Got Contribute to "connect to" files in the lang02 account.
Spent a bit of time getting used to the Contribute interface and to the tags in the html that Contribute is sensitive to, specifically <!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="tabs" -->
Tested what happens with php files being edited in Contribute. Results seem promising: Contribute viewer displays the php-generated material properly, Contribute editor replaces each instance of php code with a php icon that is non editable or deletable.
Include files have to have a .htm or .php extension (not .inc) for the Contribute editor to parse them rather then show the source code.
Also grabbed three generic banner images for the student, faculty and public sections.
Next on to analyzing which bits of the template files I can extract.