Mac360 Twitter TweetsSponsorship and Advertising on Mac360Forums Member LoginRegister for Mac360 ForumsFrequently Asked QuestionsYouTube Video WatchDashboard Widget WatchPolls & SurveysMac360 Power Search Options
RSS FeedThe Mac360 Article ArchiveThe Cheap MacWhat's New!Mac Tips & TricksMacintosh User ForumsMac360 Reviews

iWeb Not Enough? Build Your Web Site With Sandvox

SandvoxThere’s no shortage of ways to build a web site using your Mac. Master XHTML and CSS via online tutorials and all you need is a text editor and Safari.

Or, you could build an attractive, professional looking site using Apple’s free iWeb, part of iLife ‘09 on every new Mac. Or, assuming you don’t want a web site that looks like every other web site, try something different with Sandvox. It’s the same drag and drop, point and click as iWeb, but with more bells and whistles, more feature control, and customized designs.

iDon’t iWeb

The school where I work has dozens of teachers running Macs and PCs. Many of them want to create simple web sites as part of their instruction plans.

iWeb does the job, but with a limited number of themes, the jobs sites tend to look the same as every other web page built by a Mac user. What to do?

Fortunately, Mac users have multiple choices for web page construction. The two major competitors for the drag and drop, point and click crowd of would be web page publishers are Rapidweaver and Sandvox.

The former has long been a favorite of the Mac360 staff, and the latter has come a long way in the past couple of years. Sandvox is loaded with features and capability but still takes little effort to create an attractive web site.

Choose Features & Designs

In many ways, Sandvox looks and acts like Rapidweaver. Out of the box, Sandvox has 50 different site designs which can be customized with a few clicks.

Every teacher I know that builds a web site here and there hates the same thing. A blank page. Sandvox gets you started with a design, a theme or template, that matches your site’s objective.

Not to worry. Any of the included themes can be changed with a click or two for a completely different look and feel. Cumbersome CSS changes are reduced to simple point and click. Graphics and be dropped in to replace the default.

Not satisfied with the basics? Sandvox Designs has even more.

Building From The Ground Up

Every web site has the same problem. Content. What do you want to say and how do you want to say it? Just text? Images? Movies?

Sandvox makes building the site’s elements nothing more than an exercise in typing what you want, dragging and dropping the elements to match. Drag and drop photos into your Sandvox page and position to fit.

Drag and drop movies and audio files into other pages. One thing I like about Sandvox over Rapidweaver is the ability to edit and review changes immediately—no preview needed. It’s all live on your Mac.

Teachers in our school tend to like Apple’s iWeb because it’s easy to use and the results, though the same for everyone using a particular theme, are attractive and usable. Teachers like Sandvox because of the extra control.

Control? Sure. Web page building isn’t just drag and drop, but fancy features don’t have to be hand coded, either.

Read on to Page 2 for the extra details you’ll want—Flickr, YouTube, contact forms, Google Analytics, search engine optimization and more.

Read 3 Comments on this article. Or, Post your own Comment.

Classy Mac360 PhotoBy Natalia Nowak | My husband, Nathan, and I have used Macs for 15 years. We're teachers at a private school in Chicago, IL. I'm also the school's resident Mac system administrator, PC troubleshooter, and a diehard Mac diva.

• Email This Article  •  Follow Mac360 on Twitter
• Posted in the Mac Reviews Section

Off Topic Note: Need more Mac software reviews? Check out Page 2 for encore articles. Help support Mac360. Order your copy of Mac OS X Snow Leopard from Mac360 through Amazon. Snow Leopard is $29 for the Single User Upgrade, and only $49 for the 5 User Family Pack Upgrade.

Mac360 posts daily Mac updates on Twitter, too. If you Twitter, give Alexis, Bambi, or Ron a tweet and follow Mac360 on Twitter to get daily Mac tips and tricks.

Page 1 of 2 pages  1 2 >
Chrome
Do Mac users really need another browser that is 1990s ugly?
Tue Nov 10 - Full Article »
xScope
Are you really a graphic professional if you're not using this utility?
Mon Nov 9 - Full Article »
Utility
If you could have only one utility on your Mac, what would it be?
Fri Nov 6 - View Topic »
Flock
Flock is the perfect Mac or PC browser for the social networker.
Thu Nov 5 - Full Article »
Animate
Animation is the domain of experienced graphic professionals, right? Not.
Thu Nov 5 - Full Article »
Diary
Journal or Diary. Your life is worth remembering beyond photographs.
Wed Nov 4 - Full Article »
Snow Leopard
What's in the FORUMS?
Mac360 Link Farm