RapidWeaver was once a top-notch Web creation program for beginners but it has failed to keep up with the competition (namely Apple's iWeb).

RapidWeaver's template feature works much the same way as iWeb's. However, iWeb templates have much more variety. RapidWeaver's templates all look quite different, but on closer inspection you realize that they all have a similar format, a column for the text and a sidebar for the links. (You can purchase third-party templates, but I'm talking about the ones that come with the program.)

The templates in iWeb have much more variety, with two, three or four columns, pictures, etc.

The advantage of RapidWeaver's approach is that you can change your mind about what theme you want to use at any time, and your website will reformat perfectly (or almost perfectly). If you make changes to an iWeb page, such as rearranging pictures or other elements, and then switch to a different theme, the new theme may look jumbled because the elements are no longer where the program expects them to be.

However, I think this is a minor advantage, because once you settle on a theme you're not likely to change your mind anyway, unless you're very indecisive.

RapidWeaver is modal; you edit in a word-processing-like screen and then you must click a button to see a preview. iWeb is more interactive and real-time.

RapidWeaver does support a large number of third-party add-ons to help overcome some of the program's own limitations, but then the complexity of the program goes up.

In addition, I have identified a number of bugs in the latest version of RapidWeaver that make it too annoying to work with. Therefore, I must give the nod to I Web.