[thelist] Resend: Comments on Dreamweaver Contribute - was gotta vent

Maximillian Schwanekamp anaxamaxan at neptunewebworks.com
Wed May 12 10:20:25 CDT 2004


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I am thinking about suggesting Contribute to several nonprofit organizations
to supply content to their own sites. I would welcome comments from anyone
who has used it and/or helped not-technical users to use it.
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My impression of Contribute has been that it's OK when you need content
management, for an existing site based around Dreamweaver templates.
Contribute is not overly useful for sites with a lot of dynamic content, and
can take a while to implement on one of those sprawling hard-coded sites
that clients sometimes bring to the table.  The learning curve is not steep
IMHO.  I transferred one client from FrontPage to Contribute, and it was
useful, but became less so as we started adding more and more dynamic
content.  Occasionally access errors arise in setting up access keys, and it
can be difficult to get them resolved.  I experienced this with a new client
who eventually gave up on Contribute and just bought Dreamweaver.

If [re]building a I would choose a decent CMS over Contribute, any day.
There have been a few threads on The List recently on the subject of Open
Source CMSs.  One non-profit I am involved with used Mambo Open Source which
is great for non-techie users (but produces table-based layout).  However,
if you're already entwined with Dreamweaver templates, Contribute could be
quite useful.

Maximillian Von Schwanekamp
Dynamic Websites and E-Commerce
NeptuneWebworks.com
voice: 541-302-1438
fax: 208-730-6504







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