Over the past couple of months I, along with a number of others, have been testing the numerous beta versions of Sandvox 1.5. I was very glad to see that version 1.5 finally went GM (Gold Master) and was released last week. This version was quickly followed up with version 1.5.1 and that is the version that I am writing about today.
I want to point out some noticeable improvements to Sandvox from previous versions.
- The most noticeable improvement for me was found in the publishing feature in Sandvox. Not only did this version remember all of the settings from version 1.2.8 there is a speed improvement in the upload process. I am not sure where exactly the speed improvements come ... if the unpublished pages are recognized faster, or if the way pockets of data are uploaded has changed, or if it was a combination of both but the end result was a much more pleasant user experience.
- Next thing that I consider to be a major improvement is the fact that 1.5 now allows you to set what page style your Home page will be. Major kudos to the Karelia team for adding this feature.
- Next on the list is the overall stability of Sandvox. It's not that version 1.2.7 or 1.2.8 was unstable, its just that version 1.5 has produced far less spinning beach balls than the previous version thus appearing to be more stable
From start to finish, Sandvox 1.5, makes designing a website as easy and as fun as can be.
Now for my "wish list"
- A place to insert custom css in the both the page code injection and site code injection areas. This would really go a long way in making the customization of designs much easier on the user.
- Native support for parent/child level navigation (nested pages)
- A Twitter Status Pagelet
- A way to add both unordered and ordered lists into the content area whithout having to edit the raw html
- To natively include Conditional Comments to an IE6.css and an IE7.css stylesheet in the head of each page that is created by SV. The css files would be located in the designs "Contents" folder. This would solve a lot of validation issues with designs. If a designer does not include an IE6 or IE7 stylesheet then it is no problem because the browser will just ignore it. But as a developer of commercial designs for Sandvox this wish id pretty high up on my list.