Macromedia unveils web content package

Web design software giant unveils its Web Publishing System for designers and small business users.

Macromedia has launched a web content management product aimed helping small businesses build, manage and publish web sites.

The Macromedia Web Publishing System, which will compete with more expensive products from the likes of Vignette and Interwoven, is designed to make it easy to create complicated web sites.

The suite includes the already available Macromedia Studio MX 2004 and addresses more business focused needs with updated versions of Contribute 3 – a tool enabling non technical users to update web pages and Flashpaper 2, which allows users to convert documents to Flash and PDF formats.

The Web Publishing System also has a tool allowing web managers to track and administer web pages accessed and updated by multiple users.

"Content management systems have historically been an expensive roll of the dice, with a lot of set-up costs and user complexity. The WPS empowers anyone to publish without the pain and expense of traditional solutions," Macromedia boss Rob Burgess said.

The Web Publishing System is available on Mac OSX and Windows platforms this month and is priced on a per-seat license basis starting from £1,689 for a 10 seat starter pack.

A preview release of the product is available at http://www.macromedia.com/go/wps/