Isn't there any Content Management System that's easy to use?

[JustRob]

Hello. Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, I really don't know where else to put it. About a week ago I picked up an old website with the intention of getting it back online.This website mainly contains user-submitted articles, resources, and games.After a few days I realized something like that would be impossible without either knowledge of PHP, JavaScript, and MySQL Databases, or, a Content Management System. So I tried out the various CMS'es that were included with my webhosting.I tried out WordPress, I tried out Joomla, I tried out concrete5, I tried out Drupal. However my problem with all of these is that there is either too much limitation or an extremely steep learning curve.Right now I am using Drupal, and something as simple as removing an empty space between my logo and my menubar is giving me a ###### of trouble. So, having tried out all these different CMS'es, and having found that each of them does not satisfy my needs, and having found that their support forums aren't supportive enough, I come here.Let me ask you, what is the best CMS to use? Isn't there a CMS where I can just make the EXACT layout I want without having to touch code? I know HTML and I know CSS. But all of these CMS'es have pre-set CSS classes which you magically need to find and override in order to do stuff. And that's just way too much of a pain in the ######.

Edited April 14, 2013 by JustRob

[niche]

What specifically do you need to manage?

[Krewe]

I am wondering the same question Niche asked?... What are you wanting a content manager to do? Because I work with WordPress and it is far from being called "limited". Edit (About CSS): Working with the CSS in WordPress is not a daunting task either... If you know HTML and CSS well enough it is fairly easy to figure out what CSS class goes where and it is really easy just to open the Dev Console to figure out what is effect what as well.

Edited April 15, 2013 by Krewe

[JustRob]

Simply put, WordPress is too much like a blog. As for what I want a content manager to do... Let me just show you the pages I have online right now (without a CMS) to give you an idea: - Home Page

• As you can see, on the front page I have several different news blocks for different categories.
• Up top below the logo I have the most important links in a menu.
• To the left I have all the main links in a menu.
• To the right I have a login form, where people, if registered, can log into their accounts.
• Below that I have daily news, and below that I have a poll.
• Nevermind the radio station.

- Articles Page (Gamedesign) This is one of my article categories.

• In the center top I have the latest articles, with one being at the very top and two others below that.
• Below that I have shortcut letters to sort the articles by that letter.
• Below that I have different choices by which you can list the articles, like author or title.
• Below that I have all of my articles on several pages.
• To the right, I have a column with popular articles, which means I need to be able to check which articles get the most views.

So, if I could do all this, that would be a pretty good start. One important thing for me is that I can exactly re-create this layout and this design in my CMS, down to the last column, without it taking me days of time.

Edited April 15, 2013 by JustRob

[Ingolme]

Most content management systems should have a template system so that all you would need to do is copy your HTML and fill the gaps with their particular syntax for the dynamic content.

[JustRob]

Well actually it's not that simple because if you copy and paste your HTML the whole thing goes bat######. The only way to do it is try to re-create your layout from scratch with the tools the CMS gives you. Which is a pain.

[Krewe]

Well actually it's not that simple because if you copy and paste your HTML the whole thing goes bat######. The only way to do it is try to re-create your layout from scratch with the tools the CMS gives you. Which is a pain.

Not true at all...With WordPress just make your site in HTML and CSS, transfer over the WordPress php lines of code that bring in the page content and done.WordPress is not just a blog, it is very easy to make a site out of it with dynamic pages, not blog posts.Http://www.howtomarketyourownwebsite.com (terrible design) But that website is all WordPress. Georgia Tech's website is 100% wordpress...http://www.gatech.edu/ Point being, everything you've laid out for us can easily be done in WordPress.

[JustRob]

I'm sure the process is a lot more complicated then you make it sound to be honest, I don't think it's just throwing in a few lines of PHP and done.

[JustRob]

Here this is exactly what I mean: http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/how-do-i-add-0y-own-html-site-to-wordpress "You cannot upload html pages to WordPress.com blogs. What you can do is create pages using the WordPress.com editor. No html necessary.http://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/#video" So that's nice, we can use some crappy templates that 100,000 other people are also using, but we can't make any unique layouts. Welp. "Hi scotty,You can intergrate your own html and css (design) into your website.For that you may have to make some changes inside files or you may use css id's and classes to get the new style as you desire for the page.I am expert in handling html for joomla wordpress oscommerce." Some changes inside some files, some CSS classes or ID's, this is absolutely useless to anyone. "Some files" or "some classes"? Can they be any less specific? "No, you can't. Flash is stripped out at WordPress.com for security reasons. And you can't design your own theme; you can only choose from the 80 or so that are on your Dashboard under Themes." So, no Flash, con number one. Oh and you can't design your own theme apparently, which means you're stuck with a generic theme that everyone and their mom is using. "No that's not accurate. We cannot access the files to which you refer nor can we access and edit the HTML and PHP in template files. Also CSS editing is a paid upgrade. Please read these entries >http://support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/ andhttp://en.support.wordpress.com/code/" Oh so now we can't access the HTML files, and CSS is a PAID service? Are you f'ing kidding me? I'd be skeptic if I got this off any other website, but these are from the Wordpress forums themselves. It's comments like these that lead me to believe WordPress is crap, and if you can prove me otherwise I very much invite you to do so.

[justsomeguy]

So that's nice, we can use some crappy templates that 100,000 other people are also using, but we can't make any unique layouts. Welp.

You can make whatever you want to make. Make your own template if you want to, the only thing that makes that not possible is a lack of understanding the Wordpress specifics (which goes back to the learning curve). You're not incapable of doing that though. Even with the same HTML markup, changing the CSS only can change the entire layout. Look at the CSS Zen Garden website for illustrations of that.

Oh and you can't design your own theme apparently, which means you're stuck with a generic theme that everyone and their mom is using.

It should be obvious that that statement is not true. The fact that more than one theme exists means that multiple themes are possible. There may be a certain learning curve to creating a theme, but it should be obvious that it is possible to do so.

It's comments like these that lead me to believe WordPress is crap, and if you can prove me otherwise I very much invite you to do so.

The vast number of drastically different Wordpress sites should be some indication of its flexibility. I have friends who can't program who can set up unique-looking WP sites (they don't make their own templates though). That being said, if you want to talk about the quality of the Wordpress code then I'm not going to claim that it looks substantially different than something that a new college graduate would create as their first project. A lot of people seem to be able to use it though. If you're talking about getting a hosted Wordpress platform, then you're going to be limited in what you can do based on what the host allows you to do. You can always download Wordpress yourself and install it on whatever host you want to use though (including whatever themes or plugins you want to install, including your own). The downside with running your own installation is that you're responsible for things like updates and specific support.

[dsonesuk]

you download a blank theme, for latest version of wordpress or joomla, with class id ref prepared for 2- 3column setup, and you go on from there, you don't have to use the 'crappy themes' as you say that other people use.

[JustRob]

So where exactly do I learn how to do that? Because I just re-installed WordPress, and all I can see is an admin panel I'm not familiar with and a blog page on my website.

[justsomeguy]

I would start with something like this: http://codex.wordpress.org/Site_Design_and_Layout There should be several other guides to customizing Wordpress online, based on how popular it is: http://www.presscoders.com/wordpress-theme-customization-guide/http://colorlabsproject.com/tutorials/customizing-a-wordpress-theme-the-right-way/http://codegarage.com/blog/2011/03/customizing-wordpress-an-introduction/

[davej]

Yes, I've been looking at Drupal on and off for a number of months now and have resigned myself to finding and reading all the tutorials because I just can't figure it out on my own.