What is a Dreamweaver/Contribute Web Site

Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Contribute can be used to edit web pages that are not part of a templating system.   This talk will focus on setting up a web site that uses a template system.

Characteristics of a DW/Contribute Template System

• Site Definition created in Dreamweaver (file location, url, testing server, etc)
• Templates created and updated by designer using Dreamweaver.
  • Templates include editable regions that can be modified on each page
  • Templates include non-editable regions that are the same in all instances of that template.  This content is edited in the template, and changes are propagated to all instances of that template.
• Pages created and updated by "Contributor" using Contribute.
  • Contribute author may have limitiations imposed on them such as only being able to create pages using certain templates, not being able to use font tags, or not being able to edit source html.
  • Contribute author may be restricted to particular folders within site.
• Pages may also be updated using Dreamweaver or text editor

Advantages of a templating system

• Unified look where desired
• Easy to update navigation, header, footer etc across site
• Facilitates division of labor between design and content editing
• Easier to implement site redesigns.

Advantages of DW/Contribute System

• Facilitates distribution of content editing because:
  • Contribute client is cheap.  $50 at UIUC Webstore.
  • Contribute is easy to use
  • Contribute roles can have limitations imposed on them
  • runs on windows and mac
• Dreamweaver MX 2004 is nice and cheap.  $50 at UIUC Webstore.
• Dreamweaver widely used on campus.