Help Choosing Program for site

[JohnW]

What would you recommend for upkeep of a site? I have been trying to keep my site updated but I want to turn over some of the updating to others. The problem is that they do not understand html. I do not need them to design the page but just be able to update articles. If they could add pictures it would be a plus.

I was just looking at Adobe Golive 6 and the workgroup. It sounds like what I need. Do you upload part of the program onto your site so they can then go in and edit or does everyone you want to work on your site have to buy a program?

If something gets screwed up in Adobe 6 is it hard to go find the problem? Also does using such a program slow down the site loading? A few years back I tried Microsoft FrontPage but did not like it and I am glad I skipped that and did my own coding and updating but now I do not have the time to try to do it all.

I would also like to hear about Dreamweaver or any other program that might help me farm out the updates.

[Rich]

For the novice, one of the easiest editors is FrontPage. For what you need to allow others to do, it would only take them a couple of hours to learn to use.

For yourself I would suggest Dreamweaver. It sounds like you're ready to step to a more capable editor and Dreamweaver is one of the best.

[Matt]

It sounds like you need a content management script that would allow others to edit their site over the internet. One of the easier ones to setup and use is PageGrinder. The web site appears to be down right now, but you can read a short description at http://www.hotscripts.com/Detailed/791.html as well as get the link to the site. This script also doesn't require MySQL, like some content management scripts. It keeps backups when modifications are made so that you can revert the content if you need too. Oh, it's also free :) There is other software, and more powerful software, but you should see if this meets your needs. I'm sure that others can recommend content management scripts as well.

Rich is right. Dreamweaver is the best web design software I've used, although your clients might do more harm than good with Frontpage. A suitable content management script would allow your clients to update the site w/o having to install software on their own computers and would allow you to limit the changes they could make, thus preserving your site.

Hope this helps- Matt

[Grendel]

Another approach would be to install some sort of journalling/blogging software, such as GreyMatter or Moveable Type (http://www.movabletype.org). As long as you set up the templates properly, your authors could easily log in and publish anything they like without having to know HTML.

[JohnW]

Thanks for the suggestions. I am going to go read up on these programs. A couple of years ago I messed around some with news pro ( I think I am remembering that name correctly). It's been so long ago I do not remember why I did not use it much.

[skolnick]

I have twice taken over sites originally built with Frontpage. In both cases, the debris left by Frontpage greatly increased the time required to maintain and update the sites using anything except Frontpage, and Frontpage wouldn't or couldn't do some of the things we needed. On the basis of that experience, and similar tales from others, I would recommend you stay as far away from Frontpage as possible.

I have heard very good things about Dreamweaver from people I respect. As I understand it, Dreamweaver has some rudimentary site management capability that may be sufficient for your needs.

If your people are distributed, you might consider setting up CVS as a configuration management tool, and give your designers WinCVS to update the central database. You can update your live site by exporting from CVS, and if someone makes a mistake it is trivial to "back up" to a known good state.

dave