easy question

[p9d]

I am new to this website and to web design. After creating a website for myself a friend asked me to create one for him and like a dummy I did. Well now he wants to allow some of his employees to access certain pages and change content. My question is, Is there a way to allow access to parts of a page to certain people and allow them to update content without them having the opportunity to mess up the rest of the page. These people have no computer skills so it has to be very easy for them, about like typing a word document.
I use Dreamweaver to create my sites and am no HTML wiz. So something simple would be the best. Any help or a point in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

 

[StephanieCordray]

Well... in situations like that most people use content management systems, or commonly called CMS. What a CMS does is allow people to add content without changing the overall appearance of any page within the site. There are quite a few free ones available for installation from a cpanel with Fantiastico or download and install yourself.

If php sounds like a foreign language to you, I'd opt for one of the simpler ones like Joomla! or Xoops. Before looking for them through a search engine, check with your hosting company and see what's available for easy installation.

 

[zkiller]

there are lots of ways of doing what you are looking for, but not with pure html. you will need to use a server side scripting language of some sort, be it php, asp or any of their alternatives.

the easiest way would be to look into pre-made open source CMS scripts as stephanie suggested.

 

[TheLaw]

As Stephanie said, for similar needs people use CMS (Content Management Script) such as Joomla or Mambo or any other, so...if they have no skills for changing a content in a pure HTML page, maybe it would be nice for you to "draw" them where they can type the content or tell your friend if they ruing something he will be charged for fixing that back (just teasing, but heck, its an idea..why not hire you to webmaster his business site, presume it's a business site since "employees" will be messing around with that site).

Cheers

 

[Wingnut]

hey could you guys recomend a content management program thats less expensive yet easy to use. i would love to have one that would make it easier for making websites that can be updated by clients. thanks everyone

 

[zkiller]

i am not to familiar with them myself as i write my own scripts for the most part, but their are several out there that are free. as mentioned by TheLaw, Joomla and Mambo are just a couple to look into.

 

[StephanieCordray]

I've had a lot of nice things to say about Joomla! lately. It's free. Actually, if you have cpanel hosting, I'd look to see if you have Fantastico and look at what's offered there.. Postnuke is another decent one. So is Mambo and Xoops... I guess, basically they are all decent.

 

[web67]

joomla is really great! i always prefer to make my sites with it

 

[OSEKmedia]

You can use contribute and declare editable regions that your client can update in your dreamweaver template. Contribute has a simple to use interface that allows your clients an easy way to update their own content without messing up your design. The fact that it is made by adobe is also a nice feature.