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Papa Bear
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Apr 14, 2005, 12:34 PM
Post #1 of 4
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A Few PrePurchase Questions
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I'm the technology specialist for a moderately large middle school (100+ staff). I have spent months looking for a product similar to yours. I have been looking at the demo and so far Page Publisher looks promising but I have several questions. First keep in mind that while I am the webmaster for our school I know just enough about web servers to get me in real trouble.
Here is what I have been looking for:
I need a product that will allow me to create a template page for each of my approx 100 teachers. They should be able to edit parts of the page but not all. They should be able to add links, upload and add pictures, maintain a current homework list, etc. From what I have seen PP should let them do this, right? Can they create a new page if they wish or would I still need to do that? (Not a real big issue if they can't.)
If I create a directory for each teacher and place each teacher's individual template page inside and then using the admin feature of PP make that page editable only by them then they should not be able to "mess" with someone else's page. Does this sound right?
Not sure how PP handles file uploads. When dealing with pictures and files will PP handle the upload from within the program or will they still need to ftp that stuff to the server. If PP handles it can the picts be set to rest in that teacher's individual folder or will it place them all in one general folder?
Our site rests on the school district's web server. Our address is http://www.clevelandcountyschools.org/schools/cms/ I suppose my root is /cms. Can PP be placed there or does it have to go all the way down to the server root? Better yet if my website structure is cms/teachers/teacher1 ....teacher2 ....teacher3 etc can PP be placed at the /teachers level? My concern is that I don't want them seeing anything lower than that directory. I would like for each teacher to log in and be presented with the list of teacher directories or teacher pages and only have to simply move to their page and not have to dig through a bunch of directories.
Let's go out on a limb here....Do you provide any type of education discount? Hey, it never hurts to ask. 
Thanks
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Cliff
Staff
Apr 14, 2005, 5:30 PM
Post #2 of 4
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Re: [Papa Bear] A Few PrePurchase Questions
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Hi Papa Bear,
Thanks for posting and welcome to the discussion forums!
This sounds to me like it may be a better job for Article Manager. The main reason is that it allows you to create new pages based of a template that you setup. Page Publisher takes an existing page, and opens up the ability to edit that page. So it doesn't't actually create new pages.
I recommend you watch the video tour that we have for Article Manager. It'll give you a good idea of how Article Manager works and how existing customers have successfully made use of it.
http://www.interactivetools.com/products/articlemanager/video.html
It's only few minutes long, and one of the best things about the demo is that it explains the many features and benefits of the program.
While we don't an education discount for copies of our software, everything that we offer comes with a lot of free extras like the 90 day full refund policy, and we also offer free installation, free upgrades for life, and free technical support, so I think you would find a tremendous amount of value in the software if you were to purchase.
Take a look through some of the features that Article Manager has to offer and let me know if you have any other questions that I can help with 
Regards,
Cliff Stefanuk - Customer Service Manager
support@interactivetools.com
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Papa Bear
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Apr 15, 2005, 7:05 AM
Post #3 of 4
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Re: [Cliff] A Few PrePurchase Questions
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Well I looked at Article Manager and I just don't think it is what I need. Should we ever decide to start an online shool newspaper then I will take another look at it. The ability to create a new page is not a big deal with me. I hate to say it but remember that we are dealing with middle school teachers here. Most know more about science, math, english, etc than I'll ever know but when it comes to computers and webpages, uploading stuff, etc I have quite a few that really struggle. That is why I was looking at PP. I think I can create a basic page for each and simply let them edit the content. For me the emphasis has to be on simplicity of use for the teachers. If is is not fast and easy to update they simply will not participate....not because they don't want to but because they are just way too busy already. For this reason earlier I was looking very seriously at a product called SnippetMaster but could not use it because of some compatibility issues with our server configuration.
With all that said let's revisit my first post regarding PP. Please look over that and answer those questions and in the meantime I'll be looking at the demo in more detail.
Thanks
(This post was edited by Papa Bear on Apr 15, 2005, 7:07 AM)
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Cliff
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Apr 15, 2005, 3:46 PM
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Re: [Papa Bear] A Few PrePurchase Questions
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Hi Papa Bear,
Thanks for the additional details.
After reviewing your first post, it does sound like something that would be a great fit for Page Publisher. Sorry about steering you towards Article Manager. I was under the impression that you wanted to automatically create new pages.
What you could do with Page Publisher is create your template as you described, and then use it as the basis for each of the pages that you add.
Creating a directory for each teacher and then placing each teacher's individual template page inside that directory would work just fine.
With the file uploads, Page Publisher is going to allow the teachers to move files from their computer to the website without FTP. If you want to, you can have a unique upload directory for each teacher or user.
Page Publisher is very flexible so it doesn't really matter to Page Publisher where the pages it's going to updates are located on the server. They can be in the root or in unique directories, so Page Publisher can handle what works best for you.
I hope that helps answer some of your questions. If you would like to learn more about what Page Publisher can do for you, just let me know
Regards,
Cliff Stefanuk - Customer Service Manager
support@interactivetools.com
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