[TYPO3] OT: client wants to drop typo. What should I do?

[Christopher]

Hi,

I sympathize! Sometimes it's quite tricky to get non-technical
end-users to understand the benefits of tools like Typo3...


On 1/27/06, george <georgedamonkey at gmail.com> wrote:
> I work for a library consortium for 30 public libraries. I've been slowly
> moving their websites to typo over the past two years.
>
> I just got an email from one of the earliest adopters, and I frankly don't
> know the best way to approach this. I know this is extremely off-topic, and
> for that I apologize. I'm just hoping some of you may have some insight on
> how I should respond to this. I love typo, and have been fighting for it's
> adoption since I first began using it. For an end user, it's so incredibly
> easy to use. I can't imagine why anyone would not want to use it.


I agree, but apparently your client doesn't... :)


> "I want my library's website to be removed from Typo.  I have been using and
> fighting with Typo for years now, and I find it harder to use than
> FrontPage.  I run my other site with FrontPage and want to use it for my
> library's site.  (I know that Dreamweaver is what you guys recommend we use,
> but I can't see spending more money on an editor when I have one that comes
> with my Office Suite.)


If you really are resistant to the idea, you may want to try to
address her (their?) issues directly. _What_ exactly do they need to
be able to do that can't be done in Typo3? _What_ precisely is easier
in FP?


> Jody, I adore the page you designed for me, and I don't want the design to
> change at all.  This is much more about me being able to edit things myself
> and not have to fight that editor in Typo anymore.  It sometimes takes me
> 3-4 times to finally get the font to be what I want it to be.  And I can
> never get the darn thing to space the text the way I want it!  I am hoping
> that even though I don't use Typo, that you will continue to help with the
> overall design and adding menu items and such.


Here, she's talking about _fighting_ the editor, which leads me to
believe that a) it's not configured well in the first place or, more
likely, b) that you've configured the RTE without adequate
consultation with the client (again, _what_ do they need/want to do
with it? HTML is not so complex; it's almost certain that rtehtmlarea
can be configured to do what they need it to do...)


> Because of the issues with editing that I have had, I continue to wonder if
> Typo is the right choice to be moving libraries to.  I find it confusing,
> frustrating and cumbersome, though I admit that it may be easier for people
> not used to using other editors.  Perhaps it would be easier to have them
> learn how to edit in the WYSIWYG section of Dreamweaver or FrontPage?  Are
> others using Typo seeing issues at all?


It sounds like your client is having trouble with having to learn and
remain current in two fairly different web-page creation paradigms.
This can be a perfectly legitimate complaint--if she's a professional
in another (library) field, there may be no obvious benefit to her
learning multiple cms/wysiwyg tools.

In this situation (if she were my client that is...), I think I might
suggest that I reconfigure the RTE (and possibly other aspects of
Typo3) and that, if she finds the new configuration satisfactory, that
she consider changing her _other_ site to Typo3. If the client would
agree to this, it would solve both problems at once, and if you try
the reconfiguration and she is _not_ satisfied, you can go ahead with
the (shudder) FP conversion.


> My dream webpage would be an integrated blog page, where all of the pages
> are blog-like and blog-edited.  I know that some sites are going to this,
> but don't know enough about it to even know how to begin to approach it.  If
> this was something that WALS was looking at, that would be much easier for
> small libraries or even large libraries to manage."


I'd get more details from her about what 'integrated blog page'
means...superficially, it doesn't  sound radically different from
Typo3. If she means front-end editing, then you may want to look into
TIMTAW--a really excellent extension that allows FE editing.

Another thing your client may not have considered is the dynamic
nature of a cms-based system. Do the sites in question really use
nothing that can't be duplicated in FP? (Think non-js based dynamic
features, image resizing, mailforms, logins, extensions...) None of
these are easily available in FP or without additional scripting, but
all are available and relatively cheaply installed, set up & kept
consistent in Typo3.


> Again, I apologize for the off-topic nature of this email. And, I thank you
> all in advance for your time and patience.


Stick it out :) In the end though, you'll have to either a) address
her complaints with Typo3, b) switch her site to FP or c) fire her
>;-)>


-Christopher