I have recently started out in the website design world (feeling VERY much like Alice!), and am trying to get my head around CMS.
Starting to explore Contribute/Joomla/Wordpress and although I understand the manipulating templates/coding part of things, how does the CMS process work?
As in, at which point do you, the developer/designer, put into use Contribute, or Joomla etc for the client, and then how does the customer use it? Do they have to install Contribute at their end?
I am about to start a website for a client with a face-painting business who wants a simple 3-page site (home, gallery, contact), and wants to be able to update the gallery page. How do I start with Contribute or Joomla? I have tried to wade through the mountains of info I found online, but can’t seem to find the BEGINNING!
Thanks in anticipation!
Magda 
I don’t know anything about Contribute but with Joomla and the such, the client just logs into Joomla on the web server and makes their changes.
They don’t need to install anything.
Hey Magda - welcome to Sitepoint and the wonderful world of web design!
Been a while since I last played with Contribute, but last time I checked it was something installed on a users PC, so you could only edit from that pc - and it was something used to manage an existing site…meaning you’ve still got to create it in the first place by hand or with something like dreamweaver.
Joomla - have used it in the past and found it complicated to design sites and confusing for clients to edit themselves. Maybe it’s gotten better over the years, but for most part it always seemed like overkill to me.
Wordpress though is great in my book! It’s free of course and installs on your (or your clients) web hosting account so you can log in from anywhere to make changes. Most web hosts have a one button installer for wordpress that make it a cinch to setup and there are all kinds of free or inexpensive themes you can use as a starting point for a clients site.
For the 3 page site you mentioned here, wordpress would be ideal and there are some great image gallery plugins that you can use and a few good contact form plugins as well.
For starters take a look at http://www.wpbeginner.com/ and google “wordpress tutorials” for plenty more resources.
Hope this helps some!
Steve
Contribute is a cheap off the shelf web site editing software (£99?) which, as Ravedesigns siad, has to be installed by the client on their own pc and is really the low budget option, plus you can’t access the source code in contribute (which is to stop non-webbies from breaking their sites). Much better to go with Wordpress or Joomla which can be edited from anywhere with an internet connection but the startup costs are higher for the client and there’s some training involved.