Content Management Systems (CMS) is software used to develop and maintain website content. WordPress is an example of CMS software.
There are different types of CMS software solutions for website development and maintenance. Some are Open Source Software solutions available to the public software development community while others are proprietary to the company that developed the CMS system.
Why is it important to choose Open Source CMS?
Open Source Software is software available to the public software development community that is shared with developers to use and improve as a shared software solution and share the improvements with the software community to better the product. Open source software can have different uses and one is CMS for website maintenance.
If you have someone building you a custom website that has a CMS, you should check that the developer is using Open Source Software rather than a custom Content Management System.
Why is Open Source Software CMS preferred?
The reason is that the website built with an open source CMS can be managed by any other web developer that knows that open source software. The website developed with a “custom” CMS for website maintenance is in all likelihood proprietary to that website developer and if you want to change website developers for any reason you may have to have a new website built. The reason for this is that the proprietary CMS does not have the technical documentation available like open source so other website developers may not know how to maintain and change the framework of the website. There may also be copyright issues with the “custom” CMS developed by the individual.
A Note about Website Maintenance with a CMS
If you are going to do your own website content maintenance with a CMS you need some basic training about CMS. It is possible to crash a website content maintenance with CMS system but overall they are easy to use.
A Tip on CMS for Website Maintenance
If you are adding large amounts of content to the website then it is recommended that you write and edit your content in Microsoft Word first then save as a text file (.txt). Then your next step would be to copy the content into the website Content Management System control panel from the text (.txt) file.
Why? Because if you do your creative writing in the CMS, chances are you have not saved your content. The CMS can hiccup when editing a web page and you will lose all of your changes because you do not have a backup Microsoft Word file.
Other Open Source Content Management Systems include:
- WordPress – CLICK HERE
- Joomla – CLICK HERE
- Square Space – CLICK HERE
- Drupal – CLICK HERE
There are also other Open Source CMS but we feel that WordPress, Joomla and Drupal are the most well known options at this time with WordPress being the predominate pick.
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