Perhaps nothing sums up what this article is all about better then a post I once read on a webdesigners forum...:

I am looking for an extremely simple CMS. I would like to put some code in the content area of existing pages, then have an admin page where I have all my files, choose the page to update, then enter the text or html to update the page with and click 'update'. Does something that simple exist? I have only been able to find more complex CMS's...

If you have ever dabbled in CMS's before; such as Joomla, Drupal, PHPNuke (just to name a few) unless your a code monkey/international super spy...this stuff is hard. Now I'm not saying they arent downright awesome when it comes to creating content. These babies are loaded! But despite polished user interfaces, larger cms's such as these are frankly waaaay too much for the average website. Not to mention not user friendly, almost always confined to specific templates that are minimal at best to customize, and as many tools and gadgets and gizmos you can shake your mouse at.

Bottom line: not exactly best for beginners/intermediate webdesigners. These are used only to their real potential for very large super sites, businesses, or the expert web designer. You need, lets say...a mini version of these.

So, does something that simple really exist? Patch some code in your web pages, go to a "master page", update that snippet code or file, and your site is automatically updated? For whatever the hell you want?

YES.

If your thinking that sounds really easy. It's because it is :) . Beleive it or not, there are tons of cms's that fit that description. They are just really, really hard to find. Nearly all sites that review or are about CMS are for the much larger versions, and do not make it easy or possible to find smaller cms's. Even a google search for something like that is navigating through bs and misleading descriptions.

But dont worry. :) I've done the hard work for you! And found the very best small, easy, and powerful content managment systems there are! My #1 recommendation...?

Lil' CMS 2.0

Cute name. Lots and lots of power. Did I mention just about as easy as it gets? Larger CMS's contain dozens upon dozens--if not hundreds--of files when downloaded. With multiple folders and subfolders. Lil' CMS contains 3 files. Only 1 file of which you actually use to edit your stuff. So it's as straightforward as it gets. Click the link for the website and download. They also tell you step-by-step how to download and set it up. (refers to version 1.0. 2.0 has an advanced WYSIWIG editor not shown in the screenshots. fyi)

If you choose to download Lil' Cms, you can see why I taught you how to create php includes the way I did :) . I was just setting you up to make transitioning to CMS all the easier! If you've followed my tutorial and set up your "content" folder, and all your php's are in .txt format, the only other thing you need to do is create a folder called "cms" and download Lil' CMS to that folder! Thats it! Done! you can now access all your php include files from www.mysite.com/cms/index.php(or whatever you chose to call it).

Of course I wouldnt be a very good webmistress if I only gave you one recommendation. here are some more cms's that could work for you: monoEdit , CushyCMS