Welcome, Weaverling

For those of you arriving from binary star systems light years from RapidWeaver Central, this is the parallel dimension in which we bring together everything that's been happening — and is about to happen — in the intergalactic RapidWeaver community, as well as collating all the best articles, links and resources we've stumbled across in our cosmic travels during the last four terrestial weeks. Buckle up. Wormholes get bumpy.

weaverFM

Every now and then a plugin comes along that changes the way we work with RapidWeaver. Last year it was Stacks. Before that it was Blocks and Pluskit. This year it's going to be weaverFM.

In this edition we go where no other plugin has gone before and explore weaverFM's uniquely featured terrain. You can read our exclusive review here and then take this great new plugin for a test-flight yourself. And for those of you like us who can resist everything but temptation, we have a special Discount Code for our loyal subscribers, worth a stellar $5 off the purchase price.

Blowing Our Stack... Again

Except this time we ain't blowin' smoke. No hidden surprises. Say Adios to boring paragraphs. Slide Over Beethoven. You read it here first — El Stacko Presidente Brian Morgan has graciously asked us at gunpoint to offer our subscribers the chance to win four of his stacks. So if you haven't already succumbed to his Latin charms and bought these stacks, you can enter the competition by emailing us with the subject line Tengo Suerte and, quien sabe, maybe you do get lucky. Sadly, though, entries are now closed and the four lucky winners will be contacted shortly...

Themeflood's Black & White

To be released later today, this is an update which pretty much comprises a brand new theme, with improved source code, better plugin compatibility and a host of new features. As usual with Will Woodgate's themes, much effort has been made to reduce file sizes — and ultimately bandwidth — plus there's plenty of white space, maximum emphasis on content, easy navigation and an excellent selection of both style and colour options. The theme also works very well on devices such as the iPhone. You can check out some preview images here, and take the demo site for a trial run here.

Shock and/or?

In a shock development that has rocked the RapidWeaver establishment to its very foundations, we can exclusively reveal that Joe Workman has only released 2 new stacks this year. That's right. Only two. This has led to wild speculation that he has in fact been abducted by the Greys of Zeta Reticuli, a binary star system coincidentally only 39 light years from RapidWeaver Central. El Stacko Presidente Brian Morgan was too distraught to comment.

For those of you only now recovering from your disbelief, the two stacks in question are PDF Embed and SchoolTube Stacks. Meanwhile it should be noted that more balanced observers are reporting that Workman has also released a number of recent updates, namely: Cooliris Stack, Offsite Stacks, CMS/CSS Stacks, and Rows Stack. As always, though, we encourage our readers to make up their own minds.

Hot Off The Presses

If you haven't already checked it out, then Eric Boo's latest Stack, Image Roundabout is an easy-to-use stack that creates image roundabouts. Just drag images into the stack, attach a link to each image and easily create a nice, attractive menu to catch your site visitors' attention. All without using Flash.

Sara at omnidea tells me they are very busy right now improving new features for the forthcoming RapidCart release, which will be a free upgrade for all 2.2.4 purchasers. Due in March, the release will feature more powerful shipping management, new supported values and, not only full E-Junkie functionality, but also a special offer for all new E-junkie customers!

Jordan Merrick is also a couple of weeks away from completing his new theme (screenshot right), featuring the usual 2bitoperation goodness — such as Fancybox enabled photo gallery and Twitter integration — along with one or two extra surprises.

SeyDesign's Adam Merrifield is currently beta testing his new theme Flavorite, while Nimblehost's Jonathan Head has started work on a major update to his Unity theme, in which IE support will be significantly improved, including the much requested ability to choose the background color of the main content area.

Meanwhile, Tim at iDsign is working on a complete makeover of his sliding panel stack, giving it much more flexibility, along with image replacement buttons, fixed and fluid sizing and the ability to position it anywhere on the screen.

Kevin Burns tells me that as quiet as SymfoniP have been recently, they are currently working on a couple of things for RapidWeaver that should be 'interesting'.