I recently needed to create a web site for an upcoming event. Now, I know a little about creating web sites – I’ve been doing it for over ten years. I started making web sites “back in the day” of hand-coding HTML and manually FTP-ing (transferring) the site’s carefully linked contents to the servers where they were to live. I then graduated to using professional tools like Macromedia’s (now Adobe’s) Dreamweaver and Adobe’s (still Adobe’s) GoLive.

However, one thing I’m not is a graphic designer. I can cut and paste any piece of clip art into a button or an icon, but I can’t even draw a passable stick man. Especially on a computer.

So, although I have some professional tools at my disposal, for my event project I decided to try out Apple’s iWeb design tool, included free on all new Macs as part of the iLife digital lifestyle suite. I used iWeb because it provides professional-grade graphics and templates to make really good-looking sites without the need of a graphic designer. This is the story of my iWeb adventure.

When you open iWeb, you’re presented with the option of choosing from 14 different templates. A template is a collection of pages that share the same theme. As is customary with all of Apple’s creative applications, these themes coincide with needs in everyday people’s lives – travelogues, birth announcements, wedding announcements, family newsletters – those kinds of things.

Each template offers seven page formats: Welcome, About Me, Photos, Movie, Blog, Podcast, and Blank (you guessed it, a blank page). You don’t have to use all of them, obviously. To make a page, you simply choose a template, then choose a page format, and then click the (duh) “Choose” button.

So, I chose the “Formal” template, and the “Welcome” page, and, presto-chango, I had the home page of my new web site. I can name the page anything I wish, and iWeb automatically creates links at the top of the page (as it does on all subsequent pages) to all the pages I create for my site.

Now the fun begins. Each iWeb page contains “placeholders” for the content that makes up the page. On my formal event announcement site Welcome page, there are three “frames” into which I can place digital photos. I can drag and drop them in from anywhere on my computer, or I can access all the photos in my iPhoto library from within iWeb’s built-in Media browser, and drag them in from there. I can do the same with music from my iTunes library or movies from my Movies folder. When I drop photos onto the frame, they are placed inside the borders of the frame like they were mounted there. I can even make adjustments to a photo’s Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Temperature, Tint, Sharpness, and Exposure with the same Adjust panel used in iPhoto. Way cool.

There are also text placeholders where I can type in text that takes on the font and style that fits the template – the elegant “Cochin” font is perfect for my formal announcement. I can also easily change the font by clicking open the Fonts inspector window and choosing from all the fonts installed on my system.

Once I have all the pages ready, I’m ready to publish my site. I can create a site folder and upload it to a web server, or, if I have a .Mac account, I can one-click publish to my iDisk and easily announce its presence to friends and family.

If you’re a Mac user, you should check out iWeb. If you’re not a Mac user, well, you should be.

© 2006 Peter F. Zimowski