As someone who doesn’t have time to endlessly tweak a template, I’m looking for a blogging and content management solution that provides me with creative flexibility … but with drag-and-drop simplicity. Here’s a quick description of my dream product:
1) When creating my index page, I want to begin by picking from a library of index page layouts — two- and three-column page “skeletons” on which content modules can be dropped.
2) With that choice made, I want to be able to drag a header module, drop it on the page, and be given the following choices:
– Change the header text (site title)
– Change the background image
– Set the background image to Consistent or Random
– If Random, import images to be shuffled and selected
3) Next, I want to be able to pick a menu strip and drop it where I want it to go. It should have HOME on it already; as I add pages later, the system should automatically offer me the option to add those pages to the menu bar.
4) Finally, I want to fill the page with various other containers:
– I want to drop and resize a Google Adsense container on the left column. Doing so should present me with a menu: number of ads, color of ads, and a space for my Adsense account info.
– I want to drop and resize an Amazon.com associate ad in the right column. Doing so should present me with a menu asking for my ASIN number and Amazon Associates ID. I might also be asked, “Always display same product, or rotate ad though a list of products?”
– I want to drop and resize a “Most Recent Blog Entry” container in the center column. I should be able to specify how the date, time, title, comment options, and text are displayed, and I should be able to choose whether the entry displays as a “Summary with ‘More’ link” or as a complete entry.
– I want to drop and resize an additional “Recent Blog Entries” container beneath the “Most Recent Entry” container. When I do, I should be presented with a menu of options, allowing me to indicate how many entries should appear, whether they appear as summaries or whole entries, and how to display date, time, title, comment, permalink, and text settings. I should also be able to tell the container to inherit the same display properties I set up for the “Most Recent Entry” container.
– I want to select an Archives container, set it to “Monthly,” and drop and resize it on the page.
– Finally, I want to select a Footer container, enter my footer info, tell it to appear on every page of the site, and drop it on the page.
– Other modules available: HTML containers, photo containers (set size, set image source), calendar containers, clock containers, random content containers (set list of files from which to choose content), etc.
I want to work with and customize all of these without ever dropping down to the tag or code level.
5) That done, I want a step-by-step tutorial (or, better yet, a wizard) that will guide me through the same process to fill in my archives page (and choose whether or not to add ‘Archives’ to my menu bar), an About Me page (header, menu, content, pictures), a bookstore page (photo containers, text containers with the ability to contain Amazon.com or PayPal links), a photo gallery (photo containers, or dedicated Flickr.com containers), etc.
6) With structure and content in place, I would then want to choose one of a wide variety of themes that would set colors, govern text styles, and/or add graphic elements with a single click of the mouse.
7) Finally, I want a simple, clear web interface for entering my posts. It should be as smart as BlogJet, but, unlike BlogJet, it should be easy to set up and should actually work.
I should never touch code. I should never have to edit a template. All tweaking should be done through clear menus that pop up when I click on a content module, and all possible tweaks should be thoroughly documented.
I would pay to use this solution.
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