Afraid to upgrade to RW7

RapidWeaver Classic
1

I’m using the latest version of RW6 and I really would like to upgrade to RW7. However, I’m afraid to upgrade because of all the problems I’m hearing from other users.

Note: I’m fairly a newbie and I’ve been using RW and Foundation for about 6 months.

2

Dont be.

RW7 is, by a country mile, the best version of RapidWeaver - even with a couple of glitches here and there. For a x.0 release it is extraordinary. I’ve been using it since beta and I can say - hand on heart - that I have not had a single and I mean NOT ONE issue with it that has in any way caused me any issues.

It runs like lightning.
You can live preview the page in your browser as you go.
You can detach the inspector.
The code window - which I always moaned about is now awesome!
The snippets editor/manager is MUCH better.
The publishing engine (for me, anyway) is rock solid and fast as hell.
Publishing bookmarks are easier to work with.
Meta tag handling is easier.
There is a built in SEO helper.
Projects can be made portable.
You can push a copy of the project out to your host.

…and about a hundred other things that make it a pleasure to use. This feels like the Pro version of RW I always wanted.

Its worth every penny.

4 Likes
3

Thank you so much for the feedback!

4

100% totally agree with @kryten After suffering through the release of RW6, I was hesitant about upgrading to v7. But, I hopped on board early-on during the beta period. I was very, very pleased that the RMS guys not only wanted our feedback (bugs and feature requests), but that they were fixing the (few and far between) issues very, very quickly. They pushed the release of v7 back until they were absolutely sure it was going to go smoothly. And, I believe it has.

Since your fairly new to RW6, you might also be happy to know that the RW7 user interface is very similar to v6. You should not have any issues upgrading - there’s no additional learning curve.

Do yourself a big favor, and purchase it sooner than later. As Stuart said, it’s worth every penny.

1 Like
5

Thanks Kryten and thank as well Dave

6

@RW-RW7 I think @dave and @kryten provide good advice.

I guess my question to you is why are you in a hurry to upgrade? Is there a specific need or problem? If not, I might suggest waiting until 7.1 or 7.2 arrives. (I say this as an action independent of buying RW7: no reason not to do that right away.) What I decided to do was to purchase, and start using, RW7 earlier than I usually would. But for me the months of June and July are perfect for testing out new stuff. Using later wasn’t going to help me.

I have noticed 2 quirks (both reported):

  1. If I’m using PHP code (e.g. for SiteLok) I can no longer preview my pages in RW. This wasn’t the case in RW6. As I understand it RealMac is trying to develop some workaround for this. (It’s not really a bug, but it is a problem.) If you don’t use PHP code then this is a non-factor for you. (BTW the PHP code gets published just fine, it’s just that you can’t preview your pages anymore.)
  2. I’m one of the people who have experienced the Export glitch. RW will export, but it will leave all my pages marked as changed. The only way to get around this is to then Publish all the pages! However, if you never use Export then you can easily dismiss this as a potential problem.

Overall RW7 has been much less buggy than RW6 and RW5 early versions. But unless you have a compelling reason I’d probably wait until 7.1 at the least. (And I think that will be out fairly soon.)

1 Like
7

Thanks for the feedback @Mathew. There is no hurry to upgrade and I’ve never had any issues with RW6. So far, I haven’t used export or PHP code. I just thought that if there was a new, better and more stable version available I should just do the upgrade but there is no hurry to do it. If waiting for RW7.01 or 7.02 Is a better idea I’ll just wait.

8

@RW-RW7 That’s great to hear that you haven’t had any problems. In your case I would just be pragmatic. There’s always an adaptation that takes place with a major new version of software. They’ve done a very nice job, but you need to be at a time where you have the “space” to deal with that adaptation (especially since you are not experiencing problems with RW6).

You know your life’s pressures and demands better than anyone. If this is a more relaxed time of the year for you then I’d jump in. If not, I’d wait. Everyone has to adapt a bit, but not everyone will experience some of the bugs/quirks RW7 has.

1 Like
9

@RW-RW7

The only issues I am having is with the themes. The theme support is lacking more than RW support. I can’t fully utilize RW7 as I would like to due to the themes. Up to you though.

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Its not been a positive experience for me with the preview issues. And speed wise my copy of RW6 is much faster.

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I love the new preview, that is one of the best perks of Rw 7. I can host it locally and see how it looks.

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Is RW7 now stable enough to upgrade from RW6 or should I wait some more?

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Your mileage may vary - but if I were you, I’d upgrade today. I can’t remember the last time I had an issue with v7 - but I’m sure it was while I was beta-testing it. I’ve found v7 to be rock solid and very, very fast while publishing.

2 Likes
14

Upgrade today
You will be pleased

2 Likes