Recently I freelanced in a school to sort their website out, the aim was originally to train them on Dreamweaver CS5.
Now Dreamweaver is a package for webdevelopers or people who have a basic understanding of HTML not for someone who has never touched a website. So why a school has been told to purchase this expensive package, granted its not too bad for a school as they get the educational license. But still you sometimes wonder why a school gets told this sort of information.
It turned out they also use Contribute CS3, which is what they should be for a basic HTML website. However the issue with Contribute is that it has to work with the website, meaning the website has to be built in a way for it to work with the software. This is where we encountered an issue, they wanted to add new navigation items, but due to how it was coded.
The way it was done
The way it should be done
This simple bit code I replaced with the other ensured they could add links better, and also I created a css class of .active which allowed them to set the link to show an active state on the page they were on.
The main tips
As we all know its hard for schools to spend money on a website. Due to most being funded by the state and the private schools not this applies to both.
When spending money on a website anywhere, ensure the following and ask the following:
- The website is not built using tables
- Can I update the website?
- If I want to update the website how easy is it?
- Is the website proprietary or opensource? - see this the difference
- If I'm not happy with you can I take my site elsewhere?
The last point is important, as lots of web developers/agencies like to keep you locked down, with their own system. Always ask yourself, what if the that business closed down, and only they know how to develop for their cms?
It won't be a nice situation for you to be in would it?
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