Posted by markalroberts on 09/27/36 11:53

Thanks James :) Tjhat's the sort of thing I'm thinking of.

It's made more difficult for me because (a) she only has MS works (!)
and (b) she really is not at all technical - but a very good cellist
btw! and (c) I would ideally use CSS to mark up the content, and it
could be difficult to ensure the CSS class names are in her content,
and that no additional formatting/layout creeps in by accident :)

Regards,
Mark.

James Hutton wrote:
> markalroberts@gmail.com wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am a webdesigner/developer by trade. Whilst my day job involves
> > working for a software company, I also create sites for people from
> > time to time.
> >
> > My biggest dilema at the moment is how to create a site that the
> > non-technical end-user can maintain.
> >
> > One particular user (a musician) wishes to have a CV site to advertise
> > herself. It's a basic affair mostly static HTML, but there is the need
> > to maintain a list of performances that changes serveral times a month.
> >
> > In the past I've used Dreamweaver templates and CSS to standardise the
> > layout/styles, and allow the user to maintain content. Whilst this
> > works quite well, it still requires a little technical knowledge, and a
> > fair bit of money for the Dreamweaver license.
> >
> > I've also designed sites that use ASP and ACCESS (could use PHP and
> > MYSQL, but these tend to cost more). The problem there is it's more
> > time consuming for me to implement/test, and harder and more expensive
> > for the user to find someone to enhance/mend the site if needed.
> >
> > My ideal would be to create a simple site with simple end-user
> > content-editing functionality that requires minimal ongoing maintenance
> > and cost. It should not be branded with too many (if any) "Powered
> > By..." logos, should not have advertisments and should not by tied into
> > one web host alone (i.e. the layout/style/content should be
> > transferrable to other hosts).
> >
> > If anyone had any ideas, I'd be most grateful :)
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Mark.
> >
> I too had this problem a while ago with a local charity, I created an
> <iframe> on the page, asked the client to write their content in word,
> save as html (with a predefined filename) and ftp the file to the host.
> Point the <iframe> to the word html file and the client can update as
> often as needed. Before all the purists shout me down, it took 10
> minutes to teach the client, including setting up the ftp client (she
> still does not know what it is, only that it's one button to connect and
> one button to upload the file!), and I've never had any problems from
> her asking for support.
>
> I know that word's html output is awful, but the vast majority of users
> can use Word and they can produce acceptable documents with text and
> images. Set up the ftp client for them (or give them bombproof
> instructions) and you'll never hear from them again!
>
> James

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