One of the most frequent requests we hear is "I want to be able to update my site myself." There are fundamentally three ways for this to be done.

• The simplest approach for most people is to use dynamic pages. In this case the materials on the page (the text and images,) are kept in a database on your web site. We write special programs that create your web pages on-demand (in milliseconds) whenever someone arrives. The information that goes on these pages is taken from your database at that time by our programs and used to create the pages that they see.

  We then install database management tools that let you log in to a special area of your site and change the material in the database. As soon as you make the change it is instantly reflected in your visible web pages.

  One method lets you change text, but keeps the basic font sizes, colors and other properties of the page unchanged. This makes it quick and simple to routinely change text where the appearance is to remain the same. Doing this involves something like editing a spreadsheet or filling out a form with cells for specified content areas of the page. Using this method we can arrange any type of editing requirement, but the text format and layout is fixed.

  Try the structured-formatting demo now.

  For a less structured way to edit the text areas of the page we add editors that allow you to format the text yourself. This permits you to edit the selected area, including text color, bold, italic, underline, bullet and most other formatting, much as you would using an editor such as Microsoft Word. The layout of the formatting is more flexible; you can even add links and other complex items. However, since there is more to control there is more to worry about, and it may be overkill for many purposes.

  Try the full-formatting demo now.

• For a very comprehensive solution that does not require a database we can enable the pages to work with special, third-party software such as Contribute that you must purchase and install on your PC. This requires learning to use this software effectively, and with complex sites that may be non-trivial. For many jobs is not as quick and easy as the above methods, but it can give you very great ability to alter and maintain your own site.

• The free approach is for us to simply build ordinary static web pages and then give you the login details for using FTP (file transfer protocol) to download them, edit them on your machine, and use FTP to put them back again. There are quite a few complexities involved with this which is why only webmasters usually do it. Web pages are formatted in special code languages. Trying to format web text in your regular editor won't work. Special editors are available to do this however. This is not the solution for anyone who does not know or want to learn web page coding.

There are advantages and disadvantages to all three approaches. Using dynamic, on-line approaches is fast, immediate in its effect, and simple to use. On the other hand it usually will not offer total control over all aspects of the page (although in general control of any item desired can be provided during construction.)

Purchasing and installing editing software on your machine can be made to work with any page on your site, and takes effect immediately, but there is a significant learning curve and you must buy the software required.

The use of FTP to bring the pages to your machine and edit them is slow, complicated, requires knowledge of web coding, and does not provide immediate changes. On the positive side, it offers complete control over every aspect of the page and it will work with any ordinary web page and costs nothing.

As a practical matter, for most people the choice will usually come down to a decision whether to use static pages, and pay a webmaster to update them when needed as a recurring cost, or to invest the extra initial amount as a depreciable expense to provide dynamic pages which you can update yourself with no recurring costs.

The answer to this question will be determined by the frequency and extent of the updates required. If you need to change a price every six months you're probably better off paying the recurring maintenance cost. If you need to change daily specials on a menu you are probably better off investing in content management. We'll be happy to consult with you to help you understand the best choice for your situation.