Adobe Contribute

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Adobe Contribute

Developer:	Adobe Systems
Initial release:	2003 by Macromedia [1]
Latest release:	4 / October 5, 2006
OS:	Windows, Mac OS X
Use:	Web Design
License:	Proprietary
Website:	adobe.com

Adobe Contribute (formerly Macromedia Contribute), currently in its fourth version, is a software application for editing the content of a website. It is a desktop application allowing a wide variety of people within an organization to update web pages by reducing the amount of web design skills necessary for the process.

1 Who Uses Contribute
2 Pros and Cons
- 2.1 Pros
- 2.2 Cons
3 Early Predecessors
4 Compatibility
5 Alternatives
6 External links

[edit] Who Uses Contribute

Contribute is popular among non-programmers as it employs an intuitive WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) development environment which allows those with little or no programming experience to keep websites edited and updated with content.

[edit] Pros and Cons

[edit] Pros

Contribute removes the need to have multiple programs to carry a simple task such as changing a spelling mistake, e.g. text editor, FTP, etc.
Several users can update a given website simultaneously. Contribute will check whether the page a user is trying to amend is already being edited by others in order to prevent page version conflicts. There is also a page rollback feature which allows easy recovery from possible problems.
Administrators can ensure the style, code, and integrity of a website is maintained while allowing users to update the site's content.
Templates created with Macromedia Dreamweaver can be used in Contribute as well.

[edit] Cons

Contribute is a client-side tool. This means that you will only be able to edit a website on a machine that has Contribute.
Contribute requires that every user be licensed. This can be a costly process if there are a lot of users set to update a website.
Contribute is a website editing tool, not a website development tool. A web developer is still required to build the inital website design (usually using Dreamweaver templates).
Updating a website's content through Contribute can be a much slower process than using a more development-oriented tool, such as Macromedia Dreamweaver and an FTP program, since each page must be downloaded (and uploaded) individually.

[edit] Early Predecessors

The idea of a WYSIWYG web development platform is not new. Since the initial internet boom, software companies have been developing products aimed at enabling those not fluent in programming languages to create websites. Homesite and Geocities were both popular late-1990's alternatives, but these did little to allow creative flexibility and allow for collaborative content management.

Contribute is a more advanced version of these early pioneers, in that it incorporates critical elements of web development behind the scenes, such as style sheets and the FTP process.

[edit] Compatibility

Contribute 4 is available for Mac and Microsoft Windows. It includes Macromedia FlashPaper 2.

[edit] Alternatives

FogCreek Software's www.fogcreek.com/CityDesk/ CityDesk program is often compared to Contribute, though it lacks Contribute's ability to edit sites that it did not create.