Realmac Software Blog

Realmac Software Wins Global 100 Award 2026

Dan — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Realmac Software is proud to announce that we have been named a winner in the Global 100 Awards for Best Computer Software Business of the Year 2026, presented by Global Publishing & Media Group (GPMG).

The Global 100 Awards recognise outstanding businesses and individuals across the world who demonstrate innovation, resilience, and excellence in their respective industries. Being included among this year's winners is a significant milestone for our team and a meaningful recognition of the work we continue to do in shaping the future of independent web design.

For over two decades, Realmac Software has focused on building powerful, intuitive tools for creators. Our flagship product, RapidWeaver Elements, represents the next evolution of website building on macOS. Designed with a modern development stack and a clean, forward-thinking architecture, Elements empowers designers and developers to build fast, standards-compliant websites without compromise.

Winning a Global 100 Award affirms our long-standing commitment to:

Building professional-grade tools for web creators
Championing independent software development
Investing in modern technologies and performance
Supporting a passionate global community of users

We believe great software should feel deliberate, refined, and built to last. This award reinforces that mission.

A Word from Dan Counsell, Founder of Realmac Software:

"Winning a Global 100 Award is an honour for our entire team. We've spent years rethinking what modern web design software should look like, and this recognition validates that work. We remain committed to pushing forward, innovating, and delivering tools that help our customers build exceptional websites."

Looking Ahead

2026 is already shaping up to be a pivotal year for Realmac Software. With continued development of RapidWeaver Elements, expansion of the Elements ecosystem, and new innovations on the horizon, we remain focused on delivering best-in-class solutions for web professionals around the world.

We would like to thank our customers, partners, and community for their continued support. This achievement belongs to all of us.

For more information about Realmac Software and RapidWeaver Elements, visit: www.realmacsoftware.com

The Best Website Builder

Dan — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We ship. Relentlessly.

While others talk about momentum, we've spent years years doing the hard work: rebuilding what a modern Mac website builder should be from the ground up. Faster workflows. Cleaner output. Fewer compromises. More control where it actually matters. This is RapidWeaver Elements.

Elements is not a legacy app with layers bolted on over time. It is a native Mac app designed for how people build websites today, with modern CSS, real layouts, and zero gimmicks.

A Year of Real Progress

This year was about foundations and follow-through.

We focused on performance, stability, and flexibility first, then layered on powerful features that stay out of your way. Every update had one goal: make it easier to design and ship production-ready websites without fighting the tool.

Watch the video on YouTube

Elements is built around Tailwind at its core. Not an abstraction. Not a visual approximation. Real, clean, portable output that developers trust and designers can still enjoy using.

Built for Mac. Built for Professionals.

Elements feels like a Mac app because it is one.

Native performance. Thoughtful UI. Predictable behaviour. No web wrappers. No compromises to chase platforms we do not believe in. Mac users deserve tools that respect their workflow, not ones that dilute it.

With Elements you get a visual builder powered by real code, fully customisable components, and modern layout tools that work with you rather than against you. Your sites export clean code you can confidently ship, backed by a growing ecosystem that prioritises quality over volume.

Built for Longevity

Elements is designed for people who care about what they ship.

Agencies. Freelancers. Developers. Designers who want precision without noise. You can start visually, go deep when needed, and never hit a ceiling imposed by the app.

No lock-in. No magic layers. No pretending.

The Best Website Builder for Mac

Not because we say so. Because it is built the right way.

If you want a Mac website builder that respects modern web standards, values performance, and gives you full control over your work, RapidWeaver Elements is the clear choice.

This is not about shipping the most features (although we do). It is about shipping the right ones that users need.

And we are just getting started.

How to create a website on a Mac

Dan — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This guide is for anyone building their first website on a Mac.

If you've made websites before, you can probably skip this one. But if you're new to it all, stick around, by the end, you'll know exactly how to design and publish a fully responsive website right from your Mac. Without writing a single line of code!

Building a website has never been easier, but with so many tools and services out there, it can be hard to know where to begin. This guide will walk you through everything you need to get started, from design to publishing, all using RapidWeaver Elements on macOS. Let's dive in…

Getting Started

When you're ready to build your website, the good news is you can get started right away with Elements. Everything you need to design, edit, and preview your site runs natively on your Mac. There's no complicated setup, no need for extra software, and definitely no terminal commands to worry about.

This is where RapidWeaver Elements comes in. It's a modern Mac website builder that lets you visually design your site, add pages and content, and publish everything directly from macOS. Built on Tailwind CSS, it gives you full creative control without writing a single line of code.

While Elements takes care of the design and publishing side, there are two other things you'll need before your website can go live: hosting and a custom domain name. Hosting is where your site's files are stored and served from. Elements exports a static website, which means you can upload it to almost any hosting provider. Services like Netlify, GitHub Pages, and Cloudflare Pages are popular, reliable, and easy to use.

You'll also need a domain name, this is the address people type in to find your site, such as realmsoftware.com. You can buy one from registrars like Namecheap, Porkbun, or Hover. Once your site is hosted, connecting your domain is usually just a few clicks away, and you'll be ready to share your new website with the world.

Build a website on your Mac

Once you've got your hosting and domain ready, it's time to start building. The great thing about RapidWeaver Elements is that everything happens right on your Mac, you can design, preview, and publish your entire website without switching between multiple apps or accounts.

Launch Elements and press the "New Project" button in the Welcome Window, you will then see the project chooser window. To save time and get inspired, pick one of the pre-built projects included with Elements. There are options for portfolios, landing pages, blogs, agencies, more. Each template is fully editable, you can change colors, typography, layout, and images to match your style or brand. Watch the following video that's part of our official quickstart guide to see how this works in practice:

Watch the video on YouTube

The video above should have given you a good idea on how Elements works, but if you want a full tour of the interface, you can watch the Elements Interface Tour video on YouTube.

Publishing Your Website

When you're ready to share your site with the world, head to your Site Settings and open the Publishing section. Here, you can set up your publishing destination and choose how you'd like to upload your site.

Elements supports several publishing options, including local publishing (to a folder on your Mac) and direct uploads via FTP, SFTP, FTPS, or Amazon S3. Once everything is configured, publishing your site is just a click away — and seeing your work live in Safari is always a rewarding moment.

Depending on your hosting provider, you might need to adjust a few settings before your first publish. This is perfectly normal, as different hosts have slightly different requirements. The key thing to remember is that your publishing details come from your hosting provider, not Realmac Software.

Some providers use unique login credentials or server paths that differ from the details you use to access their control panel. This separation is intentional and helps keep your information secure. If you're unsure about what to enter in Elements, reach out to your hosting provider's support team. they'll be able to provide the exact details you need.

Next Steps

Once your website is live, the fun really begins. You can keep improving it by adding new pages, refining your design, or connecting the Elements CMS if you want to build a blog (just like this one). As you grow more confident, try exploring advanced features like Globals and Custom Components to take your site even further.

If you ever get stuck, we've got you covered. Check out the full Elements Manual — it's packed with helpful guides and videos to walk you through every feature. You can also drop by the Elements Forum to ask questions, get advice, or share what you've built with the community.

Building a website on your Mac with Elements is straightforward, powerful, and a lot of fun.

The Macnificent 9 — Nine Wonderful Indie Mac Apps

Dan — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

We've teamed up with 8 other remarkable Indie Mac Developers to bring you The Macnificent 9. This collection of outstanding apps will let you unlock the full potential of your Mac.

Take a look at the list below, and you'll see they are all top-notch, there's no filler in this bundle. Best of all this entire collection (worth $213) of apps can be yours for just $59, this is a huge 78% saving!

Timemator 2, Automatic time-tracking based on your rules and activities
RapidWeaver 8, The best web design software for Mac
Unclutter, Files, notes & clipboard manager for Mac
Default Folder X, Enhanced Open and Save dialogs for macOS
One Switch, All the toggles in your menu bar
Unite 3, Turn websites into apps on your Mac
DaisyDisk, Analyze disk usage and free up disk space on Mac
ForkLift 3, The most advanced dual pane file manager for macOS
Mosaic Pro, Effortlessly resize and re-position windows on your Mac

Head over to the Macnificent website and grab all the apps or just the ones you fancy. Either way it's a great deal and you're supporting independent mac developers.

What's Cooking at Realmac HQ?

Dan — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I know we've been quiet for a while here at Realmac HQ, but the good news is, that there has been lots going on behind the scenes.

A few days ago on Twitter, we announced that Squash 3 was in the works for Mac and iOS. It's been a bit of a re-write to bring it up-to-date, but it looks great. It's a small project, and we hope to ship it this year.

We also have RapidWeaver 9 in development, and it's shaping up to be the best version of RapidWeaver yet. It'll be Universal and run great on both Intel, and Apple Silicon-based Macs. We'll have more news on this in the new year.

In other RapidWeaver related news, the brand-new RapidWeaver Community site is due for release very soon; it'll be in beta form to start with just while we make sure everything is running smoothly.

So while we're not shipping anything new today, we have plenty of things in the works that will be released very soon.

Exciting times are ahead, and this feels like a more positive way to end, what's been a rather hard 2020 for everyone. And finally, thanks for all your support this past year, and here's to a much better 2021 🎉

RapidWeaver SEO Tips

Dan — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The following tips won't guarantee you a top spot on Google, but they will give you a solid foundation to build from. Let's dive right in.

First off, get yourself a descriptive domain name. Don’t go for a trendy acronym, or remove the vowels because it sounds cool. If you run a coffee shop, “benscoffeeshop.com” is better than “bcs.io”.

Secondly, you should customise the file and folder name for every page. The folder name should describe the page content, such as “brewing-methods” or “opening-times”. The file name should be “index.html” (or .php, if required).

Note: Ensure that “Tidy website links” is enabled in the settings (this is the case for all new RapidWeaver projects). Doing so will remove the “index.html” from all links, meaning you’ll get links like “benscoffeeshop.com/contact” rather than “”benscoffeeshop.com/contact/index.html”.

Bad examples:

bcs.io/page1/page1.html
bcs.io/page1/page2/page2.html

Good examples:

benscoffeeshop.com/methods
benscoffeeshop.com/methods/pour-over

Use Page Titles to Describe Your Content

The page title is really important. Google tries to match the words in your title to the content the user sees. The two most important things to think about when writing page titles are:

Use as many of the keywords you want to be found for as possible, without being spammy.

Describe the Page Content

Whilst most people think putting their company name at the beginning of the title is important, if you want the best results then your most important keywords should be at the beginning. Google cares more about the content than your company name.

The page title should be between 50-60 characters, as this is the amount that will typically be displayed on Google. Going over 60 characters won’t harm you, but anything after roughly the 55 character mark won’t be displayed, or help your SEO score. Plus it looks neater, and more professional, if your entire title is displayed in search results.

Bad Examples:

BCS - Brewing (Really bad)
Ben’s Coffee - Location (Bad)

Coffee brewing. Brewing Coffee at Ben’s Coffee Brewing Coffee Shop (Spammy, don’t do this)

The first two examples are bad because they are short, don’t describe the page content, and don’t include many keywords.

The third example is spammy, and will harm you in the long run. Google are getting better at filtering out sites that are attempting to game the system. So whilst you might see some short-term results, you’ll be feeling the wrath of Google once they realise what you’re up to. No-one wants to be banished to page ten for eternity.

Good examples:

Learn how to brew amazing coffee at Ben’s Coffee Shop
Drink the Best Coffee in Brighton at Ben’s Coffee Shop

These examples are good because they use keywords a coffee shop might want to be found for, describe the content on the page, and are roughly 55 characters long. These titles will give you the best long term results. Just make sure your content matches up with the title (we’ll talk about content more later).

You can customise the title for each page on your RapidWeaver site by using the “Page Title” text box in the Page Inspector.

Responsive Design

At this point responsive design is pretty standard across all sites. If you’re maintaining a site that isn’t responsive, you need take the leap and make it responsive.

Why? Because, for a while now, Google have been giving sites that are responsive, or “Mobile friendly” as they label them in search results, more points on searches made from a mobile device.

The reason for this is because Google wants to ensure the sites they send you to are easy to use, on the device you’re using. If you keep getting sent to sites that are hard to use, you’ll find the “Google experience” annoying and might start using a competitor (Hello Bing).

All RapidWeaver themes released in the last few years are responsive, so it’s easy to create a responsive, mobile friendly site. And with RapidWeaver’s built in “Responsive Preview” you can easily see how your site will look on desktop, tablet, and mobile.

So just pick a theme, make sure your content layout is good on a variety of screen sizes, and you’re good to go!

Make it Fast

Nobody likes waiting for a page to load, not even Google! So they decided that sites that load fast would be given more points.

Making your site loads fast is a complex subject, but there a few basic things you can do to improve your site’s loading time:

Reduce the size of your images. Either by resizing them, or use an app like Squash to reduce the file size.

Remove that fancy Javascript effect. The parallax scrolling and photo lightbox you installed might be cool, but does it really warrant the addition of multiple HTTP requests and 1/2/300kb to your page?

Cache everything. Caching can be difficult to setup on your own. Luckily there’s CloudFlare (more on them below) that can do all the hard work for you.

There’s a lot more to making a site load fast (CDNs, lazy loading content, file compression, etc.) that we can’t cover here. If you want to learn more, start by putting your site through Google’s PageSpeed Insights.

Make it Secure

You’ll want to get HTTPS setup on your server. This sounds scary, and it used to be, but these days we have sites like CloudFlare that will take care of it for you.

Why do you need HTTPS? Again, mostly because Google is giving more points to sites that are secure (there are other reasons why secure sites are important, but it’s beyond the scope of this post).

HTTPS is not something RapidWeaver can setup for you, it’s something that is handled by your server. You could go through the hassle of purchasing and installing a certificate, or if you’re just starting out I suggest you signup for a free CloudFlare account and setup HTTPS with them. Once you have your site setup with CloudFlare, it is literally two clicks and your site can be served over HTTPS.

Content is King

It’s true what those SEO experts say, “Content is King”. If you only do one thing, concentrate on adding quality, relevant content to your site. And do it on a regular basis, don’t allow your site to become stale.

The best way to do this is to create a blog, and make a commitment to post regularly. You don’t need to go crazy and post updates five times a day — you’re not trying to replicate your twitter feed. Start slow, say one or two posts a month, and cover a topic that’s relevant to your business. Cover the topic in-depth, as doing so will show your visitors (and Google!) that you know what you’re talking about and that you’re a good source of information.

Think about, and plan, what you’re going to write in each post. SEO experts will probably bang on about “keyword research”, giving you a long list of must-have tools that help you research and choose which keywords to use. Don’t worry about all that, there’s an easy way to get started...

Start typing a couple of words in to Google, and see what it suggests. Those suggestions are the keywords you’ll want to focus on. For example, my imaginary coffee blog will likely cover how to brew coffee. If you start Googling for “coffee brew” you’ll get the following suggestions:

coffee brewers
coffee brewing
coffee brewing methods
coffee brewing ratio

Those are the most popular phrases people are searching for. Use those phrases as your keywords, and start writing posts that contain them both in the title and the body (you should also tag your posts). This is the basics of how you target the keywords you want to be found for.

The main thing to keep in mind is, and I can’t stress this enough; Write good quality content that’s relevant to your business. Write something you’d want to read. Write it on a regular basis.

I keep saying “good quality”, and I mean that in every sense of the word. Don’t be sloppy! Make sure there are no spelling mistakes and don’t use jargon or acronyms. Your content should sound professional and be easy to read.

If you put this in to practice you’ll start to find people link to your articles, perhaps via their own blog or on social media. This is known as “link building”, which I’ll cover in another post, but in short: Link Building is increasing the number of inbound links to your site. You need to do this because it really helps your ranking score.

SEO Roundup

As I said at the start, implementing these tips won’t guarantee you a top spot on Google, but it’ll certainly give you an excellent foundation to build from. You won’t get to the top of Google (or even page one) over night, be patient and stick at it.

RapidWeaver 8.7 Now Supports Big Sur

Dan — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

We didn't know exactly when Apple was going to release Big Sur, but we're pleased to announce that we've updated RapidWeaver 8 to run great on the new system and it's available today.

As well as adding compatibility for Big Sur, we also managed to squeeze in a few fixes and enhancements. Continue reading for a full list of changes in RapidWeaver 8.7.

What's New?

Added support for macOS 11 Big Sur
Site Language is now set correctly by default
Fixed an issue where Adding remote resource URL to Override Site Banner section caused a crash
Fixes an issues where sometimes photos in portratiate orientaion were not being uploaded
Fixed an issue with Keychain and Forklift
Removes all internal uses of WebKit
Various other fixes and improvements

RapidWeaver 8 runs great on everything from Mac OS 10.12, right through to macOS 11. However, for the best experience we recommend using macOS 11.

Discount available for New Users and Upgrades!

To celebrate the launch we're offering 20% off the price of RapidWeaver 8, click here to automatically apply the coupon code at checkout.

Availability

RapidWeaver 8.7 is a free update for existing users and is now available via our website, the Mac App Store and Setapp.

Happy Weaving!

RapidWeaver 8.6 and New Tutorials

Dan — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 19:46:00 +0000

I'm pleased to announce RapidWeaver 8.6 is now available. This is a great little update with neumerous fixes and is recommend for all users. Check out the list below to see what's new:

What's New in 8.6?

External CSS files now update correctly in Preview
Fixed an issue with Resource Macros and SVG files
Fixed an issue where RapidWeaver wouldn't launch because of Quicklook
Fixed a few issues with the Engineer theme
Various other under the hood fixes and improvments

Download RapidWeaver 8.6 directly from Realmac Software, via the App Store, or even on Setapp!

RapidWeaver + Stacks + Foundry = Awesome Websites

I also started doing a short (and laid back) tutorial series using RapidWeaver 8 along with the latest version of Stacks 4 and Foundry 2. In these videos I show you how I would put togther a quick website using these tools.

I've included part one and part two below, and hopefully part three will be available later this week. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube Channel to be notifed as and when we release new videos.

Watch the video on YouTube

Get Weaving!

If you're still using an older version of RapidWeaver (e.g. 5, 6, or 7), now is the time to upgrade! You really don't want to get left behind as we have plenty of exciting things planned for rest 2020 and beyond.

Stay safe, and happy weaving!

RapidWeaver 8.5

Dan — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 11:45:00 +0000

I'm pleased to announce RapidWeaver 8.5 is now available. This is an excellent stability update and is recommend for all users. 8.5 contains many under the hood fixes and improvements.

What's New in 8.5?

Fxed an issue with the FTP browser in Mojave
Added sorting back into the Photo Album page style
Numerous other fixes and improvements!

Download RapidWeaver 8.5 directly from Realmac or update in-app.

If you're still using older version of RapidWeaver (e.g. 5, 6, or 7), now is the time to upgrade! You really don't want to get left behind as we have plenty of exciting things planned for 2020 and beyond. It's going to be essential you're using 8.5 or newer to take advantage of the great things to come!

Keep building awesome websites. happy weaving!

Realmac celebrates 17 years on the Mac!

Dan — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 09:54:00 +0000

Today marks the anniversary of when I officially started Realmac. It was way back on the 19th of November 2002. 17 years ago. It doesn't feel like it's been that long. The years certainly feel like they are starting to fly by faster than ever before…

I really should do an in-depth post at some point about our history, but today is not that day. Today is about celebrating!

And to celebrate surviving the ups and downs of the unforgiving technical landscape for the past 17 years, we're offering 30% off all our products.

The discount includes RapidWeaver, Squash, our tutorial video series, and subscriptions over at the RapidWeaver Community website. This offer will be valid over the sales period of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

I really appreciate all the support we've had over the years and feel very thankful for being able to get up and do this everyday. Viva la Realmac! Visit our Special Discount Store to save 30% on all our products.

Thanks.

RapidWeaver 8.4 updated for macOS Catalina

Dan — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 18:21:00 +0000

It's been a busy summer for us here at Realmac HQ, we've been hard at work making sure your favourite web design tool runs on Apple's latest system.

After the surprise launch of macOS Catana last week, I'm pleased to announce we have released RapidWeaver 8.4 and it works just great on Apple's new system.

Update your Plugins

Before you upgrade to macOS Catalina you'll want to make sure all your third-party plugins are up-to-date.

This is a list of plugins that are known to work great with RapidWeaver 8.4 on macOS Catalina. If a plugin you use or rely on is not on this list please contact the third-party developer directly or check their website for details.

Stacks 3
Stacks 4
Accordion
Blocks
Collage
FAQMaker
Flow
Lockdown
PlusKit
SiteMap
Formloom 4
Emporter

In most cases your themes and stacks should just work on Catalina (as they don't execute any native code), no update required. Although, it's always a good idea to make sure you're running the latest version of all add-ons as they often contain essential bug fixes. If you're in any doubt you can visit this forum thread to ask for advice.

Upgrade to RapidWeaver 8.4 and install macOS Catalina

Once your plugins are up-to-date you'll be all set to upgrade. If you're running macOS Catalina you should be running RapidWeaver 8.4 otherwise you may run into crital compatibility issues.

Dark Mode in RapidWeaver 8.4 under Catalina

What’s New in 8.4?

Fixed a crash when right clicking a link in Styled Text (Catalina)
Fixed some thread issues in (Catalina)
HTML page no longer looses “show in navigation” setting when migrating from RW7 to RW8
Fixed an issue with AmazonS3 showing access denied on some files
Various other fixes and improvements to keep RapidWeaver running smoothly

Where to Download RapidWeaver 8.4

Direct customers can download RapidWeaver 8.4 here, or check in-app for updates. If you're a Mac App Store customer, please check the App Store for updates.

Happy Weaving!

RapidWeaver 8.3 Now Available

Dan — Fri, 30 Aug 2019 12:22:00 +0000

I'm pleased to announce that RapidWeaver 8.3 is now available directly. The App Store version should be available in the next few days once Apple have approved it.

This is an excellent release and a recommended update for all users. If you're still using RapidWeaver 5, 6, or 7, you can upgrade for a discounted price here.

What's New in 8.3?

Ongoing work to improve Amazon S3 Publishing
Added support for Emporter
Added new update engine due to DevMate going away
Added support for detecting and managing duplicate images
Fixed an issue when copying the url of a resource
Fixed an issues with sub folders being incorrectly named when opening and old project
Fixed an issue where an 'Untitled Folder' directory could be seen in resources
Fixed a crash when adding new resources if existing resources are unresolved
Fixed a crash in the link panel
Fixed a crash when dragging a resource into site settings
Fixed an issue where the blog social images would not be saved
Updated Multi Lander Theme
Various other under the hood tweaks and fixes.

Download RapidWeaver 8.3 — Happy Weaving!

RapidWeaver 8 is now Available on the Mac App Store

Dan — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 17:23:00 +0000

Big news! We're excited to announce that RapidWeaver 8 has finally made it to the App Store, but perhaps best of all, it's available at a discounted price to celebrate.

We're also thrilled that RapidWeaver got featured and has had a great bit of editorial coverage written about it that explains exactly what it can do, perfect for those new users that may not be so familiar with it.

Getting started is as simple as picking one of RapidWeaver's elegant website themes (like Artful or Engineer). You'll edit page content using standard rich text or Markdown formatting; to add images, drag and drop from Finder, or use the app's media browser to import from your Photos library or the stock-photo service Unsplash.

Need more options? RapidWeaver Addons created by third-party developers let you enhance your site with e-commerce features, analytics, individual logins, additional layout options, and much more. You'll find over 1,000 of these in the official community library.

RapidWeaver 8 on the App Store is available at a discounted price to allow all users to upgrade or migrate to the App Store version should they wish. At some point in the near future the price will be increasing to match the regular price available via our website.

If you want to upgrade to RapidWeaver 8 or move to the App Store version, now is the time to do it.

And finally, don't forgt to check out our growing collection of video tutorials, and friendly forum to help you build your website faster than ever before.

Happy Weaving!

Getting Started with Stacks in RapidWeaver 8

Ben — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 12:50:00 +0000

Stacks is, hands-down, the most popular addon for RapidWeaver. It gives you the tools to create any type of layout with drag-and-drop ease.

In this post, we’ll get you up and running with Stacks and RapidWeaver 8, but if you want a quick video overview, How to use Stacks video.

Watch the video on YouTube

Learn how to use Stacks in RapidWeaver 8

Haven’t upgraded to RapidWeaver 8? Get your copy from the Realmac Store today!

Stacks and RapidWeaver 8 are fully compatible. We worked hard to ensure the upgrade from RapidWeaver 7 to 8 is smooth for all users. So if you're already a Stacks user, rest assured everything will be migrated across without any issues.

Fantastic job on this update guys. One of the smoothest product updates ever. All add ons and stacks installed without a glitch, made some changes to a website and like magic everything worked right out of the gate!

— Dennis Graf

What Is Stacks?

Stacks is a plugin for RapidWeaver from YourHead Software. It adds a new page type to RapidWeaver which you add to your site in the same as any built-in plugin.

Stacks comes with a library of built-in stacks to get you started. Yes, it’s confusing - the “widgets” for Stacks the plugin are called “stacks” 🤷‍♂️

Anyway, you’ll get stacks for multi-column layouts, buttons, text, images, and headings. You drag the stacks into the editing area and start building up your custom designed page. It’s really quick and easy to create any type of layout.

Why should I use Stacks?

If you want more control over your site’s layout, then Stacks is for you. Multi-column, responsive websites are are drag-and-drop easy.

Stacks also opens up a world of opportunities in RapidWeaver; there are hundreds of stacks for Stacks which add additional power. You can create an online store, edit your content online, add database integration, and much more. Definitely take a look at all the stacks on the RapidWeaver Community.

Take the Foundry and Foundation frameworks as an example; using either of these addons you can create a fully custom designed website. You don’t use a pre-designed theme, you create the styling and layout for your site from scratch.

Watch our Introduction to Foundry video for a more detailed explanation (this is how we build the Realmac Software site).

Watch the video on YouTube

Build a custom designed website with Foundry

If you want to learn more about RapidWeaver and Stacks then take a look at our RapidWeaver tutorials; we publish free video tutorials on a regular basis to keep your Weaving game strong.

Why RapidWeaver 8 is a Must Have Upgrade

Dan — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 10:44:00 +0000

RapidWeaver 8 has just launched, and it's our most significant release yet. It's packed with new features and enhancements, but before we get into the details, I need to warn you; this is an epic blog post with a lot of content.

We had a few goals for RapidWeaver 8, one of those was to add as many user and developer requested features as possible. While not everything made it into this release, I think we did a pretty good job of getting the right balance because the feedback we've had so far has been fantastic — Here's just two of the many stand out comments we've received about RapidWeaver 8:

Congratulations on the launch of RW8! Already published a client site with it and everything worked absolutely flawlessly. Regarding plugins and other addons it’s been a smooth transition like no version before! One can absolutely feel the love which has been put into this version.

— Matthias Ficht

And here's another…

Fantastic job on this update guys. One of the smoothest product updates ever. All add ons and stacks installed without a glitch, made some changes to a website and like magic everything worked right out of the gate!

— Dennis Graf

If you've not yet upgraded to RapidWeaver 8 and want to learn more before taking the plunge, read on to see just ten of the great new features you're missing out on.

1. Refined User Interface

With each RapidWeaver release, we’ve improved the user interface in countless ways, and RapidWeaver 8 is no exception. The app icon is probably the first thing you'll notice. It went through many revisions before we settled on this one. It keeps the essence of what makes the RapidWeaver icon look like RapidWeaver, but it's much bolder and more modern looking.

While we're talking about icons, I thought it'd be fun to look at the last 10 years of RapidWeaver icons. Just for the record, I couldn't locate high-res versions of the first two releases (RapidWeaver Lite and RapidWeaver Plus) as this would have been around 2004, fourteen years ago — Yikes!

We’ve updated pretty much all the icons within the interface; this makes RapidWeaver look great under both light and dark modes in Mojave. You'll have to wait until Mojave is released later this year to get a peek at Dark Mode, but in the meantime, here's a look at the interface in light mode.

You might notice the themes drawer is gone and has been replaced by a modern and more convenient pop-over. Other subtle improvements can be seen in the way the inspector can be detached and re-attached from the main window.

We also added state restoration; this is done on a per project basis. If you close your project with the page inspector open, and the page you're working on selected, it will be in the same state when you open it again. It’s a subtle feature, but something you'll quickly grow to love.

Watch the video below to see state restoration in action.

Watch the video on YouTube

2. New Resource Browser with Unsplash Integration

RapidWeaver 8 introduces Unsplash integration, and you’re going to absolutely love it. Unsplash is a collection of professionally taken, beautiful stock images that are entirely free to use.

You can search the entire Unsplash library directly within RapidWeaver 8, dragging-and-dropping any image on to your site as you usually would; banner images, stack image drop-zones, and styled text areas. It really is great, and so much fun to use.

Watch the video below to see how Unsplash integration works in RapidWeaver 8.

Watch the video on YouTube

3. New Addons Manager

Re-written and now available in the Preferences window from within RapidWeaver, the new addons manager allows you to enable and disable plugins, themes, and stacks. You can even manage them on an individual level or by developer, making it incredibly easy to enable and disable addons so you can build websites faster, cleaner, and easier.

RapidWeaver 8 also includes a handy "Export Addon Directory" feature that enables you to easily move all your addons to another Mac, or to just make a backup of them.

Watch the new Addons Manager in action below.

Watch the video on YouTube

4. Device Simulator

When building websites, it’s now essential that your site looks perfect on all devices, especially phones and tablets. RapidWeaver 8 comes with a brand-new device preview feature that allows you to simulate your site on many devices - be it an iPhone X, iPad Pro, or a 27" iMac, all without ever leaving RapidWeaver.

The Device Simulator also allows you to open multiple windows, this means you can view your site on an iPhone X, iPad Pro, and iMac all at the same time.

RapidWeaver 8 includes a live reload feature (this is really awesome), and it’s one of my favourite new features. As you make edits to your RapidWeaver site, the device simulator will update every device - gone are the days of switching between apps and hitting refresh. Trust me, once you’re used to all previews automatically updating, there’s no going back.

I think those of you who have a dual monitor set up will find this particularly useful as you can have RapidWeaver open on one screen and the live-reloading device simulator on the other. It’s a big time-saver and will speed up your workflow immensely.

Watch the video below to learn more about how the Device Preview works.

Oh, and If you're ready to upgrade to RapidWeaver 8, just head on over to the Realmac Store and purchase your copy now.

Watch the video on YouTube

5. Five New Themes

RapidWeaver 8 comes with five beautiful new themes that are modern, GDPR compliant and perfect for a wide range of uses. Each theme comes with a tonne of customisation options, meaning you can change the look and feel to fit your requirements.

All of the new themes are built using a fully responsive framework and backed by modern, cross-browser tested, rock-solid code (and, if you're an advanced user, you have the power of Bootstrap 4 at your fingertips).

If you're not sure where to start, we've included five example projects that will help you get started even quicker and give you an idea of what each theme is capable of.

Watch the video below to see these great new themes in action.

Watch the video on YouTube

6. Web Icons

RapidWeaver 8 now supports a broader range of favicons. Including iOS home screen icons, Safari Pinned Tab icons, and custom coloured SVG icons.

If you drop a large image onto the "iPhone Retina" drop-zone in the Web Icons area, RapidWeaver 8 will offer to generate all the other required icons for you (apart from SVG as that's a different format and needs to be a vector).

Watch the video below to learn more about web icons in RapidWeaver 8:

Watch the video on YouTube

7. GDPR Compliant

RapidWeaver 7 was already an excellent choice for the privacy conscious, but we’ve gone even further with RapidWeaver 8. All built-in themes use local resources, and this means none of them makes requests to third-party servers, you seriously can't get better than that.

Watch the video below to learn a little more about GDPR & RapidWeaver 8:

Watch the video on YouTube

8. Social Media Meta Tags

RapidWeaver 8 now generates social media meta tags for you. This is three features in one as it works globally for all pages, on a per-page basis, and individually on each blog post.

These meta tags help describe your site in more detail when pages are shared on social media and messaging apps. RapidWeaver will automatically generate meta tags with information about your page, however, you can customise these meta tags by providing a custom title, description, and image for each page and blog post.

Watch the video below to learn how to add Social Media tags to your website:

Watch the video on YouTube

9. New Snippets Manager

The Snippets window has seen a considerable upgrade. It now supports two different types of snippets; HTML and Rich Text. Each snippet now has a title field, making it even easier to find what you're looking for using the new search functionality.

Watch the video below to learn how to use the new Snippets Manager.

Watch the video on YouTube

10. htaccess Editor

RapidWeaver 8 introduced .htaccess file editing, directly within the app. Editing .htaccess files are not for the faint of heart, but if you're feeling brave, it can be beneficial for setting up redirects or password protecting areas on your website. Don't worry if you do mess things up though, RapidWeaver tracks edits and allows you rollback to a previous working version.

To edit your htaccess file, visit the Publishing area and click the "Edit .htaccess File" button. This feature is destination independent; meaning you can manage the htaccess file for each of your destinations, which is perfect if you have different locations for your testing and production servers.

Watch the video below to learn more about editing .htaccess files.

Watch the video on YouTube

So Much More

There are so many other small things, that add up to RapidWeaver 8 being a must have upgrade for every user. If you're still hungry to learn more about RapidWeaver 8 we've got plenty of new tutorial videos available, and you can read more about the features on the official website.

Here’s a fun fact, and one I find hard to believe; RapidWeaver has now been supported and developed for over 14 years! RapidWeaver even launched way before iWeb, and has outlived it by a long shot (so, I guess RapidWeaver got Unsherlocked?).

Developing and supporting RapidWeaver is something we’re super proud of, even though 14 years is a long time, it still feels like we’re just getting started. We have so much we want to add to RapidWeaver over the coming years, it really is an exciting time to be a weaver.

So yeah, the development hasn't slowed down, in fact we've already released RapidWeaver 8.0.1 and 8.0.2 and are now hard at work on RapidWeaver 8.1 - we plan to ship this in-time for the launch of Mojave, and yes it will support Dark Mode!

If you've not yet upgraded to version 8, now is the time!

Device Simulator in RapidWeaver 8

Ben — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 10:15:00 +0000

RapidWeaver 8 comes with a brand-new Device Simulator that allows you to preview your site in any device - be it an iPhone X, iPad Pro, or a 27" iMac - without ever leaving RapidWeaver.

It’s now easier than ever before to check how your site looks and feels across all devices. The Device Simulator in RapidWeaver 8 allows you to preview your site in multiple devices all at the same time, and includes an auto-refresh feature that instantly updates each device as you make edits to your site.

We’ve recorded a feature video for the Device Simulator; check it out below to see exactly how it works.

Watch the video on YouTube

Preview your site in any device

To open the new Device Simulator just click the “Device Simulator” button in the toolbar — a new window will open displaying a preview of your site in an iPhone X.

You can switch devices quickly by choosing from the predefined list of iOS devices, or you can use a custom width and height.

The device simulator really is a fantastic new way to ensure your site looks great across all devices and screen sizes.

Multiple Windows

The Device Simulator allows you to open multiple devices; you can view your site on an iPhone X, iPad Pro, and iMac all at the same time. Or you can view it on an iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone SE. It’s never been easier to check your site on any number of devices all at the same time!

Live Reload

RapidWeaver 8 includes a live reload feature (this is awesome, honestly!), and it’s one of my favourite new features. As you make edits to your RapidWeaver site, the device simulator will instantly update every device - gone are the days of switching between apps and hitting refresh. Trust me, once you get used to all devices instantly updating, there’s no going back.

I think those of you who have a dual monitor set up will find this particularly useful as you can have RapidWeaver open on one screen, and the live-reloading device simulator on the other. It’s a big time-saver and will speed up your workflow immensely.

Save Window Layouts

The Device Simulator also allows you to create your own custom window layouts. If you keep opening up simulators for an iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone SE all at the same time, you can create a preset for those by choosing "Save Window Layout as" from the Device Simulator’s options menu - this is covered in the above video.

Again, this is a great time-saver and gives you a quick way to view your site in any number of preset devices.

RapidWeaver 8 Available Now!

RapidWeaver 8 is packed full of amazing new features like this. If you want to learn more, head over to the RapidWeaver site and download a free trial today!

RapidWeaver 8.0.1 is here!

Dan — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 09:38:00 +0000

Hot on the heels of the initial RapidWeaver 8 launch, we have the rather lovely 8.0.1 release of everybody's favourite web design app on the Mac.

This new version fixes up a bunch of minor issues that snuck through our beta testing process. Check in-app for updates or grab it directly from here. For those of you who are curious, you can take a look at the full release notes for all the details.

Since the launch we've also had a few people ask us, "Is the Realmac site built with RapidWeaver?" and the answer is "Yes, it's built and Published with RapidWeaver".

We use RapidWeaver along with the Stacks and Foundry addons. Pretty cool, right? If you'd like to learn about building a website like ours, you should take a look at all the tutorials we have available, but specifically these two:

Get the Special Launch Pricing

If you've not yet picked up a copy of RapidWeaver 8, now's the time to do it. To sweeten the deal we're offering a $10 discount for all customers, head over to the Realmac Store to take advantage of this — Hurry, the launch pricing ends on August 28th!

We're already hard at work on making RapidWeaver 8 even better, so be sure to look out for more updates in the coming days and weeks.

Happy Weaving!

RapidWeaver 8 for Mac is Available Now

Dan — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 10:37:00 +0000

After more than a year in development, I'm excited to say that RapidWeaver 8 is finally here, and it's packed with amazing new features and countless refinements.

What's New?

This is probably the biggest RapidWeaver release we've ever done, and it's impossible to distill all the changes down into a single blog post. However, here's a list highlighting some of the more notable features.

Device Simulator Preview how your website will look on different devices, such as iPhone, iPad Pro, iMac and more.
Unsplash Integration Browse, search and use Photos from the webs biggest collection of royalty free images.
New Resources Manager Managing assets has never been this easy. Take charge of images, files, folders, and more.
Web Icon Generator Drag and drop support for all popular formats of favicons, including Safari pinned tabs!
OpenGraph Support Greatly improved support for social graph tags. Drag and drop easy.
.htaccess Editor Edit htaccess files along with history support incase you need to rollback your changes.
Five New Themes Five brand-new themes built by Realmac. Beautiful, responsive, and customisable.
GDPR Compliant Out of the box, RapidWeaver 8 is GDPR compliant and even has support for adding a pop-over privacy notice to your website.
Improved User Interface RapidWeaver now saves UI state. It's also native, intuitive, and easier to use than ever before.
New Addons Manager Enable, disabled, and manage your themes, plugins and stacks with ease.

You can also visit the RapidWeaver website for a more complete list along with videos for each new feature.

Let's Get Weaving!

To celebrate the release, RapidWeaver 8 is available with special launch pricing. This means new users can purchase RapidWeaver 8 for $79, whilst existing users can upgrade for just $59.

Hurry, this discounted pricing is only available for two weeks, until August 28th.

If you have any questions about pricing, upgrading, and availability of RapidWeaver 8 we have a full FAQ available here.

And finally, this is just the start of an exciting journey for RapidWeaver, I hope you'll stick with us over the coming months and years as we kick things into overdrive — Happy Weaving!

RapidWeaver 8 is Launching Next Week

Dan — Thu, 09 Aug 2018 14:52:00 +0000

After more than a year in development, I'm pleased to say that RapidWeaver 8 for Mac will ship next week on, Tuesday, 14th August 2018.

I think RapidWeaver 8 is going to be a must-have upgrade, the whole team has worked so hard to integrate as many requests from users and third-party developers as possible — It's still the same RapidWeaver you know and love, but it's been significantly improved and refined in almost every area. It really is a great release, and I can't wait to be able to share it with you.

So what's new in RapidWeaver 8?

I'm not going to go into detail on all the new features just yet, but here's a list of just eight of the new things you'll find in RapidWeaver 8:

Unsplash Photo Support
Brand New Resources Manager
Responsive Device Simulator
GDPR Compliant with Privacy Pop-up Option
UI State Restoration
OpenGraph & Twitter Card Support
Built-in .htaccess Editor with Revision Support
Web Icon Generator

And so much more…

RapidWeaver 8 will be available to purchase directly from our web store and will be priced at $89. Users of RapidWeaver 7 or earlier will be able to upgrade for $69. However, we are offering a $10 discount if you purchase within the first two weeks of launch — This offer ends on August 28th 2018.

I know some of our loyal users have been wondering about system compatibility and I'm pleased to say we've managed to ensure RapidWeaver 8 will run great on everything from macOS 10.11 through to macOS 10.14!

We have packed so much into this new release of RapidWeaver it's almost unheard of on the Mac these days, it's honestly been a labour of love for us. This is also the start of an exciting journey for RapidWeaver, and I hope you'll stick with us over the coming months and years as we kick things into overdrive!

Look out for more blog posts about RapidWeaver 8 between now and launch, and if you want to make sure you get notified the day RapidWeaver 8 goes on sale, be sure to sign-up to our newsletter.

Happy Weaving!

New SEO Features in RapidWeaver 8

Ben — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 14:36:00 +0000

RapidWeaver has always given you the power to create an SEO-friendly website. However, RapidWeaver 8 introduces a whole host of excellent new SEO features that can help your website rank higher in Google.

In this post, I’ll cover all the new SEO features that have been added to RapidWeaver 8. Just before we start, if you want to know when RapidWeaver 8 launches, make sure you sign up to the Realmac Newsletter.

Social Media Meta Tags

RapidWeaver 8 now generates social media meta tags for you. This is really three features in one as it works globally for all pages, on a per-page basis, and individually on each blog post.

These meta tags help describe your site in more detail when pages are shared on social media and messaging apps. RapidWeaver will automatically generate meta tags with information about your page. You can customise these meta tags by providing a custom title, description, and image for each individual page and blog post. You can do this via the Page Inspector.

Doing so allows social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter) and messaging apps ( Messages) to display a rich media card when a link to your site is shared.

By default, this feature is enabled for all new projects. To enable this on existing projects, check the "Generate Social Meta Tags" option in the General Settings area.

How does this help with my SEO?

You might be wondering how this helps your SEO? Well, as I mention in the RapidWeaver SEO Course; small changes add up to big results.

Social media cards do not directly affect your ranking; however, more inbound links and visits to your site is a crucial ranking factor; it conveys to search engines that your site is an authoritative source of information.

Now, you’re probably still thinking “super, but how does that help my site’s ranking?” It's been shown that users are more likely to click on a tweet or share that has an image or video preview attached. Therefore, if you utilise this feature correctly, it will help increase your inbound links and clicks, which in turn increases your overall SEO score.

I know some of you might still be a little sceptical about this, but I can't stress enough that the more inbound links, and clicks on those links, the better.

This type of SEO update should be part of your long-term SEO plan, you won't see results from this overnight; however, if you chip away at these seemingly inconsequential details, you’ll find that they all make a difference.

Edit for Social Media

As I mentioned above, you have total control over the title, description, and image used on the card; this can be handy to add additional information or change the title to ensure it’s better suited for social media. Sometimes a long, wordy, blog post title doesn’t work well on Twitter, changing it to something a little more punchy and attention grabbing might get you more clicks.

In short, this feature allows you to control how your pages are displayed when shared on social media and messaging apps. You enter a title, description, and image, and RapidWeaver takes care of the details.

Side note: In the General Settings, there is a “Twitter Username” box. Although it’s not essential for the social media meta tags, I’d recommend filling that in as Twitter can then link your account more easily to any tweets.

Htaccess File Editing

RapidWeaver 8 also introduces an amazing new .htaccess file editor. This is a much-requested feature, and I’m really excited we managed to get this feature added to 8.0.

Integrated within the Publishing settings, the htaccess file editor is destination independent; meaning you can edit the htaccess for each individual publishing destination. This is very useful if you have different rules for your development and production servers.

We’ve even added version history support! This is a big deal - RapidWeaver keeps track of all the changes you make, creating a GIT like history of all changes. If you need to rollback, for any reason, to a previous version of your .htaccess file, just choose that version from the drop-down menu.

This is truly a fantastic feature, no longer do you need to fiddle around with an external FTP application, it’s now baked right into RapidWeaver.

How does htaccess file editing help my SEO ranking? Again, and as with most aspects of SEO, I can’t give you a number or the exact impact it will have on your site’s ranking.

However, correctly managing your htaccess file helps ensure your site is running smoothly and enables you to provide additional information about your site to search engines. These details will help search engines index your site, and convey to them that your site is a reliable source of information.

For example, if you delete or replace a page on your site, it is essential to set up a redirect (where appropriate) to another page on your site; having fewer missing pages that return a 404 or 5xx error indicates that pages on your site could go missing or be unavailable — and this can affect your SEO ranking.

Be careful when editing htaccess files! Setting up a redirect can be quickly done from within your htaccess file (we actually cover this in our htaccess tips tutorial). Take care though, as adding some poorly written code can cause your entire site to become unavailable. If you're not sure what you're doing, ask a professional or at least seek help on the forums. Don’t say I didn’t warn you 😉

There's plenty of other handy htaccess tips and tricks that can help you run a more efficient site, and personally, I think this is a fantastic addition to RapidWeaver. I’ve already used this feature extensively in my projects.

RapidWeaver SEO Features

I've only touched on the new SEO features in RapidWeaver 8. We’ve covered RapidWeaver SEO in detail, so I’d definitely recommend reading those posts as well (I’ve also linked to some additional resources below).

RapidWeaver has every SEO feature you need to get your site indexed and ranking on Google. When it comes to SEO and RapidWeaver the answer is “Yes!”…

Yes, RapidWeaver…

Has customisable browser titles
Adds the description meta tag
Creates descriptive URLs for all pages
Outputs SEO friendly HTML content
Intuitive, easy to use, meta tag management
Automatically generates social media meta tags
Has a built-in SEO Health Check
Supports secure HTTPS sites
Generates and publishes a sitemap.xml for you
Includes modern blogging capabilities
Has numerous advanced SEO addons available

The features added in RapidWeaver 8 makes it even easier to build an SEO friendly website. Just keep in mind that SEO is an ongoing process - it's never a 5-minute fix. You’ll have to be patient and keep working at it, and if you do, you should see that hard work pay off.

Good luck and Happy Weaving 😃

RapidWeaver SEO Resources

Videos

RapidWeaver SEO Course Our most popular training course teaches you how to rank higher in Google and increase traffic.
Free RapidWeaver 7 SEO Basics Video
URL Customization in RapidWeaver

Articles