Hi folks,
I am trying to decide whether to upgrade my old Rapidweaver (from 2011!) to version 8 and I have a few questions. First a quick history; I was using Muse up until Adobe cancelled it (Good WYSIWYG etc) and as a replacement I have been using Sparkle for a while. However I’m not entirely happy with it due to missing features and no add-ons. I’d forgotten about RW but for the last few days I’ve been re-visiting it and watching tutorials etc. I have to say that paired with Stacks and the Frameworks available it now looks fantastic!
I’ve been trialling Blocs and that’s pretty good I have to say, but is missing a few things that are hard to re-create. RW + Stacks seems to be able to do just about anything! I can forgive the lack of WYSIWYG design given the flexibility and also the new device previews, which kind of work as an almost real-time preview.
However I having trouble doing a trial because although I’ve downloaded Stacks, none of the frameworks like Foundry etc have trial versions, so I can’t really try and build anything with it. My plan was to try and rebuild some sites I’d made on the other platforms over the weekend and make my decision next week between RW and Blocs. Does anyone know of a framework that works with stacks that will let me use it in trial mode?
I’m not interested in building based on themes as I need to design bespoke sites for my clients.
Although the Foundation Theme can be downloaded for free from weavers.space, The Foundation Stacks are not free. You can however use other stacks as well. BigWhiteDuck has a wide selection of “Leave a Donation” stacks that are some of the most advanced out there.
That being said you would be hard pressed to find something you can’t build with RW + Stacks + Foundation (or one of the other frameworks like Foundry).
@rojharris As @swilliam mentioned you can’t download the framework stacks. However, most of them have some good tutorials.
I use Foundry and Adam has created an excellent set of tutorials that will likely tell you a lot about whether Foundry is a good fit for you or not: https://foundry.elixirgraphics.com
You mentioned that Blocks is “missing a few things”. It would actually be more useful if you could be specific. What’s missing? It’s possible those are things Foundation or Foundry can’t do either. Or they can do easily. I have no idea at this point given what you wrote.
Hi Matthew. (and Scott) Thanks for replying… What I meant was that Blocs was missing a few things that I’d seen possible on here using various stacks. I can see that they are super versatile ways to get sites designed but its more a case of whether I can get on with the quirky UI of Rapidweaver… I’m so used to a wysiwyg workflow that I’m worried I won’t like working in it.
Also, I like very granular control of what I’m styling and watching some of the tutorials doesn’t really help with that as the developers generally show things their product is good at… (obviously)… So I want to try things for myself…
I will have a go with some BWD stacks and see how I get on… If I love it of course I’ll make a donation…
@rojharris However, the BWD stacks are not good indicators of what stacks in general are like. Why? Mainly because Andrew (the developer) provides so many options in his stacks. Some people love this, and others find it overwhelming.
… so BWD stacks are good as indicators of what one can do but they are not good as indicators of what most stacks are like. Most stacks have a shorter list of options within them.
Stacks4Stacks also has some very good stacks and all of them have demos available. Grids, sliders, photo galleries, etc.
I think playing with those and BWD’s stacks will give you a pretty good idea of what working with RW/Stacks is like. At least from the standpoint of making changes and previewing things. If you feel you like the way it works, then I’d spend more time viewing the videos of the various frameworks available.
Great suggestion from @DLH I’d forgotten about Stacks4Stacks. Those stacks are quite useful and more closely resemble the set of options you will see on other stacks. Using both Andrew and Will’s stacks will give you a great flavor for what working with stacks is like.
Thanks ever so much guys! It’s wine o’clock over here in the UK so I’m packing up for the evening and will take Don’s suggestions on board tomorrow and have a play! Looking forward to it.
Check out the videos on my YouTube channel. They may help out as well… I’ve been doing regular live streams every week. They are long but people have really been loving them.
I am the developer of the brand-new Platform framework. Although I do not provide a trial version either, there is a lot of in-depth documentation as well as videos available on its home page. I guess this can give you an impression how it works.
When developing Platform, I tried to provide the novice user with quick results while at the same time add advanced features which are either directly available or reveal themselves behind a “pro-user” switch (although it’s not called like this ).
Just to let you helpful lot know, I took the plunge and bought (well, upgraded from a really old) Rapidweaver along with Stacks… Now I just need to spend the next few months (joke) trying to decide which framework to buy!!
They all look so good I guess its just a case of working out bang-for-buck and cleanest code…
Just to let you know. Anyone that purchases the Foundation Bundle from now will get a free upgrade to much anticipated Foundation 2 when it gets released.
).