Macromedia Introduces Macromedia Contribute 2

July 16/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Macromedia today introduced Macromedia Contribute 2, the easiest way for individuals and teams to update and manage content on existing websites. Macromedia Contribute 2 now works on Mac OS X, and connects to websites faster and more securely. Macromedia Contribute 2 is expected to be available in August and will be priced at $99, with upgrades available for a limited time through Macromedia at only $9.99. For more information about Macromedia Contribute 2, visit http://www.macromedia.com/go/contribute/ .

The Alameda County Department of Children and Family Services uses Macromedia Contribute to maintain its Online Practice Guide. The guide contains constantly-updated regulations and procedures for agency workers.

"Before Contribute, the practice guide was a large binder of printed material and we would have to distribute photocopies of guide updates to our staff on a daily basis," said Jim Damien, director of IT, Alameda County Department of Children and Family Services. "Macromedia Contribute has not only made our jobs and lives easier, but it has cut our cost per document update from $77 to $11, which will save us nearly $100,000 this year."

"Macromedia Contribute unlocked the power and potential of the web for a whole new class of users," said Norm Meyrowitz, president of products, Macromedia. "With Macromedia Contribute 2, we added Mac OS X support, as well as new features to specifically benefit customers in the education, government, and small business markets where the first version of Contribute was particularly successful."

Macromedia Contribute dramatically simplifies web content updating while maintaining the overall look and feel of a site. Users simply browse to the page they want to modify, make the necessary changes, and then publish the updated page back to the server. The product features the same look and feel as traditional business productivity applications and supports content created in Microsoft Word and Excel.

More than 15,000 companies now use more than 70,000 seats of Macromedia Contribute to keep their websites up to date. Contribute has also been broadly adopted in the education, government, and small business markets.

"There is a bottleneck between business users responsible for information and the technical people able to post that information to websites," said Hams El Gabri, software analyst, knowledge workplace, Gartner. "And there is a clear market need for solutions that enable business users to make simple website updates without having to learn any new skills."

Macromedia Contribute 2 also contains a host of new features that address both Windows and Mac users, including high performance site connections, support for SFTP, and drag-and-drop integration for PayPal (see separate release) to easily add commerce hooks to websites. Macromedia FlashPaper technology, a new low-bandwidth way to display documents online as an intrinsic part of web pages, is also available in this release for Windows customers only. For more information on new features, visit http://www.macromedia.com/go/c2features/ .

Macromedia Contribute 2 makes its debut on Mac OS X, with a smooth Aqua interface, and seamless integration with Apple's .mac suite of Internet tools.

"Mac OS X is the best platform for web design and publishing," said Ron Okamoto, Apple's vice president of worldwide developer relations. "Macromedia Contribute is an intuitive product that makes it easy for consumers, small business and education users to quickly update web content. We are excited that Macromedia has brought this popular tool to Mac OS X."

To show its appreciation to loyal Contribute customers, Macromedia is offering a special $9.99 upgrade price for Windows users who buy Contribute 2 direct from Macromedia before September 30. After September 30, the price will return to the standard $49 upgrade price.

Macromedia has also launched its initial pilot of an affiliate program to enable web design and development agencies to earn a referral commission when they sell Macromedia products like Contribute to their clients. For more information on this program, visit http://www.macromedia.com/go/affiliate/ .

Macromedia is piloting product activation with Contribute 2. End users will be able to install the product on two machines as part of their license. For more information, go to http://www.macromedia.com/go/activation/ .

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY
Macromedia Contribute 2 is priced at $99 and is expected to ship in August. Contribute 2 is also available in value packs, 5 copies for $399 and 10 copies for $749. Education pricing is $79 per license. Education, corporate, and government volume licensing is available. Upgrade pricing is $49, with a special $9.99 upgrade price for users who buy Contribute 2 direct from Macromedia before September 30th.

Source: Macromedia, Inc.

Web site: http://www.macromedia.com