I use Apple’s TextEdit Version 1.14 (341) to do all my code editing with and have a couple questions therein…
If I download one of the pages in a project from the server and edit the page and then upload the changed page to the server to “effect” a change that I wanted, how will that change affect RW8 when I next load it, recognizing that RW8’s version of the respective page and the page on the server will be different?
Does anyone know if there is a version of Apple’s TextEdit for iOS? I think it’s safe to say that Notes is NOT the same.
RapidWeaver would not know about the change, and the next time you publish from RapidWeaver it would overwrite the changes you made to the HTML. Also, TextEdit is a very poor choice for editing HTML.
Might help to know why you would be doing this?
Thanks for responding @teefers There are things within a body of text that I would like to do, like position an image in a specific page, or have text wrap around an image, or be able to put an illustration within a text body, that I don’t seem to be able to do without creating a separate line and/or just can’t seem to put images on a page. I drag and drop them but they just go back to where they were filed. I can’t get images on a page no matter what I do. moreover I can’t see to get spacing to work out right on paragraphs and fonts and thus I just don’t use them or just accept double space or 1.5 line spacing instead of normal because that’s the way it is. I’m not complaining mind you, just want to customize more.
Without knowing exactly what plugin you are using (page type) it would be hard to give you to much help. Dragging images, floating text line spacing should all be able to be done from within rapidweaver.
This is HTML, not a word processor, TextEdit will create plan text but changing “fonts”, spacing or alignments in text edit would not work for browsers.
if you are working with stacks you should check the stack Better Float from S4S. Perfect for putting images or other objects and let text float around with settings of margins on all 4 sides.
And the best: it is for free but I suppose @willwood would be happy about a donation.
Thanks @capetom for your response. I take it that Stacks is a must? Also, sounds like Foundation is needed also from what @teefers is saying. That’s like another $99 and $49 from what I recall; is that correct? Also, are there more purchases necessary that keeps this thing growing in size, capabilities, and price?
I would start with Stacks3, it comes with a lot of inbuilt stacks which push the possibilites of Rapidweaver 300%. Costs are the $49
There are a lot of developers giving stacks for free and deliver - like here - great support and advice for novices in RW.
You can even download Stacks3 as a trial and play around with it - it makes designing a website so much easer with columns etc… give it a try first.
Thanks @capetom I appreciate your input. I think I’d be fine with buying Stacks3 up front. I’m new to RapidWeaver but not web design, just been away from WD for a looooooong time. I stopped using FrontPage 2002 in 2012 when my son said, “Geez dad, what can you expect using a web design software that’s a decade old.” when one of my sites wasn’t looking so good to those that were on the market at that time. Thus, I just quit using FP2002. So, Stacks3 has that look/feel of FrontPage although a little less WYSIWYG methodology.
I’ll just contribute by saying that Stacks3 is a must buy… It opens the door for you to use hundreds of stacks that will do just about anything.
Some basics: All RapidWeaver is doing is creating HTML/PHP pages (html/php files). Those files get uploaded to your web server. The web server has NO CLUE what created those files. Likewise, Rapidweaver only UPLOADS files to your server and basically has very limited info about your server and what has been uploaded. For example, if you rename a page and upload it with the new name (file name) the old file will remain on your server. As soon as you rename the page RW basically “forgets” the original page. Thus, you must not only learn some things about RapidWeaver and how it works, you also need a basic understanding of your files on the server. For this you will need to use either you web hosts control panel (file editor) or do as most people and get and learn a good “ftp” (sftp) app which is used to see the files on your server and maintain them (delete old ones.) But you need to learn first as deleting files on your server is something you don’t just start doing without knowing what it is you are deleting. NEVER delete a file on your server if you don’t know what you are deleting. A “guess” is not good enough.
So learn, learn, learn.
Learn Rapidweaver, Learn Stacks (and Partials in stacks!), learn about 3rd party stacks, and learn about your server and using ftp apps. Sounds a bit daunting but just take it slow. Start out very simple, and learn in steps.
Most importantly, read these forums every day and you will learn much. I’m short on my coffee this morning so I hope all that makes sense.
OH… and I know you say you are not new to web design so if I covered anything you already know just ignore that… just trying to cover the basics not knowing your past experience.
I strongly recommend that you do not use TextEdit for code editing. It’s a rich text editor but default and that is not good for code. On my Mac, I use VSCode but SublimeText is great as well. Both can be used for free.
As for iOS, I would look into Textastic or Coda. Both have Mac counterparts as well actually. I actually own all of them. But I don’t really have a need to code on my iOS devices.
I agree with @joeworkman about Sublime Text and VSCode. Another great code editor, if you ever want one, is Brackets – http://brackets.io. Something both good and free to come out of Adobe? It doesn’t sound likely but it’s true!
Personally I am a BBedit fanboi (for way to many years and now I feel old)
All I can say is “It doesn’t suck” even after (sigh) 26 years.
It would be nice if RW would detect the file is open for editing and reload it once changes were saved, Filezilla is great about this when I have to fix something especially using a bulk (folder level) grep action.
TextEdit can save plain text, RTF, and RTFD. It’s not the best tool for writing for the web. If you accidentally add styles to your text it will be saved as RTF and make the file gibberish when a web browser tries to read it. If you add an image, it won’t even save a single file anymore. It saves in RTFD format, which is a file-bundle – it looks like a file on your Mac, but on your web server it will show up as a folder full of other files.
It’s best to stick to a plain vanilla text editor whenever you can. I really love VS Code – but it can be a bit intimidating at first. BBEdit is great and very Mac-like. It has been around and such an anchor Mac app for so long that it arguably defines what it is to be Mac-like. It’s pretty great. I used Sublime Text for years and love that too. All of those apps will save a text file as a text file – and that’s what you want when editing files that a web-server will have to transmit and a web browser will have to understand.
As for Stacks 3. I guess it’s OK. I’m kind of over it.
Stacks 4 is way better.
@isaiah I’ve heard of BBEdit. I think back when I had FrontPage 2002 and hard coded some HTML that included Java, which FP2002 did not like dealing with. Then I was had a PC and used NOTEPAD and it worked great I just had to remember how to save right and thus my reason for looking into BBEdit. I like free or cheap. Is it?
Neither. But it is good.
VS Code is free (-ish) – it’s made by Microsoft, so it’s likely that it comes with some baggage – as they say, “If you’re not paying for a product, then you are the product.”
But VS Code runs great on my scavenged hardware linux laptop and even runs on my Raspberry Pi. Not much is cheaper than that! But it does not run on your iPad – which was probably not cheap – but does have lots of cheap apps.
I do think Drafts has a very nice iPad version and I think they’re just about to release a macOS version – I’ve heard rumors of next week. So maybe that’s a good one to watch too.
moreover I can’t see to get spacing to work out right on paragraphs and fonts and thus I just don’t use them or just accept double space or 1.5 line spacing instead of normal because that’s the way it is. I’m not complaining mind you, just want to customize more. 
