Hosted wysiwyg responsive cms for a relative beginner?

[Isitso]

New google sites is easy to use, but the content and layout is page specific except for the header and footer.

I'm looking for something similarly easy but that lets me include things that will appear on all pages or, even better, in the same location on some pages I specify and other content in the same place on other pages. I think that means I'm looking for a cms.

I'd like it hosted so they worry about security and updates.

Responsive for mobile of course.

In the late 90s I did some hand html coding. Then some use of frontpage and the w3c wysiwyg editor. More recently, I've had others code sites for me. But I'd like to try what I've described above. I've heard of wix and and weebly, but from the reading I've done, I think they lack the cms element described above. Wordpress requires me to know too much. Looking for something for a real beginner who wants to concentrate on parts of the projects other than the things described above.

Anybody know of something that meets the requirements?

[not2easy]

In the olden days there were some places such as you describe. Places like Geocities that you could use for creating a wysiwyg site. Of course, you did not own that site. If you have done html coding in the past, you might benefit from brushing up your skills because html5 is much cleaner and simpler than older html. It has more capabilities but the basics can get you started.

Have you tried some of the courses at w3schools? That is free and self paced. If you did not say that WordPress is beyond your skills, I would suggest a free hosted site at wordpress.com. A website that is not on your domain and your hosting plan will not let you earn with your content, but you can certainly sharpen your skills for free and then move to your own domain.

[Isitso]

Thank you. Apparently I am mistaken regarding wix and weebly and their competitors. A search term I had not thought of was "dynamic content". Looks like I will be able to do what I wanted on some of those services. Not the new google sites yet, but some of the other ones.

[tangor]

@Isitso ... Welcome to Webmasterworld!

Wordpress is just different. It is not HARD, or difficult. The vast majority of WP is "automated" in that it is designed to "fill in the blanks" you might not have considered when setting up your site.

Easiest of the bunch. Do not try Drupal or Joomla if WP is not suitable!

Good luck!

[nshep]

+1 for WordPress. The title of your post pretty much describes the platform. Be sure to go for [wordpress.org...] not [wordpress.com...]

[not2easy]

WordPress.org is for independent webmasters, people who install WordPress on their own domain and manage it themselves. There are hosting sites that will take care of your WordPress maintenance and security but the cost is not for beginners in general.

I suggested WordPress.com because they do the hosting and security and it is a better place to learn to use WordPress than off in the wild. You can export your content to your own domain when you have the experience to "do it yourself". WordPress.org is a great resource for learning how to set up your installation for better security and how to best use it for your goals.

[TorontoBoy]

Wordpress is a good place to start if you want a wysiwyg editor. Wordpress.org is good if you want to learn to write content, but is quite limited for development. Self-hosted Wordpress is not very hard, a little more challenging, and offers good dev learning opportunity. All the host providers I know offer WP as an easy install, but there is still info to learn. Do not put a WP install in the root of your domain name, as it is easier for bots to attack.

That being said, WP in the wild is prone to hacking, so there's a bit more to learn on the security/webmaster side. Other options are flat file CMS web sites such as Grav, but they are not wysiwig and you will need to also learn markup/markdown. They are much less hack-prone.

[Isitso]

Thank you.

After spending much of a career in details, I'm looking for something simpler than having to worry about updating wordpress plugins and learning to handle the sort of security concerns mentioned above.

For me, webmastering may involve setting up the site on hosted wysiwig sites where they do the security, hiring people to do any special coding that is needed, and me being free to concentrate on the content, the mechanical user experience part of website design, and on testing marketing processes. I think concentrating on those parts of webmastering will be interesting and challenging enough.