RWT Releases Buzz Theme For RapidWeaver

We're not sure how this slip past us but RapidWeaver Themes, one of our favorite RapidWeaver design outfits, released a new theme on Friday by the name of Buzz. Buzz incorporates the new Extra Content feature we reported with the announcement and release of seyDesigns Gotem theme.

NOT ONLY IS THE BUZZ THEME A "3 COLUMN MASTERPIECE" IT IS ALSO ONE OF THE FIRST THEMES TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE ALL NEW "MY EXTRA CONTAINERS" BY ADDING 4 EXTRA CONTENT CONTAINERS TO THE THEME. THE "MY EXTRA CONTAINERS" IS A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT FROM ADAM MERRIFIELD AT SEYDESIGN, GIUSEPPE CARUSO AT (((BONSAI STUDIO))). THESE EXTRA CONTAINERS WILL GIVE YOU CONTROL THAT YOU HAVE NEVER HAD IN A RW ... UNTIL NOW.

Besides the Extra Content feature, Buzz offers:

• 17 Stock and Customizable Headers
• 5 RWmultitool Header Slots
• Web friendly width of 960 px
• 7 Pre-Installed "File Sharing" Icons
• Ability to show Blog Categories in either sidebar or in both sidebars
• Colour Picker Options for nearly everything including the "My Extra Containers"
• Valid XHTML and CSS

Buzz is priced at $15.00 and can be purchased at RWT's theme store.

seyDesigns Releases seyDoggie Gotem Theme For RapidWeaver

Yesterday, seyDesigns released seyDoggie Gotem theme for RapidWeaver. Gotem is the first RapidWeaver theme that incorporates a new feature: ExtraContent. ExtraContent allows the user to insert extra content into areas of a webpage not normally available in RapidWeaver via a special code snippet that comes bundled with Gotem.

ExtraContent came about when a handful of 3rd party developers got together to address the need for more content spaces in RapidWeaver. While the content area and sidebar are ample space for the vast majority of RapidWeaver users, there are some who want more flexibility to add content in ways keeping with todays modern web designs.

ExtraContent was the solution agreed upon by (((Bonsai Studios))), RapidWeaverThemes.com and seyDesign, as an easy means of end users adding more content to their site, in developer designated areas of ExtraContent enabled themes. While these areas will vary from theme to theme, the process will be very much the same. These developers worked closely to come up with a solution that would give all users a common experience.

Features:

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ExtraContent enabled

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Two ExtraContent areas

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10 Custom headers

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RWmultitool Ready

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Split navigation

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Width control

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Header height control

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3 background textures

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Dual sidebar control

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Choice of font style

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Color control

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and more...


Gotem sells for $19.49 (CAD) and you can preview the new theme over at seyDesigns.

yabdab Software Releases FormLoom Beta

yabdab Software, makers of the PayLoom and GoogaLoom plug-ins for RapidWeaver, announced today the immediate availability of FormLoom. FormLoom is a plug-in designed to create forms that go beyond what the Contact page included with RapidWeaver can do. FormLoom offers the following features:

• AJAX Powered (never leave the page submission).
• Include CC and BCC addresses.
• Limit which files can be attached based on file extension.
• Filter input for possible spam injections.
• Includes reCaptcha security questions.
• Send Receipt email to sender.
• Custom Success message to sender.
• Customize look with CSS
• Automated MySQL Entry (coming in final release)

Requirements for building and serving up FormLoom pages are:

RapidWeaver 4
Server running PHP 5 or better.
Server running MySQL 5 or better (optional).

We here at AYAAW are very excited about this new plug-in and we've even thrown together a Contact Us page using it. Unfortunately there are a few kinks to work out yet so don't bother trying to send us anything through the page. We won't get it. Don't worry, as soon as its functional we'll let you know.

RapidWeaver MultiTool 2 $12 On MacZot

RapidWeaver MultiTool 2 will be on sale today over at MacZot for the low, low price of $12.00. Normally a $20 application this companion app to RapidWeaver makes swapping out RapidWeaver theme graphics a cinch. With a simple drag and drop approach, RW MultiTool 2 allows you to replace many of the theme elements quickly and easily without have to know anything about theme or how they're made.

RW MultiTool 2 also includes many image editing tools so you can tweak the look of your graphics or images until they're just right: layer transparency, Text tool, flip, rotate and scale, hue, saturation and brightness, filters and borders. As always, you can try RW MultiTool 2 before you buy but the sale does end at midnight tonight so don't dilly dally too long. If you've ever wanted to change a graphic or the look of your RapidWeaver project's theme, but didn't know how, look no further than RW MultiTool 2.

Building Better 404 Pages

Hey all you budding RapidWeaver's check out our hot-off-the-presses Building Better 404 Pages tutorial over in the RapidWeaver Tutorial section. We give you the low down on creating custom 404 redirect pages that not only make life easier on your website's visitors but it'll make Google happier. After all, that's what its all about right? Making Google spiders happy. ;-)

RapidWeaver Plugs Releases Styled Text +

Gary Byrd of RapidWeaver Themes and Mudbug Software (maker of Webify), and Ollie Levy have teamed up as RapidWeaver Plugs and have released a killer RapidWeaver plug-in as their inaugural offering: Styled Text +. Styled Text + is a new page type that builds on the Styled Text page included with RapidWeaver by adding a dedicated header and footer area on each page. The header and footer are set up as mini Styled Text pages within the page so you have all the regular Styled Text page tools at your disposal. This is a truly sweet plug-in and RapidWeaver Plugs is selling it for the absurdly low price of $5. If you use RapidWeaver for building sites and use the Styled Text page Styled Text + will quickly pay for itself in time saved not having to fiddle with snippets or trying to decipher all the code you have pasted into your Styled Text pages. We love it here at AYAAW and are already using it on our site.

Download the demo and try it out before you buy.

RWT Theme Bundle on sale at MacZot

MacZot is hosting 30 RWT RapidWeaver Themes at half off for todays deal. The bundle includes some of the nicest, cleanest and fast loading themes there are. Each theme is highly customizable and the bundle also includes 100 additional header graphics, 100 buttons, several icons and some of the PhotoShop files that RWT used to create the various themes. The bundle, normally priced at an already low $44 is on sale today at MacZot for $22. If you RapidWeave you owe it to yourself to snap this bundle up. RWT is one of the top third party RapidWeaver theme developers and provides outstanding customer service.

Don't let this fantastic deal to own 30 high quality RapidWeaver themes pass you by. You have 19 hours, 8 minutes and 47 seconds left to take advantage of this deal.

Weave on!

Loghound's RapidWeaver Plug-ins All Updated With Sparkle

Recently, AYAAW noted that third party RapidWeaver developers were starting to integrate the Sparkle updating system into thier plug-ins. One of the top plug-n developers, Loghound, has finished upgrading all his plug-ins with Sparkle. If you use RapidWeaver with any plug-ins installed you know how huge this is. In the not too distant future the first step in troubleshooting RW, "check to see if all your plug-ins are up-to-date" will be a distant, bad memory.

We here at AYAAW use a lot of plug-ins, probably more than your average RapidWeaver user. 16 to be exact, 5 of which are made by Loghound. Add those to the 2 YourHead has Sparklefied and that's the majority of the plug-ins we use on a daily basis. Sweet!

So, AYAAW sends out a big thanks to Loghound for all his hard work. He's top-dog in our book!

seyDesign Releases DEViANT Pro For RapidWeaver

I love creating websites in RapidWeaver (one of my all time favorite apps) so anytime a new theme is released I have to check it out. Top notch theme developer seyDesign released DEViANT Pro theme today and it's a beauty! Among the RapidWeaver crowd (there are more of us than you think) seyDesign is known for creating beautiful, light-weight and fast loading themes and DEViANT Pro is no different. Check out the screen shots below. I really like the optional "Wood Fence" background. There are also dark and light gradient background options as well as the standard RapidWeaver 4 theme variations. Check out the DEViANT Pro preview over at seyDesigns.

RapidWeaver Plug-ins Getting Sparkled

Something great is happening in and around the RapidWeaver community: plug-ins are getting updated with Sparkle auto-update functionality. If you use RapidWeaver, which we do everyday for this and other sites, and have bought plug-ins to add features to it, you'll appreciate this. The process of keeping your plug-ins up to date is and arduous one and is generally the first step you take in troubleshooting RapidWeaver ungoodliness (hey if Steve can make up words, so can I). We have 15 plug-ins installed here at AYAAW. That's 15 different change logs we have to check every time RapidWeaver gets updated or when RW starts acting up (ungoodliness). The good news is that RW's awesome third party developers are always improving their plug-ins. That bad news is that its a royal pain in the keister to have to individually check each plug-in to see if its up to date. Anywho, the premier third party developers are now integrating Sparkle auto updating into their plug-ins so hopefully this will be a distant bad memory in the not so distant future.

So far, these are the plug-ins that we know include Sparkle auto-updating:

Yourhead's Collage, Carousel and Blocks
Loghound's PlusKit

If you know of more let us know. In the meantime for help keeping your plug-ins up to date and for other general RapidWeaver goodness, check out Ed Brenner's myRapidWeaver site.

Robbie White Releases Spectrum for RapidWeaver

Robbie White announced the release of a new RapidWeaver theme yesterday: Spectrum. The new theme continues to push the envelope in terms of features and beautiful design that RapidWeaver users can incorporate into their own websites.

Spectrum’s fading/glowing navigation system is probably it’s most noticeable feature but not the only one. Spectrum features fading/glowing navigation in the sidebar as well, where your second and third tier page navigation controls reside. The theme comes with a variety of header artwork, Google and RapidSearch JavaScript search snippets and of course, validates XHTML and CSS valid.

If you own RapidWeaver you owe it to yourself to check out Robbie White’s Spectrum live demo.

Joe Henry
AYAAW