I completely agree with you about the time investment involved in “mastering” any tool, and I should probably have mentioned that in the post, but I think if you pick a few tools to learn, each time you use each tool to accomplish a task you learn something new or advance and refine your current knowledge. And yes, it’s hard to keep up with all the advancements, but it’s worth a try for the tools you do pick. There is danger of spreading yourself too thin, so it’s definitely important to strike a balance. Because I’m an infinitely curious person, I try pretty much any tool that’s out there and pick up the basics on each, but I consistently direct my efforts at digging deeper into my chosen few.

Thanks again for the excellent feedback.

mary

Since you asked… personally I’d also agree that your clients will thank you if you take the time to learn more than one tool. However, I’d say there’s a fair time commitment to properly learn even a few systems (or perhaps I’m just a slow learner) – not to mention keeping up-to-date in what is a rapidly evolving area. I’ve been working pretty extensively with ExpressionEngine for the last 10 months. I’d say it’s taken most of that time to really get to know it as a tool; I’m still not sure I’d say I had ‘mastered’ it. Likewise I spent months with MODx before that (and now coming back for a refresher since a lot’s changed since I used it last on a live project).

Nonetheless, I’d still opt for learning more than one tool so you have a whole tool-kit at your disposal rather than a single (albeit flexible) one.

All the best…

mary

Great work Mary, keep it up!

I’m glad you’re finding the tutorials helpful, and that you agree with my assessment of the concept of the best CMS. Regarding the MODx tuts, I do plan to go past Part 11 and then delve into some more intermediate stuff and eventually into advanced stuff too.

Good for you on making your pick of systems to learn and master. Wordpress makes a great blogging engine, and I even use it as a CMS for simple sites. Outside of straight-up PHP, my favorite three CMSs that I use most often are Drupal, MODx, and Wordpress.

As for the lighbox on this blog, I use the Slimbox plugin (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/slimbox-plugin/). Works great for me so far.

thanks again for your feedback and I hope you keep visiting

mary

First and foremost, thank you! Thank you for the great tutorials, specifically, “Building a Website With MODx for Newbies.” Speaking of, are you going to continue past part 11? I am yet to subscribe but most definitely will. Again, thank you. I find your tutorials easy to follow and very informative.

I consider myself an absolute rookie in the web design and development world. 4 months ago I new nothing. Since then, I have been pursuing web design as a career, in my free time.
Some day I hope to be a full timer.

The two content management systems I have been bouncing back and forth between are Wordpress and MODx.

Here is my two cents:
I agree that classifying a “best” CMS is indeed a grey area. Very grey. Like you said, it is of course dependent on what the job entails. From the bit of surface that I’ve scratched, I would use MODx if the client doesn’t want a blog. This is because the ability to customize, exactly how you want, makes life easy.

On the other hand, if the client wants a blog, go with Wordpress. It is much easier out of the box (for blogging) and comes with great plugins that make life easy. Wordpress, however, makes life hard when you want to customize.

I also agree that you must well equip yourself by diversifying. Saying this, I have chosen to go after, and conquer, both Wordpress and MODx. These two both seem to have a great community.

One last thing, I noticed (from MODx for newbies) that your lightbox is lightning quick. Is that from a Wordpress plugin? If you can at your convenience, please let me know.

Thanks again.