August 6, 201115 yr Hi, I recently had my website designed by a company who wanted to charge £600 p/a for a cms. Now its really a static site and I would only need to make a few changes to text etc. Can I just use dreamweaver to edit text etc or does it all depend how they built the site? I wanted to remove a line of text so I thought I could edit this in dreamweaver then update the file onto my website. Would this affect w3c compliance etc? In theory could I just use dreamweaver to edit my site instead of cms and if so then why do people have a cms? Is it just because its user friendly? As always, replys greatly appreciated Mo
August 6, 201115 yr Save yourself the 600 p/a. You're right and if it's a mainly static site and YOU want to change a bit of text now and then then you're going to be able to do that fine in Dreamweaver or even something free. You'd normally want a CMS if you were changing things regularly and, therefore, didn't want to dive into code all the time.
August 6, 201115 yr Would this affect w3c compliance etc? In theory could I just use dreamweaver to edit my site instead of cms and if so then why do people have a cms? Is it just because its user friendly? Depends how well you edited the code. I use a CMS. It separates my content from my presentation, so I can redesign my site and swap in a new theme with a click. If I want to add a button to my footer, I do it in one file. I also keep a blog on my site, and that sort of thing's practically impossible without a CMS. When I write content, I want to write content, not worry about having to duplicate markup across from another page in order to keep everything consistent.
August 6, 201115 yr What he said ^^^ CMS' allow you to have all the code & design separate from the content. That let's you change either without disturbing the other. Although that can be true of a well build static site too. The main point of CMS' is to have a base design that is automatically put around any new content.
August 6, 201115 yr Author Hi, Thanks for your replies. I tried dreamweaver with the 30 day trial and it seemed very easy to change content. My site is relatively basic so maybe thats the reason it's no trouble. so surpised as when I asked design company about making changes they strongly advised me that cms was my only option at £2400 + £600 p/a or to change text at £150 a pop when I have just done it in 5 minutes for free. Have I just saved myself £5400 over 5 years?! hard to believe BTW I am a plumber/heating engineer so if anyone needs advice I'm more than happy to help. thanks Mo
August 6, 201115 yr I would also suggest using notepad++ instead of forking out for the full version if dreamweaver, there are lots of free editors around, your choice really.
August 6, 201115 yr If they are using a CMS, are you 100% positive that the pages are static? Just to make sure, are you confident you know what that term means (I've had clients who thought it meant no animation on the page).
August 6, 201115 yr Author If they are using a CMS, are you 100% positive that the pages are static? Just to make sure, are you confident you know what that term means (I've had clients who thought it meant no animation on the page). Hi there, Thanks for reply. To be honest - No is the answer. I'm a novice and slowly trying to get my head around all this but do you mean that if the design company were using their own cms to build my site then any changes I make via dreamweaver may be detrimental to my site? I assumed static meant a site which didnt need regular updating? I just dont want to do anything which might affect the performance of the site - surely deleting or including text would not be a problem in dreamweaver would it? Please tell me if you think I'm just not getting it yet and I'll try and do some more research. Thanks again Mo
August 6, 201115 yr A static page means that the content on the page isn't dynamic, for example, the content on the page isn't pulling anything from a database. Every page has it's own separate HTML file. 99.9% of the CMS's out there will utilize a database (some will not use one, but they are in the minority and still are considered dynamic not static). What CMS's are they using? There are plenty of cheaper and even free ones that will do simple or complex sites. Is the site online so we can see it? With our help we might be able to suggest one of these CMS's to tell your design company (or even have one of use take over the project if you would like).
August 6, 201115 yr Hi, Thanks for your replies. I tried dreamweaver with the 30 day trial and it seemed very easy to change content. My site is relatively basic so maybe thats the reason it's no trouble. so surpised as when I asked design company about making changes they strongly advised me that cms was my only option at £2400 + £600 p/a or to change text at £150 a pop when I have just done it in 5 minutes for free. Have I just saved myself £5400 over 5 years?! hard to believe BTW I am a plumber/heating engineer so if anyone needs advice I'm more than happy to help. thanks Mo Thing is Mo, and no offence to yourself, you are a plumber not a web developer. I'm assuming you'd be using the graphical interface for Dreamweaver (the WYSIWYG or 'design view') over any amount of time the code that this generates will become clunkier and clunkier and eventually bog down your site and eventually bring it to shuddering halt. I'm in no way saying you should be paying as much as you've been told (i wouldn't charge that for example) but it is not a simple case of changing a bit of text and all is well. If you are actually changing the code (and i'm sure if you are you're being very careful) then don't fork out for a full copy of Dreamweaver as their are many cheaper or free alternatives out there, even Windows notepad will do! The company may very well have been selling you their own proprietary CMS system which sounds a bit like a waste of time to me if you just want to update a bit of text now and again. You'd be better off getting a good developer to knock you up a site in a well known CMS platform that you could use to update your site and there would be plenty of support from the internet community. Something like Drupal, Wordpress, Joomla etc You're correct ith static sites. Static meaning doesn't need to be changed much. The information is usually hard coded in to the page as opposed to in a database. Hope this helps somewhat. P.S My boiler at home has only started heating the water if the heating is on too... not great in August! Any suggestions Edited August 6, 201115 yr by MikeChipshop
August 6, 201115 yr Author Hi, Thanks for reply. Ok..well that makes sense. thought it seemed to easy. So I start up dreamweaver...get a html file of one of my web pages and open it. My page appears as it does online. I highlight text I want to delete and delete. I go to code tab and delete that same line. I save and transfer to host server-voila. So could tweaking the site like this cause problems in the future - like you said: 'bog the site down'? I do pick things up quite quickly so do you think with a bit of research I could use a program such as dreamweaver without clogging up my site? Isnt a CMS just an easier way of updating site and thats it? If so, then I think I would like to put the time in to be able to make changes myself and learn a bit in the mean time. I really need to put the time in and read a book on it or something :-) Oh..your heating. Firstly its important to know wether your system was working fine before, if youve had any work carried out or wether its a new system. So I'll assume you draw your hot water from a cylinder somewhere in your home? 1 common problem is with the motorized zone valves(MV)which would be located near the cylinder. You could have 1 3-port valve or 2 2 port valves or maybe even more. These valves talk with your programmer and close and open depending on what u want them to do. 1 example is: Heating on/ Hot water off?-Heating MV opens up and Hot water MV closes. Now if the Heating MV is faulty then when ever you turn on your hot water then the heat would also go through to your rads because its not closing. Just one possibility but very hard to say without more info or looking. get back to me if u need more advice Thanks Mo
August 6, 201115 yr Author Thing is Mo, and no offence to yourself, you are a plumber not a web developer. I'm assuming you'd be using the graphical interface for Dreamweaver (the WYSIWYG or 'design view') over any amount of time the code that this generates will become clunkier and clunkier and eventually bog down your site and eventually bring it to shuddering halt. P.S My boiler at home has only started heating the water if the heating is on too... not great in August! Any suggestions Hi, Thanks for reply. Ok..well that makes sense. thought it seemed to easy. So I start up dreamweaver...get a html file of one of my web pages and open it. My page appears as it does online. I highlight text I want to delete and delete. I go to code tab and delete that same line. I save and transfer to host server-voila. So could tweaking the site like this cause problems in the future - like you said: 'bog the site down'? I do pick things up quite quickly so do you think with a bit of research I could use a program such as dreamweaver without clogging up my site? Isnt a CMS just an easier way of updating site and thats it? If so, then I think I would like to put the time in to be able to make changes myself and learn a bit in the mean time. I really need to put the time in and read a book on it or something :-) Oh..your heating. Firstly its important to know wether your system was working fine before, if youve had any work carried out or wether its a new system. So I'll assume you draw your hot water from a cylinder somewhere in your home? 1 common problem is with the motorized zone valves(MV)which would be located near the cylinder. You could have 1 3-port valve or 2 2 port valves or maybe even more. These valves talk with your programmer and close and open depending on what u want them to do. 1 example is: Heating on/ Hot water off?-Heating MV opens up and Hot water MV closes. Now if the Heating MV is faulty then when ever you turn on your hot water then the heat would also go through to your rads because its not closing. Just one possibility but very hard to say without more info or looking. get back to me if u need more advice Thanks Mo 0
August 6, 201115 yr Hi Mo, So long as you're editing the code directly (and it sounds like you are) then there is no reason why the site will become unstable so that's good news. A CMS stores the content in a database and keeps it separate from the structure of the site, making it impossible to break the site by changing, editing or deleting content. This is done by logging in and filling out a form and is the easiest way for a novice to keep a site updated. However if you're willing to learn a little code then you should be able to keep your site updated without the need for a CMS. Regarding the boiler. Cheers for that info, I shall approach my land lady with it!
August 6, 201115 yr spot on mister boiler man. I also run my own company and got into dreamweaver just to improve and update my company site. As long as you do it as you say and only change text in code view. In the mean time you can learn about the other options available and all of a sudden you have a second trade. Would you share your URL with us, so we can have a look. BTW. I agree with what Pat24 said earlier, download a free copy of notepad++ and open one of your html pages in it. You will see that this is even faster than using dreamweaver, although I use both but mostly the weaver. Good luck P.H.
August 7, 201115 yr May I recommend PageLime or Halogy which are pretty easy to set up and super easy to use! Try them out and give me a shout if you've got any more problems!
August 8, 201115 yr Momo, all valid advice here. I do find it amusing comparing plumbing to web development, as there's so many similarities! If you have no issues updating via Dreamweaver go for it - sounds like your getting along fine already. Just editing the text isn't going to cause any problems. Treat it like you treat plumbing and you'll get along fine. Make sure you backup whatever file your going to edit before changing anything, just in case things go wrong. In terms of the costs you have been quoting, they are pretty much standard if you go with a web development company. They have so many overheads in terms of employees, premises etc. that in order to turn a profit, the costs will be far higher than a freelancer. There's pro's and cons to both. The theory is that a web development company would be faster to react, probably more stable and could offer more - if only that were true! The reality is you just never know - having worked both for companies and as a freelancer, I'd say, for your business, find a decent local freelancer who can help you with more complicated stuff in the future. A company I worked for used to do a lot of web sites for local contractors and the reality was, they played second fiddle to the big bucks projects, always downgraded on the 'urgency' list when a bigger client shouted louder. For most freelancers, smaller clients are their bread and butter and they'll generally bend over backwards to get your work done quickly and properly. EDIT: ... or you could just work *smart* and DIY, asking questions on the forums! It's not that difficult to run and maintain a *small* static site. There's also free wysiwyg editors out there, one example is KompoZer: http://www.kompozer.net/ Edited August 8, 201115 yr by bb_matt
August 8, 201115 yr Have you tried W3C'S Amaya Free Editor Just Like Dreamweaver But "FREE" Just tried it, full of glitches (visual and otherwise), slowness, and all around UX problems. Free != Good. What a horrible program.
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