I've been using Dreamweaver for many years, and although you can do a huge number of things with web content using Dreamweaver and you do have absolute control of your code, it is also an annoyingly bug-ridden program. Once in a while I like to take a break from Dreamweaver and use a web editor that is more fun and less hassle.
Sandvox is a new "website creation tool" as described by Karelia Software. It's fun, it's not expensive, and it comes preloaded with a number of templates, some of which are fairly nice.
The code produced by Sandvox relies very heavily on CSS, making it consistent with best practices in the industry. You can use drag and drop to quickly add graphics and other bits to your page. I was surprised and pleased to see that it will also parse RSS feeds and it lets you easily and quickly add an RSS feed.
I was also pleased to find that Sandvox supports secure FTP (SFTP) for uploading your creation to a site without sending passwords in clear text the way that FTP does.
There is a regular version for $39 and a Pro version for $69. The Pro version allows direct access to the HTML code and improved integration of PHP, headers and such.
The closest competitor to Sandvox is certainly RapidWeaver, a well established WYSIWYG HTML editor. I like Sandvox better because I don't like the user interface of RapidWeaver at all.
You can download a trial version of Sandvox and give it a shot. Go to http://karelia.com/.
Sandvox is not without flaws. It has pulled an endo on me several times on my Dual G5 Power Mac, but it seems to run more reliably on my Intel iMac. It is a Universal Binary.
All in all, I'd give it an 87 on a scale of 100. It presents a lovely user interface, it is easy to use, it seems it is likely to develop well over time, and most of all it is fun. I like it. I made this site in about 5 minutes.
Technorati Tags: Sandvox, Web Editor, OS X software, Applications, Reviews, HTML editor
August 24th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
Hi, I am really interested in Sandvox to set up a page as an e-Commerce site for my art and also Japanese toys. I have a PayPal verified account, and have read up on how to make buttons and to insert the HTML. I have done some html in the past.
Questions:
1. Will it be easy for me to use Sandvox Pro and insert the html for the buttons next to each item for PayPal?
2. As I have a verified PayPal account set up to work with my bank account, I should not have to use any other merchant accounts etc…am I correct?
3. In general, how do you think it will be to create an e-Commerce page with Sandvox? (I love the fact that it is user friendly with a Mac, and that I can work as long as I like on the page before having to publish it or commit to a hosting provider.)
******Below is what Sandvox responds to this question in FAQ.
Can Sandvox support e-commerce, dynamic content, etc.?
Sandvox generates static content, so e-commerce and dynamic content are only available by using the custom HTML pages and pagelets (Pro version only). However, you can put server-side scripting constructs like PHP in your custom HTML pages and pagelets if you’re familiar with these constructs and if your ISP supports them. Additionally, you can insert custom elements and pre-content preludes (useful for setting cookies or authentication).
Thanks and please let me know what you think.
Thanks
Tom in Tokyo
August 24th, 2006 at 2:24 pm
The way I’m using Sandvox now is to create a template for a site and generate a set of pages, it does this very well. For sites that require the insertion of PHP or other types of code that run as a page is served I’m then modifying the pages created by Sandvox in Dreamweaver. This is largely because I have many years experience with Dreamweaver. You can see a site I just made this way using Sandvox to create a template and Dreamweaver to touch up the code at http://AtheismRocks.com/
I think you would be able to use the Pro version of Sandvox to insert custom code into pages, but if you really need to generate a lot of dynamic pages I’d look at another product. The Mac version of Dreamweaver is as buggy as all hell, but you could use it. Another option might be a program I just discovered last night called Style Master. After a brief look at their demo I was impressed.
Let us know what you end up doing, please.
Steve