Quick Take Review: Adobe Contribute for Micro Publishing

Back in 2004 — yes, eons ago in Web time — we lamented over not having a blogging client awesome enough to make us do away with our browsers for daily publishing work. Although there were a few promising candidates, ultimately none of them yielded a good enough score on our terms.

Since then we’ve been keeping tabs on developments in the desktop web content authoring and management tool business, and things have certainly come a long way.

Adobe caught our attention anew just recently. Their release of Creative Suite 4, including Contribute v5.0 sparked hope that we might find a wonderful desktop tool in which to while away our days. Let's take a closer look.

The Basics

Company & Product History

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for, well, your entire life, you’re at the very least a smidge aware of Adobe’s offerings. Photoshop alone has revolutionized the standard of online photographs, of graphic design, and in some (a lot of) cases, our online personas (looks). Of course, the benefits don’t stop at aesthetics.

In September of last year, the release of Web Premium CS4 especially highlighted a topic that’s got many companies in a tizzy. Regulars like Photoshop and Illustrator are given parts of the release, but also along for the ride is the lesser-known contender, Contribute v5.0.

Where From Contribute?

The software was first introduced by Macromedia in 2003. It was aimed at allowing users to collaboratively publish, author and review Web content without learning HTML.

When Contribute was first released, Macromedia heavily promoted the ease of use for any and all Web writers, claiming it to be a tech layman’s game despite the high quality output and advanced capabilities.

In 2006 — post acquisition — Adobe jumped on the blogging bandwagon and re-marketed Contribute as a one-stop-shop for editors — but in spite of the trendy use of the word “blogger”, it was pretty much the same thing.

The not so well known (nor seemingly that actively developed) Contribute Publishing Server (CPS) has been along for the ride. But hey it's 2009 and CPS is at v1.11. So we're thinking she's never been nor is likely to ever be the star of the show.

Market & Pricing

Still aiming to serve the same audience of writers, Adobe presently boasts productivity as their new “killer feature”.

Seemingly bent on conforming Contribute’s marketing strategy around current Web memes, the publishing software will now reportedly boost publishing ROI by increasing content management efficiency. Not only is it a browser-less publishing tool, it also allows users to manage content living in Dreamweaver templates. Collaboration gains are offered once the Publishing Server is hitched up. That's the story.

Pricing

You can buy the desktop software outright for US$ 199 or existing owners can upgrade for US$ 99. A 5 user multi-pack lists for US$ 799 or you can go with the entire CS4 suite for US$ 1,699.

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Tags: adobe, blogging, blogging clients, contribute, micro publishing, web cms, web development

Back in 2004 -- yes, eons ago in Web time -- we lamented over not having a blogging client awesome enough to make us do away with our browsers for daily publishing work. Although there were a few promising candidates, ultimately none of them yielded a good enough score on our terms.

Since then we’ve been keeping tabs on developments in the desktop web content authoring and management tool business, and things have certainly come a long way.

Adobe caught our attention anew just recently. Their release of Creative Suite 4, including Contribute v5.0 sparked hope that we might find a wonderful desktop tool in which to while away our days. Let's take a closer look.