How to create "Latest News" page pulling summary content from another page?

I can't really think of a good way of doing this that would allow editing of news items using Contribute. I suppose if each news item was a new page you could have a script that would read that directory and pull the headlines.

This would be no problem if you had a content management system. RSS would work if you could get that news page to produce a feed. Another option would be to crate a simple form that they could use in a regular web browser, have that form submit the news items to a database, and then pull directly from the database on the home page.

Hi Megan, thanks, that makes a lot of sense. I know that using a CMS would be the best way to go, but I'm hoping to find another solution that the client can use with the site as it exists now.

The last option you mentioned got me to thinking...could they have a WordPress blog (or even a Blogspot blog, which they already have) where news items are entered as blog posts and then I put something into the HTML of their site that pulls that information from a feed? Would that work?

Wordpress has many options for this. Built in and a simple user defined function.

I have never used Blogger, but taken from their guides:

Blogger feeds show the 25 most recent items (posts or comments) available. Older posts will not be included, regardless of whether they appear on the front page of your blog or not.

Maybe there is a way to limit this to remove comments? Again, I'm not familiar with their software so couldn't advise too much.
As the client already has Blogspot why not view/ask in their forum or email support?

Thanks Greg, that seems worth looking into. I'm looking at a couple of possibilities here...will keep you all updated if I come up with anything new.

Thanks!
Tim