A variety of tools are used for the design and management of a website. The following
provides a list of the primary programs (but not all) used by Rich's Web Design for graphics,
building and maintaining websites, exchanging information and otherwise working with
clients.
DESIGN
Dreamweaver - Macromedia product
that is considered by many to be the best design tool available. A+
HomeSite - Allaire product that is
also considered standard equipment for quality design work. A-
FrontPage - Microsoft product that
is very popular and easy to begin or edit a site. B+
Tools within
CSS - Cascading Style Sheets - These are used to give uniformity to a site, regarding font size, color, link colors, font styles, backgrounds, borders, margins, etc.
Assigning a "style" makes it easy to change a particular font color or style once, and have it take affect throughout the entire site, rather than making the change numerous times.
SSI - Server Side Includes - These are used to give graphical uniformity to a site. The buttons you see on the left side of this site are exactly the same, regardless of which page your visit. If I
want to add a button, I just add it to the "included" file and it will propagate throughout the site. Used properly, the SSI can help make pages more responsive and can even help make maintaining a site an easier task.
ASP - Active Server Pages - These are used in a Windows NT environment to access simple databases. A great example of this can be found on the Debbie's Staffing web site.
This is where the database of current jobs can be accessed dynamically.
CGI - Common Gateway Interface - This specification can process data, such as a form, and pass it on to another program on the server side for processing and a response.
DHTML - Dynamic HyperText Markup Language - This can be used to create many creative and useful features such as navigation menus. One has to be careful when using DHTML, because older browsers can not show some DHTML scripts.
XML - Extensible Markup Language - Similar to HTML, but makes it easy for a computer to generate data, read data, and ensure that the data structure is unambiguous. XML avoids common pitfalls in language design: it is extensible, platform-independent, and it supports internationalization and localization.
Language Software Reviews -
Compare the most popular software for language learning.
SEO - Search Engine Optimization
www.KeywordDensity.com & www.KeywordCount.com are both Keyword Analyzers - A+
www.RankMeter.com - Tool used to find out where a site appears in the various search engines! - A
www.LinkPopularity.com - Great tool to find out how many other sites are linking to your own. A+
Yahoo PPC "Pay per click" search engine whos top 3 listings
result in great placement in searches on Yahoo, MSN, AskJeeves and others.
GRAPHICS
jQuery - JavaScript and CSS based tool which shows animations / slide shows. This will render on iPhone / iPads, as Flash does not.
Flash - Macromedia product that is used for smooth animation,
integration of sound, and brilliant vector graphics. Search engines don't like Flash too much, but
if used in small graphics, they are very effective. Flash Intros can
also be quite dynamic. A+
PhotoShop - An Adobe product that is
an industry standard. This is what I use 75% of the time for logos and most graphics. A+
Illustrator - Also an Adobe product,
but can be a bit difficult to use. Also used for logos and high end graphics. A-
Paint Shop Pro - One of the first quality
graphics applications used by professionals. Some think PSP is too simple of a program,
but KISS is a great philosophy! A-
Sound Manipulation
Cool Edit - Great MP3 editing tool! A+
FTP
CuteFTP - GlobalScape product that is very clean and
easy to use to transfer files to host servers. A+
Dreamweaver - One if its many features is a built-in FTP.
BROWSERS
IE -
My favorite - Enuf said! A+
Firefox - VG and used by many. A
Chrome - Very clean browser with not all the extras - Will load much faster as a result. A
Opera - Great browser, fast and has some neat features! A-
EQUIPMENT
Dell - The only PC that I would buy ... for now! A++
HP ScanJet6300C - High quality flatbed scanner. A+
HP DeskJet 970Cse - High quality printer. A+
File 13 - My own recycle bin. A-