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11 of 11 found the following review helpful:
 Few compelling new featuresNov 22, 2008
By Michael McKee
"mystic cowboy"
Contribute 4 comes with the Adobe Web Suite so I didn't really pay for it. That's good because I don't think it really offers anything compelling enough to justify upgrading from CS 3. And it really doesn't offer enough more to justify the $50 price hike for the full version.
The interface has changed a lot, making Contribute look more like other Adobe apps. With Dreamweaver and Photoshop I didn't find that to be a problem. With Contribute I prefer the old layout and see no advantage in changing to change.
There is a new collaboration function that my be useful for teams who work on a Contribute site. Working with, at most, one other person on a site with Contribute, I can't tell how useful that would be. And most larger organizations I have worked with use real content management systems and have no use for Contribute, so I can't see Adobe selling a lot of copies on this new feature.
Contribute promises a feature that may be compelling for some, the ability to add a Contribute toolbar to Firefox that lets people edit pages right in the browser. Unfortunately, that doesn't yet work with version 3 of Firefox and I don't have a copy of version 2 around to test with. But since you can download SeaMonkey for free and get the same rendering engine as Firefox, as well as the ability use the same program for browsing and for editing, I don't see this as worth $200.
Since the the CS 4 version of Dreamweaver has been both a bit faster and more stable than CS 3, I'd hoped that Contribute would be too, but I can't tell any difference. It's still slow to load, slow to update pages, and crashes occasionally. I once asked an Adobe rep about this and he said it was because the pages had to upload to the server. I can open web pages in a text editor via my ftp client and have saved changes effected almost instantly, so I'm not really convinced that the glacial speed of Contribute can be totally justified by that explanation.
Still, Contribute does work and does allow people to update websites, add pages, images and media to their websites without much technical knowledge. So it does have value. If you need a new copy of Contribute this will do the job. That said, this update isn't at all compelling. If you have CS 3, you can safely pass this version. If, like me, you got it as part of the new CS 4 suite then it's no worse.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Perfect Solution for Preventing Non-Designers from Breaking a Website!May 09, 2009
By Wildness
If you design website with Dreamweaver (works with non-Dreamweaver sites, but without Dreamweaver's integrated templates capability that locks portions of the page) that others will need to edit...AND you don't want them to break it, then Contribute is the product for you!
Allows you set user permissions that control what a user can edit, how they can edit a page, how they (and if they) can add images, whether they can publish or their draft needs reviewed, and saves rollback copies so any damage can be undone!
The user interface is easy and user-friendly - the user browses the site they wish to edit (and have permission to do so) and then edits the page. Simple.
This works best for the editor of a site created and maintained by Dreamweaver. And, it will make every Dreamweaver designer happier, healthier, and allow for the opportunity to spend your time making money designing a new site as opposed to the drudgery of continually editing an old site.
This is a great solution for non-profit clients who want to be able to update at will, but have too small a budget to afford a full web application design or can't afford to pay a web designer to continually make changes and updates to the content.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
I had some minor issuesFeb 03, 2009
By John K. Hayes
I bought this to be able to edit a couple of web sites. It does that well. However, I had some problems getting it to work. First, when I installed it, I got an error message telling me that "some functions" may not work and that I should re-install with my anti-virus program (Bit-Defender) turned off. I did that and when it was finished loading, I had Bit-Defender scan for viruses. Sure enough Bit-Defender said that it found two viruses one of which was in the Contribute directory. The virus in the Contribute directory crashed Bit-Defender. That may be a problem with Bit-Defender or Contribute. Next, I had a problem trying to connect with my web host. It turned out after several trials and errors my problem was because my internet connection was only 768K. Once I upgraded to 3mg that problem went away. Again that problem could have been from Contribute or from my web host. The error messages from Contribute on that problem were more confusing than help. I believed the messages and that was a problem. At least something like "It ain't working and we really dunno why but it may be..." wouldn't have pointed me in the wrong direction.
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Buyer BewareAug 04, 2009
By P. Yribia
I bought Contribute CS4 so that I could update a couple websites myself and not have to pay my webmaster to make small changes, add content and new (simple) pages, etc. Contribute CS4 has been nothing but headaches since I bought it. It is buggy, buggy, buggy and the updates I've installed have done nothing to remedy these problems. It crashes often, uses really weird coding, shifts content and pictures around when you upload new stuff, takes forever to upload/download/do anything with content, has major connection problems, and generally all around SUCKS! Unless you're extremely tech savvy and can figure out how to deal with crummy software... don't waste your time and money.
P.S. Adobe's customer service is almost non-existent unless you pay them.
Contribute is buggy by design and should never be usedMar 10, 2010
By Michael S. Levy
I'm writing this as professional developer with experience with Contribute and other forms of Website management. Early in my career I built a dozen or so sites that were edited with Contribute. The whole foundation of how it works is prone to be buggy. When things go wrong, it returns no meaningful error messages. There is minimal support for it. So you are left trying things blindly sometimes for hours to resolve system errors.
Making minor updates on a site's template like the phone number for example can take over an hour to ensure that doesn't erase updates. This program should never be used in a professional context. It is much better to use a CMS such as WordPress or Textpattern which incidentally are free.
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