Macromedia Contribute unlocks power of Web publishing

Local Macromedia distributor and Web-enablement specialist, Dax Data, has announced MacromediaContribute, an application that enables anyone to easily update, add and publish Web content to existing Web sites without requiring technical skills beyond basic word processing.

"The product brings ease and simplicity to the Internet by putting the power of Web publishing into the hands of non-technical users, while also providing sufficient control for the professionals who manage Web sites and intranets," says Jeremy Matthews, MD of Dax Data.

Macromedia Contribute works with any HTML Web site, including those coded by hand or created with tools like Macromedia Dreamweaver` Studio MX or Microsoft FrontPage.

"Contribute represents a new product vision for Macromedia that reaches a new class of users with a solution that frees up designers and developers to stay ahead of the technology curve," says Matthews. "It levels the playing field for Web content contribution and makes waiting for an overburdened Webmaster to make site updates a thing of the past."

From enterprise settings and government agencies to educational institutions and small businesses, people who want to update Web content today rely on Web professionals with specialised skills to make even simple edits.

Business users require quick changes to Web content, but don`t want to spend hours learning Web development software and new processes. Contribute enables users to easily publish content to the Web and protects them from inadvertent mistakes.

The product also ensures that Web professionals who build the sites retain complete control over the site style, layout and code standards.

"As Web content management technology matures, architectural simplicity, low cost, rapid installation and ease of use become critical differentiators," says Matthews. "New products that provide `quick and easy` Web editing for non-technical users will have opportunity if they meet these criteria."

Contribute rolls out in minutes using encrypted connection keys and permission groups. It also maintains a living history of page changes so users can easily roll back changes and switch between different versions of a page.

In addition, the quality of the code is guaranteed because Contribute is built on the core HTML authoring engine of Dreamweaver MX, the preferred choice of more than 90% of Web professionals.

The product allows users to update Web content in three simple steps. Users browse to the Web page they want to update, edit the page, and publish their updated page to the live site.

It also features integration with Microsoft Word and Excel, so users can drag-and-drop Word or Excel files from their desktop onto a page and the content is added with the original formatting intact. "Users can even e-mail draft pages for review before publishing them and Web pages can also be updated offline and published later," Matthews adds.

An update to Dreamweaver MX will be available simultaneously with Contribute to enable advanced administration and improved performance within Dreamweaver MX.