Megan — Wed, 02 Jul 2003 13:55:14 +0000

Not really. I did download the trial version and played with it a bit around the time this thread originally came up. It seemed to work fine as a stand alone as far as I could tell. I couldn't figure out how to make it disable certain elements, although my recent discovery about xhtml strict and DW MX should apply here as well.

taff — Tue, 01 Jul 2003 16:05:52 +0000

I thought that I'd dust off this thread and see if anyone might have something new to add. Has anyone kept using this software?

The reason my interest has been rekindled is because of an RFP I received stating that the client would be self-maintaining the site using this product. I guess if I'm gonna quote, I'd best get myself familiar with Contribute.

Any feedback before I dive in?

Megan — Mon, 18 Nov 2002 20:08:51 +0000

Here's a review from Webmonkey:

http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/02/45/index4a.html

Seems more geared to larger company unfortunately. From the way they describe it it doesn't seem like it would work outside of a networked setting. Hopefully Macromedia will consider revamping it to support that type of environment as well.

With that exception, it does sound like somethning I've always wished for - let the html-clueless co-workers and clients edit pages without screwing up the code. The Webmonkey article says, for example, that if they try to insert a word document it'll automatically clean up the crappy word code according to pre-set page standards. So, it seems that if you set an xhtml doctype or whatever, anything the person tries to do will be forced to conform to that standard. You can decide what they can and cannot do, and I'm hoping that means that you can stop them from trying to use tags and other junk like that.

The Webmistress — Thu, 14 Nov 2002 07:40:37 +0000

I suppose it's aimed at those who want to maintain their own content after a website has been made for them but don't want to learn the ins & outs of html. I still wouldn't trust my clients with it!

Megan — Wed, 13 Nov 2002 14:26:04 +0000

So, is this something along the lines of blogger or moveabletype? That's sort of the impression I get.

The Webmistress — Wed, 13 Nov 2002 12:47:51 +0000

On the email I got from them it said

Quote: With an introductory price of just £69 + VAT, Macromedia Contribute quickly pays for itself. Sign up for early notification and be among the first to know when Contribute becomes available.

taff — Wed, 13 Nov 2002 11:42:34 +0000

It did mention CSS support during the tour. They'd be nuts to release something like this without it. I may download the trial later and give it a whirl.

I don't see a price tag anywhere - that'll be a big factor.

Busy — Wed, 13 Nov 2002 09:21:58 +0000

I had a quick peek at it, looks ok, esp "Optional accessibility settings ensure your site complies with Section 508" but looks like it will only work on HTML pages, didn't look over the whole thing so it might. Didn't see any mention of CSS either did it did mention cross browser compatibility.

IMO if it supports server side, XHTML and CSS2 then it could be good, if it doesn't then just another toy