Hey Weavers,
What type of Projects would you like to see in the New Projects window?
The ones we originally shipped are from quite a while ago, and I think we could build some more impressive and useful ones now… So, when you were starting out with Elements what project would you have found helpful?
Let us know, the more details the better!
Cheers,
Dan
I have looked at all of them, but only used Empty Project.
Perhaps a Maxiblog would be helpful? Or a new North Eleven/Twelve?
Take the last 10 “features” added and have a look what they are and include as many as possible?
saas, AI type start-up template.
Other than @PMUK’s suggestion for one project as a demonstration, the thing you should be doing is giving “base ability” to a range of new folk you want to attract into Elements long term. That’s blog/publisher (more sophisticated than microBlog), online retail, service, organization, family, non-profit, church, perhaps a few others (perhaps a database [via CMS] type of project of some sort).
Why this list? Because the sophisticated Web designer needs more of what @PMUK suggested (e.g. demonstration), whereas someone completely new to designing Web sites and mostly for personal or a single use, needs a functional project as a starting point (much like the old iWeb, Sandvox, Rapidweaver customer originally was). You need to hook newcomers into the base use and essentially up sell them over time, as the pool of true Web designers is actually somewhat small, and they tend to know what they’re doing.
This is actually my only true worry about Elements: can it grow organically from the bottom by attracting new-to-design users. If it can’t, then it eventually sputters, I think. Not being in the App Store makes it a little more difficult. A lot of those folk you really want to hook are those now gravitating to the MacBook Neo. They’re not reading Mac sites, so they’re not seeing that Elements is even available, let alone understand what it is and might do for them.
Apple doesn’t make it easy for developers any more. I don’t understand Apple’s Developer Program at all, other than Cook figured out a way to make 30% off of other people’s products and greedily wants to hold onto that.
By going completely vertical (app, store, host), you’ve boxed yourself in a bit, too. The question is what do you have that’s going to attract new-to-web-design folk? Vertical only helps with that if you can find and hook those folks in the first place.
By the way, in your Get Started Fast section you have Artist, Portfolio, North Eleven, Link In Bio, Landing, and Fitness. Hmm, if I’m not an artist or a gym, that might not make any sense to me looking at that page. Doesn’t sound fast if I’m an online retailer, publisher, et.al. Which is why you need a better set of Projects and ones that immediately are recognizable to someone just entering.
Likewise, you’re missing a Gallery of Sites Made with Elements! As you’re well aware, the diversity of said sites is pretty remarkable already, but nowhere are you promoting that. You need the “wow, if they can make that with Elements, maybe I should look at Elements” factor.
I would like to see a project with more refined and developed Blog - with pictures. Markdown is nice but very simple.
(after posting my comment I see Thom’s entry. Looks like he was standing behind me while I was writing 
)
I am also looking forward for more videos on How to make a cool web with some animations and transitions in Elements. Something visually attractive. Somewhere on the web there is a thread where I added my picks - like Adobe, Chronos etc. Anything with more moving parts
S Thom the question was “when you were starting out” my response was based on this. Your response has some great suggestions but does not say what you wanted when starting out, unless I’ve missed something?
I used North Eleven as a base when I started. I looked at Fitness and the others and discounted them, yet there possibly were things on them that I would have wanted to try but would have had no idea how to do it. Still don’t to be honest, I know what I know and that is all I need.
The ideal would be one demonstration project with perhaps 50 pages on it that you could use as a base and look at the capabilities, keep the pages that have stuff you are interested in and then delete the rest.
The videos were a fantastic learning resource but if I want to go back to one to understand what I did I can’t, I would not know what video it was or what time stamp. This is important for a newbie because it is one thing having a template you can use as a cheat sheet but within a matter of minutes you are going to be searching on how to customise it. So perhaps the demo project includes pages showing you some of the popular customisations and has the video embedded on the page. Wow. I might need to have a lie down after that brainwave.
Somewhere there was a ‘Made with Elements’ category, can’t see it now. As Thom said, promote this more, perhaps with subdirectories such as blog, business, church, trumpets, etc and you will capture more new users who are looking for ideas.
Well, I was starting out in 1994, so things were a bit different then ;~).
But early on in what became Dreamweaver, there were two things that slowed me down at first: (1) creating a blog and similar “grows over time” content sections; and (2) applying new design to existing content.
Elements has several ways of doing #1 now, mostly centered on the CMS, which still needs some polish. But #2 is a problem in Elements because of the way Projects work. Yes, you can go edit your “Theme,” but from the beginning I haven’t liked the Elements approach, as it’s basically font/type centric. Most people think of themes deeper and broader than that, including margins, ornaments, menus, organization, and more. Because of #2, as I “designed” a site I find I keep having to backtrack and sometimes even start with a different foundation.
This intersects @dan’s request for what Projects to build. Technically, the way things work right now if Realmac provides a Retail Business or Restaurant template, you’re locked into pretty much everything except for changing fonts and colors. That would have the impact of everyone’s site looking the same, which is a no no. Thus, another approach would be to take eight or so basic targets, and provide two or three different designs for each target, e.g. Conservative Business, Artsie Business, Whimsical Business.
Yes, this is still an issue in Elements. Some things copy between Pages, some between Projects, but Copy/Paste are mostly broken and doesn’t follow macOS rules, and the idea of dragging a section from one document to another seems broken, as well. Moreover, there’s the missing “copy without enclosed content” (or “copy with dummy content”).
I appreciate the comments and ideas.
I think Elements will continue to mature, and many of the current gaps will eventually be filled without requiring workarounds. My personal impression is that Realmac is trying to make the app feature-rich as quickly as possible, while giving themselves time to come back and refine and polish what they have built. With limited resources, every development team has to decide where to make compromises and what to prioritize first.
That is only my impression. I do not have any inside knowledge, and I could certainly be wrong. It is simply how the development process looks to me from the outside.
For the particular project I really wanted to build with Elements, I have decided I need to move in another direction. I think Elements is already a very good fit for brochure sites, design-focused sites, and many small to medium-sized websites. The concepts being developed underneath it also have the potential to become very powerful as the product matures.
My project simply asks too much of some of the areas where Elements is still developing. I would rather choose a platform that fits the project as it exists today than keep building around limitations and hoping they are resolved later.
That does not mean I have written Elements off. It just means this particular project is not a good fit for where Elements is right now.
Maybe the next one will be.
Thank you.
I would like to see some nice church templates, dentist templates, veterinary templates, and small business in general.
In terms of ease of transition from Rapidweaver Classic for existing websites, it would help if the same projects or, at least, themes were available in Elements. For example, I have one website that uses the Lumilite theme in Classic that I am porting now, and availability of similar theme in Elements would have made port much easier. Similarly,similar projects to Classic would make this even quicker.
Themes in Elements ≠ Themes in Classic. They are NOT the same thing.
To get something to look like it does in Classic, you will have to build it using the components that Elements provides.
I’d love to see a simple, but elegant iOS app landing page. I recently purchased Elements, and one of my goals for using the app is to create small landing pages for several apps that I’m working on. A project with feature blocks, release notes, app download buttons, etc. would be awesome!
Welcome 
neat idea!
