I'm currently evaluating SilverStripe and have been unable to find an answer to this -- maybe because I can't think of a succinct way to phrase it. I have two requirements:

1. Suppose I have a content page which has a wide area for the main page content, and then, to its side, a narrow column where I'd like content editors to be able to create page-specific content (related links, call-to-action graphics, etc).

2. Similar scenario to the above, but suppose I want my narrow column to be a generic global block that content editors can edit. In other content management systems (e.g. CMS Made Simple) these are referred to as Global Content Blocks. I understand the SS concept of includes, but can these be edited inside the software?

Really grateful if anyone can point me in the right direction. I've worked through the Level 1 and Level 2 tutorials and like what I see; really hoping I can use SS for some client projects.

Well, this is the great thing about Silverstripe. When they say "template freedom" this is what they're referring to. Other CMS's try to usher you into their pre-cooked opinions of how a page should look and the nomenclature that they use to define it, e.g. "global content blocks." There's no such thing in SS. You do with your template what you want, because every page type and the components that make it up are a reflection of a database structure.

So to answer your question, there are a million ways to do it. If you just want generic content, here's the easiest way:

code/Page.php

and of course on your template

<div class="sidebar">$SideContent</div>

If you want to get into something more rich like adding custom objects (like a "link" object with a title, URL, description, for instance) or syndicating content from elsewhere on the site, that's also very easy, but this should get you started.

Thanks again guys, I've got this working a treat.

Looking at the SS documentation, I can't see a user entry point for what I think are very common needs for extending page templates (static content blocks, multiple editable regions on a page). There's almost the assumption that you're a PHP programmer and will get the "big picture" of the programming model. I wonder how true that reality is for a good amount of people who are tasked with implementing a CMS and building sites?

I'm a designer who can hack scripts and configure a Linux webserver pretty well, but I'm not a PHP programmer and have no desire to be one. I think it would be great if some clever people extended articles in the wiki to include some more prefab PHP code for what are every day needs for most websites. The tutorial covering a news page (for example), is great.