Macromedia Announces "Contribute"

> Dreamweaver Lite?

It’s really more of a low-end CMS isn’t it? Seems like a nice product based on MM’s description. although I’d have to really see it in action before trusting some of my clients to update their sites. Still seems like to many things could go wrong. Zeldman mentions that the Mac version will embedded Opera 7, should be interesting.

OT: any luck with the jumping links since the css chagnes? It’s bugging the heck out of me.

You shouldn't be experiencing "jumping links" anymore. Clear out your cache (force reload it) and try again. Should hopefully do the trick.

OR, if you happen to be using IE 5 Mac... reload the style sheet as well. It's got an annoying habit of caching them and refusing to let go until you pry them from its cold, dead fingers.

I don’t uderstand the timing/purpose of this product. This would had been great in 1995 when content lived in the page. Everything is database driven now. Most publising systems/CMS already have this built in and all you need is a Browser. Nothing to buy (for the client anyway) or to install. If you are using an installable non-developer editor, most of these types of users are using FrontPage which probably came with office. This product will go nowhere.

I think this product will do well. I’m building a small web design business and at this point, most of my clients need small, brochure-ware sites. I’ve not found any CMS that has the right combination of price and features, until Contribute that is. I’ve been trying to figure out easy ways to use Movable Type for this sort of thing. Contribute is cheaper than a commercial Movable Type license, and looks to be easier for the client to use. I think the market for this is potentially larger than for Flash or Dreamweaver. I only need to buy one copy of those programs. But I could see recommending to many of my clients that they buy Contribute.

My initial "Dreamweaver Lite" comment was admittedly a little...wrong...after delving deeper into the tour presentation. In my mind, Macromedia could have a really killer, price-friendly app on their hands here. This is one of those apps that fills a void almost every web designer has dealt with - those little, nit-picky changes that often times take more time to deal with than they should. The fact that clients can drag and drop word documents is really, really nice. I'm looking forward to trying out an X version myself - who knows, I may just recommend it to some of my clients.

For a cheap, capable, client-friendly CMS, check out CityDesk www.fogcreek.com/cityDesk.

I've used it on a project with fairly simple content-management needs and fairly simple design requirements. The client loves it because it's totally simple to update content and very hard to mess up their designs (which are kept as DW templates out of their way). The UI is kept to a minimum, and everything works like a standard Windows desktop app. (It's Win-only, now and forever.)

I've downloaded a demo (beta) of C-trib, and I'll be checking it out on my XP box. I would have to echo Craig's comments: In my market (small biz), this product is a lifesaver. It's been hard to sell a full-blown CMS to my small, tech-unsavvy clientele; I think this will fill the gap nicely. I too have been considering offering a static + MT site, it's good if they just need a News section or something, and the flexible templates mean I can even feed a Flash home page. But, it's too limited in most cases.
C-trib looks good, and user-friendly (something I can't say about most CMS's). Their approach is actually pretty fresh and well-thought-out. I just wish MT would go all the way and develop a full-blown CMS...

I wish this had come out when I was still working for my last employer. I racked my brain to come up with a simple way non-tech employees could add their own articles and updated info to their intranet, extranet and corporate web sites. The IS department held the pursestrings and decided to try to have people use Front Page, even though most of the sites were built in Dreamweaver. I left before I had to deal with how well this worked. IS also looked into an expensive addon for Interwoven's Teamsite that gave very basic ability to add content to pages only an IS person could understand how to set up. Contribute would have been perfect: not too hard for a non-techie to learn, interfaces with Dreamweaver, produces standard code and not too expensive for a large number of users (although FrontPage is basically free...). I'm excited that I finally have a decent product to offer my clients who always ask for a way to edit their own content after I'm done.

Probably the best feature of this, if recommending to non tech clients, is the “revert” feature. If the client messes something up, they can just undo. Kinda like Photohop’s history feature. (Hope Adobe doesn’t sue)

Hi All, I'm the Contribute product manager, just wanted to drop in and answer a couple questions.

First, we're working hard on an OSX version, in fact if you know any killer OSX (carbon) coders point them this way: http://www.craigslist.org/sfo/pen/sof/6698463.html.

Second, I agree with Woody that many sites require database-backed systems, but without a doubt the vast majority of sites are static, most web content is perfectly well served by remaining static, and most implementations of CMS systems are overly painful and rarely runaway successes. We're hoping that Contribute will provide another tool to help with the content problem so that designers and developers can focus on activities that really add value, as opposed to doing things like creating a database system so that HR can update a travel policy on their intranet site. The goal is to give you the choice to use the right tool for the job, and help ressurect the early idea of the read-write web.

Cheers,
-e
Erik Larson
Sr Product Manager
Macromedia

I think that contribute will have enormous success. Apart from being based on Dreamweaver, what other CMS are there that you can set up in 10 minutes...
cheers
Matthew