I recently bought Rapid Weaver 7 and and then tried to contact the support pages, and got a broken link - code 404 message… I then contacted one of the 3rd Party developers (Adam from Elixir Graphics) - who tried to put me in touch via their support@realmacsoftware.com - which I tried and the message bounced …
I find this very shoddy and it completely undermines my confidence in Rapid Weaver - which may be great, but … … I have searched and can’t find any way to contact them… Guys - can you imagine Apple having a broken link to their support page?
We’re very much still in business, and are busy working on RapidWeaver 7.5 and RapidWeaver 8!
We had some issues with our help desk where replies were bouncing, if you try again it should get through. You can also use this form to contact us directly via our help desk: https://realmacsoftware.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
I suggest contacting them the way Dan explained. If there is something you need directly from Dan just explain that in your message. Welcome aboard! This forum is an excellent resource for help. Give it a shot… it is often the fastest way to get the help you want.
JohnJ - yes I took your advice and contacted them via the given link when I got your post - and so far no reply at least 6 hours later … Is this usual ?
It can be, most businesses ask for 24-48 hours before a response can be given. It all depends on the amount of tickets before the one you submitted, as well as how many people they have on their support team and if any of them are on vacation at the time. Dan answered here, I am sure you will get a response. You do have to remember, they are in the UK and it is after business hours there now. I know it might not have been when you submitted it, but they are now. I am not saying your issues are not important, you just have to realize a lot is going on all around the world at different times and it can take time for people to get back to you.
okey dokey - I’ll give them time … guess it is that I have been trying to contact them for days, and had broken links and email bounces… I’m in the UK too (sunny Glasgow) so I posted late afternoon uk time…
Thanks Klaatu - I am brand new to RW - and am finding it a steep learning curve… I found the broken links and bounced emails disconcerting - and really having a bit of a crisis of confidence as to whether this will work… My concern is investing a lot of time and money and then not having something usable… I’m not a developer… (I grow and plant fruit trees) and am not sure how suitable RW is for me… I have used iWeb up to know and am looking to upgrade…
I’m guessing that the folk on the forum are folk who love RW - and have got their heads round it… `but is it suitable for not very tech types?
I appreciate the offer of help on the forum. … kind of you
@applejohn Not everyone here is a developer. I am not at all.
For sure, there is a learning curve, but imagine learning Photoshop, which is a really complicated program. As a photographer, I’ve been using it for 30 years. I STILL don’t know everything in the program.
My pleasure. Welcome to Rapidweaver This forum is a good resource for learning about what other people are doing in RW, what’s causing problems and how those problems can be overcome.
Without knowing what your goals and objectives are for your use of RW it is a little difficult to be specific with advice, but let us imagine that you wanted to create a website to promote your fruit trees, fair enough?
Firstly, as you have stated you are not a developer I think its fair to assume that you would appreciate a graphical environment in which to make the pages of your site. That being the case you really are going to need to buy the Stacks plugin for RW: http://yourhead.com/stacks/
Trying to use RW without the Stacks plugin is pretty torturous and, for me, RW is close to pointless without it. Stacks pages allow you to drag and drop ‘elements’ onto your pages in order to build them up visually and interactively. Each element you drop onto the page will have settings you can configure to make that ‘bit’ look and do pretty much what you want it to…
Banners… text areas… headings…columns… tables…forms… sliders… lists…and stuff with way more bells and whistles than you’re likely to ever need…you are limited (more or less) by two things… your imagination and your budget(!) - it can get quite expensive rather quickly if you are not careful.
Each of these ‘elements’ are ‘stacks’ (note the lowercase ‘s’, to differentiate them from the Stacks plugin). There are lots of vendors who deal in these items and prices range from gratis (donations often appreciated) to … well, quite a lot. The Stacks plugin comes with a basic selection of stacks too, to get you started at least.
So in this example you might want to have a think about the stacks you would need to put your pages together. You could buy a third party theme - which will be MUCH better than the bundled themes. Or you might choose to buy into one of the free design frameworks available such as Foundry or Foundation - these come with pretty much everything you need (theme AND stacks) to make a proper quality website.
Have a look at Stacks… read the forum, watch the videos from the developers. You’ll soon see what I mean. Then… after doing some research and asking some questions… you may be ready to spend some more money to make Rapidweaver a bit more useful for yourself. I’m not saying you could not make a great website using just Rapidweaver alone, I’m saying that building sites/pages with the Stacks plugin is much faster and intuitive for the average RW user.
Also thanks Klaatu… Yes - I am looking to bring my www.scottishfruittrees.com website (currently done on iWeb) uptodate… and responsive… The issue is that to get a professionally built site is expensive - which is fair enough - its a skilled job …buut I’d rather have a system which I have control over and understand … as I did with iWeb…
Good to know that folk here are willing to help… though still not a sausage back from Dan and the Helpdesk
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you (I just replied to your email too). We have indeed been moving support systems, and unfortunately you managed to get caught up in that.
So sorry again, but I hope my response in the email helps to fix things up for you.
I hope you can stick with RapidWeaver because it’s very rewarding and empowering once you’ve learnt the bascis.
Hi John, and welcome to the Rapidweaver community. I’ve been using the software for many, many years, and have built quite a few beautiful (if I may say so) websites with it.
One of the strengths of Rapidweaver is the incredible free support you’ll find on these boards. The community spirit is alive and well - and there are lots and lots of people who love to chime in and answer technical questions. Although you could drop realmac an email asking how to do something, I’d suggest trying the forum first. If at all possible, post a URL so that we can help diagnose issues/offer suggestions.
For all of my sites under construction, I always publish to a DRAFT URL that is hidden by a robots.txt file. For example, you can find my latest site here. This allows me to collaborate with my clients and to post questions to the forum without fear of Google, et. al., indexing the site.
Again - welcome aboard! Give Rapidweaver a spin…I think you’re going to be pleasantly surprised.
Cheers,
Dave
PS- please take @klaatu 's advice, and purchase a copy of Stacks. It, along with the add-ons for purchase from third party developers like joeworkman.net and http://stacks4stacks.com will make your (development) life much easier.
I now use Foundation, with a lot of different stacks. I did use the https://themeflood.com/volcano/ theme from @willwood for 6 years before venturing out on Foundation. I felt it was a good way to learn RW and Will supports his products well.
Hello Applejohn,
When I started using Rapid Weaver I found it difficult as well so I started to create a series of tutorials that I used to post on my wesite. They are not there now though but I still have them so if you would like to see how I created my own site I will be very happy to send the first one to you. The tutorial will show you how easy it is to create your own website.
Please go to my website at http://www.ronniewestphotography.com
and use the Contact Me page to send me your email address and I will reply as soon as I recieve it.
Please don’t give up on Rapid Weaver, it is a brilliant program!
Ron West.
This forum is a good resource for learning about what other people are doing in RW, what’s causing problems and how those problems can be overcome.