[thelist] Content Publishing Systems Squash News Design

[Judah McAuley]

Jay Blanchard wrote:
> Why does a CMS offer layout tools? Shouldn't, as I have argued before, a CMS
> deal with content that can then be delivered via many publishing mediums?
> Layout tools, as stated here, would narrow the prospects of that unless
> those tools took many mediums into account. Those tools are "publishing
> management" not content management. If the author is trying to elicit
> sympathy for designers who use tools that "can't offer anywhere near the
> page-design capabilities of software tools like DreamWeaver"....I mean, come
> on!

I've been writing a CMS for a several months now and we just recently
started to sell it commercially.  I put in content, layout, and design
tools.  Why?  Because most folks who are looking for something a bit
less than Vignette don't want a pure CMS, they want to be able to
produce and manage a website.  And that involves more than just content
management.  So I built in tools to change the look and feel of the
templates.  I built a tool to allow users to upload their own templates
that were created in Dreamweaver.  All the design tools that I built in,
combined, still don't give you the pure design power you get by using a
designer and an FTP account.  But, on the other hand, people still get
alot of flexibility and they get a whole solution in one package.  Which
is an ok tradeoff for many people.

Perhaps you're right to call it Publishing Management instead Content
Management, but I think its a semantic argument that most consumers
don't want to get into.  I do everything possible to seperate content
and design in my system and that's definitely the right way to do it.
But those ideals also have to be tempered with concerns like simplicity,
cost-effectiveness, and ease of use.  So we make comprimises and the
designers bitch and the devlopers bitch and the writers...well you get
the idea.

And I will admit that my system doesn't allow for different templates on
each page.  People have been after me about that one and I've promised
to put that in a future version.  I, however, would never spend much
time on a site that had a different design for every page.  I do
understand that designers like to work and many of them get paid by the
design so it encourages them to suggest a new design per section of the
site.  CMS's are probably reducing the amount of work available to them.
  Hopefully as the market matures, we'll find a happy medium between
design tools and content management that makes everybody happy.  We
shall see.

<tip type="Software Development" author="Judah McAuley">
<sarcasm>
Make sure that you don't make your product too perfect.  People like to
be able to find flaws and complain about them.  It makes them feel
superior.  Just try to make sure that the flaws are superficial and can
be easily avoided.
</sarcasm>
</tip>