I am an amateur web developer. I hard code sites with XHTML and CSS. A client I am working for atm wants to be able to update their site once I have built it for them. I was wondering if someone could recommend a CMS that would enable the client to update it.
I know not one thing about CMSs. I know how to build sites using XHTML & CSS by hand, but nothing about how I would go about finding a cms (not even sure what this is) that a client could use to update the site themselves.
CMS’s come in all flavours and types. Some are true “content” management systems, while others are no more than glorified “page” management systems. So you first need to decide what it is that your client needs to manage.
Have a look through http://www.cmscritic.com/resource-lists/cms-list/ as they have links to many CMS’s on the market, or search these forums as this has been discussed many times 
What sort of site does your client want? If it’s only a small site with the minimum of bells and whistles, plus a WYSIWYG editor, you could give Pixie, [URL=“http://www.cmsmadesimple.org/”]CMS Made Simple or [URL=“http://grabaperch.com/”]Perch a try.
I will not reinvent the wheel and recommend Wordpress which is easy to use and easy to prepare for you purpose.
Oh I think I have just understood what you mean by page editors and true cms. A true cms is one that a user can add pages to? Can you recommend a really simple one? I looked at Joomla and drupal but can’t work them out, goodness knows how the client will be editing the site if I, the developer, can’t do it.
Hey thanks for this. I’ve learned a lot.
Well I think my client would suit a simple one that is installed to an existing website. I was looking at cushycms which looks lovely and easy to use. You just give it your site’s FTP details and it produces the source code for whatever the client writes on a page and uploads it. One thing missing is the ability to add pages though. Do you know of one as easy as cushycms but with adding pages functionality?