how do you set up a cms?

[archie]

I am still just playing around with css and html but I was wondering how to install a cms into a site? I have looked at fckeditor and Exponent CMS.
Does the CMS determine the page layout?

[jenniferaslan]

To install a CMS into a site, you pretty much have to install the CMS and then skin and modify it to BE the site you're making. If the site you're talking about already exists, you have to build it over with the CMS engine in place.

Our favorite CMS so far is SilverStripe: http://www.silverstripe.org/
We have also used Joomla!: http://www.joomla.org/

We like SilverStripe because it's easy to develop in, and the CMS backend is really intuitive and easy for anyone to use.

Regarding the page layout, you can do pretty much anything you want with SilverStripe. You create the template files yourself, using PHP, HTML and SilverStripe's own proprietary tags.

Some sites we've built with SilverStripe are:

http://www.deandaviseditions.com/
http://www.klundthosmer.com/
http://www.kalispeltribe.com/
http://www.kaniksusands.com/
http://www.windowshowroom.com/
http://www.wheatlandbank.com/

You can see, looking at all those sites, that we are able to do what we want, design-wise.

[Afty]

Depending what you need from your site you could try wordpress or http://grabaperch.com/ wordpress is free but probably a bit more restrictive than Perch. Perch is only £35 though.