Macromedia Contribute

Rating:
Summary: Easy to set up and use but has memory mgmt problems
Review: After a month of using this product the pros I find in it continue to be there. As a project manager for a site redesign I am now at the stage where we're working on the implementation of the content. As a suggestion of the contractor we're working with, we are using Contribute for content management, given the nature of the company whose web site we're redesigning: a non-profit with a limited budget and limited resources, none of which are tech savvy.

I am VERY impressed with the product in the first days of using it. It was incredibly easy to set up. You will need to have very minimal knowledge of technology to do it: just the address of the server you need to connect to, the login and the password to use. After that, you essentially use the product as a browser, when you land on the page you want to edit, you hit "Edit Page" and it becomes a very functional web editor, without having to deal with any HTML whatsoever. In case you're wondering, because you had a "bad experience" with the Front Page's of the world, I checked out the source of a page once I edited it, and it was very clean. It truly is as good as it gets for a WYSIWYG-type editor. Congratulations Macromedia for such a great product!

As for cons, I've encountered the memory management of the application to be somewhat faulty: I've run into a number of ocasions when the process associated with the program starts to gulp in more and more memory (some 1-2 MBs per second, and I am NOT kidding) until the computer can no longer handle it. Also I've found this to be the case (though not taking up memory quite as fast) if you leave the program open overnight. This is something that I am expecting Macromedia to release a patch of some sort soon, but be adviced!

Rating:
Summary: A life saver!
Review: I do part time work designing websites for friends and their small companies. Probably half of that time is spent just handling never-ending requests for small updates and tweeks, it's a big time drain for me and a bottleneck for the customers. I've been using the trial available from Macromedia's site and all I can say is WOW! I wish this had been invented years ago, I'd probably have a few months of my life back. Now, I can give my customers a copy of Contribute, set up the site so they can't break any code and allow them to make their own edits. Contribute is so easy to use that my customers have had no problems understanding it. Everybody wins.

Don't hesitate to buy this product.

Rating:
Summary: Way to go Macromedia!!! What a time saver!
Review: I have been developing web sites for a long time and all I can say is - I wish this tool had existed from day one. I spend so much time editing content that my costs to my clients can get ridiculous! All for simple edits that eat away at my day and cause delays in getting the data out to their audiences. Now the clients do the content management on their own and I can focus on the more important parts of the sites. It is GREAT! And as an added bonus, my clients feel empowered because they are really "contributing" to their sites and they are taking pride in their web sites - all the while building a better realtionship with me. It really is a web developer's dream come true!