This week brought the long-awaited release of Mac OS X Lion, version 10.7 of the Mac’s operating system. Realmac Software has released RapidWeaver 5.2.1 as the official Lion-compatible release of RapidWeaver. It is available directly through Realmac’s website, and in the Mac App Store. If you are already a RapidWeaver 5 user, then you won’t notice any big differences in this release of RapidWeaver, it is simply an update for compatibility with Lion. However, Lion brings about a couple of features/changes that might impact how you use RapidWeaver. These are outlined briefly below.

Resume

Lion includes a new feature called Resume, which reopens your apps “right where you left off.” This means that if you quit RapidWeaver with a project file open, Lion will re-open that project file the next time you open RapidWeaver. If you don’t want this to occur, simply close the project window before quitting RapidWeaver. Another option is to completely disable Lion’s Resume feature, though this will affect the feature for ALL apps on your Mac. You can adjust this setting in the General tab of the System Preferences panel, as shown below.

Manage Themes and Plugins

Lion hides the Library folder in the Finder, which prevents you from browsing to the Application Support > RapidWeaver folder to manage your 3rd-party add-ons. You can still reveal the contents of a theme by right-clicking on the theme in RapidWeaver’s Theme Drawer, but if you want to access other add-ons such as plugins or stacks, then you can do so through the “Manage Themes and Plugins” option in the RapidWeaver menu. Simply click on RapidWeaver in the menu, and you will see the option there.

If you want to access your add-ons outside of RapidWeaver entirely, you can still do so using the following steps.

1. Click on Go from the Finder menu

2. Select Go to Folder

3. Enter ~/Library and click the Go button

This will take you into your Library folder, where you can then browse to Application Support > RapidWeaver. For quick access in the future, simply drag the RapidWeaver folder into the Finder’s left sidebar to permanently bookmark it.

Auto Save, Versions and Full-Screen Apps

These are 3 new Lion features that RapidWeaver 5.2.1 doesn’t currently support, and while there’s no official word one way or another, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see them implemented in a future RapidWeaver release.

Are you currently “on the fence” about upgrading to Lion? I know the feeling. Happy Personally, any time there is a major OS X release, I wait about 2 months before upgrading my “production” machine. This gives Apple and software developers time to address any issues that might be a “show-stopper.” I have installed Lion and RapidWeaver 5.2.1 on a non-critical machine, and everything has run smoothly so far. Regardless of your decision to upgrade, please be sure to always check for updates to your 3rd-party RapidWeaver plugins, as staying up-to-date will significantly decrease your chances of crashes and other performance problems.