Contribute Introduction
Contribute is a software application that enables a person who has no experience editing web pages to manage a website. Simply put, Contribute is like a combination of a web browser like Internet Explorer and a word processor like Microsoft Word. If you can surf the web and use a word processor, you can use Contribute.
Contribute allows you to edit text, create links, create new pages, style text, and add photos, all within the framework of your website template. With a little practice, anyone can manage and maintain a website.
Template Specific Instructions
This site discusses in explicit detail the order for managing files on your website using Contribute. See each section under Contribute Usage for details. In general, the order for adding pages, folders or links is as follows:
- If a new folder needs to be created, add the new folder first by:
- adding the menus and generating the folder during the same procedure
- adding the pages for this folder
- link the menu items to the pages
UMass Contribute Policy
The Contribute application is administered for UMass Boston by the Web Services department. It installs Contribute onto on-campus, university-owned computers, and it provides access to edit a website by issuing an electronic "key" to each user. University licensed versions of Contribute can only be installed on university based computers. Laptops must have a UMB asset number and tag assigned to it.
Web Services has a limited number of Contribute licenses that it issues to university departments. When a department needs a license, it should make a formal request by using the Web Services Project Request form .
As a policy, Web Services issues one license per department (whether academic or administrative). If a department needs more than one license, it can purchase the additional license(s) from Adobe at its special educational institution price.
Each department/division should know the Contribute editor assigned to their website. If or when that person leaves, a new editor should be assigned and webservices should be notified of their replacement. An editor cannot receive a Contribute "key" until they have a valid UMass email account.
Setting Up Your Key
- After your request the Key, someone from IT should email it to you.
- Download the Key, a file attached to your email.
- Double click on the purple Key icon to launch
- Follow the instructions for filling in name/email and proceeding
- You now will see a window with a progress bar that shows that synchronization is in progress
This can take up to an hour!! Let it run in the background and you can work on other things. Contact IT if there is an error message. - After it is done, you should be able to enter your site URL in the Contribute address box at the top of your page and then edit that page.
See Contribue Policy