San Francisco—November 11,
2002—Macromedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: MACR) today
announced Macromedia
Contribute, a groundbreaking new desktop application
that enables anyone to easily update, add, and publish
web content to existing websites without requiring technical
skills beyond basic word processing. The product brings
ease and simplicity to the Internet by putting the power
of web publishing into the hands of non-technical users,
while also providing sufficient control for the professionals
who manage websites and intranets (see
attached quote sheet). Macromedia Contribute works
with any HTML website, including those coded by hand
or created with tools like Macromedia Dreamweaver‚
MX or Microsoft FrontPage. Macromedia Contribute, available
for Windows in December, features an introductory price
of $99. To download a technology preview today, go to
www.macromedia.com/go/contribute/.
"Macromedia Contribute represents a new product
vision for Macromedia that reaches a whole new class
of users with a beautiful solution that also frees up
our current designers and developers to stay ahead of
the technology curve," said Rob Burgess, chairman
and CEO, Macromedia. "Contribute levels the playing
field for web content contribution and makes waiting
for an overburdened webmaster to make site updates a
thing of the past."
From enterprise settings and government agencies to
educational institutions and small businesses, people
who want to make updates to web content today rely on
web professionals with specialized skills to make even
simple edits. Business users require quick changes to
web content, but don't want to spend hours learning
web development software and new processes. Macromedia
Contribute enables users to easily publish content to
the web and protects them from inadvertent mistakes.
The product also ensures that web professionals who
build the sites retain complete control over the site
style, layout, and code standards.
"As web content management technology matures,
architectural simplicity, low cost, rapid installation
and ease of use become critical differentiators,"
said Lou Latham, research analyst, Gartner, Inc. "New
products that provide 'quick and easy' web editing for
non-technical users will have opportunity if they meet
these criteria."
Macromedia Contribute allows web developers to delegate
web content maintenance while protecting the site design,
code, and functionality. Contribute rolls out in minutes
using encrypted connection keys and permission groups.
Contribute also maintains a living history of page changes
so users can easily roll back changes and switch between
different versions of a page. In addition, the quality
of the code is guaranteed because Contribute is built
on the core HTML authoring engine of Macromedia Dreamweaver
MX, the preferred choice of more than 90 percent of
web professionals.
"Macromedia Contribute allows all of our content
owners, regardless of their work discipline, to have
full control over their web content," said Christopher
L. Rogers, lead programmer/analyst, training systems
and support, The Boeing Company. "With an intuitive
user interface, content release management tools, powerful
administration controls, and one button publishing,
Contribute enables our team members to easily and efficiently
become part of the information release process. Contribute
takes the hassle out of web content management allowing
true webmasters to concentrate on design and the user
experience."
Macromedia Contribute allows users to update web content
in three simple steps. Users browse to the web page
they want to update, edit the page, and publish their
updated page to the live site. Contribute also features
integration with Microsoft Word and Excel, so users
can drag-and-drop Word or Excel files from their desktop
onto a page and the content is added with the original
formatting intact. Users can even e-mail draft pages
for review before publishing them. Web pages can also
be updated offline and published later.
"Macromedia Contribute is very user-friendly and
easy to use," said Beth Ingram, assistant to the
executive director, Colorado Area Health Education Center
at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.
"I enjoy being able to create project pages without
having to go through a web administrator. I like the
freedom of making the changes on my own and knowing
the published pages look right every time."
An update to Macromedia Dreamweaver MX will be available
simultaneously with Macromedia Contribute to enable
advanced administration and improved performance within
Dreamweaver MX.
Macromedia Contribute offers unprecedented support for
Section 508 accessibility requirements, so people with
disabilities can read and create web content. Macromedia
Contribute also works with existing network security
methods, and does not require any special servers or
technology.
PRICING AND AVAILABILITY
Macromedia Contribute will be available for Windows
in December with introductory pricing at $99. Education,
government, and corporate volume licensing will be available.
The product will initially ship in English, with French,
German, and Japanese versions expected to be available
in 2003.
Macromedia Contribute will be available for Mac OS X
users in 2003. Macromedia is currently working with
Opera Software to develop the embedded browser technology
required for this product. Dreamweaver MX users on the
Macintosh platform will be able to download a new product
update in December to improve Dreamweaver MX performance
and provide interoperability with Macromedia Contribute.
ABOUT MACROMEDIA
Macromedia (www.macromedia.com)
empowers millions of designers and developers to create
effective user experiences across the widest array of
platforms and devices. Through an open, integrated family
of client, tool, and server technologies, Macromedia
is driving a new generation of rich Internet applications
that radically improves the Internet experience.
BETA USERS PRAISE SIMPLICITY AND POWER OF
MACROMEDIA CONTRIBUTE
Autodesk
"The more I use Macromedia Contribute, the more
I really like it. I love the possibilities. It allows
me to continue to use Dreamweaver and to maintain
control over our site, while giving the non-HTML users
a great way to edit pages with the ease of editing
a Word document."
- Shaan Hurley, project engineer, Autodesk
Cisco Systems
"I love being able to browse to an actual page
and then modify it right then and there. It takes
the guesswork out of having to hunt down the correct
page within an ftp server full of files. I have been
looking for a tool like this for my busy team members
who need to frequently edit their web pages."
- Winson Cheung, network administrator, Cisco Systems
ISITE Design
"Macromedia has hit yet another home run with
its newest web development application, Macromedia
Contribute, which boasts content management features
such as content rollback/approval, WYSIWYG development,
and the ability to edit and create content in Microsoft
Word. Macromedia has put strong web development capabilities
in an intuitive, powerful, easy-to-use package for
non-developers."
- Paul W. Wille, CTO, ISITE Design, Inc.
Lynda.com
"We live in a remote-control society where everything
is done and expected to happen with a push of a button.
Macromedia has brought this level of convenience to
the Web design process with Macromedia Contribute.
Making the logical combination of web browser and
HTML editor, it's now possible to browse, edit, and
upload web pages with a click of a few buttons. Macromedia
has made the web design process so simple that everyone
from beginners to clients can now create and make
changes to their own web pages with push button convenience."
- Garo Green, director of publications, Lynda.com
MindComet Corporation
"Macromedia Contribute allows me to manage site
content for our clients from one easy to use, intuitive
interface. The integration with Dreamweaver MX is
seamless and allows me to keep my existing production
workflow without sacrificing valuable time or quality."
- Bill Evans, senior front end technologist, MindComet
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
"Contribute is a welcome addition to Macromedia's
powerful web-authoring suite of tools. As a web design
professional, I can use Contribute to facilitate site
changes without sacrificing control over code and
layout. I can feel confident that my sites are secure
and that I can now more easily administer changes."
- Mary Norbury-Glaser, LAN administrator and web designer,
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
University of Florida
"Macromedia Contribute provides an excellent
opportunity for students and teachers to focus on
the introduction of developing web content rather
than the mechanics of transferring web pages. It will
serve as a very useful teaching and development tool
for education."
- Dr. Richard E. Ferdig, assistant professor, School
of Teaching and Learning, University of Florida
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