Wordpress question

[Asha'man X]

Hi Guys

Just thought I would ask an opinion here from the experts so that I can pass this on to upper management.

Our school is looking at having it's website relaunched, and having it done over with Wordpress for the initial framework, which will then be updated by the person who took over maintaining the website from the previous "expert" who left the school to go overseas.

The school website has been written and maintained in Dreamweaver, nothing to fancy, as it's mainly static info. However, the design and branding has become pretty stale over the last few years, and the new marketing lady the school has hired is busy rebranding everything and bringing the school into the new world.

The person who took over maintaining the site is very much fresh out of the basic course given by the previous webmaster, and it's unlikely she will be able to do something from scratch in Dreamweaver.

Is using Wordpress a better idea than using Dreamweaver for handling the site?

I'm going to look around and see if I can find some sites designed in Wordpress to see what they look and feel like.

Any opinions will be welcome

Thanks

 

[paulka007]

You must remeber that wordpress has many templates that can be edited using dreamweaver. takre a look at these for instance, any of them could be edited in Dreamweaver: http://themes.wordpress.net/

Wordpress is better if its your only option though. Why not look at a full fledged CMS like Joomla!?

 

[bwana]

I'd second the suggestion to have a look at Joomla - Wordpress is great but aimed primarily at blogging. A full fledged CMS might be more suitable.

 

[Asha'man X]

Thanks for the replies so far.

Funny enough, I e-mailed a big techno head in the UK that is part of the company that owns our school about getting access to the panel on our webhost, and also to tell him about the rough plans. He also seems to feel that using Wordpress to actually create a website is not too appropriate.

Perhaps I should go speak to the marketing lady who's driving these changes, and chat to her about things.

I can't help but feel that maybe a complete redesign using Dreamweaver is more suited than using a brand new system. That way the new lady who's in charge of the website will actually be able to use the skills she was taught.

As for Joomla, I don't think it's necessary, as our website remains pretty static. Even with a total redesign, it's still not going to be heavily dynamic.

Thanks so far

 

[bwana]

Thanks for the replies so far.

Funny enough, I e-mailed a big techno head in the UK that is part of the company that owns our school about getting access to the panel on our webhost, and also to tell him about the rough plans. He also seems to feel that using Wordpress to actually create a website is not too appropriate.

Perhaps I should go speak to the marketing lady who's driving these changes, and chat to her about things.

I can't help but feel that maybe a complete redesign using Dreamweaver is more suited than using a brand new system. That way the new lady who's in charge of the website will actually be able to use the skills she was taught.

As for Joomla, I don't think it's necessary, as our website remains pretty static. Even with a total redesign, it's still not going to be heavily dynamic.

Thanks so far

While I use dreamweaver to design my sites these days I then use a cms like Joomla to maintain them.

It also means I get others involved in contributing to the sites while still keeping overall control. Of course if you really do want a static site then you're probably right but Dreamweaver is a bit of an overkill for that too.

 

[Kloon]

New wordpress has options to create static pages aswell, so you can easily use it for a website and not just for blogging.

 

[texo]

I think you should stick with WordPress: it's easy for the n00biest beginner to get their heads around.

I would *never* give someone who has limited experience a website built on Joomla or Drupal.

 

[Asha'man X]

I spoke to the webmaster earlier before she left, and she said to me that she would like to see some of the other sites built by the outside web designer before they make any more decisions.

I asked our internal webmaster if she was capable of doing the site over from scratch, and she seemed to think so.

I guess we'll need to see a rough mock up of the site, and see what it actually turns out like before we make any judgement calls on the technology.

Maybe a CMS can come one day, once the webmaster is more up to scratch with the technology.