Forum Moderators: phranque
I recently taught myself how to make first class banners, animated gifs, etc., and have practiced a lot at this lately.
BUt I needed a tool to compress the kbs of these gifs to reduce load time. So I picked up a Gif Optimizer (won't say which one) and it was well worth the $30 I paid for it. My download time is much faster as my gifs have reduced in size from 10 to 90 percent .
Best tool I bought in years.
Does anyone else have a something in their Webmaster toolbox they find incredibly useful? Whatother tools or software are user endorsed that I could be missing out on?
Thanks,
Freedom
Otherwise, same remark than above. I usually stick to my best softwares (Fireworks, Photoshop, etc...) and try not to load my CPU with uneeded apps.
I always thought the Macromedia stuff was overpriced for what it did. I don't use Fireworks nearly as much or as well as I can I suppose, and I don't even open Dreamweaver anymore.
I'm liking VisualStudio.NET quite a bit though. I like the intellisense features of not having to completely type all my class properties, and having it check syntax, class relations and more as I type.
I always thought the Macromedia stuff was overpriced for what it did.
Then you haven't found HomeSite yet. :-) I used TextPad for a while but homesite is ten times the program, it has spell checkers, validators in various levels, color-coded markups for not just HTML but almost all languages including perl and php, extended F&R's that traverse directories, ability to save in PC/Linux format, custom quick key markup configs, and you can even create and modify your own program menus - basically hack the program . . from the program . . to suit your style.
Comes free with the MX suite and can't recall how much as a stand-alone but it's . . .not much. :D
So, yeah, Homesite's my favorite.
I'm sure there are good reasons to download a whole website, but I can't think of any...
I have a great reason for it. I had a website with sections that were db driven. I would have liked to have downloaded the pages into static non-db versions, do some minimal search and replace, then upload them back as static pages.
Another good use for a website downloader is if you have a dynamically generated directory that you want to duplicate, but with static pages. With a dynamically generated directory script there are often limitations to what you can add to the pages. The usual situation is that pages are based on a master template, and that all changes (apart from the individual entries), are global. :(
An interesting way to create an instant non-db directory with static html pages is to download an existing one.
Maybe a bright person has a better solution, but that's what I've been thinking about lately.
So, is this thing supposed to be better than the main dreamweaver?
If you're a hand-coder, absolutely. If you like WYSIWYG, no. There is a DW integration in homesite though.
If you like Homesite then you should check out TopStyle.
Homesite comes with TopStyle Lite. Isn't Topstyle just the style sheet builder? I use it mostly as a CSS reference only. :-)
Homesite comes with TopStyle Lite. Isn't Topstyle just the style sheet builder?It does do style sheets, but the Pro version is also a full on HTML Editor / site builder that rivals Homesite. You can automatically integrate it with your favorite WYSIWYG to replace their CSS and HTML editors with TopStyle if you like, or just use it on its own to develop your sites.
Craig F I hear ya.. Feels good to have your own box though doesnt it.
Absolutely, better than I thought actually, and I'm not even to the point of considering all the cool things I'll be able to do with it now that it's all mine.
Only thing I need to figure out now is how to set it up right :) Currently I keep breaking things left and right and I managed to take down a few of my sites, which stresses me out to no end. But, I figure stress and a little downtime aside, I'm getting a crash course in server administation which is great!
It displays differences between files and/or folder hierarchies, generates reports, edits/synchronises via built-in editor and has API and command line interfaces. It's the best piece of software I've seen for years!
(no affiliation other than satisfied user)
<sidenote> I too have reached a high level of Geekdom with my own box running a website and exchange mail. I'm even getting ready to implement a second box... just for "fun" </sidenote>
If you have 100s of passwords, there must be something wrong! ;)
Nope. Nothing wrong. If you have the same password for everything, then getting a hold of that one password means getting a hold of all your accounts. There are numerous ways of getting your password.
Some computers might have keyloggers. One can give a password for some subscription website. How do you know the owner is not a crook? How do you know that the website owner will not go around and hack into your accounts? I am sure there are many other ways too...
Roboform has a nice feature that generates password. Just click one button right in the browser toolbar and you have a new password. I use that all the time for anything new I register. That's how I have so many passwords.