Sandvox is a tool for creating a complete, professional-looking website without needing to ever have to look at HTML code. Karelia software has done a nice job in making the experience of creating a website both easy and fun for people of all skill levels.
Let's face it, not all of us have time to learn HTML and CSS to produce the kind of beautiful web pages Sandvox allows us to make. Even for those that know HTML, they may find Sandvox more convenient than hand coding.
On first launch, Sandvox gives you the option to watch a well produced screencast video of the application in action. The screencast, which has chaptering for easy navigation, shows off the features of Sandvox and how to use them. It definitely beats reading the manual. It adds to the experience of the user and gets them familiar with the application even before they start using it. However, you may find that midway through, you just want to jump into making a website out of pure excitement. Sandvox has the quality that should be expected of all Macintosh applications. Sandvox is the type of third party application I would bring up that distinguishes the Macintosh developer community from the Windows one. It's all about the experience of the user, not features and sales.
With Sandvox, you don't need to have any background in web development to make gorgeous web pages. If you can navigate the web and you know how to type into text boxes, you can create almost anything you can conjure up from your head. This is really where Sandvox pulls ahead of iWeb and really distinguishes itself.
The hardest part for a lot of people is not the actual creation of the web page, but uploading it to a server. Like most web creation tools, Sandvox has one-click publishing to your server. However, Sandvox maintains a list of the most popular web hosting servers so most of the time, all you need to set up publishing is give Sandvox your username and password. If you have .Mac its even easier. It's better than publishing to a folder on your hard drive, like iWeb does, if you don't have .Mac.
Another difference between Sandvox and iWeb are the templates. iWeb has templates that you can mix and match, but once you choose a theme, you can't change it later. Sandvox lets you choose one for all of your pages, but you can change the look and design at any time after the pages are created
Features
Pick a look
Choose from our extensive gallery of designs. Or go with another designer’s creation. Change your mind, change your theme. Learn more
Mix and Match
It’s the rule for a better website. Mix it up with text, video, photos, blogs, forms, sitemaps, Facebook, Twitter, or just about any kind of web object. Learn more
Customize. Expand
Use a chunk of HTML PHP, or JavaScript. Paste an embed link or other snippet. Just because you don't have to use HTML doesn't mean you can't. Learn more
Publish
FTP, SFTP, MobileMe, WebDAV... the choice of how, where, and when to publish is yours. Built-in archiving plus automatic RSS features make sharing your blogs and podcasts a breeze
Get Noticed
Sandvox was created with search engines in mind. If you have a business or organization that you want people to find, Sandvox fits the bill. Easy integration with Google Webmaster Tools and Analytics gives you precise visitor tracking and navigation. Optimize your site for top placement: You'll build your audience and snag top rankings on Google, Yahoo, and other popular search engines
