Software

All the iWeb add-ons you’ll ever need

Until I compiled this list of add-ons designed especially for iWeb, I never realised how many there are available. Some are free and some you will have to pay a few dollars for, but all are have been built with one thing in common, making iWeb a better web application. This list is by no means exhaustive and if you know of an iWeb add-on that I have missed leave a comment at the end. I also want to point out that I have not tried all of these apps but just wanted to compile a complete list in one place, because I know how long I have spent on Google searching for them when I started with iWeb.

Before I start this list I want to point out that they are in no particular order, they just happen to be organise that way.

iTweak
Cost: Free (Donationware)
URL: http://guimkie.com/projects/itweak/

Probably one of the most popular add-ons for iWeb, iTweak is capable of backing up your iWeb sites, adding a favicon, Google search and Google Analytics, Haloscan comments and a PHP contact form to your site. It can also find and replace HTML code in your site as well as add a password to protect it. On top of that, Max, who runs guimkie.com is a helpful bloke who has helped me out with a few problems I have been having.

iWeb Buddy
Cost: $25.00
URL: www.zarrastudios.com

Although the most expensive of the iWeb add-ons available, iWeb Buddy has some useful features. It can allow you to run more than one iWeb site at a time, sort out your RSS feeds as well as adding them to every blog page, add social bookmarking to your site and helps you to integrate Google Analytics (or Mint) into your site.

iWeb Enhancer
Cost: $12.95
URL: http://web.mac.com/cbrantly/iWeb/Software/iWeb%20Enhancer.html

iWeb Enhancer is an add-on primarily for iWeb 06 users as iWeb 08 now has the ability to insert HTML snippets directly from within the application, but basically iWeb Enhancer is a tool for inserting code into your site from places such as Flickr, Adsense etc. It can also help you add Flash to your site.

iWeb Comment
Cost: $9.95
URL: http://web.mac.com/cbrantly/iWeb/Software/iComment.html

If you want to add comments to your iWeb Blog and you aren’t hosted on a MobileMe account you could follow my tutorials on this site. Alternatively you could use iWeb Comment to do the job for you. You still need a Haloscan account, but it looks like it makes the job a bit easier. iWeb Comment can also add a StatCounter to you iWeb site.

iWebSites
Cost: Free (Donationware)
URL: http://mistergregg.com/cocoadrillosoftware/iWebSites/

A fantastic add-on and recommended by many of the ‘players’ on the Apple iWeb discussion pages, iWebSites gives you the ability to run multiple iWeb sites from your Mac. It is a godsend for all those iWeb users who keep getting asked to design a site for your mate, cousin, auntie etc….

iMap
Cost: 8.99 Euros
URL: http://guimkie.com/projects/imap/

Having a XML sitemap is a ‘must have’ if you want the search engines spiders to find their way around your site. iMap takes the hard work out of creating a sitemap for you. Not only that, you can use iMap to integrate meta-tags into your site and it is MobileMe friendly too.

iWeb Valet
Cost: From $19.00
URL: http://www.ziggysoft.com/News.html

One of the more useful iWeb add-ons I found seems to be iWeb Valet. You can use it to add either a ‘Description’ or ‘Keywords’ (or both) meta-tags, it will ‘mask’ your e-mail address from spambots and allow you to add a useful word or phrase to your page title. On top of that you can compress your images to save on up/download times and it even uploads your site for you (including a changed page option only). How handy is that?

Easy iWeb Publisher
Cost: Free (Donationware)
URL: http://www.plyxim.com/free/

This is one of those iWeb add-ons that does exactly what its name describes. Makes uploading your iWeb sit to a non MobileMe host a complete doddle. We love drag n drop!!

iWeb SEO Tool
Cost: Free
URL: http://www.ragesw.com/products/iweb-seo-tool.html

iWeb SEO Tool isn’t the only tool that Rage Software has on offer but it has got to be one of their best if you want to climb the search engines. iWeb SEO Tool will let you add/change your meta-tags, Title-tags and Alt-tags simply and quickly. It will remember the settings you entered so that repeating the task is a piece of cake and it will then let you upload to your web host of choice. It will seamlessly integrate with MobileMe too so you can make all the changes to your live site without having to download/upload your pages.

If there is an iWeb add-on that you use and I haven’t included it in this list, why not leave a comment and let us all know.

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21 Comments

  1. I am pretty durn good with using Software, but am pretty baffled by the Rage Products, I cannot get the iWeb SEO Tool to mount and I had to go reboot my entire site…. I also REALLY want to get my Blog SEO Optimized, which of the products…both Freeware and Paid For…so which do you think is the best???

    THANK YOU!!!

    KathyDV

  2. Kathy,

    As an old skool HTML/CSS web designer at heart I would personally recommend adding the code by hand using TextWrangler and or MassReplaceIt but that is only because that is the way I have always done it. Give the guys at Rage an email and see what they say.

    Tim

  3. Hello,

    My site is currently in construction, although it is already up. I have added comments through iTweak, for now. Could you please tell me what iComment would do better? Also, do you now “commentator” which actually seem to allow one to have comments directly on one’s site without third party account like Haloscan?

  4. J-C, iComment won’t do anything better. iTweak is like iComment but on steroids, so if you are already comfortable with iTweak, don’t change.

    Tim

  5. Thanks. I first got iTweak to work, now I have some unresolved issue.

    What about “the-commentators.com” ? This guy seems to be offering building direct comment, no third party, capability. Their site sucks, but it might be real.

  6. J-C,

    I’m not too sure about that ‘Commentators’ thing. You were right when you said the site sucks so that puts me off straight away. The other downside is that it requires a site running with PHP and MySQL, neither of which apply to iWeb so it is a non-stater there too.

    Tim

  7. Thank you. You answerede the quesrtion that these bone heads did not to me directly. I did not like their site,nor what I perceived of their attitude in the first place, so I am kind of relieved, except that if they can do it, that means that someone could probably develop what they do, but for iWeb, as they are right about one thing: it would be nice to do away with any third party hosting, get control of everything, including comments, and have everything on one’s website, which is why I publish to a folder in the first place.

  8. Tim,

    Also, is there better better or any support from either iTweak or iComment? I first got iTweak to work and implement comments, but now I can’t get it to work anymore. I have no idea what is going on. If you log to my site, you’ll see the comment box on the blog’s first entry is just the “%%HALOSCAN_COMMENTS%%” I run iTweak, successfully as far as I can tell, uploaded with Fetch, but still got that, even after re-attempting several times.

  9. Tim,

    I have looked around, and can’t find a template that would be an alternative to iWeb’s “Photo” or “Album” template. I need the functionality that when one clicks of an image, it gives a blown up version, as well as the ability to navigate between blown ups and so on, but the iWeb Photo template has a poor design, the strip is to close to the blown up version, and the images in the strip, if not square, are cropped, they have not added the feature that’s in the blog to keep the photograph in its original proportions. I like though that I can do everything else, chhose my font, my exact color background, etc… You can see a sample under construction of what I try to do at jeanchristianrostagni.com, under “Art.” So, do you know of any alternative template to accomnplish that?

  10. Is there an add-on or html snippet to add Lightboxing to images and or text. It seems to be the current trend to keep viewers on a page but allowing additional content to float on top. If this is possible in iWeb, maybe you could cover this in one of your upcoming posts.
    Thanks!!

    1. Greg,

      I know what you mean and I was thinking about this the other night. Lightbox is a nice effect but it can be over used. I shall take a look.

      Tim

  11. Greg & All About iWeb – I’d be curious about this as well. I want to add a ‘portfolio of my work’ but don’t want to do it in the standard iWeb way (a Gallery). I’ve looked at ThickBox, GreyBox and Highslide JS as well as Lightbox but would really like to know which one method works —and easiest!— with iWeb.

    Thanks and keep up the great work on the site!

  12. This add on list is awesome! Thank you. I especially like the Seo add on. I needed this.

  13. I’m completely new to using an iMac, and of course, iWeb.

    I just spent several hours toying around with it, and I’m no novice to making websites either. I have nine websites up at the moment, and my main one (see link), is the one I am hoping to give a makeover to.
    However, when I tried to add pictures and logos, every single one of them come out with a nasty shadow border around them.
    There is nothing in the tools that allows this to be taken off, and it doesn’t show pre-publishing.
    Does anyone know how to add pictures or designs without borders?
    Thanks in advance.

  14. Bernie,

    The settings for borders is in the iWeb Inspector under the Graphics tab (the one with the green square/blue circle icon). They may be on by default.

    I hope that helps,

    Tim

  15. Hej

    Does anybody have a suggestion for a cool gallery effect – are there any widgets that can make a gallery nicer ?

  16. Great site and great feedback!
    I have one small question. Maybe 2 years ago I tried to use SEO from Rage and it was complicated. I have mobileme and I am using iweb. Once i load SEO and started to change the title pages, keyword, and tags, how do you publish the website to mobileme.

    I was told to first put my website on my desktop. I have idisk as well. I go into the folders, make the changes and I save. But when I publish, nothing goes to mobileme? Is it because I didn’t link or tell SEO Rage to publish??

    I guess this is a little confused back then and still is for me!!

    1. Jackie,

      the SEO Tool now connects directly to your iDisk so you can publish the site as normal then make the changes.

      Tim

  17. I’ve been publishing with iweb for 2 years now and you’ve been a great resource for both of them. Everytime I search for a question about iweb I usually find it here.
    Thanks Tim.

  18. I just wanted to say thank you, for all your tips and tutorials, they have really been so helpful, especially for someone like me, who is totally new to iweb!

  19. Hello Tim;
    Thanks for taking time to post info on these add-ons for iweb. Web visibility has been a nightmare for my business. I use godaddy,Fetch & iWeb to make my steel sculpture website, MohawkSteelCo.com
    Is ther any additional software that will give me more options using iWeb through a host like Godaddy? I cant use counters, leave comments, id love to find a way to put a photo album on there (like Facebook) that you click your way through insead of me having to put every picture and caption…it looks like a scrapbook rather than a online sculpture portfolio. I love how easy it is to maintain and operate, i just need a few bells and whistles to mix it up. Thanks -JT

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