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D
DS8108
Known Participant
January 25, 2012
Answered

Dreamweaver and CMS

  • January 25, 2012
  • 4 replies
  • 31518 views

What tools can I provide a customer for editing his/her website (CMS) after I design in Dreamweaver.

I have a customer that would like to maintain certain areas of their website. I looked for pricing on InContext editing and it appears to not be available any longer. So how can I set this up for them?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer adninjastrator

Martin,

 

This may be another stupid question to add to my list of them, but is it possible to build this site in dreamweaver (which I already have) and then have my client pages that he/she needs to edit inside an iframe....and those pages be built in wordpress and editable in wordpress?

 

Thanks,

Donna

 


You don't need the iframe... you need to "integrate" the look and feel of the WordPress theme into the Web design you already have... so you need to be able to customize WP to match your existing site. Here is a very good tutorial:

http://jonathanwold.com/tutorials/wordpress_theme/

That way the client edited section of the Web site looks like the rest of the site.

Adninjastrator

4 replies

A
Anonymous
February 8, 2012

One system we use that we found quite easy to implement is CMS made simple. The template system is quite simple to use as it can render any HTML and CSS as a template with the use of Smarty tags.

I use this CMS system being a northern ireland website designer. If you require any help with the CMS, let me know.

D
DS8108Author
Known Participant
February 13, 2012

Is this cms free? Or do you have to host your site with them? Do you keep everything on your own server?

M
Mcshifty
Participant
January 30, 2012

You may want to check out Konductor (http://www.konductor.net), you won't have any problems like this:

Just to clarify, if you design your own site in CS5 using HTML, you cannot just import that site into a Content Management System. You can "integrate" the look and feel of your site by editing the CSS and some of the .php files, but it will be a completely different site than the one you designed.

Konductor just uses Dreamweaver and HTML to get set up on your side. Hopefully that's helpful.

    C
    cmspro
    Participant
    January 26, 2012

    Cushy CMS (http://cushycms.com/) or Konductor (http://konductor.net) work well within the Adobe workflow.

    O
    osgood_
    Legend
    January 26, 2012

    Persoanlly I hate Wordpress with a passion. In my opinion its only for those that want to choose an off-the-shelf designed theme and base their site design on that theme. Pretty restrictive in my opinion. To bend Wordpress to ones own design you have to jump through hoops to do so. I'm pretty good when it comes to html, css and a bit of php but even I found the workflow back to front. Yep if you want to use someone elses design right out of the box use Wordpress. If you have a custom design then steer clear of it and use one of the CMS mentioned by Murray. I favour Perch because its simple to set up and integrate with YOUR design seamlessly. The backend is uncomplex and easy for clients to use unlike Wordpress, which is overkill.

    Wordpress is either for beginners who know nothing or professionals who know css, html and php inside out. Its not for anyone inbetween in my opinion.

      D
      DS8108Author
      Known Participant
      January 27, 2012

      Thank you everyone for your helpful information and advice. I've gotten some good information here to help me get started again. I may work up another question over the weekend.

      MurraySummers
      MurraySummers
      Inspiring
      January 25, 2012

      Investigate:

      PowerCMS from http://www.webassist.com

      Perch from http://grabaperch.com

      Content Seed from http://contentseed.com

      CushyCMS from http://cushycms.com

      All will require some familiarity with server scripting.

      D
      DS8108Author
      Known Participant
      January 25, 2012

      Thanks, Murray. I'm going to look into those right now.

      I've almost finished my current project using Dreamweaver only. How do you feel about Adobe Business Catalyst? Doesn't it have some sort of CMS Maintenance for the client? I thought about using it for future projects. My main concern moving forward is to use something that is going to be around for a long time.

      adninjastrator
      adninjastrator
      Inspiring
      January 26, 2012

      Well I'm familiar with basic HTML/CSS, and trying my best to advance at this point. I know enough to be dangerous, but I'm smart enough to always keep a fresh backup copy of my site in case I destroy it at 3 a.m. when I'm too stubborn to give up and go to bed.

      But I need something easy that a client can just edit news items that appears in one page (I have this nested in an iframe) and also change out corresponding photos on the page. That's it. Very simple information and nothing technical.


      It sounds like you want to use the Web site that you have already designed and somehow incorporate some CMS into this existing Web site... is that correct?

      While starting from scratch with a real CMS... WordPress or whatever may have been the best option, I'll purpose a second option that would allow you to use your currently designed site AND allow your client to do minor updates and edits.

      Teach them some very basic HTML... how to edit what appears between a <p>and the </p>.... how to copy/paste an existing paragraph so now they have a second <p>and some more text</p> how to add an image, and maybe a <h1>Heading tag</h>

      All you/they really need for minor edits to an existing site is to learn 6-8 HTML tags.... that would cover the vast majority of minor edits to an existing Web site.

      They will need a copy of NotePad++ or a MAC text editor for the editing:

      http://notepad-plus-plus.org/

      and Filezilla or Cyberduck for FTP:

      http://filezilla-project.org/

      http://cyberduck.ch/

      Give them a two hour or so tutorial/lesson and links to a few help sites like:

      http://www.w3schools.com/html/

      Might seem a little scary... but speaking from experience, I just moved this site away from a Drupal site and rebuilt the entire thing in HTML and with just a little coaching have turned simple edits over to the "Web Committee".

      http://www.olympicdiscoverytrail.com/

      Now they are making all the minor edits/ additions, etc and are finding it at least as simple as the learning curve associated with Drupal.

      But whether you go with a full blown CMS or teach them a little HTML......

      wishing you the best of luck!

      Adninjastrator

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