The Web is today’s de facto publishing medium, regardless of whether you’re talking about Web content and images, Microsoft Office documents, PDFs, multimedia files or other information assets. This fact has me thinking back pre-Internet, to the widespread adoption of desktop publishing tools, and the parallels I’m witnessing today.

Web Publishing Evolves for Web Designers, Developers, and Beyond

By Bill Rogers
Ektron CEO and Founder

September 2005

The Web is today's de facto publishing medium, regardless of whether you're talking about Web content and images, Microsoft Office documents, PDFs, multimedia files or other information assets. This fact has me thinking back pre-Internet, to the widespread adoption of desktop publishing tools, and the parallels I'm witnessing today.

Back in the day, desktop publishing applications made it possible for people with virtually zero design skills to produce professional-looking newsletters, brochures, marketing collateral, and other documents, right from their PC, without a steep learning curve.

Desktop publishing tools simplified design and publishing and changed how we communicate. They eliminated complexities, created new efficiencies, and made workers more productive, while unleashing the creative impulses in all of us… and it was fairly radical stuff at the time.

Flash forward to today's Web publishing environment.

Today, everyone publishes (or at least is a candidate to publish) on the Web. It may take the form of HTML or even XML content. And increasingly it includes a multitude of file types that workers create and need to access every day – Microsoft Office files such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, PDFs, and multimedia files. The list goes on and on.

There have been a variety of tools and solutions in the marketplace attempting to address the content management needs of organizations.  At the low end, there are many solutions available. However, they always fall short in the eyes of evaluators because, although they are affordable, they lack the basic features, functionality, and usability that are necessary.  At the opposite end of the spectrum, there are many high-end content management solutions, also known as enterprise content management systems (ECM).  These solutions are complex, expensive, and difficult to work with making them feared among potential customers.  Where is the happy medium?  Ektron solves the debate over low-end vs. ECM with its mid-market approach.

Ektron's award-winning web content management solutions, Ektron CMS400.NET, solves the complex challenge of building sites and creating, managing and publishing multiple types of information on Internet, intranet and extranet sites. Ektron CMS400.NET puts this power into the hands of a variety of users inside your organization (with proper checks and balances) starting with Web developers and designers, but extending to site administrators, to everyday users (such as content authors and line-of-business managers).

What does this all mean to you?

As a Web Site developer or designer, it's up to you to make your Web site look and feel as good as possible.  Ektron CMS400.NET provides the means to do just this with its free included Macromedia Dreamweaver Extension. 

With the CMS400.NET Dreamweaver extension, Web site developers can quickly and easily create Web site templates for their Web site.  All Ektron CMS400.NET Web site functions (i.e. content blocks, DHTML menus, search boxes, etc.) can easily be added to your templates with a click of the mouse and no complex coding (figure 1).

Figure 1 – Editing a CMS400.NET template in Dreamweaver

The extension also allows you to connect to your Ektron CMS400.NET Web site database allowing you to render content inside Dreamweaver ensuring that your Web site will look exactly the way that you want it to look (figure 2).

Figure 2 – Ektron CMS400.NET content being rendered in Dreamweaver

Design and development of an Ektron CMS400.NET Web site in Dreamweaver is as easy as it is to create and manage your Web site using Ektron CMS400.NET.  With CMS400.NET, your Web site is your user interface for Web site content authors, site administrators, and Webmasters.

Users can login to your Web site, check out content, and make changes instantly (figure 3).

Figure 3 – Editing content managed by Ektron CMS400.NET