Member Avatar for tufty2000

Our church is currently using Mambo 4.5.5 as our website content management system. We have had a lot of difficulty using for Mambo as a page editor for fairly basic tasks (creating forms, formatting text, .hyperlinks) etc. We are thinking of either switching to Joomla 1.0 or 1.5, or going with a professional page editor such as Dreamweaver or Frontpage.

Does anyone have any advice regarding either other open source content management systems with better page editors than Mambo, and/or whether any commercial page editors offer rates that are affordable for nonprofits with multiple users?

  • 3 Contributors
  • 2 Replies
  • 605 Views
  • 1 Month Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by Graphics_Gurl

Dani AI

Generated

For a small, volunteer-run site the real question is workflow, not just which platform. is right to look for an easier editor; and pointed you in the right direction. Two practical paths work best: migrate to a modern CMS that gives nontechnical editors a friendly in-browser workflow, or keep the current CMS and replace/extend its editor and add dedicated form plugins so volunteers don’t wrestle with HTML.

If ease-of-use for multiple contributors is the priority, WordPress is the lowest-friction option: its block editor (Gutenberg) plus mature page-builder plugins let nontechnical users build pages and simple forms without touching code. WordPress also has a huge ecosystem of roles, themes and plugins—but that means being selective about plugins and keeping everything updated to avoid security problems. (w3techs.com)

If the site needs structured content (registrations, event records, complex forms) and long-term flexibility, Drupal is still a solid choice: it excels at custom content types, access control and enterprise-ready form modules (for example, Webform). The tradeoff is a steeper admin/dev learning curve, so consider a managed host or a short developer setup phase, then hand over content editing to volunteers. (drupal.org)

If you want to avoid a full migration, swapping the in-browser editor for a maintained rich-text editor (CKEditor or TinyMCE) and adding a CMS-specific form module/plugin often fixes the painful daily tasks. Commercial desktop tools (Dreamweaver) are paid and don’t replace collaborative CMS workflows for multiple users. Practical next steps: set up a staging copy, try one hosted (e.g., WordPress + Elementor) and one CMS-driven (Drupal + Webform) workflow, export/back up current content first, then run a short volunteer test to confirm the editor and permissions work for real people. (ckeditor.com)

Recommended Answers

All 2 Replies

Member Avatar for muta

tufty2000, I empathise with the difficulty and fustration you are having - but my persistence paid off (virtualcomputing dot net). I would suggest you try a little harder and spend a little more time with it, it will pay off you you too.

Upto mambo v4.5.5 it is almost the same as joomla 1.5 they both use the same text editor (MOStlyCE) so you will have the same problem, maybe you could try upgrading and see if things change.

You can try Druple it looks good but it too has it quirks.

Member Avatar for Graphics_Gurl

Yes. I know your frustration, I tried mambo too a while ago and got soooo frustrated. Ended up going with Drupal and their miraculous node structure... was the best decision I could have made. I figured it out within 1 day and the site is live and active. Send me a pm and I'll show it to you. - Graphics_Gurl

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.