Google has unveiled a brand new update to Keep, their lists/notes app. This update will include two important features, and are now being rolled out to Keep’s Web client and Android app. Google Keep is currently one of the most popular checklist and note taking apps found on Android. It is available through the Mac App Store or directly from the Flying Meat site. Acorn 2 users who wish to upgrade for $20 cannot go through. Jun 26, 2020 Download Acorn for Mac to edit your images with flood fill, gradients, vector shapes, drawing and erasing tools, with a fluid interface similar to iLife.
Weebly is an excellent, easy to use website builder that is also going through a transition.
Any review of Weebly in 2020 should begin with this fact: Weebly is currently maintaining two different editors for creating websites: the Weebly editor and the Square editor.
Existing users will be familiar with the Weebly editor. It’s an excellent, easy to use editor that Weebly suggests is best for customized, non-ecommerce websites:
But then there is the new Square editor. It’s significantly less flexible but a bit easier to use. It’s meant for ecommerce websites.
The Weebly editor is still an excellent, easy to use editor. In the past I’ve given it a perfect 5 stars.
The Square editor is limited. It has more in common with GoDaddy than it does Squarespace or Wix. Despite it’s limitations, Weebly has told me they “prefer to shift traffic to [the Square editor].” And while the Square editor may one day be great, it’s not there yet.
Note: Square is not Squarespace. Squarespace is a seperate company. This can get confusing.
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The Weebly Editor
Pages in the Weebly editor are built by dragging elements or sections from the side drawer into your page. Elements and sections are then edited within the page:
Pretty simple, right?
Now let’s trying something a bit more complicated: watch below as I edit a background image. Notice how parts of the interface slide out and the background image editor slides? Weebly’s interface is modular— it moves in and out depending on the task. This keeps the interface from becoming unnecessarily cluttered and overwhelming. It’s a trick you’ll find often in the Weebly editor.
You might not notice Weebly’s modular interface when you’re using it— it’s pretty subtle. But it’s these details that make Weebly so easy to use. By comparison watch how overwhelming Wix’s interface becomes when editing a background:
Weebly offers around 70 themes— which is less than Wix and about the same as Squarespace.
In terms of quality, Weebly’s themes are better than Wix but not quite as good as Squarespace (Squarespace has the best themes of any website builder).
Here are a few example Weebly themes:
You can get access to more themes by using Weebly’s old themes but don’t bother using them— they’re not responsive. If you are desperate for a wider theme selection you could always try a 3rd party theme provider like Mojo Marketplace— Weebly themes cost around $49 there.
Theme customization in Weebly has always been limited.
It’s easy enough to customize fonts…
You can customize these fonts.
…But there are few choices for customizing the colors of your website. You choose one color that gets applied in several different places— for example, it’s applied to the color of buttons and the active navigation. You can’t customize where or how it is applied.
I also wasn’t able to change the color of my footer without editing code— which feels like an unnecessary limitation.
Weebly Release Notes: New Features And Apps From May 2017
You can't choose a custom background color for the footer.
Weebly Release Notes: New Features And Apps From May 2020
One interesting part of the Weebly editor is the App Center. The App Center lets you install apps that add new elements and features to your Weebly website.
Weebly's App Center.
Some apps are free and some are paid:
| APP | PRICE | WHAT IT DOES |
|---|---|---|
| Multilanguage | $3 / month | Add pages in multiple languages that visitors can swap between. |
| Paid Members | $10 - $30 / month | Create a paid subscription, membership site (for example: selling an online course) |
| Simple Table | Free | Adds a table element for building tables. |
Weebly Release Notes: New Features And Apps From May 4th
Theoretically the App Center is an ecosystem for 3rd party developers. But in practice it’s mostly just apps created by Weebly. For example, there isn’t even an email subscription box from Mailchimp or Constant Contact— the most popular email newsletter providers. In this way the App Center isn’t comparable to Wordpress Plugins or Shopify’s App Store.