Here you go:

http://www.concrete5.org/documentation/how-tos/editors/setting-up-a...

This How-To is great but doesn't really explain the benefits of editing a page from the front-end (inline) or from the back-end (Dashboard > Composer).

I would be curious to know too :)

Some people are used to the more traditional backend/dashboard method of creating new posts. Composer is to help those users. Composer just creates a page just like you could with a normal edit and page defaults.

One of the advantages of Composer is that you can have a list of page attributes to be filled in as well as content blocks etc.

Composer is the perfect tool for light-weight data, and a fast way to create page_type based pages along with attributes in one central place. It's really great, for example, if you have a parks and recreations group that regularly posts special news items that have event details, promo images and other misc information. Composer is a great way to set them up without paying a a grand or two for a custom tailored application for C5.

So from the clients perspective it becomes this: want news? go to the composer and chose "news item". want special announcement with shelter details? go to composer and chose "shelter announcement"...ect.

Having said that, in my opinion, it's not the best tool for things like blogging and things that have more complex attribute needs such as meta data, multiple levels of categories sections and tags...ect. It starts to feel cluttered, and consistently, clients get overwhelmed at a certain point regardless of the simplicity of it "being in one place".

So in some cases, it is very worth $X for a custom task specific application with a tailored interface specifically for that task.

You "can" create composer views for all your blocks...but attributes are really were the system blossoms...and at present, composer pages just feel really over-whelming after a certain number of attributes.

ChadStrat

Thanks guys for your replies, things are way clearer now.