SiteGround Tutorials
Rapidweaver Tutorial
This tutorial is dedicated to showing you the basics of RapidWeaver. After reading it, you will be able to install and configure your RapidWeaver website and easily create a blog, photo album and a contact us page in minutes.
If you don't have a RapidWeaver website yet, you can sign up here for SiteGround RapidWeaver hosting account!
Why use RapidWeaver?
RapidWeaver is a web creation application built especially for Mac OS X. With it you can create beautiful websites without writing a single line of code. RapidWeaver has all the tools you need to create the website you want!
RapidWeaver Tutorial includes:
- How to install RapidWeaver;
- How to configure RapidWeaver;
- How to create a Blog with RapidWeaver;
- How to create a Photo Album with RapidWeaver;
- How to create a Contact Us page with RapidWeaver;
All our resources are being constantly updated and improved to make sure SiteGround continues to offer the best RapidWeaver hosting package with the richest set of features for every RapidWeaver-powered website.
Rapidweaver Installation
How to install RapidWeaver on your computer?
In order to have RapidWeaver installed on your computer, you should first download the recent version. In order to do this, please go to the RapidWeaver official website and download the .dmg file from there.
Please note that you should make the installation with a user that has administrative privileges. If you are logged as a regular user, you will be asked to "Authenticate" as administrator.
Once you have downloaded the application, a new window will appear. Just drag the RapidWeaver icon into your Applications folder and it will be installed for you.
You can then open the Applications folder and start RapidWeaver by double-clicking on its icon.
Well done! You have successfully installed and launched RapidWeaver on your computer.
Rapidweaver Configuration
In order to configure Rapidweaver, start the application and go to File menu New Project.
Click on the Setup icon in the top right corner of your screen. In the newly-opened window you should enter the title and personal information for your website.
Once you have done that, click on the OK button. Next, you have to set up the publishing settings for your website. You can do this from the File menu Publishing Settings option.
You have to enter valid FTP login details so Rapidweaver can connect to the server. If you want to create a primary website for your account, you should specify /public_html in the "Path" setting. Alternatively, you can set /public_html/subfolder if you wish to create a web page into a subdirectory of your website. Such page will be later accessible via www.yourdomain.com/subfolder.
Congratulations! You have now correctly configured Rapidweaver to work with your hosting account!
Create a blog with Rapidweaver
In order to create a blog with RapidWeaver, you should select the appropriate template for your website. For the purpose of this tutorial, we will use the Alpha template.
You just have to click on the Themes button at the top of your screen and select the theme that best suits your needs.
Now you can add the blog page to your website. To do this, you have to click on the Add button at the top left part of your screen. Next, press the "Blog" category and click "Choose button".
Now you should press the "+" to add a new article to your blog. You will see a friendly WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor that you can use to enter the article text. We have entered only "Today something interesting happened to me!".
Next you have to add a title for your blog article in the Title field. If you wish, you can set categories of entries. Just type the name of the category into the "Categories" field and press enter; you can then specify the next category.
The same way you can specify the tags for your article.
Once you are ready with the creation of your article, press again the "+" button to add a new article or the Publish button to upload the current one.
Once the upload is done, you will receive a green icon notice. All you have to do now is to press the OK button.
Congratulations! You have now published your first blog entry using RapidWeaver! You may now browse to your newly-created website!
Photo Album in Rapidweaver
How to create a Photo Album with RapidWeaver?
To add a Photo Album page to your website, first press the "Add" button, select the "Photo Album" category and click on the "Choose" button.
Double-click on the "Untitled Page" label to rename this part of your website to "Photo Album".
Now, to add the first category of photos, double-click on your album name to rename it to (for example) Sample Gallery.
How to add a new Photo to your RapidWeaver Gallery?
Next you have to add the photos to your album. To do this, click on the "+" button at the bottom of your screen. An "Add a new photo" message box will appear once you hover the mouse over it.
Once you press it, a new window will appear. In it you should select the images you want to add to the album. Select them and press "Open"
You can add captions to each of your photos. Simply double-click on the caption column next to your image and change it to a meaningful text.
Now press the Publish button at the top right part of your screen in order to upload the newly-created gallery to your website. Then, simply refresh your page and you will notice the new Photo Album that you have just created!
Contact us page with Rapidweaver
In order to receive feedback from the visitors, many web designers place contact forms on their pages. With Rapidweaver such forms can be created with just a few clicks.
First, press the "Add" button on your main screen and select the "Contact Form" category of pages. Then click on the "Choose" button to add the page to your website.
Now double-click the "Untitle Page" label to give the page more adequate form and press enter.
At the right part of your screen, you will see the fields that your visitors can fill. You may rename them or add additional fields depending on the information you want to gather.
For the purpose of this tutorial, we will use the default fields.
The next step is to configure the e-mail address that your contact form will work with. To do this, select the contact page and press the "Configure the selected page" button at the bottom of your screen.
Here you have to configure the basic settings of the contact form. The most important field is named "Send To:". In it you have to enter a valid e-mail account where you wish the messages from the form to be send to.
Now close the window and publish your website. Refresh the page in your browser and you will see your newly-created Contact Us form!
Well done! Your Contact us page is ready.