CMS Made Simple Forums

:(I have after some trouble managed to upload and start SCMS.  It looks simple and I suppose if you love wasting your time on back end coding rather than getting things done, it is.  If you want to delete the theme it has to be done in several places.  everything seems to be code, code, code! I go code blind all writing of one colour, its a nightmare.  I normally use Joomla and would still be it if was reliable which it hasnt been since nov 06. 

This is not simple!  It is a pain to use.  I thought stylesheets were going out of fashion. 

I dont like this system at all.

Despair not! Here's a workaround that might be easier for you.

1. Open Microsoft Word.
2. Type in all of your text and insert all of your pictures.
3. Go to the file menu and choose "Save as Web page."
4. Upload your brand new Web page to your server.

Give Microsoft Word a try. I think you'll find it's the best solution to any Web publishing task.

fyswan wrote: I thought stylesheets were going out of fashion. 

LOL, ROTFL .
Why did you use Joomla, it's got stylesheets too .

fyswan wrote: It looks simple and I suppose if you love wasting your time on back end coding rather than getting things done, it is.

And what did you do in Joomla?

I liked Moorzilla's reply.      I wonder where he got the idea that stylesheets were going out of style????  If anything, stylesheets are becoming more and more important.  This guy sounds like so.... last century! 

OK so I was misinformed about the stylesheets or I was thinking of frames or something, but in answer to your question about Joomla and why i used it, it was because it was easy to use, customers didnt want the last century traditional way, everyone wanted CMS so i taught myself Joomla, which according to most of the comments on the CMS site is more complex than this.  It had lots of features, and yes you do have to tweek the back occasionally but it is so finely tuned that it makes creating a website farily easy.  You can create a template in about 1/2 hour without too much coding, and it has systems that mean you dont have to waste too much time with coding.  This means you can spend more time on the disign.

And the reason I dont like working too much with coding especially when its all one colour is i go code blind! Which means i cant work (some coding in case you hadent noticed is in colour which helps (which is a dyslexic tendancy) 

I hope when you are having difficulty with a new system, provided you have the courage to try one, people are more simpathectic to your problems. 

I just find this restictive after using a very indepth system.  I wanted to find something simple and fast.  Also unfortuantely Joomla seems to be coming increasingly unreliable.

And thank you to moorezilla for being constructive.  I wouldnt have thought of using word, i used notepad but that doesnt work, dont use XML much usually use HTML< PHP and MySQL so this is a bit different. 

I have had a miserable few days with these systems so thanks to the rest of you for making it worse. 

Still people took the micky out of me when i first used Joomla now i am proficient at it.  But I dont think I really want to start again.

I wonder how much time it took you to learn and understand Joomla?

For my part it took me freaking 3 weeks or more to understand Joomla and make it do all the nice things I want (proper xhtml, no table layouts, pretty url's, multilingual etc.). The very same tasks took me 3 days on CMSms to understand and manage - and I am by no means a techy person.. Just give it some time, good (and proper) things don't happen overnight! 

Real-Life examples: I have seen customers work with Joomla and CMSms now - and unfortunately 95% of them are totally lost in Joomla, the whole section/category/content thing is just way too complicated for a dummy-user who wants to update his website/create a new content every now and then, but knows nothing about computers. CMSms on the other hand seems to be just what my customers needed, as its very easy for them to manage and understand their content without explanation.

Thanks moonie I agree, i think Joomla is too much for some customers.  I wanted something simple and fast to create and simple for them to use so I could keep my prices down.  Its easy to forget that others don't know as much or the same as you.  This is why i wanted something like CMSms.

You are right, I'd forgotten the start of joomla,  It took me two days to find my way around and a week to create my first site, which looking back was a miricle - of course i didnt actually get any sleep much to eat etc  for that week!  And i only understood the basics.  But since then I found lots of ways to make it easier - and i do prefer to work as much as poss with the visual elements of design which i can do with Joomla.

What you said about your customers is reasuring,  it means i am on the right track with mine. 
Perhaps in time i will find away around all the black text etc

Thanks

fyswan wrote: ...and i do prefer to work as much as poss with the visual elements of design...

CMSms has a module named "external editor" which may fit your needs.
I like the Firefox devtoolbar when modifying HTML/CSS.

BTW, I like CMSms because of its easyness. Install is quick, even newbies can do it. Then make some templates (copy a sample, there are lots, or create your own). Then wysiwyg pages. Of course, a graphic designer needs to polish the view, as every web site. CMSms is my recipe to make an old uniform set of static web pages dynamic in few days.

Pierre M.

Okay, all poking fun aside, if it's an issue of color with your coding, there are any number of great editors out there that will show code in different colors for you.  The one I use is Edit Plus.  It also has the advantage of working in Unix format even on a Windows box.  I can work with php, html, and css and get the color coding that helps make different pieces and types of code stand out.

For CSS I use an app called TopStyle Pro and for anyone who is trying to build really good css I highly recommend this software!  You can code with two window panes.  The top one holds the CSS and the bottom one is a kind of wysiwyg window that lets you see the style effect immediately either render from the stylesheet itself or as applied to a particular css file.  You can also be coding in html in one window and css in another and make changes on the fly as you work.

If that is your only complaint about CMS Made Simple, then the problem isn't with the CMS, but the app you are using to code with.

Edited to add: None of the regular users of CMSms actually code in the program but use external editors and then upload/copy/paste (whichever) into the CMS.

I tried Joomla, but a) the default template as table layout scared me off, b) I really didn't understand the php functions in the templates. I actually don't mind the php in the templates, but it's got to be a little more intuitive - use of objects etc. When I looked at it, I thought immediately - 'Looks I'll have to learn lots of stuff. But why? There's got to be an easier solution.' (and there is...at least for some  ).
And the comments of people who migrated from Joomla/Mambo to CMSMS (especially one was really grateful) and some notes about Joomla security holes (ok, maybe it shouldn't be compared since CMSMS is not so famous as Joomla is, but...) just approves of my decision.
BTW - code highlighter in Joomla? Fine, but then as a module (I really DON'T see highlighted code on opensourcecms.com; so why didn't you ask first for some 'code higlighter editor'?
In response to heatherfeuer: So do I. I use PSpad editor myself - http://www.pspad.com/. TopStyle (lite) can be integrated, but the CSS highlighter suffice for me.
I think that making a website in notepad is really difficult - in fact, wasting of time, because it's much slower.

Vin wrote: I tried Joomla... I thought immediately - 'Looks I'll have to learn lots of stuff. But why? There's got to be an easier solution.' (and there is...at least for some  ).

This is why I like CMSms : no learning required, no PHP (edit:typo)knowledge required (only the layout maker must undertstand HTML, CSS and templating if not using one of the sample themes). CMSms : install and play. Don't learn others, use it.
Pierre M.

You have to be the only person that doesn't think this is an easy CMS, I tried several others and thank god I bumped into CMSMS.

Joomla is so cramped with all kinds of things you don't need, I was totally clueless trying Drupal and that's just to name a couple (which are supposed to be two of the best ones out there...  )

As a web designer/developer you have to realize that coding is part of the job (and stylesheets are your friends... not the enemy), but the end result has to be a simple way for your users to update their own content, which after all is what CMSMS provides.

Yeah, I gave Joomla or Moombla (whatever) a shot a year or so ago because I thought it had a feature or 2 that wasn't available in CMSms... That could've been the most painful experience in my life, ... but I quickly came to my senses and went right back to CMSMS.

I'm no braniac when it comes to website building, but the people at CMSMS really made it easy to learn some of the basics, and a lot of the people on the forum board are really helpful (have patience and read some of the stickies) if you can't find your answers in the Documentation. ALSO, most if not all of the default (supplied) CSS and Templates have  /* INSTRUCTIONS/DESCRIPTIONS */

I've used Dreamweaver and GoLive to build websites in the past, and now I'm wondering why my employers paid for those progs!!! If you have FireFox (Best browser to use the WYSIWYG included with the CMSMS install), your pretty much good to go... and learning a little CSS does not hurt, and you'll find that it just makes more sense than just plain HTML coding.

Aside from that, I can get some of my co-workers (editors) to easily update or provide editorial type stuff (via "News" or a Content Page I allow priviedges too)  Anyone, with just a little bit of patience, can figure out and use CMSMS, and probably alot faster than using some of the other CMS progs out there.

One thing I do ask is a reason why I shouldn't use CMSMS? Seriously, I want to continue using CMSMS for my employer and clients.... can someone give me reason why I shouldn't?

Aren't we all so different. I am not a web designer or web devolper. I have a simple Family/Christian site just for keeping people informed and mabye a few grins. I have fairly good computer skills & pretty good common sense. I tried Joomla/Mambo & all the rest. For all the speed and power of Joomla , I was still limited as to what I could do. I have only had CMSMS for 4 days and love it. Any coding I have to do is explained to me in the 'Stylesheets' section and so easy to understand for me. The admin area is, for me, really simple.  Of course my knowdledge and what I need is different from yours, But I never could figure out how to get mt site name to replace Joomla. Could not find header file, could not do it any way I tried. CMSMS has made all that easy for me & it is already done. Our requirements are different, but CMSMS, for me & my needs, is 5 times better than Joomla. Joomla, have you checked out their new Beta version, 1.5? Lotsa Luck.
Sonny