For the average computer user, creating an attractive web site is often out of reach. You pretty much have two choices: a text editor or HTML code editor such as SubEthaEdit or skEdit or a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get; the output is exactly what you see in the screen) editor such as Macromedia Dreamweaver. While both methods are powerful, neither is geared toward the average user who just wants to create a personal site. An average user will likely be scared away by hand-coding their sites. Dreamweaver runs on the costly side, and is more geared toward professional/prosumer users. What alternative does Average Joe or Average Jane have? Not much.

Enter RapidWeaver by Realmac Software.

I’ve seen and used WYSIWYG editors in the past, but RapidWeaver is truly innovative. It takes the WYSIWYG web site editor to a new paradigm. RapidWeaver 3 sports a clean Aquaicious interface, .Mac and iPhoto integration, and other niceties that make developing a web site extremely easy. And the $34.95 price tag is easy on the wallet. But the standout feature is the inclusion of a wide array of slick, high-quality themes. These themes are much like those in Apple’s Pages word processor, in that each theme has templates for a number of different page types: blogs, file sharing pages, photo albums, QuickTime video, and text pages. There is no need to know HTML, CSS, or anything. Pick a theme, create a page, pick a page type, and build your site.

From here, creating a page is brain-dead simple. Creating a text page (such as this one) is as simple as using a word processor. Making a photo album only requires selecting an iPhoto album; RapidWeaver does the rest. I had to do zero coding when using RapidWeaver. And for those who do know some HTML, RapidWeaver accepts it. Just enter it in as you normally would. And RapidWeaver is ideal for blogging. No longer do you need to rely on Xanga, Blogspot, or LiveJournal. No longer do you need to be savvy enough to know how to install and customize Movable Type, pMachine, or any other blogging system. RapidWeaver does it for you.

What’s that? You’re bored of the built-in themes? No problem. RapidWeaver allows you to download and install more themes easily. Not only will RapidWeaver allow you to make awesome web sites today, but tomorrow as well.

RapidWeaver has a couple annoyances, however. For example, selecting a page in the pages list and pressing the delete key does not delete the page, as one would expect with a Mac OS X application. Also, I had some trouble with .mac publishing for some reason. RapidWeaver did what it’s supposed to, but for some reason, .mac kept giving me a “member’s web site not found” error. To avoid this issue, give your site a one-word title.

For the majority of normal users who want to do more than the built-in web publishing capabilities of OS X (iPhoto, iMovie, etc...) but have no need for costly pro tools or lack the time and energy to learn HTML coding, RapidWeaver is an ideal solution. It’s fast, easy, and thoroughly Macintosh. I highly recommend it.