iWeb update sorely needed

One of the biggest omission from Macworld Expo in January was lack of iLife and iWork updates. Apple has been updating their software suites annually in January, but decided to skip iLife and iWork '07 at Expo in lieu of a large iPhone splash. Those of use that actually use these applications are feeling the pain. Some have suggested that the iWork and iLife updates are contingent on some of Leopard's "secret" features, but that's no excuse to leave customers twisting in the wind.

The one program that is sorely lacking is Apple's wimpy iWeb. The basic Web page builder is part of Apple's  iLife '04 suite (US$79) and it's just good enough to help you build a few slick Web sites, but that's about it.

iWeb has some decent templates, but once you've used them up there are no more. What's worse is that you can't touch any HTML in iWeb, it's all GUI-based, so if you need to hack in a button or tweak something - forget about it. If you maintain several sites in iWeb and update one page, you need to export all pages from all sites to a folder. Then it reminds you that it was really designed to work with Apple's (US$99/year) dot-Mac service. The list goes on and on.

Rumors recently surfaced that Apple is working on a standalone version of iWeb (called iWeb Pro) that will be a completely stand alone product. For me it's too little too late. An iWeb update was needed in January and I suspect that many people like me are jumping ship. I am in the process of migrating the hobby and community Web sites that I work on to Real Mac Software's excellent RapidWeaver (US$40) which features HTML, XHTML, WYSIWYG, full customization, live PHP Rendering and an open theme and plug-in architecture.

What do you use for HTML authoring?