While I don't use this particular Coffee Cup Software (Visual Site Designer), I have several other Coffee Cup Programs - and I love them . . . I could use something similar to Visual Site Designer (OR WILL BUY THIS and recommend to at least 20 clients, if it will work).

Here's what I want to do . . . can I design ONE PAGE (basically blank) using Visual Site Designer, and then take my client's original website which I have designed with MicroSoft Expression Web, and iFrame the VSD page into one of my client's websites . . . so that he can edit that blank page himself, using Visual Site Designer - that I would have him purchase? In other words, can you build a page WITHOUT navigation, and use this program sort of as WYSIWYG?

So, what would happen is I would have my clients buy this program so that they could edit THAT ONE PAGE that I have set up for them? I was able to do this using free Weebly (bit of a pain - because Weebly's advertisement is sitting right there on the page) . . . can have a look - ONLY THIS ONE PAGE is up just as an example - but you'll get the idea . . . http://websolutionsbylaura.com/medleyau … tions.html

How it's set up now . . . my client can log into Weebly and edit THE MAIN BODY only, using drag & drop, without doing any damage to the rest of the website.

Suggestions anyone? I have several clients that want this sort of thing . . . WYSIWYG for certain areas of their websites . . . I believe there's other software out there for this . . . I want W3C valid - I want coffee cup!

Thanks!
Laura

Mixing two different editors that function in totally different ways would be a major headache to keep track of. Links would be a huge problem to keep track of. Making an Iframe for content on a page is fine but if your user needs to link to content on the main site they better be brought up to speed on how to accomplish this so they don't lose visitors.

Laura, In principle I think it would work, but it needs strict dicipline. You would have to instruct your clients regarding the dimensions and the naming of the page, and of course how to use VSD. Also colour scheme and choice of fonts should be agreed upon in order not to have a mess made out of the individual pages.

If there are going to be no links in the client produced poages, the navigation would be made by you, and you could avoid pitfalls.

I think if I were you, I would try it out with one or two people first to see if it works and if it is maintainable for you as the site manager.

Or you can have your clients buy MS Expression Web (since it's made in EW) to update the page in WYSIWYG mode. Easy as pie. If you own MS Office, you can purchase the upgrade version of Expression Web at a substantial discount.

Hi Laura,

You think the wrong way around. You should design a website with VSD and then place an IFRAME on a page inside VSD that can be edited by your client. This IFRAME could contain a blog without advertising or whatever is easy for your client to edit.

Success, John

And just to add to John's suggestion... They could use S-Drive/Stream as there Blog.

I know it's been awhile since this post, but is that program as good as VSD or better? Does it combine visual design with being able to edit html?

Personally I have used many editors over the years and I find VSD so easy. May not have the ability of a fully fledged editor "Notepad" but ease wins every time. Tom advised in another thread that site should be split in Static and Dynamic. Once that is set then it all becomes straight forward, or should be

I use Simple CMS by PHP Jabbers for my customers to edit their websites. It's easy, and it works!

Too many cooks spoil the broth, Probably a cms system is the ultimate way to go but if many people are in the mix the result could be a real hodge podge. If it is just one client. Why not hand over the reins. Get paid to repair things if they go wrong.
I will look into that version. I read the reports and saved the URL if ever needed. Thanks for the heads up.