A recurring theme in our day is that clients want to be able to update their own websites. I have mixed feelings about this.
Templates and training can go a long way to maintain the integrity of a website, but when it comes to content management systems (CMS), there’s a fine line between micromanaging your users and giving users so much control that the website is never compliant or properly organized again.
I’ve yet to find a way to walk that line. At the moment, while I can control templates, menus, and stylesheets, I cannot control the content unless I invest a lot of time into custom forms for each area of the website. That’s not a good investment, because what I’ve learned so far in this business is that the only person that likes following a pattern is, well, me.
Tool of the Moment
In the last little while, this CMS called Etomite has saved my butt. It’s surprisingly easy and flexible, while being extremely powerful. That’s not to say it does everything I wish it would, but that’s the joy of open-source solutions: build it yourself, or plant an idea and see if anyone runs with it.
