Question: A year-old (about) Web site was built by an independent contractor for a nonprofit on a PC using Adobe Dreamweaver.
The Web site is great, but was built in Windows and the nonprofit only uses Macs. Moreover, the nonprofit doesn't have a copy of Dreamweaver.
What would be the lowest-cost option at this point for creating an enduring solution that would allow the nonprofit to update the site quickly and easily? Is it possible to do this without Dreamweaver?
Thanks in advance!
Joined on 11-09-2005
TechSoup Member
Hi,
The one most recommended is
KompoZer
It is built on Nvu, which I have used in the past and found it to work quite well. It has WYSIWYG web page editing so updates and editing are straight forward.
It runs on several platforms, including Mac, so hopefully this will be what they're looking for.
Talk to you later,
James
Joined on 06-09-2003
Davenport, Iowa USA
Adobe Contribute CS3 is available for Mac and is about $150 list. They should be able to edit the dream weaver created content directly with it. (that is how our site was built and is now maintained with Contribute.
They should be able to down load a 30 day demo to try it.
Dave
The file created by dreamweaver is merely a text file. It can be edited from notepad if that is your desire.
As such, just about any web editor of your choosing will be able to edit what you already have on hand.
There could be some features that are only found in DreamWeaver, like the template system. But for the most part you should be able edit the pages in almost any web page editing program, as well as a text editor or even Word, if you wanted to.
Depending on the size of your site and the cost for DreamWeaver, you might consider that if the DW templates are used, since it allows you to easily make site-wide changes as needed. And they do have a Mac version.
Joined on 07-09-2007
TechSoup Member
Hi wcook,
Can you tell us what the names of the files end in ie - filename.htm or filename.php etc?
Dreamweaver can create many different types of files, and the best editor will be dependent upon what types of files were created.
KathyReid,
Can you explain your question? I am not aware that the file extension makes any difference to the editor that is used, except in some rare cases like perhaps .xml and an old editor...?
Joined on 07-09-2007
TechSoup Member
I thought it was obvious.
There are a number of free / open source editors for particular web languages. In the end they are all text, but not all text editors were created equal.
For instance, Nvu is a good HTML editor, but for PHP, PHPEditor blows it out of the water.
Hello,
Have you considered going to a full blown CMS instead of static html. Dynamic sites with easy content management, expansive features, easy site updates and are not expensive when you use FOSS tools like:
Drupal CMS
Joomla CMS
Wordpress
If the organization doesn't want to maintain these CMS's they can get any of these CMS's at many hosting providers who will give them setup, upgrades and support. Just something to consider.....
Thanks,
Joe
Joined on 01-11-2008
TechSoup Member
Hi All,
Joe's suggestion is very good. Think of CMS (content management systems) as a website with Dreamweaver built in. There's a 'frontend' that the public sees. There's a 'backend' where you add/edit content, etc.
You can buy a book on Joomla, Drupal, etc at Amazon and have a volunteer or staff member administer the site from a web browser.
There is a learning curve with CMS's but that's like anything else in life.
Dislcaimer ;-)
Actually the analogy of a website with Dreamweaver build in is just that. Dreamweaver is a very powerful tool. But CMS's are sufficient for over 90's of community websites.