Macromedia Contribute

Keeping Web Sites Up To Date

Too many websites die due to lack of new and updated content.

Having spent considerable effort employing a professional web designer to create an attractive and user-friendly site, it is often too costly or takes too long to call them back even for the smallest changes.

Who is Contribute Aimed At ?

Macromedia Contribute is an ideal solution for organisations who need to regularly update and edit content on their existing web sites.

It is a simple, easy to use tool that allows non technical staff to update web pages simply, without compromising the design and style.

How it Works

Navigate to the page as you would using your regular web browser:

Once on the page to be updated, press the Edit button and Contribute switches into edit mode:

Now you can add or amend text, make links, import images and import Word documents directly.

Clicking the Publish button uploads the page to your web site. If the page is not finished then you can save in draft form, or give colleagues a chance to review the draft before it is published.

Creating new pages is also simple. New pages are based on predefined templates ensuring consistency throughout the site.

Connection to the web server is very simple. The designer sets up the connection to the web server and distributes a password protected key via email to users.

A Users Experience

"Before Contribute, we hardly ever made changes to our website, it was too time consuming, which put us off even thinking about it. With Contribute we can all participate, so there's a lot more interesting information and pictures going on the site regularly. The whole site has become richer in content and a better experience for visitors, resulting in more newsletter requests, donations to current projects, course bookings and purchases."

Bryan Irving Promotions Manager, Maharishi European Sidhaland

Features of Contribute

Contribute is very easy to use, and doesn't require any more expertise than using a word processor. Backup copies of edited pages protect you with the ability to undo multiple changes. Changes are done on a local copy so that they cannot viewed until you happy and published to the web server. Working within a team is handled automatically. No one can edit a page if another user already has it open or existing in draft form. It frees the end user from waiting for the IT department or supplier to find time for small changes.

The web site designer retains control of the website overall look and feel, by specifying which sections within a page users can edit.

Examples of Websites using Contribute I have successfully implemented Contribute for several clients: Voluntary Works Total Office Luton Gateway

Implementing

I have indept experience implementing Contribute. I can setup your site optimally, assist installation, training and support.

Please phone me 01695 720562 to discuss your requirements.

Contribute has a free 30 day trial available from Macromedia

Cost is about £120+VAT for a single user, with discounts for a 5 user pack.

Personal Opinion

Contribute is a very well thought out product, very reasonably priced.

It provides a full range of features in a very simple and clean user interface. It's easy for users to pick up. And you be assured that all changes made will not compromise the site's appearance.

It requires a reliable broadband internet connection otherwise you will find updates painfully slow.

Contribute Compared with CMS Content Management Systems

Web Content Management Systems (CMS) tend to be

  Orientated at large large corporate sites

  Don't offer the flexibility of pure HTML implementation

  More expensive

  Complex and store content inside a database and not standard HTML pages. This places more load on your web server and requires a lot more setup.

Contribute is HTML based and works on any standard server. Pages edited in Contribute, unlike those in a CMS, can be viewed by any standard web editing package.

 

Comparing Dreamweaver and Contribute

Dreamweaver is a powerful professional tool for designing and developing entire websites. You can get right "under the bonnet" with raw HTML code editing, server side scripting and site management features. With Dreamweaver you can design using CSS styles and page templates, and have the benefit of a variety of automated features for making site-wide updates.

Contribute provides an easy way to update pages on existing websites. It requires minimal training, and lets the site administrator restrict who can edit what, and what sort of changes they can make without risk of compromising the site design standards.

Contribute uses the same code generation engine as Dreamweaver, so any changes contributors make are completely compatible.

Administration

Contribute is 100% compatible with Dreamweaver.

Contribute by default, locks-out any scripts or server code on pages that are being edited.

Administrators have extensive control over the content published by content owners. Macromedia Contribute recognises style sheets and Dreamweaver templates to ensure the look and feel of a site remains consistent from page to page.

The site administrator controls who gets to edit which sections of a website, and what type of changes they can make.

The only permission that the network administrator must provide is allow network or FTP access to the web server on the workstations running Contribute.