Using CMS Builder is not much different from using your favorite word processor such as Microsoft Word or Word Perfect.

The password protected administration section (Back End) of the system allows the site owner to make changes and additions to pages that have been set up by the web developer as editable. 

Site content that you enter in the admin section is stored in a MySQL Database on the web server and displayed dynamically as each page is viewed by persons browsing your site.

There are two basic types of editable pages that are set up on any given site.

• Single record page on which only one record is retrieved from the database and displayed.  An example would be an "About Us" page where all the information and images stored only requires one record in the database.
• Multi-record page on which many records are retrieved and displayed in list fashion on a page. An example would be a "News Headlines" page where multiple news articles are stored in the database and a list sorted in decending order is displayed with a brief description of the article and possibly a thumbnail image of a relevant photo and a hyperlink to the full article. 

The web developer sets up the administration sections and places the necessary PHP code on each of the target web pages to display the appropriate data when the pages are loaded.  The "look and feel" of the site is also set by the developer using external Cascading Style Sheets to keep the site consistant and reducing the need for inline font and color editing.

More on the details of the relationship between the adminstration section and the published pages can be found in the "How CMS Builder Works" section.