Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with iweb

Optimizing images for better iWeb output

huron — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:48:47 -0800

What's the best way to optimize the images for my (not template-based) iWeb site? The basic problem is that this banner loads very slowly. I'm wondering what image type is best for each piece, as well as how to prevent iWeb from chopping them up into ...

The logo is a GIF, and it looks like iWeb doesn't mess with it. What about the banner behind it? Since it has a gradient running across it, is it inappropriate as a GIF? If so, then JPEG or PNG? Alternatively, should the whole thing – logo and banner - be a single image?

Lastly, the section links running across: right now, they're copy/pasted into iWeb from Illustrator, so they get chopped into PNG files on export. Should they be embedded within the banner image instead?

Thanks in advance!

My blog fails

nataliedanger — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:41:32 -0800

I have a website and blog I created with iweb on my mac. However, I cannot figure out how to put pictures in my blog posts- besides the one that there is already a spot for. So far I have added pictures by putting them on the actual page, behind the text box, but then they aren't visible in the RSS feed. How do I do this?

Starting over with a new laptop, how best to stay organized?

pseudostrabismus — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:50:58 -0800

I'd like to know the best way to move a selected group of files & applications to a new laptop, and advice to help ensure that my new Mac doesn't get bunged up with duplicate & improperly deleted files like my old one did, with its inexplicably full hard drive and crammed iTunes & iPhoto folders. This is rather lengthy, geared to the slightly moronic layperson (me), and has 6 sub-questions inside. My old laptop quickly filled up & slowed down. I tried to back up & delete unused files, but later I'd find the same files still tucked away on the machine, not deleted after all. Also, when I first imported files from my old PC to my then-new G4, for some reason a lot of files showed up as "locked" on the new computer. Many of them (just word docs & jpegs, nothing important or complex) were nested into folders (from how I'd organized my old computer)- and try as I might, I could never get them all unlocked to delete them. It was such a pain in the butt.

So I have a new laptop now (thank you, Santa!), and I want to avoid all the problems from last time. Hence, I have some questions. And as you will soon discover, I'm not particularly computer-savvy. Plus I'm inexplicably intimidated by computer jargon. So simple explanations would be really appreciated here!

The potentially-relevant stats:
The old one is a 12" PowerBook G4, purchased in 2005, running OSX 10.4.11
The new one is a 2008 MacBook (aluminum body & glass screen) running OSX 10.5.5
I have a 1GB USB memory stick and a 500GB external firewire drive.

Okay, so here are some really obvious questions:

1. What's the best way to transfer many selected files from my old box to the new one?
I don't want all the files from the old machine- just the ones I'm currently using. And I particularly need to avoid accidentally moving copies of locked files to the new machine- which is tricky as they're all nested deep into folders and I can't find them all. In fact,

2. How do I ensure that I never again have any "locked" files on the new machine?!
Is there a default for this? I don't even know how they all got locked in the first place, and although I know you can select specific files & folders, then hit "Get Info" and select "Unlock", my files are nested deep into various folders, and that command doesn't unlock individual locked files nested in folders- believe me, I've tried!
And I can't just delete the locked files, either- that leaves the originals locked where they were AND adds locked & therefore undeletable duplicate files to the Trash, thereby doubling the number of locked files, aargh. I don't want to go all the way to the end of each tentacle and unlock the files one by one- there are hundreds.
Is there an easier, blanket way to unlock them all?

3. How do I transfer programs I downloaded from the web?
VisualHub is the main one I'm concerned about since it's discontinued.
But I'd also like to keep my paid copies of Net News Wire, VLC, Transmit, and Minuteur.
Also, I acquired a few other programs from friends (Final Draft, Photoshop). Is there an easy way to move those over, too?

4. How to transfer drafts of iWeb pages?

5. When I get going on the new computer, how best to keep the files streamlined on that machine?
I noticed that I was losing a lot of disk space to:
a) duplicate, "locked" files, as above
b) extra copies of photos & videos I downloaded from my digital camera- they all went into iPhoto, which was fine, but then there seemed to be other copies (?) floating around in the "Pictures" folder, and in other places.
c) iTunes songs. In the past, I would try to delete them in iTunes by selecting & dragging to trash or hitting delete, (like I used to on Windows Music). And then, after "deleting" them, I'd be annoyed to note that I didn't free up any disk space... because the files were still sitting in my Music folder. Obviously my limited PC skillz didn't transfer really well.

6. Is there an easy web tutorial that shows how you're supposed to manage iTunes?

Oh these are such dumb questions. I'm embarassed. Sorry, smart computer people. This is seriously not my forte. If you ever need help with something I'm good at, like public speaking or feng shui or crossing your eyes or something, I promise to be soooo nice when I help you! THANK YOU.

Turn of dates in iWeb 08

wavejumper — Sun, 04 May 2008 21:54:44 -0800

How do I get rid of the date showing up in iWeb 08 blogs? In iWeb 06 you could easily turn them off, I remember, allowing you to use the "blog" template for all sorts of other kinds of non-dated subdirectory webpages. What I'm talking about just to clarify is that under the title of each blog entry on your main blog page in the '08 version will show up the date or time in some form. You can choose different versions of it (i.e. March 4th, 2008 as opposed to 3/4/08) but I can't seem to turn it off! Any hints or hacks?

Can this site be saved?

pammo — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:38:32 -0800

Webdeveloper Mefites, I come hat in hand. I enjoy design and created a site for my medical practice in iWeb. Now I realize it stinks in Explorer. Is there an easy way to remedy the situation? If not, what's a reasonable amount to pay someone to save me from myself? Please help. I'm feeling like a total dolt. I put a lot of work into my creation. I thought I'd checked things out in Explorer as I went along but this morning I had another look, and it's not pretty.

Here's what I've done so far: I did a bit of searching, and soon realized I may be out of my league in trying to translate CSS to something IE understands.

I posted this as a job on MetaFi Jobs but haven't had a bite.

So . . . can I clean up this mess myself? Or (more likely) do I need help? And if so, what's a fair price?

Is there an iWeb equivalent for Windows?

dogwelder — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 14:06:20 -0800

Is there a windows-equivalent to iWeb? I work at an elementary school. I have teachers who want the ease and bells & whistles of iWeb, but we’re all windows here. I don’t care how bloaty the code gets; I just want teachers to look and say “ooooh, pretty!” I tried to convince them to use something simple like Vox, but it isn't flexible enough.

Easy way to make published iWeb site less of a mess?

obiwanwasabi — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 07:16:26 -0800

Is there an easy way to 'streamline' a site developed in iWeb? I like iWeb because it's easy to use, has lots of lovely templates (well, my family likes them, and the sites are for them) and integrates with other stuff on my Mac like iPhoto. However, the published files and folders are a mess. Each page gets its own folder; elements that are common to each page are replicated (and so reloaded) in every folder; pages have stupid addresses (like www.yoursite.com/Welcome%20to%20my%20site.html); and images are often huge, despite iWeb converting everything to PNG.

Is there a tool I can point at the folders for an iWeb site that'll say, for example, "well, you don't need 10 identical copies of logo.png - I'll just change your HTML so it all points to a single copy of logo.png instead"? Or, "Hmm, logo.png doesn't really need to be 130kb; here, I'll compress it to 13kb for you"? If there's no such thing, any tips for making the manual process less painful? A 4-5mb site for ten pages with a handful of pics is a joke.

I Hate My Podcast Icon

macinchik — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 14:42:38 -0800

How do I change the artwork (the one that gets the nifty reflection effect) associated with a podcast in the Itunes browser from iWeb? I have a coworker who publishes a podcast through iWeb. I can't find the place in the GUI where I can tell iWeb to associate a different image with the podcast. The instructions seem to refer to dragging an image to a Submit widget, but this widget does not receive image drags.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about and how to fix? I can edit the rss.xml file on the server by hand but it gets changed every time my colleague adds another podcast to the site, and I would like to fix this problem once and for all.

Can I move iLife extras to a network drive?

leftoverboy — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 16:10:31 -0800

I would like my iLife applications to have their libraries and assorted bumf (ie iDVD themes and Garageband loops) on my networked drive, clearing up space on my powerbook. I recently read about an application that did this but two days of googl'n later I'm stuck. Anyone? I saw GarageBandAnywhere, right idea but I am sure there is and app that does it all.

iWeb Comments without .Mac

wavejumper — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 14:15:10 -0800

Is it possible to get "comments" to work on an iWeb web-site -without- using .Mac? Since comments require server-side code, I'm guessing this isn't as easy as a cut-and-paste HTML workaround ;-), but any ideas might help. I'm wanting to put together a blog that includes advertisements. I like iWeb and would love to use just it, but .Mac does not allow commercial stuff of any kind, unfortunately.
Thanks for your help!