Macromedia today announced the immediate availability of the Macromedia Web Publishing System, Macromedia Contribute 3, and Macromedia FlashPaper 2. The Web Publishing System (WPS) enables tens, hundreds, or thousands of content contributors to publish websites for internal and external communications using market-leading Macromedia Studio MX 2004, Contribute 3, FlashPaper 2, and Contribute Publishing Services.

The WPS reduces costs and makes websites and intranets more valuable by dramatically expanding an organization's ability to make information available and keep it up-to-date. The WPS provides a flexible, affordable, and scalable web content management solution that empowers content providers while ensuring administrator safeguards to maintain site integrity. It can be deployed rapidly on existing websites without the need for weeks of extensive implementation projects and consulting services. The WPS addresses the needs of three main constituencies of the web publishing process: business users, web professionals, and IT managers. For more information on the Web Publishing System, visit http://www.macromedia.com/go/wps/.

"The Macromedia Web Publishing System offers Macromedia's trademark ease of use coupled with a very rich feature set for web publishing, web content management, site administration, and collaboration," said Kelly Ring, senior analyst, collaboration and content management, Yankee Group. "The solution builds on the intuitive nature of Contribute 3 to make it ideal for small- and medium-sized businesses or departmental intranets at a price point so affordable that it causes reverse sticker shock."

Macromedia Contribute enables non-technical users to update pages on websites or intranets as easily as they would edit a Microsoft Word document. Unlike traditional web content management systems, Contribute does not require complicated workflow definitions, and is able to edit any existing HTML website. Contribute 3 adds granular administration controls, flexible approval workflow, editing enhancements, full CSS support, and Dreamweaver MX 2004 integration to its award-winning and easy to use browse-edit-publish workflow. For more information on Contribute 3, visit http://www.macromedia.com/go/c3/.

"Macromedia Contribute 3 will help our agency save hundreds of thousands of dollars," said Jim Damian, web services manager, Alameda County Social Services Agency. "Contribute empowers content owners to keep content fresh and frees up web professionals to take a more forward-looking, proactive approach to their work. Contribute 3 integrates flawlessly with our Interwoven TeamSite content management system, and delivers excellent CSS rendering."

FlashPaper 2 provides the simplest way to convert any printable file into a universally sharable electronic document. Macromedia FlashPaper 2 enables leading desktop applications to create Flash documents that can be instantly viewed within any web browser regardless of the size of the document or Internet connection speed. For off-line archiving and e-mail distribution of electronic documents, FlashPaper 2 also supports the creation of industry standard Adobe PDF files. For more information on FlashPaper 2, visit http://www.macromedia.com/go/flashpaper/.

"FlashPaper alone is worth the entire price of Contribute," said Brandan Laura, founder and project engineer for e-learning, Boeing. "We use FlashPaper extensively for rapid web publishing of storyboards, metrics, and project status reports. It has an impressive skin and navigation system. Our customers are always impressed and love the 'bang for the buck' they get."