Hi all,

 

I've recently designed and built a website for one of my company's clients and they as it is only my 2nd official project as a contracted web designer, ive not really used Contruibute before.

 

I've had a good look through the software and was hoping somebody could confirm that Contribute can still be used even though the entire website has been designed and finished in Dreamweaver?

 

Our client want's the ability to update content using Contribute at their end and I just needed to know that this is still possible.

 

Thanks,

 

Chris.

I was just about to ask about contribute myself , ive also never used it before but it sounds quite interesting. Apparently once set up the client can edit content from their browser without installing anything, im not quite sure how that works though ? Could someone explain, is it a hosted cms ? Ive actually got the program installed along with my adobe master collection but i still cant see how it would work.

Oh and CAD just looking through google my guess is you can use contribute with a dreamweaver developed site, i spotted a youtube tutorial but i have no sound atm. Might be worth having a look though.

from my memory of using Contribute around 4- 5 years ago. It is an off shot of Dreamweaver, which allows you to edit pages easily. 100% compatible with dreamweaver made sites and most others which aren't database driven.

I've had a bit of experience using Contribute. You can use the software to edit any HTML pages in a 'word processor' like environment once you have set up a connection to the site. (This means entering FTP details into the software). The software rewrites the code directly to the HTML page on the server somehow. I found that although the software is reasonably cheap the system has a few drawbacks, the main one being that clients can only edit pages on the PC the software is installed on. It can also become very tedious for clients to create new pages and then manually add links on all the pages that require them. And as the formatting is largely controlled by the user, it's easy to get screwed up. In practice my clients out-grew the software quite quickly and looked for an alternative. However, I stopped using it a few years ago so Adobe might have improved (or bloated) the application.

I've had a bit of experience using Contribute. You can use the software to edit any HTML pages in a 'word processor' like environment once you have set up a connection to the site. (This means entering FTP details into the software). The software rewrites the code directly to the HTML page on the server somehow. I found that although the software is reasonably cheap the system has a few drawbacks, the main one being that clients can only edit pages on the PC the software is installed on. It can also become very tedious for clients to create new pages and then manually add links on all the pages that require them. And as the formatting is largely controlled by the user, it's easy to get screwed up. In practice my clients out-grew the software quite quickly and looked for an alternative. However, I stopped using it a few years ago so Adobe might have improved (or bloated) the application.

 

Yes that's a good point. Unlike most CMS's where you can simply update your website from any computer in the world, anybody that wishes to run and edit a site via Contribute must HAVE Contribute on their PC to login, but in my case that was the plan anyway.

 

Thanks for all the pointers guys.

Don't forget CushyCMS as an option. It has a similar level of control, but is much simpler to use. It also keeps the user well away from the page formatting.