CMS - Do you use one?

Hey guys,

Ok I have never used a CMS before and I’m wondering do any designers use one to update their portfolios? I currently never update my actual website due to it being coded in tables which is a total pain and I get bored of having to manually edit the content on every page.

Also, could I setup a CMS system where if I change a section on page, for example the news box, it would change the news on the other corresponding pages?

I have heard of some pre-made CMS systems such as mambo, however do you think I would need a custom built CMS system?

Thanks,
Lewis.

Doubt you would need a custom built CMS, there are so many out there now, even things like wordpress could work well. I think the web is moving more and more into CMS as opposed to manually editing code and such.

Yes i agree with what Robson says. There are many CMS's out their which can be customised to your liking. A custom CMS would obviously cost alot more but it could be made to suit your exact needs.

definately just find one that is already built. wordpress can be great, another one i like is drupal.

I think CMS's are generic. They have a real template sort of feel. I can always tell when someone is using a CMS... easiest way is to look for the copyright at the bottom.

I wouldn't use one for my web design portfolio. That's kind of like saying, I'm a web designer, but I can't even design my own site.

Portfolios are fairly simple sites. They should be very easy to maintain, but they shouldn't look like a wordpress template.

i love custom made sites, CMSes are a bad decision in my opinion, and even more for a portfolio, which is suposed to be a site to be a demonstration of what you're capabe of.

People are starting to get the wrong idea of a CMS and a blog.

A CMS is a total site control which you can edit your site, usually it has a user portal and other features (From a generic standpoint). A custom built one isn't hard, and it's not going to say "I am using a prebuilt site" because you can easily do it with about 30 lines of code (if you want to just use it to update your portfolio page). A dynamic one (making new pages) would be a bit more complicated, but not really.

Personally, I make all my CMS's myself because:
1) You know how to edit it, and there is no need to take days to learn how to edit something when you could just be making it

2) It's more professional

3) If there are errors in the coding, you're going to know what to do

4) If you want to add more features it's easier to do then looking through a lot of code from another thing

5) There is so much less ammount of coding, these things you download off sites are full of unwanted code and so many useless features that, believe it or not, will never ever been touched.


So all in all just make your own or hire someone to do it. It's alot better then just downloading someone elses code and then trying to figure out what to do with it next.

Originally Posted by controllerboy i love custom made sites, CMSes are a bad decision in my opinion, and even more for a portfolio, which is suposed to be a site to be a demonstration of what you're capabe of.

This is fine if you are a coder, but he might only be a designer which means he can't build his own. A free CMS can be ammended to fit into a design which he makes.

The website will be designed by myself and will not look like a blog, I simply will be using a CMS to easily update the content (text) and to add new creations.

For example, www.vbmode.com has a CMS to update the content and portfolio. Does that look like a prebuilt template?

My portfolio is just a single page for the exact reasons BoxedPixels brings up. Im not good with code which means editing pages becomes a pain plus it's pretty repetitive and like Bp said, pretty boring. It's a task i quite simply don't really want to have to do.

I'd like to have a more in-depth website though, which is where the problem lies. I could keep it as a single splash type page but i feel that may be restricting. If i was to create a full site again now i would want to do it through a CMS.

Boxed, if you come across anything good be sure to let me know