adobe contribute
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- leftwave
i'm thinking of using this program so my clients can edit basic text on their websites that i make for them in dreamweaver.
does anyone know how this works? would each of my clients need to purchase their own copy of the adobe contribute program (it looks like $199 as a standalone product) or is there a way i can purchase a license and have them use it?
- winnie_the_shit0
Wordpress is free, and probably just as easy.. but I've never used Adobe Contribute..
- DrBombay0
you're better off using wordpress or joomla or something else. no cost. then just include the div you want.
- DrBombay0
contribute is ok, but in reality it gives dumb clients too much control.
- leftwave0
how would i use wordpress for this? i have fully designed sites that i only want to allow my clients to edit certain text areas on these sites.
- DrBombay0
make your own theme, only include the divs you want and create pages inside of the wordpress admin that they can edit.
- leftwave0
sounds interesting, but i'm not too familiar with wordpress. anyone know how to do this with contribute (or a similar alternate program?)
- ********0
The nice thing about Contribute is that it allows client-editing of very specific areas of text — even just one word in a sentence, for instance. It's intuitive and very easy to use for clients. You can create a few levels of hierarchy in terms of what Contribute allows clients to edit / publish, etc. You can completely lock them out of all styles excepts for bold and italic, for instance.
- ********0
There is a downside though.
It doesn't connect to databases.
It doesn't play well with tableless layouts (up to CS3, can't speak for CS4 b/c I haven't used it).
It must be installed on the actual system that the client will be working from — and any other systems that will access the site for editing reasons.
It doesn't really like php includes for common structural elements (headers, footers, and so on) because of the way that it uses Dreamweaver Templates.It's totally fine for very small sites of static content that don't require much more than verbal updates or uploading of images. It does connect to some blog software but we've never deployed it that way so I can't speak to that. Clients like it because it's easy to use and intuitive for what it is (mambo, joomla, etc are waaaaay overkill for smaller sites imho).
- leftwave0
EXACTLY! thanks pylon.
so with that said, what's the best and most affordable way to set up about 10 of my (mostly computer illiterate) clients with contribute?
- ********0
In the old days, you could get volume / reseller packages for Contribute. Not sure if they still do this. Installation is a breeze; the client can do this themselves and once installed you just send them the 'key' to their Contribute site which they then double-click. Then they're off to the races.
Contribute allows for 'rollbacks' to earlier versions of their edited pages if they totally fuck up. In the few Contribute sites we've deployed we've totally locked them out of all style-editing and restricted their image-upload privileges (we do this w/ any CMS we deploy though...).
- leftwave0
pylon, you are a wealth of info. thank you!! i'm going to have my non cheapass clients buy the single user license for contribute for $199. as for the rest of em, i'm going to set them up with: http://surrealcms.com/
- doesnotexist0
is the site going to be in flash? lately I've been having my programmer make every text field a separate txt file so they can change whatever they like easily.