A Fast Way To Add Images in Rapiweaver

Graphics Magazine,  May 05, 2012 Technology, Tips
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If you use Rapidweaver to build web pages, you probably wish you could just copy-paste art from Photoshop into your web pages. In the old days you could, but this capability was lost when the software upgraded to version 4.0 and above. For everyone who misses this function, here’s a solution.

Background
Rapidweaver is powerful yet inexpensive web building software. In the early days of Rapidweaver, users could easily copy-paste images into the web building software and the software would do the rest. But when the software was upgraded to version 4.0 and above, this capability was lost. Users who tried the copy-paste function instead saw a cryptic line of text on the finished page that read “Pasted Graphic”.

The Current Process
To insert graphics into Rapidweaver, users are now advised to first create the graphic in a program like Photoshop, save it with a name, then use the Program’s import function to insert it into a page. This solution adds a great deal of time slowing down workflow. There is an easier way.

The Workaround
You can bypass the process above and still use copy-paste to quickly add graphics and art to Rapidweaver using Apple’s built-in Preview program as a bridge. Preview comes preinstalled in all Macs. It is often used to vew PDF files, but this program is much more powerful than it looks.

THE HOW TO
1. In Photoshop, Copy what you want to the clipboard
2. Open Preview and choose “New from Clipboard”
3. A new Preview document will be created displaying the image
4. In Preview, Select All and Copy the image
5. In Rapidweaver, Paste the image into your web page

The resulting image will convert properly when you preview your web page and later export it to the final website.

Use Preview as a bridge from Photoshop to Rapidweaver to copy-paste images into Rapidweaver on the fly.

Sample Screens
Below are some additional sample screen captures related to the above process to help illustrate the principle. These examples show the Rapidweaver working window editing the file for the website eyeseum.com which will be premiering Summer, 2012.

Example 1: The red Graphics Magazine “G” is inserted into Rapidweaver.

Example 2: If the graphic is inserted by just copy-pasting from Photoshop, an undesireable result occurs as the graphic is turned into a link that says “Pasted Graphic”

Example 3: If the graphic is inserted by first copy-pasting from Photoshop into Preview, then copy-pasting from Preview into Rapidweaver, the graphic converts properly upon preview and later exporting of the website.

© 2012 Craig Barhorst

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