duncanwilcox

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duncanwilcox
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  • Hands On: Designing websites with Sparkle, the spiritual successor to iWeb

    duncanwilcoxduncanwilcox
    One of the things that attracted me to it was I thought it would automagically reformat the site I created for computer screens to one optimized for tablets and phones. I don't know why I thought it would, but in case anyone else has the same impression, it doesn't. It DOES let you create separate versions for different devices, but you have to do all the formatting for each device type manually.
    Ugh. The lack of a proper responsive grid would be an instant dealbreaker for me. I'm actually really surprised at the lack of that in a $90 app, in 2018.
    By "responsive grid" you mean... something like bootstrap? Sparkle implements full responsive layouts using media queries, it uses fixed width layouts and switches between them. While this is slightly limiting and we are working towards a visual UI that solves it, it's not holding anyone back from building great sites.

    I'd encourage you to check a few Sparkle sites to see where the responsive grid appears to be lacking:

    mixiteasy.be
    purelynx.com
    lioneldarian.com
    rvarchitects.com
    whatalaughphotobooth.com
    dierenartsfrankslegers.be

    Some website builders give you more canned components and it's faster to build a website, but you lose control and websites all look the same. But this is a case where cooking things a bit longer leads to better results.

    Duncan (Sparkle co-developer)
    cgWerks

  • Hands On: Designing websites with Sparkle, the spiritual successor to iWeb

    duncanwilcoxduncanwilcox
    leehamm said:
    jdw said:
    Great article.  Please also do an article on Blocs, which from what I've seen is even easier to use than Sparkle for creating responsive websites.

    For now, I'm still using SoftPress Freeway Pro 7.  It's not easy to design responsive sites in Freeway, but the DTP design model is great for traditional sites.  I've been eyeing Sparkle and Blocs for a couple years now and consider them better alternatives to Freeway than Rapid Weaver and the now defunct Adobe Muse.
    I'd second the request for an article on Blocs. I hit a wall with Sparkle, after a few hours. Blocs has some glitches but offers much more, at a lower price, for a longer eval window.
    Thanks, Jdw, for the lead to Blocs.
    Actually Blocs has a 7 day evaluation period, Sparkle has trial limitations (3 pages, single site) but no time limitation. Sparkle has a single site version that's cheaper than Blocs BTW, though you should be looking at value, not price (and if you end up valuing Blocs more, that's totally fair game).

    Duncan (Sparkle co-developer)

    leehamm