CMS for community website with NO BLOG

[charles_i]

I have downloaded and tested a number of CMS programs (including WordPress) most of which are overkill for my requirements. I want a free CMS that:

1. I can easily configure to my own template
2. Will be used by non-coders to update content on the site
3. Will not be a blog so it does not require all the usual blog features
4. Has a WYSIWYG editor
5. Can create a simple preview and publish stage
6. Since no blog - can give very basic permissions - edit/publish and administrator

Does such a CMS exist?

Thanks
Charles

[Anupam]

Welcome to the forum .

Did you take a look at this article on the main site :

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-cms.htm

[charles_i]

Originally Posted by Anupam

Welcome to the forum .

Did you take a look at this article on the main site :

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-cms.htm

Yes I read the whole thing before I posted this. These were my concerns:

WordPress:
I tried creating a child-based WordPress template (based on Sitepoint's book) but it was difficult, very time consuming, and the end result was not good - slowed down page loading considerably. Also, I find the Control Panel in WordPress pretty complicated - because it's based on a blog system - and I would be concerned about a non-technical person understanding how to use it.

Joomla:
"Even developers who are new to CMS can't work out how to go about finding templates and hacking them..."

- If WordPress was not good at this, I'd be even more reticent to try Joomla. Hacking templates (or better yet creating one) is of paramount importance if I am to use my own templates.

Drupal:
"Less than optimal templating system." Doesn't sound good.

[Ritho]

There are so many. Here are some of the simpler ones I know of.. They are worth a look if you haven't seen them already.

1. http://www.impresspages.org/ --- Drag and drop things to rearrange pages, edit "inline", only need html/css to modify theme.

2. http://www.cmsmadesimple.org --- they support several wysiwyg editors including Xinha http://xinha.webfactional.com/

3. http://www.zimplit.com -- Can't get much simpler and it is probably to simple for what you want not much in the way of admin control.

4. http://get-simple.info -- very straight forward content creation - xml database instead of mysql

[charles_i]

Originally Posted by Ritho

There are so many. Here are some of the simpler ones I know of.. They are worth a look if you haven't seen them already.

1. http://www.impresspages.org/ --- Drag and drop things to rearrange pages, edit "inline", only need html/css to modify theme.

2. http://www.cmsmadesimple.org --- they support several wysiwyg editors including Xinha http://xinha.webfactional.com/

3. http://www.zimplit.com -- Can't get much simpler and it is probably to simple for what you want not much in the way of admin control.

4. http://get-simple.info -- very straight forward content creation - xml database instead of mysql

Yes, the problem is there are so many. I was overwhelmed when I saw this
http://cmsmatrix.org/ and this http://cmsmatch.com/

I checked out CMSmadesimple a while ago. Can't remember what I didn't like but there was something about it that didn't suit my criteria.

Thanks for the list! I'll look check them all out.

[charles_i]

These all look very good, thanks! I'll have to try each one. Of interest to others may be that CMSmadesimple has just released a fairly major upgrade (from their notes) - 4 days ago!

Thanks for your speedy responses. I'll let you know what I choose.

Charles

[charles_i]

Thanks again for this invaluable info. Here are the results of my assessments:

1. http://www.impresspages.org/ --- Drag and drop things to rearrange pages, edit "inline", only need html/css to modify theme.

The drag and drop is very cool but I found the control panel confusing and didn't like the limitations of the Content Management drag and drop modules. Seemed like it would take a lot of research and work to configure this for amateurs.

2. http://www.cmsmadesimple.org --- they support several wysiwyg editors including Xinha http://xinha.webfactional.com/

As I mentioned they have just released a new version. Seems to me that the whole interface is no longer simple - loads of offsite links and superfluous information in the control panel. Much too confusing for an amateur.

3. http://www.zimplit.com -- Can't get much simpler and it is probably to simple for what you want not much in the way of admin control.

Yes, too simple for my needs.

4. http://get-simple.info -- very straight forward content creation - xml database instead of mysql

This is my preferred choice

It has an EXCELLENT minimal control panel - easy to understand simple for an amateur to use - without all kinds of extra tabs and pages for configuration of addons that I aren't in use. What's even better is it is built on the WordPress PHP coding model. Template files can easily be added for different pages and simply understood. Supports fancyURLs (including ability to use .php or .html extensions by adding the option to the .htaccess file), WYSIWYG/html editor and third party plugins - which include blog type addons if you want them.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - I can setup a website and pass on the admin login to an amateur without having to send them to multiple tutorials and weeks of lessons.

Thanks again!
Charles