Content Management: Tools

Here are links to some of the tools we use and have experimented with:

Canter - In the BETA stage, but well worth downloading and experimenting with! I've found it especially good at creating thumbnails and cataloging graphics. An entire directory can be turned into a web site in seconds.

I'm using Canter to catalog all of the graphics I use in creating web sites. It's a really long list, but a couple of clicks and I've got a thumbnailed web page full of all my images. Saves me tons of time and brain damage.

Excellent help is included, but here's a few more tips Canter help.

(06/27/04) Looks like Canter is no longer available

CityDesk - By Fog Creek Software is a Windows CMS that lives on your PC and generates a site and transfers it to any web server automatically, using either FTP or file copy. You design a template and CityDesk stuffs all your content into the template. There is scripting capability to generate an index, list of most recent files or whatever your heart (and scripting ability) desires. Finally, a CMS that's powerful enough for large/complex sites, but easy enough for the average word-processor user to use! This version of the site (06/19/04) is done completely with CityDesk.

EditPad Classic - All the features of Notepad and more - open multiple documents, Find and Replace across all open documents, line numbers, ... Being able to open all the pages of your site at once and change, for example, every instance of 'font=' from 'Times New Roman' to 'Verdana' is extremely useful. It's also great for updating Meta Tags across an entire site. An excellent tool for any editing chore!

(05/21/04) A Linux version of EditPad is available!

FrontPageExpress - Free, WYSIWYG, Windows only editor from Microsoft. It can be downloaded from many places on the Internet and comes with Internet Explorer 4+.

Click here for some handy Tips and Tricks and keyboard shortcuts.

HTMgen32 - HTMgen32 is an object oriented WWW site generator/editor. It takes care of the page layout, all your references to other pages and ensures consistent usage of bullets and icons. All you have to do is to define the structure of your HTML pages, and type in (or paste in) the actual text.

MicroHof HTMLAutomator - You can generate web pages from information in a database quickly and easily with MicroHof HTML Automator. It uses a comma separated value (CSV) database which you can easily manage in Excel or your favorite spreadsheet or database program.

The included demo will help you get started on a "catalog" web site. I'm sure it's possible to use this for a "content" based web site, but just haven't had time to experiment.

REBOL - Not really designed for web site management per se, but there's an excellent demo script that builds the REBOL site. Also check out REBOL.org for more examples.

WebCrank - WebCrank is a "power user" application designed for the automatic creation of web sites from any variety of documents. You define constraints for each type of file you plan to use and WebCrank can handle the "busy work" of converting documents to your chosen web design.

The neatest feature of WebCrank is the ability to turn a variety of types of text files into a consistent web page layout.

(06/19/04) It appears that development has stopped on WebCrank due to the author's time restrictions.

Webgenz CMS - You can reuse templates, files and chunks of code using the built in "macro language". Reasonably priced at $95, an excellent choice for "heavy duty" CMS work.

From the brief experimentation I've done with Webgenz I'm very impressed!

WebMerge - Create a website from a database using your own template. Holy cow! I've been looking for this for a long time, and somehow, missed it. Reasonably priced at $99.

I'll be writing a review soon!

WebProcessor - WebProcessor takes the drudgery out of manually creating a multi-page web site by allowing you to "compile" source files and header files into HTML files quickly and easily. You can define global options or write navigation menu code in one file, and it can be easily "included" in any number of other HTML files. Converting an existing site to WebProcessor source form is easy, as the source and header files are really just plain HTML files with extra commands and comments added that WebProcessor reads and filters out.

(06/27/04) Development had stopped on WebProcessor due to the author's death, but it appears to be no longer available.