Blog software as basis for news site

Are any of the available packages a good option?

[NewToAllThis]

Up to this point, I've been satisfied building static sites using GoLive, but now have a need to develop something dynamically driven.

How do you all feel about using one of the existing packages as the basis for a dynamic site? Is there one that is more easily customized than others? I'm not anxious to have my sites look like a thousand others out there.

Thanks in advance for any wisdom you can share.

[HughMungus]

I know for sure that with Blogger you can control everything via your template settings. It's nothing more than CSS. So you could theoretically create a website that looks like no other.

[bill]

I've done this with MovableType. The site design is done in templates of your making, so the look is completely up to you. You then use the Blog software as the back-end to hold the data, generate the pages and maintain the site. Think of it as a CMS.

[NewToAllThis]

I've looked at Moveable Type, but am having some difficulty with the concepts. Any good place to start or tutorials anywhere?

[bill]

Well, they have some support forums [movabletype.org] and a pretty comprehensive manual [sixapart.com]. There are also a good number of sites about MT by its users and developers.

[Easy_Coder]

steer clear of .text unless your able to go under the hood.

[NewToAllThis]

Under the hood? I'm trying to *find* the hood! ;)

[Easy_Coder]

Yeah sorry... If you've got developer skills then you could kick the tires on .text but it's not straightforward to get up & running. It offers several skins or you could implement your own skin to avoid "looking like the others". This one is sql based.

blogx is real simple to use and it to has many skins. The last time I looked at this it was Access Based.