Adam Berenstain

Realmac's RapidWeaver 5.1 belongs on the radar of designers looking for a WYSIWYG successor to Apple's aging iWeb '09 ( Macworld rated 4.5 out of 5 mice ). With it, you can build media-rich, template-based sites with the added flexibility of inserting HTML code to customize your pages. However, interface quirks may make some design features difficult for users who prefer a more freehand approach.

Appearance and features

Mother's Day is fast approaching, but that doesn't have to mean giving mom just another basket of flowers or a phone call (not that she'd mind either or both). With iPhoto '11, you can design a beautiful and memorable custom card to accompany your other heartfelt messages. Here's how.

Choose your pictures

Macware's MacFlux 3.1.4 simplifies creating rich HTML5 and XHTML Websites without sacrificing powerful features. With its WYSIWYG layout tools and powerful CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) editing, even novices can learn to build and revise complex sites quickly. But beginners may be tripped up by the program's occasional quirks and spotty documentation.

Split the workload

If you haven't kept up with novelties from the 1970s, you might be surprised to learn that Shrinky Dinks, plastic cutouts that shrink and harden into three-dimensional trinkets when baked in an oven, are still going strong. Today's Shrinky Dinks let you print custom images onto specially coated paper, making them a great way for you and a child (or a small group of kids) to create unique gifts and holiday decorations with your Mac. Here's how to get the party started.

Gather materials

With its flat glass front and back, the iPhone 4 isn't just a gorgeous piece of hardware, it's a potential canvas for your creativity. Thanks to the design tools at Unique Skins, you can create a full-color custom iPhone 4 skin for yourself or a friend. Here's how.

Choose your pictures

A journal is a gift that keeps giving throughout the year, but a homemade journal can be even more meaningful. This guide shows you how to make a simple 50-page journal using tools you already have, including a color inkjet printer, your Mac, and Pages '09. Be sure to have heavy paper, Elmer's Glue-All, wax paper, an X-Acto knife, a metal ruler, and a paintbrush you don't mind using with glue on hand before you start. You'll also need access to a paper cutter.

Create interior pages

Want to add some zip to this year's office holiday party, or perhaps a kiddy holiday celebration? Use your Mac and an inkjet printer to make temporary tattoos for your fellow revelers. With a page layout program like Pages '09, they're almost as easy to create as conventional print jobs, but a lot more fun.

Purchase tattoo paper

iWeb '09 is a great way to create attractive Web pages quickly, but its drag-and-drop simplicity isn't for everyone. Some users long for the flexibility that only access to HTML code can bring. Others may like iWeb's page-layout-style of Web design, but would be happy to see a few more options in its toolbox.

iWeb Valet 2.3.9 by ZiggySoft aims to satisfy both camps by letting users customize their sites with features unavailable in iWeb ( Macworld rated 4.5 out of 5 mice ) without needing to edit a single line of HTML. But while it offers a few handy new tools for your iWeb pages, iWeb Valet is held back by a cumbersome workflow.

iWeb '09 lets you create attractive Web sites quickly, but quickly isn't always fast enough. The following tips will help you save time designing, publishing, and sharing your creations with the world. There's no time like the present to work faster, so let's get started.

1. Optimize Images on Import. The large file sizes of today's digital photos can make publishing your site a lengthy process. To shrink file sizes by up to 60 percent while retaining image quality, make sure your photos are optimized when imported into iWeb.

With nearly 200 built-in templates, Pages '09 lets you get to work quickly on everything from business letters to screenplays. But if Pages doesn't have the right template for your next document, you have two choices: create your own or snag one online----sometimes free of charge.

This guide will help you find new templates to expand your page-layout repetoire. Some templates must be installed to appear in the My Templates section of the Pages Template Chooser, others are simply customized Pages files that you can edit. Each brings new styles to your project, and some provide models for unusual documents.

A good Keynote presentation requires a number of critical elements: an engaging presenter, compelling information, and beautiful slides. Apple's Keynote '09 can provide that last part, with 44 themes----the styled slide templates crafted by Apple's designers. But even Apple's elegant templates can't suit every occasion, and you may not always have time to design themes from scratch.

That's when you can turn to other designers, who have created original Keynote themes for sale. Once purchased and installed----some are even free----these new themes appear in the Theme Chooser alongside Apple's offerings. Each brings new designs, animations, and templates to use as-is, or to customize. This brief guide will help you find new Keynote themes for your next presentation.

All of iWeb's built-in widgets let you spice up your site, but the most powerful of them may be the HTML Snippet. With it, you can easily bring games, blogs, multimedia, and more to your Web pages.

Here is a brief look at widgets, where you can get them, and how they can make your site more fun and interactive. There are hundreds of thousands of widgets out there for you to use, so let's get started.