Aperture - iWeb - MobileMe... WORKFLOWS WANTED!

Question

I come seeking advice, and hoping this online essay will spark some discussion on the much-needed integration of Apple-apps online photo sharing and display capabilities -- and I promise to keep the rants to a minimum...
*What I'm trying to do:*
Create a series of Aperture-published (or at least Aperture-based, since that's where my pictures reside) photo pages, pages on which visitors can...
1) Quickly peruse the thumbs (with column&row arrangement, sizing, and framing options all determined by me), while also reading some descriptive text I've provided re the overall event being showcased;
2) View individual shots at a modest but adjustable display size in Slideshow mode (with transition options I've set), and simultaneously see the associated Caption, Date and whatever other Aperture-stored metadata I've chosen to be displayed for that set of images; and then, if they so desire...
3) Download selected images at their original, FULL-pixel dimensions (assuming I've set the page to allow that).
4) PLUS, I want to have each of these individual pages indexed on an iWeb "Album Page", which allows for the contents of each individual photo page to be mouse-skimmed before actually clicking and going to that page.
*An Impossible Dream?*
Not really. Everything I've just described is relatively easy to do -- but only in bits and pieces, it appears -- using Aperture, Aperture-published MobileMe Albums (aka Galleries) and Aperture-published Web Pages, iWeb '09, iWeb's Media Browser, and a MobileMe account. So now I find myself playing Dr. Frankenstein (that's "Fronkensteen"), and trying to stitch together a new form of photographic life online.
In other words, I'm just trying to create the kind of truly functional and flexible photo pages which SHOULD be a no-brainer by now, since all the features I'm imagining already exist! (Then again, I shouldn't ask for too much -- I mean it's not like Aperture, iWeb, and the MobileMe service are all from the same company, right?)
*In OTHER other words...*
I want to publish Gallery-esque pages from Aperture, but ones which automatically include and display whatever combination of Caption, Title, Date, or any other Metadata I select. And ones which can be INDIVIDUALLY indexed on an iWeb Album Page, as opposed to simply dragging in iWeb's MobileMe widget (which so far as I can tell just gives you a single link to ALL your Galleries in one quick but inelegant whack).
OR...
I want to publish Aperture Web Pages, but ones which aren't given a ludicrous "homepage.mac" URL (cripes, how old is THAT code?), and which can be easily seen by iWeb once published, so they can then be dragged into iWeb Album pages for convenient indexing and one-stop skimability by the user. (Also, pages for which Aperture has some sort of "Settings / Visit Page / Announce Site" pull-down button as it does for every MobileMe Gallery -- that's just being consistent.)
OR...
I want iWeb's Media Browser to let me select and drag into iWeb the contents of specific Aperture Projects and/or Albums, but with all Caption, Date, and other metadata for the selected images included, AND (if I so choose) at their FULL resolution -- rather than only at their currently-designated Preview size, which is now the case.
*Whichever way you describe it...*
I'm not really asking for anything all that new, just for some long-overdue integration between the already-existing photo-publishing abilities of Aperture, iWeb, and MobileMe. But before I start submitting more pages of "isn't this obvious?" input to their respective Feedback sites, I'd love to get anyone's thoughts, reactions, or best of all, suggestions as to how to at least partially achieve, the kind of Aperture-based photo publishing & sharing sites I'm still hoping to create.
Many thanks (if only for reading this far!),
John Bertram
Toronto

Answer 1

Many thanks to both David and Bob for the above posts -- it's just nice to know I'm not alone in this frustration.
Sometimes I desperately wish Apple would appoint a CAO (Cross-Application Ombudsman), a "Minister for Inter-Application Affairs", someone whose only job was to track the functions and features in different Apple apps, to correlate that understanding with relevant user input from a dedicated AppleWorkflows Feedback page, and whose mandate was to then:
a) make sure that the interface of each app behaved in a consistent and predictable manner (so that, for example, Option-clicking a disclosure triangle in a Viewer window list of video filters in FinalCut had the same functionality as Option-clicking a disclosure triangle in a Finder window list of folders and sub-folders -- which it currently DOES NOT);
and
b) - most importantly - make sure the individual apps talked to each fluently and interacted in logical, productive ways (the subject of this thread being a prime example of where that's NOT happening).
This person would have the authority to force the programmers working on different apps to actually talk to each other BEFORE new versions get released; to imagine intelligent, creative ways in which the different apps should interact-- and then require the programmers to implement those scenarios. Essentially, the CAO's only reason for coming to work each day would be to oversee the conception, development and implementation of cross-app workflows which benefit and free up (rather than block and frustrate) the multi-Apple-apps user.
The key is that this person (or persons) would have to be given some real power -- not just to recommend, but in many cases to actually require. (For instance, this person would long ago have required the Aperture team to release a free update which no longer published anything to a "homepage.mac" URL. All together now: "Duh".)
And, as mentioned above, they would have their own separate and well-publicized AppleWorkflows Feedback Page (plus a dedicated public discussion forum as well?), to which users would be actively encouraged to submit their ideas on Inter-App problems and possibilities.
Call me crazy -- but that's my dream, and I ain't givin' it up.
jb