Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Receive email messages from your website visitors via RapidWeaver's built-in Contact Form
The Contact Form page type allows your website visitors to send you emailed messages and attachments. Contact forms are easy to create and use, and are customizable with a variety of available options.
Contact Forms require PHP to be installed on your web hosting provider's server. Additionally, the Contact Form uses a PHP Mailer script to send messages. The vast majority of web hosting providers support PHP, however not all support the ability to send email via PHP due to it's potential to be abused for SPAM. If you are unsure whether your web hosting provider supports PHP or the ability to send email via PHP, please contact them directly to inquire before publishing a page created with the Contact Form page.
The Contact Form page supports six different form elements:
Text Field: a single-line text field.
Text Area: allow visitors to type larger messages, without line or character-limits.
Check Boxes: allow visitors to select options by clicking its box.
Popup Menus: allow visitors to make a single selection from a defined popup menu.
Radio Buttons: allow visitors to make a single selection from a defined list of options.
Attachments: allow visitors to attach a file when submitting the form.
Each of these elements can be marked as a Required field, meaning that item must be selected or completed before a visitor can successfully submit the form.
When you add a Contact Form to your project, some form fields are pre-configured that enable visitors to send a message to the address specified in the Page Inspector. If you allowed RapidWeaver to access your Contacts when first launching the app, the primary email address specified in your “Me” card will be pre-filled for the contact form to use.
To add a new field item to the form field list, click the [+] button at the bottom of the Form options area. Type a label for the new field’s name and then select the desired field type. To remove a field item, select it and click the [–] button at the bottom of the Form options area.
When typing the field name for a newly-added element, use a separator at the end, such as a colon (:) or a hyphen (–). This ensures that the label and visitor’s content is separated in the submitted form.
You can rearrange the order of a field item by selecting it, then dragging it to your preferred location.
The Contact Form includes popup-menu and radio-button field types. These allow you to create a list of options of which your web visitor can select one. When the popup-menu or radio-button field type is selected in the upper section of the Contact Form's edit area, you can then add, edit, and remove options in the lower section of the Contact Form’s edit area.
Click the [+] button shown below the Options list to add a new option for the select popup-menu/radio-button, then type the desired Option name. Double-click the Option name to edit the item. Repeat as required to add your desired number of options for the selected form element.
To remove an option, simply select the it within the Options list and then click the [–] button.
Now that you've got your Contact Form created with all your desired fields, it's time to configure the settings so that when your web visitor clicks the Submit button, you receive the form in your email Inbox!
General Tab
On the Contact Form Page, in RapidWeaver go to Inspector > Contact Form > General tab (Option-Command-6).
Send To: Enter the email address you want the submitted form to be sent to.
From Name: Select the form field you'd like to appear as the name of the person the email was sent from. In the above example we use the "Your Name" field.
From Email: Select the form field which is used for your web visitor's email address. In the above example we use the "Your Email" field.
Subject: Select the form field that will be used as the subject in any emails received from the form. In the above example we use the "Subject" field.
Show Reset button: Select this option if you'd like to give your web visitor the ability to clear the form completely. Useful if your web visitor would like to start over with filling in their form details.
Required: Enter the message you'd like the form to display if a required field is left blank when submitting the form.
Symbol: Enter the symbol that will be used to highlight required fields on your form.
Submit Button: Enter the text you'd like displayed for your "Submit" button. This is "Submit" by default.
Reset Button: Enter the text you'd like displayed for your "Reset" button. This is "Reset" by default.
Advanced Settings: (Generally only used for troubleshooting form deliverability issues)
Send email using your email address - By default, the Contact Form sends the form email using your web visitor's entered email address. For example if your web visitor enters the email address aaron@example.com in the "Your Email" form field, you will receive an email from aaron@example.com in your Inbox. In some cases web hosts do not allow email to be sent from an email address that's not linked to your account (to prevent SPAM). If you are not receiving emails sent via your Contact Form, you can try enabling this "Send email using your email address" setting by checking its box and republishing your Contact Form page. With this setting enabled the Contact Form will not use your web visitors email address to send the form, instead it will use the email address you enter in the "Send To" field (#1 from above) to send the form. In this case it's important the address you enter in the "Send To" field is linked to your web hosting account.
Define email address in PHP mail script - This setting might be required on some web hosts (for example if your website is hosted on a Windows based server). We generally don't recommend enabling this setting unless you are trying to troubleshoot issues with receiving your Contact Form submissions.
Customizable Text Tab
On the Contact Form Page, in RapidWeaver go to Inspector > Contact Form > Customizable Text tab (Option-Command-6).
Header: Here you can enter any text, images, or other information that you'd like to appear above your form's fields.
Footer: Here you can enter any text, images, or other information that you'd like to appear below your form's fields.
Email Sent Feedback: Here you can enter the text that will appear on the page after your web visitor clicks the "Submit" button. Generally this is used to inform your web visitor that the form was successfully submitted, as well as provide any "next steps" they should take after submitting the form. This text is only displayed on the Contact Form page, it's not emailed to the web visitor.
If you are having troubles receiving form emails, below are some general steps that usually help to resolve potential issues.
Make sure you are using an email address linked to your web hosting account in the "Send To" field in your Contact Form settings. For example let's say your Contact Form page is located at https://www.example.com/contact-us. In this case, you would want your "Send To" email address to be connected to that domain "example.com" (e.g. contactus@example.com). You would not want to use a GMAIL or HOTMAIL address.
Some web hosts might block Contact Form's from sending email if the website is not SSL secured. It's important that your Contact page is secured with an SSL certificate and loads over https (e.g. https://www.example.com/contact-us). If your website or contact page is not SSL secured, you will want to reach out to your web hosting provider and ask that they help you get an SSL certificate installed and activated on your website.
It's important that you have valid SPF and DKIM records set up for your website's domain name. In a lot of cases, if these DNS records are not set up (or set up incorrectly), outgoing emails sent from your web hosting server will not be received (this includes your form emails). The steps to get valid SPF and DKIM records set up vary depending on your web hosting provider, so it's best to ask your web hosting provider for assistance. An example question you can ask your web hosting provider... "I'm trying to set up SPF and DKIM records to ensure my emails are received by the recipient, can you help me get those set up correctly?"
Make sure to check your Spam folder in case your form emails are being inadvertently delivered there.
Some web hosting providers do not allow mail to be sent via a PHP mailer unless it's authenticated (such as with SMTP authentication). RapidWeaver's built-in Contact Form does not offer outgoing mail authentication, as such if your web hosting provider blocks this type of mailing it will be necessary that you find an alternative web hosting provider that allows this type of outgoing mail, or a third party Contact Form solution that allows for outgoing mail authentication. There are several third party Contact Form addons in our Marketplace. For recommendations feel free to ask on our Community Forum!
Embed an external website, form, or document directly into your RapidWeaver built page.
With RapidWeaver's built-in iFrame page type, you can embed documents, forms, and even websites that are hosted on external platforms directly into your website's design.
In order to add an iFrame page type to your RapidWeaver project, simply add the iFrame page to your Page List, then click on the newly added page to give it a name. This page name will be displayed in your website's navigation menu. In the below example we will be adding an iFrame page that embeds a survey onto your page from the popular form building platform MachForm.
URL: The URL of your external resource that you'd like to embed. This can be a URL to a form, or a document, or even another website.
Width: This is the width your embedded content will take up on the page. You can set this as a fixed width (Pixels) or a relative width (Percent) from the drop down menu. We recommend setting this as Percent so that your embedded content is responsive across multiple device sizes.
Height: This is the height your embedded content will take up on the page. This can only be set in pixels. You can adjust this amount until you are satisfied with the iFrame's fixed height.
Use Frame: This will simply add a small border around your embedded content in order to visually separate it from your page's content or make it stand out more on the page.
Refresh Page: This will refresh the page in RapidWeaver's Preview mode. Useful if you are making changes to the settings (such as width and height) and need to see those new settings reflected on the page.
That's all there is to the iFrame page. Below is an example of what our embedded MachForm survey looks like on the page.
Share documents, web addresses, and other files with RapidWeaver's built-in File Sharing page
The File Sharing page type allows you to easily share files, web addresses and other documents with visitors to your website. You can link to files either on your Mac or located elsewhere online. Any files you link to from your Mac will be copied and uploaded when publishing your project (just as they would be when adding the file as a resource to your RapidWeaver project).
The lower area of the File Sharing edit window displays a table of files, or web addresses, that will be displayed on your published page. The table is a series of rows, with one row for each file or URL you add. Each file has four fields for information.
Title - The title for your shared resource.
Description - A description of your shared resource.
Source - The location of your shared resource (linked internally from RapidWeaver's resources, added externally from your Mac, or a web address).
Source Type - The type of resource (File, Web Address, or Resource).
To add a resource, simply click on the [+] button at the bottom of the File Sharing table list.
Next, select the Source Type from the drop-down menu. Select File from the drop-down menu if you will be adding a file directly from your Mac's Finder. Select Resource if you will be adding a file from RapidWeaver's internal resources folder. Select Web Address if you will be linking to a website address (URL) or external resource. Then, double-click on the resource's Source field to add it to your page/project. Finally, double-click on the resource's Title and Description fields to edit them. Make sure to give your resources a descriptive title and description so your web visitors know what they are either downloading or being redirected to!
You can also drag and drop files directly from your Mac into the File Sharing table list to automatically add them.
To remove a resource, highlight it and click on the [-] button.
To rearrange the contents of the table list, simply click and drag the row to your desired location. Your shared resources will be displayed on the published page in the order in which they are arranged.
If you’re sharing large files, these can take some time to upload - as well as take a long time for visitors to download! You may want to try compressing large files you want to share; in the Finder, right-click on the file you want to compress and choose Compress "filename". Then drag the compressed file into RapidWeaver.
RapidWeaver Classic Page Types
Page types are fully supported in RapidWeaver Classic.
Create a feature rich blog with ease using RapidWeaver's built-in Blog page
The Blog page allows you to create and manage a collection of blog entries; recording events, thoughts, ideas and more that are important to you (and your readers). Audio and video files can also be added to blog entries to create Podcasts – all of which can be syndicated using RSS feeds.
To add a new blog entry, click the [+] button in the edit window. When you create a new post, the list at the top of the edit window will show the new entry, and the editor beneath will allow you to create your post. Your full blog post should be written in the "Body" tab.
You have the option to create a summary of your blog post in the "Summary" tab. If you include a summary, this is what will appear on your main blog page (the page listing all your articles). A "Read more" link will be automatically added at the end of the summary which your reader can click on to view your full blog article.
It's a good idea to include a summary for your blog articles in the "Summary" tab in order to keep your main blog page clean and concise. If nothing is added to the "Summary" tab, your full blog post will be displayed on the main blog page.
The main content editor area for each blog entry is a regular Styled Text area, as found elsewhere in RapidWeaver, allowing you to easily write and add images, videos, links and HTML. Formatting options are available at the bottom of the edit window.
The Post Settings area is shown on the right of the main edit window. Here you can edit a post’s Title, Category or Tags. The date and time for each post is set automatically to the time the entry was created (using your Mac's system time). The date and time of a post can also be edited manually. Pressing the refresh button next to the Date field will reset it to the current time.
Note: RapidWeaver’s Blog page does not schedule posts - any post that is checked in the post list will be published, with your chosen date applied.
When RapidWeaver publishes your blog page, the blog post will be shown in a file with the permalink name.
Photos: Add photos to your Blog entries from your Mac's Photos app.
Unsplash: Add photos to your Blog entries from the Unsplash image sharing service.
resources: Add photos to your Blog entries from your resources folder in RapidWeaver.
Below are some examples of how you can add images to your blog posts via drag and drop:
You can edit your blog images and give them some effects directly in RapidWeaver. Simply double-click the image you'd like to edit to pull up the settings window. Adjust the settings per your preference.
Scale: Select if you want RapidWeaver to scale your image, or if you'd prefer to set a fixed width and height.
Rotation: Select if you want to rotate your image, and the degree to which you'd like to rotate it.
Flip Horizontally / Flip Vertically: Select if you want to flip your image horizontally or vertically.
Shadow: Select if you'd like to give your image a shadow effect.
Border: Select if you'd like to give your image a border.
Your blog images can be aligned to the left or right of your text with ease. Simply click on the image to highlight it, click the [<>] icon in the formatting toolbar at the bottom of the blog's editor window, and select either Align Image Left or Align Image Right.
RapidWeaver allows you to easily add Podcasts to your blog entries.
Podcasting is a standard that allows audio or video files (most commonly in MP3 or MP4 formats) to be published online in a way that allows Podcast-capable applications (such as Apple's Podcasts App) to automatically subscribe to them and download the media for playback at the listener’s convenience.
When you add a Podcast to your blog entry by clicking the Add Podcast... button, RapidWeaver presents a Podcast pane that allows you to drag-and-drop your Podcast media-file into your blog entry. The file needs to be in a QuickTime compatible format such as MP3 (audio) or MP4 (video and audio).
Once the media file is dragged in, you can specify custom tags to help compatible Podcasts Apps to correctly categorize your podcast. The custom tags are applied on an episode-by-episode basis using the iTunes Tags tab.
Category
This is the category which Apple Podcasts should categorize the podcast under. It should be just a single category, such as Comedy or Technology.
Keywords
This allows you to be more specific than a category. Think of them as tags, allowing you to refine the description of the episode so perhaps Mac, macOS Sonoma, and RapidWeaver Classic would be considered Keywords of a Technology-centric show. Keywords should be comma and space separated.
Author
Enter your name, or the company name you wish to associate with the show. It will appear in the Apple Podcasts source list and over-ride the email address defined in the blog’s RSS setup.
Subtitle
If you’re looking to add some extra details about the episode, a subtitle may be useful.
Summary
If you want to add more in-depth show notes, perhaps detailing the entire content of the show (such as topics covered, guest appearances, etc), you can enter them here.
Block
If you want your podcast episode to not be visible in Apple Podcasts check the Block box. This is how you are able to simply make your episode 'private', meaning that Apple will not make your show visible in their public catalogue. This also works to block your podcast episode from Google Podcast's public catalogue as well.
Explicit
Apple Podcasts allows you to flag any content that may contain any explicit content (such as profanity). Checking the ‘Explicit’ box will ensure that Apple Podcasts is made aware of the content. You should always ensure your episodes are flagged if they contain any explicit content, as Apple Podcasts may remove any incorrectly-labelled podcasts.
Item Image
Drag and drop an image relating to your podcast episode.
Once you’re finished editing the details for your podcast episode, click OK. When you next publish your site, RapidWeaver will attach the chosen files to your blog post, and generate the necessary code that ensures podcast clients can download the episode from the server.
Using External Audio Files in your Podcast
If you'd like to link to existing online content, do not drag in any media to the initial podcast drop- box. Instead go to the Custom RSS Tags tab and check the ‘Override default Podcast settings’ box. Simply enter the full URL to the media (e.g. https://realmacsoftware.com/podcast.mp3).
Be sure to enter the full data for the size in bytes in the size box and specify the correct MIME type. You can get the full size, in bytes, by using the Finder’s Get Info on your audio file. Podcast ‘enclosures’ can be in the following formats:
.mp3 (audio/mpeg)
.mp4 (audio/mp4 or video/mp4)
.m4a (audio/mp4)
.m4v (video/mp4)
.mov (video/quicktime)
.pdf (application/pdf)
The top section of the General tab contains the archiving options for your blog in which you can customize the archive behavior, if used. By default, archiving is active (we strongly recommend leaving it enabled). Disabling it will cause RapidWeaver to keep all of your blog’s posts on the same page, growing longer with each blog entry you add. If enabled, archiving will move all your old posts to separate pages, keeping only the current week’s or month’s posts on the main page, as selected in the "Archive by" popup menu. You can also set the minimum number of posts that must appear on the main blog page before older posts are archived in the "Keep" field, and whether or not to show gaps in the list of available archives by checking the "Show gaps" checkbox. Finally, the Blog plugin supports 8 different smiley emotions when "Smileys" is enabled . For example, entering :-) in your blog, RapidWeaver will convert it into the appropriate graphic.
The middle section of the General tab allows you to enable Permalinks in your blog and to set the Permalink’s link title. If you use summaries in your blog entries, you may choose whether the Permalink points to the summary rather than the blog entry itself by clicking the "Include Summary" checkbox. When published, the Permalink will point to the summary, which will include a "Read more..." link to the full blog entry. You may also change the phrase used for "Read more..." links. Finally, we recommend leaving the "Display inline comments" box unchecked.
Categories are automatically enabled for each blog you create, allowing you to set a category for your blog entries. If you’d rather not use categories, you can disable them by unchecking the "Enable" checkbox. When categories are enabled, you can also choose to display the number of blog entries that are in each category within the sidebar by checking the "Show Post Count" checkbox. If you'd like for your categories to be listed alphabetically in your blog's main page sidebar check the "List alphabetically in sidebar" checkbox.
You can create additional categories for your blog by clicking the (+) button at the bottom of the categories list and typing the name of the new category. To remove a category, click on its name and click the (-) button. You can also arrange the categories in the list by clicking and dragging them into a new position. At the bottom of the Category Settings, you will find "Title" and "Separator" fields. RapidWeaver uses these fields to display your blog article's category(s) and they are located directly under your blog entry's title (next to the blog entry's date). You can modify these fields per your preference.
Tags can be considered as sub-categories, describing more accurately a blog post’s content. To enable tags for blog posts, check the "Enable" checkbox in the Tag Settings. If you would like to display a Tag Cloud on your blog's main page sidebar, check the "Display tag cloud" checkbox. The Tag List keeps track of how many times you've used a specific tag for a blog entry under the "Count" column.
A blog post's tags are displayed below the summary and full blog entry (as in the above screenshot). If you'd like to change the "Tags:" text to something else, you can do so in the "Title" field in the Tag Settings panel. Finally your blog entry's tags are separated by a comma followed by a space by default. If you'd like to change the separator to something else you can do so in the "Separator:" field.
Before you can syndicate your blog or broadcast your podcasts, you must first configure your blog to use RSS feeds. Check the "Enable" checkbox from the RSS Feed Settings panel and complete the fields.
Title - The title for your RSS feed.
Description - A description of what your blog is about.
Creator - Your or your company's name.
Copyright - Add a copyright notice to your RSS feed.
Language - Select the language your blog is written in.
RSS Link Name - This is the text link that will appear in your blog's sidebar.
RSS File Name - We recommend leaving this as the default "feed.xml".
RSS URL - Enter the URL to your custom feed from your third party RSS service mentioned above if you are using one.
Some sites truncate their RSS feeds in order to drive visitors to read the original on their website. While we typically wouldn’t recommend you do this, you can specify how many words from each of your blog entries should be included in your RSS feed (from one to fifty words) by selecting the checkbox labelled "Summarize entries in RSS feed" and then moving the slider to select how many words you'd like to be included in the RSS feed.
You can customize the way the date and time are shown by selecting the "Date Format" sub-tab.
In this tab, you can specify how the date and time are displayed, including separators. As you make changes to the settings, an example is displayed next to the "Sample" field in the settings.
To set the default Podcasts tags to be added to your Podcasts, click the "Enable" checkbox next to "Custom Tags" and fill in the succeeding fields.
Use the Channel sub-tab to add any custom RSS channel tags not addressed using the iTunes sub-tab, or to add any new Channel tags that may be added to Apple Podcasts in the future. As a rule, this should be unnecessary, but the ability to add custom RSS Channel tags remains available if needed.
Enabling the dynamic PHP sidebar improves the sidebar navigation on blogs with a large number of tags and categories, and substantially reduces the number of files that require updating when the number of tags and categories changes. We strongly recommend enabling the "Dynamic PHP Sidebar" checkbox when first starting with the blog page, and leaving it enabled, however you can also enable this option if you've already been blogging with RapidWeaver's blog for awhile.
If you've been blogging with RapidWeaver's built-in blog page for awhile and your blog pages currently have an .html extension, enabling the Dynamic PHP Sidebar will require RapidWeaver to create new blog pages (and permalink article pages) with a .php extension.
After enabling this option, you should consider connecting to your server through your web hosting provider's control panel or an FTP client such as Cyberduck, and remove your site completely. Then, use the File > Re-Publish All Files option in RapidWeaver to ensure the new PHP-based blog pages are uploaded.
Now, add the external URL to the resource you are embedding in the Inspector > iFrame > iFrame Settings > URL field ().
At the top of the File Sharing edit window is a styled text area. Any content added here will be displayed above the download links on your published page. You can add text, format it, and add images as with any page in RapidWeaver.
A Permalink is a permanent link to a specific blog entry so that visitors may return to it even if it has been archived and moved off the main Blog page. When enabled in the General tab of the Blog’s Setup area (), RapidWeaver will automatically create a Permalink for each blog entry using the blog entry's Title. If you’d prefer to create a custom Permalink for a specific blog entry, enter it into the Permalink field.
RapidWeaver's blog editor area allows you to add images to your blog posts via drag and drop. You can also add images from Mac's Photo App, from the Unsplash image sharing service, and from RapidWeaver's resources folder, all from within RapidWeaver's Resources panel ().
Images you drag and drop into your blog are automatically added to RapidWeaver's resources folder, which can be viewed from RapidWeaver's Resources panel ().
Filename: The filename for your image. For your image filename should be descriptive and relate to the image.
Alt Tag: Give your image an Alt description. This can be the same as the image filename, or you can give it an alternative description. Again this is .
To submit a podcast to Apple you must have an .
For full details of Apple’s podcast specifications, visit , , , and .
If you'd like to add or edit default tags for your entire podcast series, perhaps to write a general summary describing what your whole podcast series is about, or add a custom Channel Image which will be displayed in Apple Podcasts as your show's album art, go to Inspector > Blog () > Advanced tab > iTunes tab and add your default tags in their respective fields.
RapidWeaver comes with ample settings to customize your blog just the way you like it. To pull up the Blog's settings panel, go to Inspector > Blog ().
The bottom section of the General tab allows you to add a commenting system to your blog or not. RapidWeaver integrates with the . Once you have registered for a and added your site to their system you will need to enter your Disqus 'Site Shortname' into the "Short Name" field in order for your comments section to show under your blog posts.
To help increase the audience for your blog, RapidWeaver can generate what’s known as an RSS feed. This is a file that contains the posts from your blog, along with a link to view the article. Visitors to your site can subscribe to this feed in apps like or and read your blog articles from their preferred app. RapidWeaver includes a link to the RSS feed in your website’s source code so that apps can automatically detect it! While RSS use has declined in recent years, we strongly recommend that you offer it for your readers for those that prefer it!
Use Custom Feed - Enable this if you are using a third party RSS service to host your RSS feed (e.g. ). Generally it's easier to let RapidWeaver handle your RSS feed so only enable this if you need advanced RSS Feed features or analytics.
You can create default values for your Podcast tags and any custom RSS channel tags used in your Podcasts. The values entered here will become the default tags for all of your Podcasts, but you can override these values in any Podcast episode if desired by using the iTunes Tags and the Custom RSS Tags tabs in the Add Podcast pane as outlined in the tutorial section.
Link to an external site from your website's navigation menu with RapidWeaver's built-in Offsite Page
The Offsite Page type allows you to create a link to an external web page that's displayed in your website's navigation menu. This is useful for linking to pages that were not built in RapidWeaver yet should be prominently displayed in your website's navigation. Some examples might include an eCommerce page built with a third-party service, an image gallery hosted by a third-party photo sharing site, or a donations page created with a third-party fundraising platform.
In order to add an Offsite Page type to your RapidWeaver project, simply add the page type to your Page List, then give the page a name. This page name will be displayed in your website's navigation menu. In the below example we will be adding an Offsite Page that links to a third-party website that sells piano scores (sheet music).
Next, add the URL to the external site in the Inspector > Offsite Page > Offsite Options (Option-Command-6).
You should now see the link in your website's navigation menu. When clicked, visitors will be redirected to the external site.
If you'd like for the link to open the external site in a new browser tab, you can go to Inspector > General Settings > check the box "Open in new window" (Option-Command-1).
Your linked page should now open in a new browser tab.
By default the Offsite page plugin links directly to a URL, RapidWeaver will not create a file for this page.
If you check the “Use Redirect Page” option, RapidWeaver will create a file for the page and run a redirect script when a user views that page.
A good starting point for learning the basics of RapidWeaver Classic
The Styled Text page is one of the most commonly-used page types in RapidWeaver. It’s flexible enough to enable you to style content with rich text formatting but extensible enough to allow the more code-savvy among us to place it in HTML if you need it (e.g. pasting in an embedded YouTube video).
You can write in RapidWeaver or paste in content from other apps. If you’re pasting in from Microsoft Word, we recommend you use the Edit menu’s Paste as Plain Text option. This will ensure that any unusual formatting from Word is not transferred to your website.
Styled Text pages support JPEG, PNG and GIF images, which can be added to your page via Drag and Drop or via the iMedia Browser (available on the View menu). If you need to make some adjustments to the image, open the Media Inspector by double-clicking on the image, where you can scale, rotate, and rename the image.
We recommend you give each image a non-cryptic filename such as “realmacsoftware- logo” and ensure that you fill in the Alternate Text field. This alternate field will be shown to visitors who may have images turned off (or are viewing your site on a slow connection) and is a great way to improve the accessibility of your website.
The Health Check feature will highlight any images that could use a new filename or alternate label.
Let’s get started by adding some text. You can write in RapidWeaver or paste in content from other apps. If you’re pasting in from Microsoft Word, we recommend you use the Edit menu’s Paste as Plain Text option. This will ensure that any unusual formatting from Word is not transferred to your website. Watch the video to see how formatting works.
RapidWeaver’s Styled Text pages, and any other page types that use the styled text areas available to plugins, also allow you to paste in HTML. To ensure your code appears as you expect, you should identify blocks of code as such by choosing Format > Ignore Formatting. By using this option, you’re telling RapidWeaver not to alter or stylise the content.
So what should you do if you’ve got code that you want to show as an example on your website? Highlight the block of code and then use the Format > HTML > Code. This will apply the appropriate HTML tags to ensure the code is displayed properly when previewing and publishing the site.
Generates a navigatable sitemap page for site visitors
Not to be confused with an XML Sitemap (which is enabled by default for the benefit of search engines), sitemaps can be incredibly useful on a larger website, allowing users to browse a complete list of available pages.
RapidWeaver will add every page in your project on a Sitemap page unless you’ve chosen to not show a page in your site’s navigation menu.
Text and images in this area will appear above the sitemap list.
Text and images in this area will appear below the sitemap list.
There are no extra options for this page type. It is however worth noting that only pages that have the "Show in navigation" option checked will appear in the sitemap.
Markdown allows you to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format
Markdown is one of the most popular ways to write for the web. By using a lightweight and easy to read syntax you can write and edit text without having to wade through HTML.
You start writing, and when previewing or publishing your Markdown pages, RapidWeaver will generate the HTML for you!
Markdown is incredibly simple to get started with. There are also some advanced options that you can make use of - for a complete list of Markdown syntax that you can use, visit the official Markdown documentation.
If you have a basic knowledge of Markdown, then use this cheatsheet as needed.
Build a quick and easy photo gallery or slideshow with RapidWeaver's built-in photo album page
RapidWeaver’s Photo Album page makes it quick and easy to build online photo galleries and slideshows that look great across desktop and mobile devices.
To add a Photo Album page to your RapidWeaver site, simply add the Photo Album page type to your Page List. Click on the newly added page to give it a name. In the below example we will name the page "Gallery".
To add images to your new Photo Album page, click the [+] button at the bottom of the main edit window and add the images from your Mac's Finder (alternatively, you can drag and drop images into the main edit window). To remove images from the list, click the image(s) to highlight them and click the [-] button at the bottom of the main edit window.
The File Name and Caption fields are editable. To edit these fields single-click on the image's file name or caption field and enter your desired text.
The Photo Album page comes with a variety of configurable settings to style your gallery or slideshow.
On your Photo Album page, go to Inspector > Photo Album > General tab (Option-Command-6).
Quality: Select the image quality for your added images and thumbnails. Quality options include Best, High, Medium, and Low. Using a lower image quality can save on page/file size resulting in faster page load speed, however it will reduce the display quality of your images. Likewise a higher quality will increase the page/file size slowing down your page load speed, however your image will look better.
Scale images: Check this box if you'd like for RapidWeaver to automatically scale your added images. This is selected by default and the default maximum size is 640px width. You can edit this value to your preferred maximum width size.
Maximum size: If the above Scale images box is checked, this field will be activated. You can enter your desired maximum width size for your added images.
Album type: Select if you'd like your images to be displayed as a Gallery or Slideshow.
Sort Order: Select how you'd like your images to be sorted on the page. Sort options include Custom, Filename, or Date. The Custom sort option will sort your images as they are arranged in your main edit window. You can drag the images around in the main edit window to rearrange the sort order. The Filename sort option will sort the images alphabetically on the page. The Date sort order will sort the images chronologically on the page. The date is pulled from the image's metadata.
Gallery Settings
Title: Give your Photo Album gallery a title. This will be displayed on your Photo Album page (see screenshot for example).
Description: Give your Photo Album gallery a description. This will be displayed on your Photo Album page (see screenshot for example).
Thumbnail Size: Select the size for your image thumbnails.
Use square thumbnails: Select this option if you'd like for RapidWeaver to display your image thumbnails uniformly as squares instead of retaining their original dimensions.
Captions: Select where you'd like your image captions to be displayed. Caption options include Nowhere, Everywhere, Thumbnails Only, or Full Size Images Only. *Please note if you do not add captions to your images, RapidWeaver will automatically use the Filename as the caption.
Home: Enter the text you'd like displayed for the link that will take your web visitors back to the main gallery page.
Use name of parent page: If this is checked, the "Home" link will use the name of your Photo Album page. In the above example, the "Home" link would be displayed as "Gallery" instead.
Previous: Enter the text you'd like displayed for the link that will take your web visitors back one image.
Next: Enter the text you'd like displayed for the link that will take your web visitors forward one image.
Slideshow Settings
Various slideshow settings:
Controls: When selected, when hovering your mouse over the slideshow, the slideshow's controls will appear (forward arrow, back arrow, pause, etc.).
Info: When selected, the image's caption will be displayed overlayed on the image.
Loading Icon: When selected, a loading icon will appear while the images are being loaded in the slideshow.
Size: Select the desired width and height (in pixels) for your displayed slideshow.
Transition: Select from a list of transition effects between images. Options include Blend, Cube, Flash, Flip, Focus Fade, Gray Scale, Pivot, Push, Stack, Zoom In, and Zoom Out. Enter a transition time (in seconds) in the box next your selected transition effect.
Scale: Scale your images. Options include Scale to Fit, Scale to Fill, Downscale to Fit, and Downscale to Fill.
Image Pause: Enter the time (in seconds) for each image to be displayed in the slideshow.
Ken Burns: Select from a list of Ken Burns effects. Options include None, Random, Pan, Zoom In, and Zoom Out. Enter a time (in seconds) in the box next your selected Ken Burns effect.
EXIF Image Data
RapidWeaver's built-in Photo Album page can display your images' EXIF data on the Gallery album type. Simply check the EXIF tags box and then select which EXIF tags you'd like to be displayed from the list.
EXIF tags that have no data will not be displayed unless you select the box "Missing EXIF tags". When this box is checked, then your selected EXIF tags from the list will be displayed on the page, whether they contain EXIF data or not.
Write HTML code directly on the page
If you are using RapidWeaver Elements, you can use the HTML Element in the default page type.
The HTML page type allows you to enter any HTML code in the content area of your site in the editing view. Your code can be as simple or complex as your knowledge of HTML and web development. Or you can simply use this page to paste embedded code such as Google Maps, or even videos hosted on YouTube or Vimeo.
If you want to create an HTML page that retains the theme of the other pages on your website, be sure to leave the ‘Apply Theme’ checkbox located in the ‘Page’ tab of the Page Inspector selected. Unticking this box will remove the theme layout from the page, giving you an entirely blank canvas to start from scratch.
You can enter anything into the HTML page type, including Javascript, CSS, PHP and more. Just remember that the page’s extension needs to reflect the content on the page, so be sure to check that the Page Inspector has been set up correctly.
If you're using PHP, you should also check whether your web host supports PHP as some hosts may not support PHP. Also, please check what version PHP your code will require and make sure your hosting is set properly.
Sometimes different elements require different PHP versions so keep a look out for that if you're getting PHP errors.