When you are starting a new site or just getting into this industry, you often want to keep costs down. One of the best ways to do this is to use open source software when you’re just starting out. One of our favorite scripts to use for content sites is Textpattern. We’re actually using it to power Easy By Design; being able to supply a content management system for free really helps keep the price down…but what makes Textpattern so great?
Simplicity and Elegance
The script, when you install it, is pretty bare - but it’s relatively easy to operate (and modify if you have a little html knowledge). Once you get used to its specialized Textpattern tags, the amount of editing power you have is amazing. It really becomes second nature to use it… easy enough that we’re able to teach tech newbies how to use it for the purpose of editing their websites.
Customization
You can do just about anything with properly coded CSS site designs and text pattern. You can literally go from this to this or this or even this. The first example is the basic Textpattern template, and the next three examples are our sites running from the same Textpattern script. If you can’t code CSS layouts yourself, it’s relatively easy to find someone who can. Currently, I’m about to launch a personal project that’s really just for fun myself. It’s going to be the most ambitious use of Textpattern yet. This is the layout. If Textpattern can run that, it can handle just about any content driven site :)
Content Flexibility
Once you have your template setup, it’s relatively easy to add new pages to the site. You can have them as static pages with just one listing of information, or dynamic with posts organized chronologically. The posts on your site are controlled by simple “article forms”, which are just little snippets of code which allow you to change the formatting of all the posts and articles on your site with ease. You can also dedicate a page template to each page in the site, so that you can have custom titles and meta tags for every page.
Open-Source
Being open-source is pretty important for several reasons. First of all you don’t have to pay a licensing fee to use it; this is especially important if you’re launching a large number of sites. Also there is a great support community if you have problems, and it’s constantly being improved upon and updated by the community.
Incidentally, you’ve just learned about one of the weapons in our little bag of tricks. It’s helped us a lot, and hopefully you find it useful too.
Good Profits.
