Our hosting provider offers Fantastico for installing a lot of software, and most of it is okay. However I am in need of a GOOD program to create/manage FAQ pages/articles. We use Joomla for the site now, and the only thing our ISP offers is FAQMaster Plus. I tried it - and I hated it.

So.... how about a little program that can do this quickly and easily for us? I would buy it from you all in a heartbeat! There are a lot of them out there (some free), but I have not yet seen one I like... nor one that I know would challenge what we would get from your team.

Give it a try!!
Kim

How would your FAQ be different than any other web page? Why special software to create the FAQ?

You're pretty ornery today, Tom.

Why CoffeeCup anything? Because a lot of the users on the forum want the cheap and easy, pushbutton way to do things that can be done with fewer restrictions and more flexibility with more sophisticated, albeit more-difficult-to-use software.

It seems to be CC's niche -- creating Flash-based programs that let you easily create other Flash-based web stuff.

Not at all, Chuck. I'm just trying to understand how a FAQ would be different than any other web page(s). That's all. Why a special program would be needed to create a FAQ other than an HTML Editor? What special features are needed? Unless, the sole requirement is that it be in Flash or a wiki site.

Not my place to explain the user's request!

I agree, a page is a page is a page, but web pages can contain elements that are not that easy to hand code by some users. I've seen FAQ generator scripts at my hosting service, and I've seen FAQ pages that use scripts that handle the answers in different ways, with the scripts doing text manipulation in novel ways. There are a lot of people who like CC's hand-holding technique of doing the hard stuff for them because they're not up to configuring scripts and inserting them into their pages. Everybody seeks his or her own level and comfort zone.

So I don't think this request is out of line with the others that appear here, like the request for guestbook software or a video editor. (to which I did a virtual eye-roll without making a comment in the thread)

Without intending to be demeaning, I see CoffeeCup's role as providing relatively easy-to-use software for people who don't have the time, resources or the technological savvy to learn to use the extremely sophisticated Elephant Guns (or BFG 9000s, if you please) of the programming world. I'm not saying that CC is Web Programming for Dummies, but I do think it has a target market that's somewhere between large corporations with full IT departments, and people trying building their first web page, if you get my drift.

You also forgot to mention that Coffeecup programs are significantly cheaper than most of the other offerings out there.

Could have fooled me.

I guess I am just not used to fancy faqs. Most are simple text and maybe background color delimiters for effect. I do like faqs set up with expandable elements. They create less clutter on a lengthly faq. Here is and example. Not very hard to implement.

http://www.learningjquery.com/2007/02/more-showing-more-hiding

Nope, didn't forget. It simply didn't occur to me, as I saw it as implicit that the heavyweights are far more expensive. That was covered in the 'lack of resources' part of my comment suggestion...

And I wouldn't use the word "cheaper" -- I'd say 'less expensive' which has a nicer connotation. It's a good value for the price.

I know I keep beating this same comment, but have you tried Bravenet.com? they have lots of free apps with very minimal banner with their site link on it. The do have a pretty nice (well from what I remember, it's been a few years since I looked at it lol) FAQ setup that was pretty easy to setup and gave you a nice page setup for your FAQ.

I for one think this would be a cool idea, mostly because like many of you already said, there's some really cool effects out there for the FAQ from expanding, transitions, and searching that would be pretty nice. Not sure if CC would want to do this, but it's a nice idea

I personally like "why buy one Mic***oft or one A**be product, when the same money will buy you several Coff**cup products - more for less!!!!"


From a web design perspective, lots of information that is pertinent to the content on the site, dramatically reduces the need for FAQ pages.

I like to have separate pages for things like shipping/returns and privacy policies etc. A structured 'contact us' page 'fills in the blanks' for those customers that may have unusual questions.