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Choosing a Content Management System for Future-proofing your Web Site

Here is a checklist to determine if you might benefit from a Content Management System (CMS)

You need to update on a certain schedule
Updates seem to be needed all the time
Your current site is out of date, or getting to difficult to manage
The site is large and you loose track of contents
You need to keep old content accessible
Your site contains only static pages
You want to be able to use your content as print media, manuals, instructions without having to reformat the content for each
You want to use CSS so that redesigns and changes are easier
Many people who work on the site's contents do not have technical skills
Many people work on the site, and you have to keep the design consistent
How much “Time is Money” means to your organization

Issues affecting the choice of a CMS product include:

Whether the product will run on a server or locally
Whether the product runs on your network, or runs remotely
Whether the product updates with a standard browser from anywhere
Whether your Web host supports the product
Whether you can design and change the product's templates
Security needs
How easy that templates or mini-applications integrate into the product
What database support the product (and your server, or host's server) supports
Whether you need third-party or in-house developers
How seriously that you take accessibility standards

There should never be a need to compromise design or look and feel to use a CMS because there are many product choices.

Desktop CMS

Contribute™ by Macromedia represents a form of content management. With this desktop product, non-technical staff edit templates that were created by Dreamweaver™. The non-technical staff members can only change the components that they are given permission to change.

Here are links to Open Source Content Management products.

Link to more information about Plone.

Link to more information about Moodle.

Note: Moodle is a course content management system.