Apple has a
promotion: a one-year .Mac subscription and Macromedia Contribute 2
(download only) for $150. Now, I thought that since I want to get .Mac
eventually (to support Apple more than because I need the services),
getting a web editor for half price might be nice. So I downloaded
Contribute 2 from Macromedia (you can use it for 30 days without a
registration code) and took it out for a short spin.
Although it's a nice looking program, Contribute 2 is really just a
beginner's web editor coupled with a CVS-like web site administration
system. The editor is maybe slightly better than using Mozilla's
built-in editor; it's shining extra feature being PayPal support so you
can add PayPal shopping cart functions. Contribute 2 is a little slow
which is its most annoying trait.
|
Another big
feature is intregation with Macromedia Dreamweaver. As far as I can
tell this entails nothing more than being able to read Dreamweaver
template files, which are little more than standard html files with
some Dreamweaver directives. All in all not very impressive, and the
included sample templates really suck. Even the extra templates at the
Macromedia site are kind of anemic.
And really that's what I want. I want to redo my web site and spiff it
up, fix some of the architecture that doesn't work. What I need is a
WYSIWYG web editor and some nice templates. Contribute 2 even at $50 is
too expensive just for that. Really it's designed for workgroups where
you give people priviledges of what they can add and change in a site.
And even then Contribute 2 is kind of weak for $100 retail.
|