Some basic website design help - pretty please!

[peppie]

Compared to some of the website design experts/pros around here, my website design and maintenance skills are pretty much P plate level. I have no real aspirations towards site design services as such, my expertise in that realm is more to do with media delivery for someone else to incorporate.

So I am looking for a bit of basic assistance on ways to do some things, a bit for myself but more so for a local sports club I am helping out with. (My wife is the Secretary and I have been seconded as an assistant!)

My problem is that the clubs newly designed site is meant to work with Google Docs for content update of about 8 pages , but the designer quickly "disappeared" leaving me to work it out the hard way. I can update the site now, but I am not happy with the way it works and I need to beat it into something that a comparative novice can update.

I figure I have one of 2 choices. Either I set it up to edit with a simple (free) WYSIWYG editor and do the direct page modify and upload page/s thing, OR, I look at a decent (preferably free) Content Management System.

The first choice depends on a suitable and decent editor. I have used NVU and it's derivative Komposer, but found them to be a bit quirky to work with. I have been told Microsoft Frontpage is ok, but it is apparently not available now. Does anyone have a copy I can beg/borrow/purchase? Or recomend an alternative? (Remember, preferably simple and free.)

For the second option, I believe there is at least one decent free CMS application available, and yes I realise it needs to be set up on the site server, and yes I know the server will handle it. So to do that I will need someone to convert the site to run with that. It is an option, provide that pages can be operated easily and changes to the site itself can be made easily. Any recommendations please as to a CMS application?

I can't promise big money for anyone, it's a bit more of a community service thing. But you might get mentioned as a sponsor!!! And I would be eternity grateful for the help (picture here a mature gentleman who was trained in electronics in a totally different era, and has had to learn ALL this sort of thing all over again.)

[Renee Barber]

Hi Paul


My Open Source CMS of choice is Joomla. As you indicated, you'll need to be able to set up the server and be a bit of a sleuth about customising it, but, as they say, the price is right for the underlying system. Also, there are heaps of free templates and plugins and lots of resources for setting things up. Here are three Joomla sites I've created:

• http://www.fastleadership.com.au
• http://www.cranbournechamber.com.au
• http://www.risingstardesigns.com.au

OK, I'll post this now because I'm heading off, but hopefully this will at least get you started.

[linkartist]

Joomla is not for the faint hearted, especially if you want to incorporate existing site design into it. And personally, having used all of the Open Source CMSes for many many years, Joomla would only be a choice for people who, well, already know Joomla, in my opinion. 2 years ago, I would have said its a great choice, but now there are so many more lightweight, user friendly and Open Source apps that are better that I personally would not recommend it.

If its only 8 pages, I would actually recommend something like CushyCMS. All you need to do is create editable divs and assign a class to it and you can edit it by logging in at the Cushy site. It is the easiest way to integrate basic content management into a site without too much of a headache. They also have excellent instructions.

Of course, if you were looking for a 'proper' server side CMS, http://www.cmsmadesimple.com is great for integrating your design (it accepts all your HTML and you replace the editable content with tags) or Wordpress if there is a blog.

I'll be happy to help you out if you need any advice

[Renee Barber]

The great thing about this forum is that everyone has an opinion. :-)

While I do remember reading that someone spent an entire day on setting up a Joomla site and only managed to change the footer, I'd hope that was an isolated case.

At any rate, since linkartist has offered to help, the systems indicated might well be the way to go in this particular instance.

Joomla is still my CMS 'drug of choice', but I'll definitely be interested in hearing what other designers/developers have to say.

[SydneyWebService]

Originally Posted by peppie

Compared to some of the website design experts/pros around here, my website design and maintenance skills are pretty much P plate level. I have no real aspirations towards site design services as such, my expertise in that realm is more to do with media delivery for someone else to incorporate.

So I am looking for a bit of basic assistance on ways to do some things, a bit for myself but more so for a local sports club I am helping out with. (My wife is the Secretary and I have been seconded as an assistant!)

My problem is that the clubs newly designed site is meant to work with Google Docs for content update of about 8 pages , but the designer quickly "disappeared" leaving me to work it out the hard way. I can update the site now, but I am not happy with the way it works and I need to beat it into something that a comparative novice can update.

I figure I have one of 2 choices. Either I set it up to edit with a simple (free) WYSIWYG editor and do the direct page modify and upload page/s thing, OR, I look at a decent (preferably free) Content Management System.

The first choice depends on a suitable and decent editor. I have used NVU and it's derivative Komposer, but found them to be a bit quirky to work with. I have been told Microsoft Frontpage is ok, but it is apparently not available now. Does anyone have a copy I can beg/borrow/purchase? Or recomend an alternative? (Remember, preferably simple and free.)

For the second option, I believe there is at least one decent free CMS application available, and yes I realise it needs to be set up on the site server, and yes I know the server will handle it. So to do that I will need someone to convert the site to run with that. It is an option, provide that pages can be operated easily and changes to the site itself can be made easily. Any recommendations please as to a CMS application?

I can't promise big money for anyone, it's a bit more of a community service thing. But you might get mentioned as a sponsor!!! And I would be eternity grateful for the help (picture here a mature gentleman who was trained in electronics in a totally different era, and has had to learn ALL this sort of thing all over again.)

Hi,

May be we should get together and discuss this length. Im located not frar from where you are.

[ray_223]

Originally Posted by Renee Barber

The great thing about this forum is that everyone has an opinion. :-)
[snip]
Joomla is still my CMS 'drug of choice', but I'll definitely be interested in hearing what other designers/developers have to say.

For an 8 page site I'd probably also recommend Cushy CMS (made by an Aussie I believe!).

In a more general CMS conversation for every Joomla recommendation I'd better pipe in with a Drupal (http://drupal.org) recommendation
Drupal has historically been recommended by developers more so than designers but this is slowly shifting as Drupal is making huge improvements in the design flexibility.

The other consideration is the future of your 8 page club website.
The next thing you know they may start asking for blogs, online calendars, photo galleries etc. If you think this is a possibility it would probably be better looking at Drupal, Joomla or one of the many other open source CMS's.
If you are 95% sure 8 pages is all it will be it's hard to go past Cushy CMS.

Good luck

[ahortin]

If you want something really simple, I'd even suggest WordPress (http://wordpress.org). It's much more than just a blogging system now. There's also heaps and heaps of free templates available as well as lots of add-ons for doing all sorts of things such as SEO management, calendars etc.

If you're after a simple editor to incorporate into your existing pages, then my personal favourite is FCKeditor (http://www.fckeditor.net). It's simple to setup and use as well as being customisable. You can add & remove various toolbar buttons so that your able to limit the type of features that are editable. For example, you may only want someone to be able to use the bold and italics feature and not let them change text colour.

I tend to agree with the previous posts, unless you're fairly familar with Joomla, it can be a real dog to setup and use. I certainly wouldn't call it a "simple" CMS like various others that are around.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Cheers,
Anthony.

[peppie]

Thanks for all comments so far, I am still working through the options and it will take awhile partly because this is a spare time project and in the rest of my spare time I have a business to run plus a family to keep an eye or two on! Keep the comments coming though for the edification of us all and I will post the results of my journey in this project as things develop.

Anthony, could you please add a bit more about what FCK Editor is and how it is used? Is it meant to be a site page editor as such or really more just text with images to HTML? Could you please clarify what you mean by "to incorporate into your existing pages"? I will have a closer look at FCK when the house is quiet at night, but wondered if you could add to your comments in the mean time. Many thanks.

[Renee Barber]

I reckon the whole Drupal/Joomla thing might be a bit like Beta/VHS, but it's actually great to see a wide range of suggestions in here. Joomla is obviously not a fast favourite with a lot of people, but I still love it. Of course I've been known to think in CSS and HTML so that's probably worth noting. :-)

I think if we could see a link to the actual website, we might be able to suggest a concrete action plan, but I'm probably just being nosy ... and I'm also procrastinating a bit as I have a HUGE novel to finish editing for a client.

And on that note, I'd better go ... Definitely keep us posted.

[peppie]

Ahhh, Renee I've got you curios now I can see.

But I would like to keep the revealing of the actual site for a bit longer, I think It possibly helps here to keep the subject to the Theory of Design principle for a bit. My reason being that it would be too tempting to just launch into solving a particular design problem and not address the need as such. The need I see here is to come up with a solution to a very simple web site that needs to be very easily changed/updated on a regular basis.

The site design is not a problem and everyone is happy with that, for now at least - just the ease of being able to update. I will reveal more in time,,,, at least when I have more to reveal. And I have the same problem Renee, it is getting late and I cannot go to blanket bay until I do some more work!!!