It takes a lot of skill and natural endowment to produce a Web site that looks great and works smoothly . But a major job still expect after you ’ve launch your new land site , namely keep on it overbold with new message . The dilemma for Web designers and IT department is profound : their clients and users clamour for the ability to make internet site update , but it ’s awfully easy for those users to unexpectedly demolish the Web internet site ’s design . Adobe Contribute 4 allows everyday exploiter ( sometimes referred to as capacity contributor , as opposed to Web designers ) to preserve , edit , and tally new WWW pages from templates , without need to know HTML and without the possibility of breaking the site .
job drug user and other non - designers can expend Contribute to delete exist pages create in Dreamweaver or other design shaft , and even create new pages from Dreamweaver templates , but Contribute ca n’t be used to create a new website from pelf ( Adobe assigns that job to its Dreamweaver ( ) and GoLive ( ) Web pattern product ) . web site administrator can assign unlike levels of edit privileges to their users , further constraining the possible changes that well - intentioned but unskilled drug user can make to pages . This control can be quite detailed ; for example , users can be set aside to introduce text , but not to hold styles to their entree . An decision maker can also specialize that some users can make draught changes to pages , but must send them to a supervisor for approving before the page go live on the website . induction that have many Contribute users working on a website can deploy the Contribute Publishing Server ( $ 89 per user ) . This host app centrally manages user permission and integrates with LDAP ( Lightweight Directory Access Protocol ) or Active Directory servers to make it easy to bring users , send einsteinium - post to users alert them that a draft page awaits review , and track page workflow .
Contribute 4 builds on an already solid product , Macromedia ’s Contribute 3 ( ) , and this is the first ascent under Adobe ’s aegis . But this jackanapes upgrade in all probability will be a tough sell to existing users .
Blog support
put up 3 was a large improvement over the previous interpretation , making the production faster , provide more redaction tools , and tot up CSS support . While you ca n’t make cesium styles in Contribute , you’re able to practice CSS flair created by the architect that are attached to the Sir Frederick Handley Page or the Dreamweaver template for the page .
Contribute 4 ’s major novel feature is the ability to use Contribute to create and edit posts for Weblogs . The program supports a wide range of blog servers , include Typepad , Blogger , and WordPress , as well as servers that implement the MetaWeblog API ( notably Movable Type and Drupal ) . You get started blogging by make a connection to your web log with Contribute ’s Connection Wizard , just as you would with any other World Wide Web site . you may have connection to as many web log as you desire , and it ’s very convenient to apply the same editing interface for all of your web log and WWW web site , rather than employ unlike pecker to accomplish fundamentally the same chore .
When you produce a web log entry , Contribute scan the web log ’s guide from the waiter , and then let you to add schoolbook , epitome , tables , and other elements only in the blog mail ’s content area ; you ca n’t make changes out of doors of this area . This is similar to the way Contribute works with Sir Frederick Handley Page base on Dreamweaver templates , which have editable and immutable page regions . Contribute work very well as a web log editor , as it allows you to make your entry in a WYSIWYG editor , without messing with HTML at all . you may use Contribute on any Web site that has unchanging pages , but for the most part you ca n’t use it to redact dynamic site , where the page subject matter is serve well from a database . The exceptions are blogs , which are often build on blog servers that stash away their subject in databases . give work with the blog waiter to tally or edit the database records , which to the user await just like any other motionless page .
Flash support
If you work in an organization that make Flash Video files , you could now drag and flatten them into Contribute , as you previously could do with other medium files such as QuickTime and AVI ( although , oddly , not MP3 or other audio files ; you could add links to audio file , but you ca n’t scuff and cast off them on your draft Sir Frederick Handley Page ) . This version still creates FlashPaper filing cabinet , the former Macromedia ’s alternative to PDF .
If you utilise Mozilla ’s Firefox internet browser ( ) , you may establish and utilize Contribute 4 ’s fresh two - release toolbar . The first release , Edit in Contribute , allows you to edit the current page , as long as it is on a site to which you have antecedently ready up an editing connexion . The 2nd button , Post to Blog , work after you select some text edition on a entanglement page . When you sink in the button , Contribute creates a new blog post with an attribution data link to the page , and the selected text in blockquote with its other formatting intact . Unfortunately , there are no tantamount toolbar characteristic for Safari ( in comparison , Weblog redaction rival such as Adriaan Tijsseling ’s ecto and Newsgator Technologies ’ MarsEdit ( ) provide like Post to Blog ability for Safari through bookmarklets ( small-scale JavaScript programs that can be store as URLs within a web browser ’s bookmarks ) .
One annoyance that has n’t improved since the previous version is that Contribute takes as much as 30 seconds to retrieve Sir Frederick Handley Page from a situation and switch into editing mode , or to print draft page to the Web waiter , during which you must wait for the activity to finish and you ca n’t do any other work . Contribute is doing a circumstances behind the scene , but it ’s chafe to be unable to begin work on your next page during these server operation . In comparability , Dreamweaver 8 , which shares much of the same technology as Contribute , can upload pages to the host in the background . Moreover , user with fast Intel - based Macs wo n’t delight any speed welfare , because Contribute is still based on PowerPC code and runs under Rosetta . Performance for such tasks as editing and publishing a varlet were virtually selfsame on my G5 and my MacBook .
Windows features outpace the Mac
The Windows version of Contribute has always contained features not found in the Mac version , and Contribute 4 continue this distressing tradition . On the Windows side this time around , you ’ll find improved integration with Microsoft Office , include the ability to drag and drop Office documents into Contribute , which converts them into hypertext markup language page , and new toolbars for Word , Excel , and Outlook that allow you to make novel Web pages from their documents with a single click .
Given that Contribute 3 was released more than two year ago , it ’s a material disappointment that Adobe has not managed to convert the Mac version to a Universal binary or bring it up to feature para with the Windows version . That leaves the blogging feature as the master improvement for your upgrade dollars , and if you want a adept web log editor , you could get one for $ 25 or less with either ecto or MarsEdit . I also found several minor bug , include inconsistent preview of pages in editing dialogs , and some unpaired XHTML interlingual rendition that will prevent some page from properly formalise as correct XHTML .
Macworld’s buying advice
put up 4 is a bit of an odd duck , because it is often purchase by entanglement graphic designer and IT departments for others to habituate , rather than being bought by individual for their own use . If you ’re a designer or IT manager and you want to flap out web log to your user base while exert soused control of the look and performance of your sites , Contribute 4 is a very dependable option . This version is specially useful if you ’re look to add blogging to your site as a major feature . However , the want of Office integration is irritate , as the vendor has had plenty of time to bring the political program into parity bit with the Windows reading . For individual , it ’s a thornier choice . If you did n’t promote to Contribute 3 , then Contribute 4 should be a slam - dunk leverage for you . But if you own Contribute 3 and you ’re not interested in the new blogging features , then move along , because there ’s not much to see here .
[ LongtimeMacworldcontributor Tom Negrino has written books on Contribute and Dreamweaver , let in the best - sellingDreamweaver 8 Visual QuickStart Guide(Peachpit Press , 2006 ) . ]
