❔What do you want to see in RapidWeaver 8 and beyond?

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62

I’d like support for more input types in theme style settings please - like number boxes, text inputs, link select buttons and styled text. Basically bringing the theme API up to the same level as the Stacks API. Then developers can provide themes with significantly more flexibility, but with a fraction of the codebase. A prime example would be letting users choose their own theme widths, breadcrumb separators or mobile breakpoints - instead of relying on a limited number of preset options or hard-coding everything into a theme.

I agree with others that the RapidWeaver blog needs some more love. The summaries page should provide the option of a masonry grid layout and pagination. Different blog entry types (e.g. text, markdown, image, video or sound) like Tumblr does would be nice to have. And we certainly need more options built into the blog for end users to easily bookmark or share individual articles to social media platforms.

RapidWeaver 8 needs to align itself better and compete directly with platforms like Wix, 1&1 and SquareSpace. A method to compete more strongly would be added support for drag-and-drop ‘widgets’ which would fill the gap between code snippets and Stacks. Basically small components (like Google Maps, a simple contact form or embedded video) which complete novice users can drag and drop into any page type with minimal customisability. I think this is something Sandvox has offered for many years.

There would certainly be no harm in adding some more basic page types to RapidWeaver 8 - again to help novice users do more without venturing near code or having to invest into lots of additional addons. An HTML5 media gallery, columns page, YouTube, Vimeo, and social networking ‘wall’ would add significant value to RapidWeaver. Perhaps also a simple guestbook page type that could piggy-back Muut or Disqus.

I agree that RapidWeaver 8 needs better support for SVG, MP3 and MP4 files dragged and dropped into webpages. It could also be useful to provide the option for RapidWeaver to automatically detect and convert common links like YouTube, Vimeo and DailyMotion into small embedded media players.

Any further improvements to speed, stability and publishing reliability would be hugely appreciated by all.

Can we have a bigger styled text box for website footer content? Frequently people need to create links to website terms and conditions, privacy policies and sitemaps. The currently ‘single line’ plain text footer box is frustratingly small.

It’s important to note where RapidWeaver currently stands amongst the competition and what the most successful web publishing platforms are doing right - which ultimately RapidWeaver could borrow from. The demise of Freeway, Macaw and Dreamweaver has been the result of the build process being too convoluted or expensive for the average person. On the other hand, platforms with drag-and-drop capabilities and the promise of more instantaneous results have continued to thrive.

I do not want to see RapidWeaver 8 become a jack-of-all-trades. For example, 95% of average RapidWeaver users would probably never have need for CMS capabilities. I’d far rather see the core RapidWeaver product improved and broadened for the benefit of complete novice users. Then let the expert addon developers focus efforts on the more specialist or advanced areas.

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63

As one who uses a number of Wills products I’ll give a +1 to @willwood 's suggestions. Anything that helps the add-on developer is a double plus in my view. That’s where the real value is coming from…

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64

Look for Colors Pro from moapp

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Storing colors inside RapidWeaver means that you have no access to you color set from other apps. E.g. I create a website and a flyer for a customer I want to use the same colors in several app. So I would prefer an external a like Colors Pro and additionally I can synchronize the color setting between my computers

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Great! I would buy it immediately!

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Can’t RW support Colors Pro for a starter? @dan

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All the colors you organize in Colors Pro appear in the OSX color palette - so you can use it in different apps. Maybe RapidWeaver could support this directly

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Maybe make Rapidweaver scriptable?
JavaScript for Automation has been out since 10.10 as well as AppleScript.

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I have been using Rapidweaver for about a month these are my initial wants from that limited time.
The font support could be a lot better.
I want more control over what happens at different view points.
Master settings I want to be able to turn off individual items on a page not the entire list on or off
An app to live preview on my iPad / iPhone would be great.
When you have multiple stacks the fact that they all include a different version of jQuery needs to be fixed.
The ability to attach a custom css file that works in live preview.
Built in support for social media integration.

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An export function, so that RW sites, can be sold/shared/delegated… to non RW users

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Umm, File|Export Site not doing the trick for you?

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If we are using warehoused images and in the process of developing the site we update/replace an image then RW doesnot show the revised/new image unless it is closed and reopened.
A method to clear the cache/refresh the links would be very useful, something like ‘Refresh Links’ in the Edit menu?

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I’ve always found that a pain as well. The only workaround I found was to change the name of the file on the server and subsequently update the link but that is extra work and not always desirable.

I would also like to see hotlink protected images show up in preview, which is broken in RW7 but works fine in RW6.

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75

Make RW a web app. Team up with Joe Workman to evolve Foundation into WYSIWYG drag-and-drop framework. And then kick Webflow’s ass on features and pricing.

-Aaron

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76

Everything Isaiah said… again and again and again. Please get with the blog program and do it properly. It’s useless as it now stands.

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77

One thing that I find annoying is that when I have several RW projects open I cannot tell which Library palette belongs to which project. I find I continually have to close ALL open libraries, then open whichever one I need to work with. Can you do something about labeling the Library to reflect the name of the project it belongs to? It’s just so sloppy the way it is now, and confusing. This can be tidied up much better.

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Me too! Thanks for reminding me about that feature, I’ll explore it more. One app that is nice to work with is SIP. You can arrange project palettes and have them open to drag and drop your colors.

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Edit the code in code view…

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Take a look at the Format menu, delete the complete code behind and do some brainstorming how to implement the same or more functionality in a completely different intuitive and visual way. This functionality was inherited from version to version and it´s basically still the same as in RW 2 where I started.

You got mails from me already with some more detailed explanations some month ago.

If I think about “Bigger” ,“Smaller”, “Ignore Formating”, "Clear Formating"and the HTML folder it reminds me of endless trial & error sessions and a GUI that has huge space for improvements.

Implement a better way to resize pictures. This scaling in % while not seeing the real size in px is driving me crazy. I know it´s best practice to resize pictures before adding them to a project, but then why I need a software like RW. Have a look at stacks how this can be implemented in a better way.

I would also like to see some tweaks to the way RW handles css. I could imagine a kind of build in firebug. I want RW to tell me which css responds to a certain area of my page I´m working in and maybe give me the possibility to override css directly there while editing the text.

So please think about changing the core instead of implementing new features.
By doing so you might also be able to attract some of the Pokemon chasers to RW (unfortunately this is the new generation).

RW 7 was a step in the right direction and there are still lot´s of things that can be improved.

Regards
René

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82

Just use Safari developer extensions in preview.