I have been criticized for not using open source software for the website I designed as a volunteer for my church. Mostly because the content of certain pages can't be edited by anyone but me. Any suggestions as to how to achieve content editing within the Coffeecup software?

Hiya Hilary,

To better answer your question we need to know if you're editing your website with a visual editor or with an HTML editor?

Try using cusy cms http://www.cushycms.com/en

Anyone who criticizes volunteer work should be forced to take over and see if he/she can do a better job out of it. You probably have bought the software you are using out of your own wallet, using your own spare time and getting no reward. Unheard of!

I agree about the volunteer appreciation issue :-) And yes, I did purchase the software myself specifically for the church - but have never regretted the purchase. Coffeecup is fabulous! The entire website is in Visual Site Designer - www.goodshepherd-towson.org is the URL.

Nice and clean site, easy to navigate.

The only thing that I can suggest, is either switch to Open Source, or allow the person that is wishing to post access to the FTP so they may upload their own files. Or, just simply tell them that they can send you any Article that they would like posted and you will post it for them. If that is not good enough for them, then tell them you are sorry, but that is the best you can do.

Thanks - I was hoping we could give access to specific pages and/or sections without switching to some other software. I'm not sure why there is pressure to do this, since anyone needing changes made simply gets them to me and I turn them around in 24 hours or less. Some of the pressure is that our new head wants to outsource the website in its entirety to a company that will allow content changes. Read that $$$$ spent, right?

My answer would be, *And I build websites for $) in this downed economy, there is no reason what so ever that you should have to pay someone to do this site, when someone is already doing it for free... And the site looks good. Now, when I first read this post that is what I thought it was about... Someone wanted the power of controlling the site so they were placing pressure on you. But, that is how I understand it... I would point the facts out that they are paying nothing now, but if they outsourced, it would be [b]at least[/b] $300 or more.

SirAge, I don't think I'd let anyone else have the ftp details, I've seen the havoc that may come out of that!
One solution could be to have some other site, and let other people have access and post their stuff there, and then include it in the main site using an iframe. It would be necessary to instruct whoever is posting which file name they have to use, in order to make it appear on the main page.

If someone of the other posters make a mess out of that, it will only affect the posts in the iframe, and then let those critics sort it themselves, and they will see that it's not just like writing in Word, and maybe they'll start appreciating what Hilary is doing.