Cheaper alternatives to Adobe Contribute?

August 18, 2008 7:29 AM

What is the best way for someone without HTML knowledge (and no wish to learn) to make simple edits to an existing website? We used to use Adobe Contribute -- are there cheaper alternatives?

I do computer support for a small not-for-profit which has recently moved premises. That meant losing access to the landlord's group licences for software.

Our part-time administrator has been happily using Macromedia (now Adobe) Contribute to update the website with news etc. It supplied a simple way to make updates to ordinary content with no HTML or FTP knowledge. Are there free or cheap programs to do roughly the same thing, for a simple already-existing website?

posted by Idcoytco to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Well... considering Contribute is an expensive client-side software, I was going to suggest a simple free CMS, but that may very well require a site redesign and rewrite.

The disadvantage to a CMS is the bigger time investment up front including minor training, but the advantages are that it's independent and sits on the server so FTP isn't required, and all major CMS packages support WYSIWYG content editing so code isn't involved. There's no worry about compatibility with computers because they run in the browser. There are lots of free CMS software out there, some that are designed with nonprofits in mind.

But if you're specifically after a client-side solution, I honestly don't know of any (Windows/Mac?).
posted by Ky at 8:29 AM on August 18, 2008

I'm teaching myself Joomla! right now (it's a CMS). As Ky mentioned it's a bit labor intensive to set up the website, but everything I've seen suggests that updating the content (once it's set up) is actually pretty easy.

Actually, setting it up, as in installing it and getting it to run, is really easy. The laborious part is creating/writing all of the initial content and picking and tweaking a design template. I'm pretty confident that anyone with a decent amount of technical skill (I'm at best a competent user.) could get a simple Joomla! site up and running (with new content) in a week or less.
posted by oddman at 9:14 AM on August 18, 2008

Adobe Contribute is actually a really good solution to for the scenario you mention, so you might want to consider it’s cost versus the cost of implementing something else. If your clients are alredy familiar with it you might want to consider having them maintain a site using Dreamweaver, with heavy use of templates, and teaching them how to FTP it.
posted by Artw at 9:23 AM on August 18, 2008

Dittoing Joomla or something similar (I'm having a little affair with Silverstripe myself, but it's not quite as robust an interface right now).

The problem with Contribute is that it's really easy to mess up, and tends to encourage all sorts of non-standards-compliant junk that sneaks in there. I just inherited a Contribute-based website and, wow, what a mess.

joomla, by comparison, is web-based (so can be edited from anywhere), free, and has several nice built-in editors so that your users can concentrate on the content.
posted by media_itoku at 9:30 AM on August 18, 2008

I'm not familiar with with Contribute, but the program named NVU might be what you're looking for. It's a free WYSIWYG editor that has built-in publishing capabilities.

It might take a few minutes for somebody a little more tech savvy to set up the FTP options, but once that's done it should be fairly easy for a non-techie user to make changes and publish.
posted by SteveInMaine at 9:55 AM on August 18, 2008

Thanks for the answers so far! Useful ideas there.

A rewrite for a full-dress CMS is not likely to happen in the near future. NVU looks as though it may do the biz. Anyone else got experience with it? Any alternatives?
posted by Idcoytco at 3:21 PM on August 18, 2008