #5: Use PHP!
Saturday 03 March 2007
As you probably know, RapidWeaver is just as happy exporting pages as PHP as it is HTML. 'But what good is it to use PHP when permalinked Blog articles can't be PHP pages?' you may be asking. Well, they can! However it's not something that can be done with a single click. To ensure each permalink page is a PHP page, simply ensure when you type in your Custom Permalink that it ends '.php'. It's really that simple, but be warned, it took me a little while to go through and ensure that each of my 369 posts had this done correctly!
You need to be on a PHP-enabled host (.Mac does not support PHP) and be using the Custom Permalink for this tip to work.
As for the archives and categories in PHP? It's going to require a little bit of handcoding, but I've got a few ideas on how to do this. If there's anyone out there with a good grasp of PHP who would be willing to help me out for it (I can't pay I'm afraid!), please drop me a line.
RapidWeaver Tip #4: Set Up the Base URL (w/video!)
Saturday 03 March 2007
OK, so it may feel a little like 'My First Screencast (tm)' - because it is! - but here's a brief little tutorial I put together for those people with problems setting up the Base URL. Please, drop me a note if you'd like a higher quality version (this is 3.7MB / 2minutes) - and if you have any feedback I'd love to hear it!
Get your Quicktime goodness here!
RapidWeaver Tip #3: The Tools We Use
Tuesday 27 February 2007
RapidWeaver regular EdBrenner started a thread a while back about the tools we all use on the RapidWeaver forums. I thought, as part of this, I'd post about the tools I use with RapidWeaver. Whilst many are shareware, I've also tried to find a Free alternative where possible!
What will you likely need to work with?
skEdit ($25) is my pick - it's a great interface (I love the code view - so much cleaner than others). There's so many advanced features that if you're handcoding a site, it's a godsend. Code completion, integrated SFTP, FTP and WebDAV, code snippets, line numbering, HTML Tidy integration and so much more! In fact, check out the Features list here.
Free Pick: TextWrangler, from BareBones software is worth considering. It has many of the same features as skEdit.
CSS
CSSEdit ($30) is perhaps the most popular CSS editor on the Mac, and the recent Version 2.0 update added some great features. I, like many others, spend a lot of time in CSSEdit, and were it not for CSSEdit, I probably wouldn't have dared try my hand at CSS in the first place. The new X-ray feature, not to mention the new UI, window views and smarter code completion, make it just awesome.
Graphics
I'm not lucky enough to be able to afford Photoshop, although I'm saving for CS3 later this year. Instead, I use Graphic Converter (€25). It's a smaller app than Photoshop, and whilst that means that not everything is there when compared with Photoshop, GraphicConvertor does the things I need to do! For a free Photoshop replacement, GIMP or GIMPshop might be worth checking out. They both require the X11 Windowing System to be installed on your Mac, but they're open source and above all free!
Theme .plist Files
I use the free Apple-supplied Property List Editor that's installed with the Developer Tools (on your Mac OS X install discs), but PlistEdit Pro ($25) is also out there, and I've heard good things about it. It's quite a technical thing, either way, so be prepared to experiment (ensuring you have backups!!) with theme plists. Be sure to check out RealMac Software's own Theme Tutorial too, as there's tonnes of details available and a sample plist file is available as part of the Tutorial Theme.
Webspace
Whilst RapidWeaver has its own FTP client built in, there's no way to manage your webspace from within RapidWeaver. So, to delete files, or upload things independently you'll need something else. I use Cyberduck (free). DaringFireball has noted that it to be slow with SFTP uploads, but as I don't use SFTP I'm not that fussed. If you want the daddy of FTP clients, however, Panic's Transmit ($30) is the pick here. I've not used Transmit since my demo ran out, but it's always rated highly, and one of these days I'll actually buy it.
Web Browser Compatibility
For the Intel-Mac-owning masses, the obvious answer is Parallels ($80). It's certainly not cheap, especially when you factor in a Windows licence, but it works well from what I hear, and it's certainly the choice of most. It's on my 'to buy' list. If you're looking for a freebie IE checker, then the best one I've come across is NetRenderer.
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If you think I've missed a crucial part of your RapidWeaver workflow, then let me know! All Icons are the property of their respective owners.
What will you likely need to work with?
- HTML
- CSS
- Graphics
- Theme .plist Editor
- Webspace
- Browser Compatibility
Free Pick: TextWrangler, from BareBones software is worth considering. It has many of the same features as skEdit.
CSS
Graphics
Theme .plist Files
Webspace
Web Browser Compatibility
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If you think I've missed a crucial part of your RapidWeaver workflow, then let me know! All Icons are the property of their respective owners.
RapidWeaver Tip #2: Google Analytics
Tuesday 27 February 2007
Preamble
Google Analytics is one of the most powerful tools out there for gathering information about your website's visitors. Sure, there's others such as Mint, but you sure can't beat the fact that this formerly three-figure-priced package is now the great price of free! One of the big bonuses seems to be the tight integration with AdSense (if you're an AdSense customer) but it's suitable for all. I'm not going to look at the features in this post, more to look at how to integrate the free Analytics account and its tracking code into your RapidWeaver-built site, but if you want to find out more, the Analytics site has the low-down.
This tutorial assumes you've now got an account for Analytics, and have some code that looks like this:
< script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">< /script>
< script type="text/javascript">
_uacct = "UA-xxxxxxx";
urchinTracker();
< /script>
The xxx being a series of numbers. Don't worry if there's no spaces after each < (I've done that to ensure that the code doesn't work and instead is displayed in this tutorial!). Other than the the Analytics code, you're also going to need a text editor for one of the steps (this tip requires some pasting into an HTML file). I use skEdit (shareware) but the very excellent, and very much free, TextWrangler from BareBones software is my free pick. The tutorial will modify a copy of your theme file used in the RapidWeaver file. As a result, you will need to re-publish the entire site to get the code to be placed on every single page. There is no way to get around this, so it might be worth doing the code bits before lunch and leaving RapidWeaver to publish whilst you're away as, depending on the site size, and the speed of your net connection, it could take a little while.
Disclaimer
This tutorial is produce in good faith. This technique is used on my own site, and I routinely recommend it to people who wish to use Google Analytics with RapidWeaver. However, you follow the steps at your own risk. I can offer no support if you undertake this tutorial, unless through the RapidWeaver forums. Please ensure you have a fresh backup before doing any modifications to a RapidWeaver site that is in development or in production! If there is any error with this tutorial, please let me know!
The Tutorial Starts Here!
This tutorial assumes you've now got an account for Analytics, and have some code that looks like this:
< script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">< /script>
< script type="text/javascript">
_uacct = "UA-xxxxxxx";
urchinTracker();
< /script>
The xxx being a series of numbers. Don't worry if there's no spaces after each < (I've done that to ensure that the code doesn't work and instead is displayed in this tutorial!). Other than the the Analytics code, you're also going to need a text editor for one of the steps (this tip requires some pasting into an HTML file). I use skEdit (shareware) but the very excellent, and very much free, TextWrangler from BareBones software is my free pick. The tutorial will modify a copy of your theme file used in the RapidWeaver file. As a result, you will need to re-publish the entire site to get the code to be placed on every single page. There is no way to get around this, so it might be worth doing the code bits before lunch and leaving RapidWeaver to publish whilst you're away as, depending on the site size, and the speed of your net connection, it could take a little while.
Disclaimer
This tutorial is produce in good faith. This technique is used on my own site, and I routinely recommend it to people who wish to use Google Analytics with RapidWeaver. However, you follow the steps at your own risk. I can offer no support if you undertake this tutorial, unless through the RapidWeaver forums. Please ensure you have a fresh backup before doing any modifications to a RapidWeaver site that is in development or in production! If there is any error with this tutorial, please let me know!
The Tutorial Starts Here!
- 1. Open the RapidWeaver file you want to work with.
2. Open the Theme View.
3. Right click your currently used theme, and choose 'Duplicate Theme'
4. Enter a new name for your theme.
5. Select the duplicated theme as your site's theme. You will have to re-set all (or any) Theme Variations in the Theme Inspector (Cmnd + 1).
6. Right click the new theme in the Theme View and choose 'Show Contents'. A window like the one below will appear.
7. Right click the file index.html, and choose to 'Open With' -> 'TextWrangler'.
8. In TextWrangler, hit Cmnd + F (Find) and search for '/body' (without the 's).
9. You'll find the term almost at the very end of the file like this:
10. Paste the Google Analytics code above the < /body> tag, but below the code above it. You should end up with it like so:
11. Save the HTML file, ensure your project has all the Theme Variations correctly re-added, and then we're set to publish. Before you do so, however, you should ensure you Clear Publishing Cache (at the Publish dialogue) to ensure all your pages have been updated.
12. Sit back and allow Google Analytics to collect the information - and be patient. It can take some time. (Note, if you're on Tiger, there's a damn neat dashboard widget called Dashalytics which allows you to view summary information from the OS X Dashboard).
RapidWeaver Tip: Set the Base URL Correctly
Wednesday 31 January 2007
A while back, I set up this RapidWeaver tip category yet didn't really fill it with as much content as I'd like. So, here's my tip. Set the Base URL correctly.
What IS the Base URL?
The Base URL is the web address that you would type to access your RapidWeaver site when online. The Base URL for my site is http://www.nikfletcher.com
Common Mistakes
What IS the Base URL?
The Base URL is the web address that you would type to access your RapidWeaver site when online. The Base URL for my site is http://www.nikfletcher.com
Common Mistakes
- People often forget to start it with http://
- It's sometimes incorrectly entered.
- People don't know it exists.
- It's a little known fact that it auto-fills to your hompage.mac.com/username account in the Base URL box if you've got .Mac set up in System Preferences.
- People confuse it with the site path in the publishing dialogue.
In short, the Base URL generally refers to the folder you're uploading the site to - be it a domain name, a subdomain or subfolder.
Tick Tock
Sunday 28 January 2007
Just a quick reminder for any RapidWeaver addicts out there looking to score a bargain: Your time is running out. I've mentioned it previously, but here it is again:
Offer expires on 31st January, so if you want to score a bargain, don't walk - run over to the site and grab the bundle of 7 themes for the killer price of $35 now!!
More Groovy Offers
Thursday 11 January 2007
Anyway, so in my quest to walk around Manchester as many times as possible (joke) I visited Waterstones today. Nope, I didn't go into the Apple Store (must be a first) purely because that trip is for Monday (details coming soon. Perhaps). Anyway, so lo and behold they were offering me the chance to pre-order Harry Potter: The Seventh (known from now on as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows). Well, I would, but Amazon are normally cheaper, deliver it prompter (sometimes before they're meant to. Ooops) and you don't *actually* have to go into town to collect it. Genius. Amazon link for you here! It's £13.99 at the moment there (I presume that's not a saving on the price, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Amazon undercutting the high-street. I know where I'm going to pre-order it. Once I've blown all my cash on a certain laptop :)
Thanks also due to Susan for sending me not just iBook stickers (woohoo!) but some prints of my favourites from her Flickr stream. Woohoo. They even include blue Smarties!! P.S. Doesn't this just look awesome. Shame it's not quite what I'm getting. Yes I'm excited. New Mac. Soon. Just not soon enough.
RealMac and YourHead MacWorld Discounts
Tuesday 09 January 2007
RapidWeaver 3.5.0 IS HERE!
Thursday 07 September 2006
RapidWeaver 3.5.0 is finally available! Head over to RealMacSoftware and see what's new! As an Official Download Mirror, you can get a copy right here. I've been using it and it's a great new version. Congratulations to Dan & all the RealMac team for a great product.
GO DIGG RAPIDWEAVER 3.5 HERE. NOW! ;-)
GO DIGG RAPIDWEAVER 3.5 HERE. NOW! ;-)
Someone's been busy!
Sunday 16 July 2006
Isaiah Carew is the man of the moment! (I would say he's the hardest working man in Northern California, but I would risk offending RW's other plugin genius Loghound). Isaiah's new RapidWeaver plugin looks like it's going to be one of those plugins that just changes the way you build a website. I've not built that many pages using Blocks, but the features he's introducing may just bring about yet more changes to my site. It's a free update when it arrives, and quick frankly, I hope it arrives soon as the RW-web is going into overdrive about this! Keep up the great teasing work Isaiah, and I look forward to getting my mits on this! ;-) Incidentally, Isaiah is going to be one of the guests on the next episode of Northern Bytes (yup, that's one of the guests!), so if you want us to ask him something (apart from 'Can I have a copy of Blocks 2.0 please?'!), let me know in the commments or email! Thanks for agreeing to be on the show Isaiah!
2,000 posts - But not on the blog obviously!
Saturday 15 July 2006
Doesn't time fly when you're having fun?! It certainly does in this case. Many of you know I use RapidWeaver for my site, however I'm also quite active on the RapidWeaver forums too, and today is the day I finally reached the 2,000 post milestone on the RealMac forums. Thanks to everyone who's helped me progress with my CSS! For the eagle eyed amongst you, there is a little 'thank you' hidden within the code for the site. Enjoy.
nThemes Teaser
Tuesday 20 June 2006
This forthcoming site design is something that has been stirring for ages now, and to be honest, it's going to be a big change in coding for this site. It's going to be a ground-up RapidWeaver theme with some nice touches to it. Look for lots of custom CSS classes and slickness some time around the start of next month. Possibly. I've got a recital to get through first!
Something's coming!
Thursday 15 June 2006
Rapidweaver + rapidflickr
Monday 01 May 2006
I've been rather busy today, working with rapidflickr to get some of my high demand photos off of my server, and onto Flickr's bandwidth bill. John McLaughlin's brilliant plugin means there's some seriously slick slideshows to be tried out from here, and watch out for more 'conversions' possibly in the next few days - definitely by the end of this week. It's great as it gives you so many cool display options, whilst not increasing your bandwidth bill - plus it means you can work using any Mac with RW and rapidflickr without worrying about iPhoto not being the same. Cheers John!
Listening to ''Night on the Bare Mountain'', by Mussorgsky
Listening to ''Night on the Bare Mountain'', by Mussorgsky
New Category!
Monday 01 May 2006
I've started a new category today on my blog that's dedicated to bring you the occasional tip on Rapidweaver. I'm going to be putting the first entry online very soon - it's a Rapidweaver + rapidflickr plugin tip that you might find useful if you're serving up images to your website's visitors. Unfortunately, those of you using Windows will not be able to use the tips unless you switch - but there's never been a better reason to!
Listening to ''I Love New York'', by Madonna
Listening to ''I Love New York'', by Madonna