Download Contribute 6.5 [Contribute is DEAD]

[Bob15A8]

I am registered for Contribute 6.5, but can not find a download file to install it. I tried download it from your account, and it shows that it is registered, but there is no download link. 

[John T Smith]

I don't use it, so I have NO idea if that program is included here

I do not know how far back this process will go, but try this link
-NOTE that you will have to search the site for your specific download
Direct Download Links https://prodesigntools.com/tag/ddl MAY help
-you MUST do what it says in Note: Very Important Instructions
-https://prodesigntools.com/adobe-cc-2015-direct-download-links.html#download-instructions
-the prodesign links go directly to Adobe's file server, so this process will
--only work until Adobe completely removes the old version(s) from the server
.
IF/When you do have a download, be sure to copy it to AT LEAST one external device
-since Adobe does sometimes remove old versions from the server
-a usb flash drive or external hard drive, or write to a DVD
-plus a text file containing your serial number if you have a serial number program

[Bob15A8]

I went to the link you provided, chose CS6, which took me to https://prodesigntools.com/adobe-cs6-direct-download-links.html but could not find a link there for Contribute.  I have used Contribute CS3 for many years to modify and edit my small business web site, and has worked perfectly well for me. The only problem was that after changing computers, it would no longer reactivate, Adobe shut down their server for that.  So they were nice enough to give me a new serial number to use with CS6, or Contribute 6.5, but the download link they gave me would not work, and they told me to come to the Support Community here for help.  

All I need is a download of the new version, or, I would consider using a similar type of WYSIWYG program (I'd rather not use HTML code) that I can get without spending a lot of money (<$100) nor yearly subscription.  Please help, thanks.

[Nancy OShea]

Contribute is not an option.  There is NO download to be had.  Contribute is beyond dead.  Adobe pulled it off their shelves forever. 

Use one of the code editors below.  Or switch to an online site builder with a CMS you can use.  I'm sorry but those really are the only options left.

Do code exercises and take quizzes at the end.
- https://www.w3schools.com/html/
- https://www.w3schools.com/css/
- https://www.w3schools.com/js/
================
CODE EDITORS:
-- Adobe Dreamweaver CC - https://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver.html
-- Codespaces (free, browser-based) - https://github.com/features/codespaces
-- Nova (Mac only, formerly called Coda) - https://nova.app/
-- Pinegrow - https://pinegrow.com/
-- Sublime Text - http://www.sublimetext.com/
-- Visual Studio Code (free) - https://code.visualstudio.com/

============
ONLINE SITE BUILDERS:
-- Squarespace - https://www.squarespace.com/
-- Webflow - https://webflow.com
-- Wix - https://www.wix.com/
-- WordPress (open source) - https://wordpress.org/

Hope that helps.

[jane-e]

---

@Bob15A8 wrote:

So they were nice enough to give me a new serial number to use with CS6, or Contribute 6.5, but the download link they gave me would not work, and they told me to come to the Support Community here for help.  

ProDesign Tools seems to have a download link for CS5. I don't know if that will work with the serial number Adobe gave you, but if the download works, maybe you ask Adobe again for a serial number. We are volunteers and don't know what they might say.

https://prodesigntools.com/products/adobe-contribute-cs5.html

Be sure you are talking to Adobe and not someone purporting to be Adobe.

Jane

[Nancy OShea]

Contribute was never part of Creative Suite.  It was by separate purchase like Captivate.  Contribute downloads don't exist anymore.  Adobe permanently removed them.

[jane-e]

---

@Nancy OShea wrote:

Contribute was never part of Creative Suite.

---

I'm not saying I don't believe you Nancy, but I'm curious as to how ProDesign Tools, B&H Photo, and About.com got the product boxes for CS4 and CS5?

Maybe @ProDesignTools can explain the download link on his page and to clear this up for us! 😊

Jane

[Nancy OShea]

Did you click the links?  They go nowhere.

By way of background, Contribute was a companion app and an optional separate purchase for non-coding clients who wished to maintain their websites built by developers with Dreamweaver.  It was kind of a dumbed-down version of Dreamweaver but was never part of Creative Suites packages.

Contribute for CS4 was allegedly compatible with Dreamweaver CS4 sites.  Contribute for CS5 was compatible with Dreamweaver CS5 sites and so on until Contribute went kaput.

[jane-e]

Hi @Nancy OShea 

I don't think @Bob15A8 cares whether Contribute was included in one of the editions or not, as he only wants Contribute, which he has a license for, and for which Adobe Customer Care gave him a new serial number for a newer version.

I am a tad curious about what you think the "CS" in "Adobe Contribute CS5" might stand for, but you don't have to answer. 🙂

While Wikipedia and BH Photo say Contribute was included in the some of the collections, that's not what Bob is seeking and (while interesting) we have gotten off topic.

FROM WIKIPEDIA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Creative_Suite

The following table shows the different details of the core applications in the various Adobe Creative Suite editions. Each edition may come with all these apps included or only a subset.

Product name	Timeline history	Available in	Transitioned to Creative Cloud
Contribute	from Creative Suite 3 until Creative Suite 5.5	Design & Web Collection Master Collection	Merged with Dreamweaver
Device Central		Design Collection Design & Web Collection Production Premium Master Collection	Replaced by Creative Cloud desktop app

FROM B&H PHOTO

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/721596-REG/Adobe_29281118_Creative_Suite_5_Master.html

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/685334-REG/Adobe_65068227_Creative_Suite_5_Web.html

Jane

[Bob15A8]

Thanks Jane for trying.  You seem to understand my situation, and I appreciate that.  I don't understand why Adobe would give me a program to use, that is not available.  

Another question on alternatives (I have no training in this field, just need to maintain my small business web site, RobertTice.com). I've seen HTML code, which is akward to me. I've also seen mentioned visual code editors. Is that not the same as WYSIWYG? I tried Visual Studio Code,  and saw nothing visual about it. 

I tried the Visual CSS Editor extension in Chrome, and found that to be easier to use, but it would not save the changes to a html file. 

If I bought an older version of Dreamweaver, would that be WYSIWYG, or is it just code? 

Should I try Kompozer? They mention a split screen with preview, perhaps that would be easier for me?

[jane-e]

Hi @Bob15A8 

I pulled out my copy of CS5 for Mac to confirm and it does say it includes Contribute.

One other thought I had is that Adobe gave you a code for CS6 and the Wikipedia page says it was included in the Suite only through CS5.5.

I'm sure @ProDesignTools will respond soon, but he is a one-man shop and may be on vacation or otherwise occupied. He'll tell us if his link needs to be updated or if Adobe has pulled the direct download.

One idea is to contact Adobe Customer Care again. (If you use Chat, type "agent" to get a human.) Tell them the volunteers on the forums cannot give you the direct download link and ask again. (Not all agents are alike.) If they say no, ask for Tier 2 support. Be sure to get a case number for your service call at the very beginning of the call so you can use it if you need to call again.

I know Adobe has removed the activation servers for CS2, CS3, and CS4, but CS5, CS5.5 and CS6 should theoretically still work. You might keep the agent on the line while you sort this out.

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite.html

We are volunteers who don't work for Adobe, so all we can do is point you in the right direction. If we offer any opinions, they are our own.

Best of luck,

Jane

[jane-e]

I forgot to answer about alternatives. I think Nancy will give you a better answer than I can. I used to handcode html before I started using Dreamweaver and Brackets, but I've gotten away from all that.

Dreamweaver is What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) — code is on one side and results are on the other. 

Jane

[ProDesignTools]

Hey @jane-e, thanks for the call-out – and yes, it's vacation time! 🙂

Adobe Contribute was not included in CS6, but was included the Web Premium and the Master Collection editions of Creative Suite up until CS5.5.

The last available release was Contribute CS5 (which was Contribute version 6.0) and it can still be downloaded here:

https://prodesigntools.com/adobe-cs5-5-direct-download-links.html

CS1 - CS3 can no longer be activated, but all Creative Suite tools from CS4 - CS6 can still be activated – although none will install on macOS Catalina or newer. On Windows, they can usually be installed depending on the o/s version, but may or may not work properly.

(Whether you still want to be using them or not is a different question, but there you have it. 👍)

[Nancy OShea]

@Bob15A8 ,

This is Dreamweaver CC, version 2021.  See screenshot.   Older versions of Dreamweaver are not sold anymore.  It's by subscription only.   You can try it free for 7 days to see if it will work for you.

https://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver/free-trial-download.html

If you have any questions about Dreamweaver, you may post them in the Dreamweaver Support Community below.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/dreamweaver/ct-p/ct-dreamweaver

[Nancy OShea · Accepted solution]

Adobe Contribute is DEAD for more than 6 years now.  You wouldn't want to use it anyway.  It never worked right after 2012.  Contribute hobbled along on life support for few years before Adobe finally pulled the plug on it. 

Use Webflow or WordPress or any other content managment system (CMS) platform.

If you need to maintain old Contribute websites and can work with code, use Dreamweaver or Visual Studio Code.

[Audrey249241388smb]

Oops! The Adobe Contributor was more like an HTML editor than a Content Management System (CMS) like WordPress. WP is an open-source platform for building blogs. Just for plain HTML editing, I would rather go for notepad text editor on Windows or maybe use another free program known as "Brackets" that gives direct facilities to watch a preview of the source through a web browser. 🙂 

[Audrey249241388smb]

Moreover, WordPress is just used to build professional websites and blogs like <link removed>. It is never intended for testing HTML codes or people just don't prefer it as it requires installation on a server, although we can install it on localhost such as the C drive of windows, making our own computer act as a server for learning purpose. We can still use the online compiler applications for testing our codes. 🙂

[Nancy OShea]

@Audrey249241388smb,

Brackets is discontinued. 

WordPress is an actual CMS capable of much, much more than simple blogs. It's easy to use by young & old on a dynamic site building platform that can do as much or little as required.  Everything from e-commerce & multi-language sites to non-profits, home owner associations,  schools, churches, sports teams, clubs, you name it...  And most hosting plans support it.

[Audrey249241388smb]

Actually, Brackets is not discontinued. You can still download it from https://brackets.io/ 

Thanks.

[Nancy OShea]

Actually Brackets development ended in September, 2021. Adobe no longer maintains it. And Microsoft recently announced a similar fate for Atom.

https://news.itsfoss.com/atom-being-discontinued/

Nobody should use outdated coding tools for any reason.  It's counterproductive and unnecessary.  There are plenty of free and paid for code editors available.  for best results, choose tools that are being actively maintained & developed.

OPTIONS:

Visual Studio Code or Sublime Text.

[Bob15A8]

So if I want to edit an existing site I have (probably created with Dreamweaver, previously maintained with Contribute), it is no longer possible to do without using code? That's incredible that no one would create software that would work like Contribute, ala WYSIWYG.  

[Nancy OShea]

So if I want to edit an existing site I have (probably created with Dreamweaver, previously maintained with Contribute), it is no longer possible to do without using code?

==========

Editing code is one option.  Using a visual code editor like Dreamweaver or Pingrow is another.  Your choice. 

Contribute is dead.  It's NOT LEGALLY available from any source now. 

=============
Beware of fake Adobe reps who may contact you privately offering to sell you software or take control of your computer. It's a scam, run away! Real Adobe employees will never reach out via Outlook, Yahoo, Gmail or Skype.
=============
3 Easy Ways to Identify Genuine Adobe Staff
https://tinyurl.com/10791730

[Wobbly30116452u4tu]

My sentiment completely. Contribute was how I kep my website alive and up to date but, after my old computer died, I couldn't use Contribute on my new one and can't figure out any other way to maintain it and REALLY don't want to have to rebuild it. No place to download a "legacy" version? Incredible, I agree, and unfair.

[kglad]

@Wobbly30116452u4tu 

what version are you seeking?

[Nancy OShea]

@Wobbly30116452u4tu,

Sorry to say, Contribute is End of Life software from the Creative Suite era.  Even if you could find your original installation disks and valid serial number that came with it,  chances are slim to none that you could activate it beyond the trial.  Contribute is dead.

Adobe discontinued sales in 2017.  But 2 years prior, Contribute stopped working correctly.  And to be honest, Adobe did nothing to fix the problems.  The software was just too old.

Going forward, you need to learn to use an HTML editor.  If not Dreamweaver then something else (see list below). 

Alternatively, hire a developer to build an online website (CMS) that you can manage from your browser  without coding skills.  Those are your only options at this point.

CODE EDITORS:
-- Adobe Dreamweaver CC - https://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver.html
-- Codespaces (free, browser-based) - https://github.com/features/codespaces
-- Nova (Mac only, formerly called Coda) - https://nova.app/
-- Pinegrow - https://pinegrow.com/
-- Sublime Text - http://www.sublimetext.com/
-- Visual Studio Code (free) - https://code.visualstudio.com/

+ Free Live Preview extension- https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscode.live-server
============
ONLINE SITE BUILDERS:
-- Squarespace - https://www.squarespace.com/
-- Webflow - https://webflow.com
-- Wix - https://www.wix.com/
-- WordPress (open source) - https://wordpress.org/

Hope that helps.  Good luck.