Of course, no rush...

no worries, Eric. Thanks for all the help you offer everyone.

I think if you want complete control over the design but leave the content editing of the page to the end-user you would want to explore CMS. I currently am in the initial stages of adding a CMS with CSS Grid (same as RSD basically) and it really becomes eye-opening seeing what a effective simple CMS program can do.

No only can you allow edits to html but also add in styles such as fonts, font size, font color, background images but you can allow video uploads, multiple pictures sized for the picture element, and the ability for the user to create addtional pages. (Far much more advanced stuff that is quite cool too).

Would be interesting to hear from some real world designers on this forum that have already conquered this setup...

All of this customization depends on what your trying to do. For a simple update of events you can use a form to change the text. You could even use the form to allow a user to change the font size and color.

Good morning Eric
I can grasp the concept of the form ides, but I am clueless about the process. If you have some time, can you give a step by step guide?
Or... If you can elaborate on what twinstream was addressing, I would love to see how that might look.
Thanks for all the help and suggestions from everyone

With RSD or CGD you already have your basic CMS. You embed the "content" (text and pictures) in HTML.
Once you have created one or more pages, export all the files (including HTML and CSS) and publish your website you may continue to manage content:
- go back to your RSD or GGD sources, modify content and export the modified files
or
- use any html editor to change content directly in the exported html files (it will be more difficult though if you ever need to go back to the original RSD sources).

If you need more functionality (including managing content by others), you may need a CMS app.

You cannot use a "real" CMS to change your RSD source files, let alone integrate a CMS with RSD (unless Coffeecup change the scope of RSD). There are a zillion CMS apps out there, some are free, some cost money. Some are simple to use, some require study. Some have limited functionality, some have more functionality then you will ever need.

If you need to add "functionality" to the website you created with RSD, like an event calendar that can be modified by users, you will need extra resources, like an event app and databases.
If you want users (website visitors or authorised persons?) to be able to change content, you will need a CMS app (preferably one that accepts your exported RSD files as a template). You also need a CMS with some authorisation scheme (unless you don't mind users to mess up your design).

Some CMS's come with extra functionality. You will need to spend time to learn your CMS and teach your users.

If you have no software development skills, you should probably stay away from adding functionality built by others with javascript, databases, php, IDE's, C++, jquery or whatever. Unless you get full and continued support from the supplier (or a CoffeeCup forum member). Even if you manage to get it to work and integrate in your website, you will eventually run into problems if some things need to be changed and you don't understand the program code.

Integration of external functionality / services through an iframe (similar to Youtube, for example) or a linking code snippet is then a safer bet.

The way I have intergrated my CMS with SD3 is to leave the editable elements in SD3. I usually create a container for any element(s) that will be editable. I add a HTML element directly below that which has the PHP code that calls for the template (created outside of SD3) that is basically a marked up HTML copy of the above container element(s) with the CMS markup code included.

While working in SD3 I hide all the HTML elements so they do not get in the way of the design. I continue to design any editable elements the way I like. With a simple jquery script, I remove all the containers (by ID) that have editable content, and show all the HTML elements (by ID) that replace them. The result is a exact copy being loaded of my design. Since the html element contains all the classes I used in the SD3 design everything stays the same. I can go back in SD3 and change any css style I want and it will carry over to the html element as it has the same classes assigned to the same elements.

I've been using RSD with a custom CMS for quite some time now. If you would like, I can probably create what you need very quickly. The end version is very user-friendly. Contact me (info below), and let's talk about the specifics.