Looking for an easy to use, visually customizable CMS

Since some of you guys know your way around web technology, I thought why not ask on this forum.

As the topic states, I'm looking for a WYSIWYG style CMS for someone for whom I've done the website administration (infrequent updates) until now. Now the frequency is increasing and the person wants to try various structural changes (new page sections). This goes beyond what I'd realize through scripts, so I though it's about time to set up a CMS instead, letting them edit to their heart's desire.

The site would contain text and images (floating images to allow flowing text would be nice), a gallery, a list of events/dates, a few embedded videos (probably via YouTube).

The only additional condition I have is that some basic visual customization (via CSS) is possible, i.e. changing fonts, element colors and maybe adding imagery to headers/footers/sidebars, so that it doesn't look too generic.

I looked at WordPress, which is extremely popular, but it seems mostly targeted at running blogs, rather than a more static conventional websites with multiple pages and different types of content. Maybe it's flexible enough, I don't know.

Any suggestions for other frameworks or an alternative idea welcome.

I have a Hostgator "Baby" shared hosting plan, which supports the following:

• MySQL
• CGI
• Fast CGI
• PHP 5
• Ruby On Rails
• Perl
• Python
• SSI
• Cron

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Guest

I looked at WordPress, which is extremely popular, but it seems mostly targeted at running blogs, rather than a more static conventional websites with multiple pages and different types of content. Maybe it's flexible enough, I don't know.

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WordPress started off as blog software, but has evolved to become more generic CMS software, so it is definitely flexible enough.

Ok, I'll install it then and see how far it takes me.

I'd go with Joomla, looks and feels more proffesional

Oh yeah, I haven't heard that name in a while. I'm play with WordPress right now, and deem it suitable, but I'll give this a look as well. Once properly set up, it must very user friendly, i.e. WYSIWYG as mentioned in my first post. Thanks for the tip!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Guest

I looked at WordPress, which is extremely popular, but it seems mostly targeted at running blogs, rather than a more static conventional websites with multiple pages and different types of content. Maybe it's flexible enough, I don't know.

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Metalsmith is quickly becoming a favorite among static content generators. Jekyll and Middleman are the most popular.

I prefer Metalsmith, personally. And never again looked back.

I would say the WordPress is the best option as a full fledged CMS. It has millions (If not then billions) of plugin support and powering millions of websites. You think for some missing feature and I bet definitely you will find one.

WordPress started off as a blogging platform but I will say now it powers many more websites then you can imagine which provides a full fledged easy to use CMS platform. The best thing is the FREE SEO optimized themes and plugins availability.

If you are planning for dynamic website, then WordPress will be one of the best choice I will recommend.
If you are looking for a static website then I would rather say go for something else. (May be I don't have the answer on that.)