Q's regarding diff. between DW & Contribute..adviceneeded

[Francesca NY]

Hi,

I am a web designer who primarily uses DW & Flash, but am very limited
technically. I have a client who wants an online store...I researched various
easy to build shopping carts, but all will look very generic and i want to be
able to keep the exact look and feel of the website. My research led me to this
article in knowledgebase about Contribute:

[url]http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/contribute/articles/paypal_contribute.html[/url]

My questions are:

1)What is the difference between contribute & dreamweaver...i've never used it
(will have to buy it). The article above sounds pretty simple, but it talks in
terms of adding the content to a contribute document as opposed to a DW
document (obviously). Will I be out of my realm? What are the differences
between Contribute files and DW files. I know knowing about databases and
PHP/ASP etc....am i going to have to learn all of this in order to build my
store. The article describes a proccess which is seems so simple and
easy...what's the catch?

2) The articles describes a functionality of Contribute 2, is the
extension/capability still available in Contribute 3?

3) As I mentioned, the goal is to have the online store (apart from the
checkout i suppose) look exactlythe way i want, just adding simple custom made
buttons to my own pages.....am i looking in th eright direction? Absolutely any
advice on where to look/what to do/what to consider is greatly appreciated.

Mt worry is that I will go and buy Contribute and then realise it wasnt what i
thought or needed...

Many Thanks in advance :)

Francesca

[coleridge49]

"What is the difference between contribute & dreamweaver...."

There are many differences but the major one is that Dreamweaver can make the
templates and basically make everything you need to put a website together.
Contribute has a basic interface which just connects to a server and you edit
the text that you allow (according to the template). After you edit what you
wanted you click publish and you're done. They do the same thing but DW is much
much more advanced. Tell me if i'm wrong anyone BTW.

"What are the differences between Contribute files and DW files."

Contribute doesn't have 'files' you just connect to a server edit and then
publish.

"Will i still be building my pages in DW?"

Yes

"I know NOTHING about databases and PHP/ASP etc....am i going to have to learn
all of this in order to build my store."

I don't know about databases myself, sorry.

"The article describes a proccess which is seems so simple and easy...what's
the catch?"

You will have to buy a $300 program to add Pay-pal to your website.

"The articles describes a functionality of Contribute 2, is the
extension/capability still available in Contribute 3?"

Yes, I can't see why they would remove it.

"As I mentioned, the goal is to have the online store (apart from the checkout
i suppose) look exactlythe way i want, just adding simple custom made buttons
to my own pages.....am i looking in th eright direction? Absolutely any advice
on where to look/what to do/what to consider is greatly appreciated."

If you want a cheaper way steal someone else' buttons and customise them. You
might have to read up on exactly what is included in the Pay-pal intergration
in Contribute, I don't know too much about that part.

Cheers