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by Steve Sande
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Take Control of iWeb ‘09
Learn how to make useful, attractive Web sites with iWeb '09!
Apple's iWeb aims to help you build an attractive Web site quickly and easily, but not all of iWeb's features are fully explained. For step-by-step instructions and plenty of time-saving tips, turn to Web pro Steve Sande. In Take Control of iWeb '09, Steve walks you through all the steps for building an iWeb site and uploading it to MobileMe or to another Web host. You can look over his shoulder as he enhances iWeb's templates with a designer's eye, using tools like masks, reflections, and Instant Alpha.
- More Info
- Contents & Intro
- What’s New
- FAQ
- Blog
Steve teaches you the best ways to make all types of iWeb pages—including blog, podcast, photo, and movie pages—and he covers topics that go beyond the basics and way beyond the online help. You'll also find coverage of how to import podcasts and videos and even get ideas for working with CafePress and Google Checkout to create an online store.
Special projects covered in the ebook include:
- Creating graphical effects like those in the above images
- Setting a graphic's background color to match the page color
- Making an image map—there is a way!
- Using an iSight camera to record directly into iWeb
- Adding a podcast episode from GarageBand
- Submitting your podcast to iTunes
- Exporting a video file from iMovie to iWeb
- Integrating with iPhoto and MobileMe Gallery
- Embedding a YouTube video
- Including an RSS or Twitter feed
- Providing directions to readers via an embedded Google map
- Getting information from readers via an embedded Google form
- Setting up RSS feed for your iWeb blog
- Generating income from your site by adding Google AdSense ads
- Creating a simple online store
Plus, the ebook helps with uploading your site to the Web, covering questions such as these:
- How do I divide space on my iDisk between general storage for things like iWeb sites and email-only storage?
- What if I don't want to publish to MobileMe?
- How do I set up iWeb '09's new internal FTP client?
- Why would I want to publish locally, and how do I set that up in iWeb?
- What if I want to publish to MobileMe, but use my own domain name in the URL?
- How do I sign up for my own domain name? (For a full discussion of this topic, check out Take Control of Your Domain Names.)
Book Info
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About the AuthorSteve Sande is a Mac consultant with Raven Solutions, LLC and has worked with Macs since 1984. He's also a professional instructor, teaching business analysis and Web-related classes at a number of venues across the country. Steve's writing can be found almost daily on The Unofficial Apple Weblog. |
Book Reviews
Reviews of Previous EditionsAuthor Interviews
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Table of Contents
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Read Me FirstWelcome to Take Control of iWeb '09. This book puts you in control of creating and publishing professional-looking Web sites using iWeb '09, Web design software from Apple Inc. The book was written by Steve Sande, edited by Karen Anderson (with help from Tonya Engst), and published by TidBITS Publishing Inc. |
Introduction
iLife '09 arrived with much fanfare on January 6, 2009, at Macworld Expo. With many new features touted for iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand, it seemed as if iWeb had been given scant attention.
After working with iWeb 3—also known as iWeb '09—for just a few minutes, I quickly realized that Apple made significant changes to the application. These address earlier shortcomings and make iWeb an even more powerful Web site design and publishing tool.
In previous editions of this book, I described a number of workarounds that allow publishing of your iWeb site to hosts other than MobileMe. Thanks to a new FTP (file transfer protocol) capability now built into iWeb, these workarounds are no longer needed. Similarly, several other processes I detailed in earlier editions have been eliminated or streamlined, as Apple has added new or improved functions.
In this book, I take you on a journey of discovery. I briefly explore the past so you can see what a powerful tool iWeb is, and then you can follow along as I build a Web site step by step using iWeb. You can visit my iWeb site and then read about how I used iWeb to create what you're viewing.
If you've never made a Web site before, you'll be thrilled with how easily you can organize your words and images and have iWeb turn them into a beautiful work of art. Experienced Web designers will be happy with the ways iWeb works with the rest of the iLife suite to create vibrant Web sites full of text, sound, video, and photography.
Let's get started!
iWeb Quick Start
Although you can read this book sequentially, you may wish to use this page to set a custom path through the topics that I cover. You can click the blue links to jump quickly to a particular section.
Learn what's new in iWeb 3:
- Find out how the changes in iWeb 3 help you create Web sites that are more compelling and powerful that those you could create in iWeb 2; see What's New in iWeb 3 .
Start your site:
- For historical context, read A Brief History of Making Web Sites. Then, if you haven't already, Install iWeb.
- Start a new site! Learn how to Create Your First Site.
- Get the scoop on Editing One Site on Two Macs.
- Ready to take your site live? In Publish Your Site, you'll find out how to publish to MobileMe and to other servers. Appendix A: Web Hosting provides more detail about hosting your site on a server that is not MobileMe.
Add links:
- Learn about making links in Create Web Hyperlinks and Create Other Link Types.
- If image-based links are more your fancy, find more info in Create Picture Hyperlinks and Make an Image Map.
- Link to content from other Web sites with Add an RSS Feed .
- Get social with your iWeb site. Read Add a Twitter feed .
Add media:
- Turn your thoughts into bits with Publish a Blog.
- Take your radio or TV show online with Publish a Podcast.
- Add Photos to your site, and learn how to use the iSight Photo widget, Photo pages, My Albums pages, and MobileMe galleries.
- Use iWeb to Create an Online Movie Theater and add videos from iMovie and YouTube.
Create special effects:
- Add Special Elements to count visitors and provide an email link.
- Learn how to Make Text Sparkle and discover the fabulous effects you can create with Shapes, Layers & Masks.
- See Enhance Photos to add cool effects—like Instant Alpha—to your photos.
- Looking for extra income? Add Google AdSense Ads, get ideas for how to Run an Online Store, and Increase Traffic to your site.
- Add Google Maps to give your readers directions with the Google Map widget.
- Add a Form to your site in order to capture information from visitors.
This list, which was excerpted from the ebook, notes the main new features in iWeb '09 that the ebook covers:
- Publishing improvements: Apple has drastically improved the process for uploading to Web hosts other than MobileMe by adding FTP capabilities to iWeb. See Use a third-party Web host.
- Updated user interface: An improved Media Browser, accessed on the right side of the iWeb window or via the double-chevron button at the right side of the toolbar, provides instant access to your audio, photos, movies, and a larger collection of widgets.
- iSight Movie widget: You can now make a video podcast with the new iSight Movie widget, assuming you have an iSight camera handy. See Add an episode with the iSight Movie widget .
- iSight Photo widget: Would you like to instantly add a picture of yourself to an iWeb site? You can Use the iSight photo widget to do so without opening any other applications on your Mac.
- More new widgets: You can now add a Countdown timer to place a constantly updating countdown clock on your Web page, while the new RSS Feed widget adds updates from other Web sites, including your Twitter feed (read Add an RSS Feed, p. 100).
- Integration with Facebook: You can use the newly added integration with Facebook lets your Facebook buddies know when you've updated your iWeb site. To set this up, look for the Facebook option when you configure the Site Publishing Settings.
- Advanced gradient fills: When adding a gradient fill to the background of a page or object, you now have more control over the type, direction, angle, and color of the fill with the Advanced Gradient Fill. See Background Fill for details.
- Easier layering: If you like to stack items as though you were piling them up on the Web page, you'll be pleased with the new Bring to Front and Send to Back commands. To learn more and see examples, skip to Text layering and Layers.
Q: Does this book cover iWeb 2 (also known as iWeb '08?)
A: Nope. For that you'll want Take Control of iWeb: iLife '08 Edition.
Q: How about iWeb 1, which came with iLife '06?
A: Same answer. See Take Control of iWeb: iLife '06 Edition, which covers that version of the program.
Q: Will the book teach me how to make my own custom iWeb templates?
A: Although this ebook discusses the HTML Snippet widget—which you can use to insert your own HTML within an iWeb page—and it offers a list of third-party iWeb template makers, it doesn't get down-and-dirty with instructions on how to customize an iWeb template beyond what you can do with iWeb's built-in tools. In our opinion, if you are frustrated with iWeb's templates and want to go beyond iWeb's built-in features to customize them, you should purchase a third-party template or consider a more sophisticated tool such as Freeway, RapidWeaver, SandVox, or Dreamweaver.
Can I read this ebook on an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch?
There are lots of great ways to read PDFs on these devices. For more details, please read our latest Device Advice.
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iWebTemplate Releases iWeb Themes 4.0
June 4, 2009 --
iWebTemplate has released a new version of iWeb Themes including five new templates: Blossoms, Couple, Eyes Fire, Garden, and Theatre. Each theme comes with ten templates, adding two new templates, Hobbies and News, to the eight standard ones. The latest themes are available as a bundle for $25, or as individual templates for $10 each.
—Steve Sande
Managing Multiple Web Sites in iWeb
May 11, 2009 --
Reader Michael B. asked, "I found the section on managing multiple iWeb sites in the '08 edition fascinating. However, I notice the same info is missing from the new '09 edition. Could you please say why? ... I would dearly love to manage multiple sites—if only to experiment to see which template looks or works best."
Here's author Steve Sande's reply: "The capability to work on multiple Web sites is built into iWeb '09. In past versions of iWeb, the only way that you could really accomplish this was to create separate Domain files, and open only the Domain file for the site that you wanted to update and publish. The new Site Publishing Settings, which are listed in the book starting on page 44, allow each Web site in a single Domain file to have its own publishing location and method."
—Tonya Engst
Putting a PDF on an iWeb Site
May 11, 2009 --
Reader Peter W. wrote in with the excellent suggestion that the ebook give directions for placing a PDF on an iWeb site. Peter pointed out that you can drag a PDF file from the Finder to an iWeb page and iWeb will then display the first page of the PDF as a thumbnail-sized image. For a one-page PDF with big type and graphics, that might be sufficient.
However, Peter also noted that you can select the thumbnail in iWeb, open the Inspector's Link pane, click the Hyperlink button, select the "Enable as hyperlink" checkbox, and choose A File from the Link To pop-up menu. Select the PDF in the resulting Open dialog and click the Open button. Now, once you next publish the site, site visitors can click the thumbnail in order to download the PDF. You could also link text on an iWeb page to a downloadable PDF, using the same basic technique in the Inspector.
I tried dragging a few other files into iWeb to see what would happen. When I dragged a TextEdit file to iWeb from the Finder, iWeb inserted the contents of the TextEdit document into the iWeb page. When I dragged a Microsoft Word 2008 file, iWeb added the filename of the document to my iWeb page.
—Tonya Engst
Hear Steve Talk about iWeb on the MacVoices Podcast
May 1, 2009 --
Listen to episode 969 of the MacVoices podcast and hear Steve Sande, author of Take Control of iWeb '09, talk about how much fun he's been having when writing about iWeb and hanging out with the crew at TUAW. Steve gets under the hood with the details of what's changed in iWeb '09 (more than most people though after Apple's iLife '09 rollout at Macworld Expo in January) and shares his candid observations about his likes and dislikes with respect to iWeb over time.
—Tonya Engst
“Take Control of iWeb ‘09” Helps Make Better Web Sites
April 30, 2009 --
We've just released Take Control of iWeb '09. Written by iWeb expert Steve Sande, the 152-page ebook covers all the new features in iWeb '09 (plus those that remain from previous iWeb versions, of course) to provide comprehensive documentation of how to work creatively and effectively in iWeb. Take Control of iWeb '09 costs $10, and you can get it hot off our virtual press.
Generally speaking, Take Control of iWeb '09 walks you through all the steps for building an iWeb site and uploading it to MobileMe or another Web host. You can look over author Steve Sande's shoulder as he enhances iWeb's templates with a designer's eye, using tools like masks, reflections, and Instant Alpha. You'll also learn the ins and outs of uploading, with special coverage of using a custom domain name and uploading to third-party hosts.
New iWeb '09 features discussed include still more widgets that can add special content to your site (for instance, a Twitter feed) and the new FTP capabilities that vastly simplify uploading to a third-party Web host. Like the recently released Take Control ebooks about GarageBand '09, this title is unusual in that it offers book-length coverage of a single iLife application.
Those who own an earlier edition of our iWeb book may have received an email message about getting a free (for those who purchased after January 1st, 2009) or discounted update; otherwise, open your PDF and click Check for Updates on the cover to get update details.
—Adam C. Engst
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