Today, Karelia Software released its public beta version of SandVox, a tool allowing total beginners to design and publish simple websites. Since I’ve been looking for quick and easy website builders for the Mac, I downloaded a copy immediately. Here are my impressions:
1) SandVox is so simple, even your granny could use it. That’s the biggest strength of SandVox — and its greatest limitation. If you want to make changes to templates, move page elements around, or do other fancy things beyond what the basic templates allow, you’re outta luck. That said, the templates provided are attractive and do support some very basic customization.
As the program stands now, this is the web page builder for people who want to throw a bit of text and a photo or two into a template and be done with it. Of course, that may be exactly what your granny (or your mother, or your young child) wants to do … and, if so, SandVox will make this process easier than just about any other piece of software.
2) SandVox incorporates a blogging feature … but not one that will interest or serve the needs of serious bloggers. (Currently, there’s no automatically generated archive page or a way to search past entries — just one loooong blog page featuring all entries, sorted with the most recent first.) That said, if you have zero web-building skills and just want to post a thought or two on your .Mac webpage, SandVox does provide a simple means of creating and publishing a very basic blog.
3) SandVox is best for brochure-style sites with three or four pages. If you go beyond four or five pages, the automatically-generated menu bar becomes crowded or behaves unpredictably. (To be fair, the program is in beta, and some of these behaviors may be due to the fact the software isn’t quite ready for prime time.) If you keep your site to, say, a main page, an about page, and a dozen or so pictures of your kittens or kids, you’ll be just fine.
4) SandVox comes with more than a dozen attractive, well-designed website templates that range from the conservative and simple to the wild and complex. With the click of a single button, you can apply a template to every single page of your web site. When you do, all page elements will automatically rearrange and reformat themselves. Pretty cool.
Karelia says more templates are coming, and notes that third parties will be free to develop templates for the software, too.
5) In the end, SandVox is a lot easier to use than RapidWeaver. The user interface is streamlined and uncluttered, and will be very easy for almost anyone to figure out in a matter of minutes. That simplicity comes at a price — namely, less flexibility and power. Still, SandVox looks like a great tool for anyone who:
a) knows absolutely nothing about web page design and programming,
b) wants a fast and easy way to build a publish a simple personal site or “brochure site” for a small business,
c) plans to have no more than four or five pages on the website, and
d) doesn’t care to tweak, customize, or otherwise fiddle with the appearance and structure of those pages once they’re published.
If you’re after a more flexible (and, therefore, slightly more complex) tool, consider RapidWeaver. Want even more power? Try Freeway Pro. Used to Microsoft FrontPage? Take a look at free, open-source NVU.
Was this information helpful to you? If so, please download a FREE beta copy of SandVox from this link. When you do, I’ll receive one dollar off my eventual purchase of the program, and the folks at Karelia Software will get some idea of how many people responded positively to this post. Thanks!
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