Thread

I’ve been told that the Control Panel interface on my EE site is not user-friendly enough.  Two instances where they would like it to be more like Blogger are including images/captions in the story and previewing the story.

Does EE 2 offer any improvements (for the non-technical user) that would make it easier for our staff bloggers to post articles that look the way they intend?

Hi, DB -

I’m not quite following.  You have 100% design freedom to build the site the way you want, that includes output of articles to look like more traditional blogs.  You can use custom fields for the captions, and a live look for the preview so they’re viewing it in what will be the correct look of the site.

If you need it to look the same as they’re editing, you might consider WYGWAM or other WYSIWYG editor for them to use.

Yes, sorry for not being clear.  I have the final blog output to our website looking exactly as I would like it to. 

It’s during the actual editing process that the blog staff would like more of a WYSIWYG experience.  For instance, in the main body of the blog entry if they want to insert a photo they:  click on upload file >> select the folder >> click place image in story. 

It’s not really that hard, but instead of seeing the photo they see the source code with the properties I’ve assigned images on that particular blog.  i.e.

https://ellislab.com/asset/images/blog/Dragon-Wing-Begonia-NW.jpg

So, my editors are worried that the inclusion of the html in their editing screen is going to confuse the writers or that they will accidentally delete a character from the img tag that breaks it. 

They would like me to set up the composition/editing interface where an author can decide on a story by story basis where photos will go, how they will be aligned, and be able to easily move them around in the article.

I think I’ve gone as far as I can in non-technical user-friendlness with EE 1.  However, just glancing at the Wygwam add-on you mentioned it looks like this might be exactly what we are looking for.

Here are other WYSIWYG options as well. =)

Hi, DesignBloke. Did your questions get answered? Please let us know.

Yes. Thanks gals.  I bought and installed pixel & tonics WYGWAM editor.  My client is pleased with the results.

I’m glad I don’t have to upgrade to EE 2 right now.

Glad the information helped. Don’t hesitate to post again as needed.