Sound advice. Keep it simple. So why do editors come with some many buttons?

The engineers at Ektron have discussed which buttons should display by default on the editor's toolbar. We consciously decided to make most features visible. Why? Two main reasons. (1) It looks good on the marketing material. A prospective customer can quickly glance at the colorful toolbar and sense its capabilities. (2) If a feature isn't visible by default, it may remain unknown and unused. It is easier to turn off a known feature than it is enable a feature you don't even know exists.

Administrators, we'll show you all the buttons, but feel free to hide the ones your content contributors don't need.

-Doug, WYSIWYG editor developer

Thanks Doug - Great thoughts from the vendor side. As one of the pioneers of such tools, it's great to hear from Ektron and see the built in flexibility to turn things off as needed. Take note administrators. You have the power.

Absolutely correct. I favor CMS systems that give me elemental control of every data point for every "page" of the site so that I can determine the barest minimum of rights I need to give the page editor.

This results in a slightly higher learning curve on the first day, but once the editor understands that the CMS is providing them with a simple checklist that will produce an outstanding document, they appreciate their limited choices.