The need to speed up the design and building intranets and websites has led to the growing use of content management systems (CMS). But limited facilities built into them is adversely affecting content.
Some cruder CMS systems do not allow the writer to format the appearance of text, for example:
- they don't allow the importing of text from other
- software such as Microsoft Word or Excel
- disallow indentation
- provide poor table editing features
- do not provide auto bulleting or numbering
- fail to manage linking adequately as pages are added and removed
These are all essential aids to speed the generation of new web pages. Some systems do not allow you to easily preview the pages you are creating.
As a result, you get no impression of the length of the page, the depth of paragraphs and whether a headline will run to one line or two. One of the most expensive and leading CMS systems is guilty of this.
CMS is ideal for run-of-the mill pages, used by staff trained in web writing and capable of using the text styling facilities built into the system.
CMS systems rely on standard templates but web communication also needs 'bolt on' extras, such as:
- a table editor to handle complex material
- spelling and grammar checking
- using pop-up windows
- creation of graphic image maps
- new graphic visualisation methods
- creating 'step-by-step' page sequences
- structured online training features
- blogging
- wikis
- online surveys
- readability checks
- site structure diagrams
- link validation
- workflow procedures to keep tabs on approvals and corrections, and storing related non web files
- built in web style guidelines and glossaries
No system to my knowledge has all these built in.
But if CMS programs expand to incorporate such extra features then they will also become harder to use. To get the best out of them we will need experts to use them. Then we will have gone full circle, and we might as well be using HTML and software like Dreamweaver!
CMS is ideal for run-of-the mill pages, used by staff trained in web writing and capable of using the text styling facilities built into the system.
There will always be core content pages that will need the individual treatment of a web programer. In turn, they will need to be steered by trained content editors who understand the technicalities.