As a bonus, I am going to include a few tricks for some of the tools that may be of interest to you.(These 'tricks' are for pc users only.)
** Toolkit Item 1 - Dreamweaver **
I have a client whoowns and runs a small business website and who has been using Microsoft Frontpage since he started. Heis not a programmer or Web designer and has been very frustrated managing his website. Frontpage addsstrange html code behind the scenes that takes control away from the user and often produces undesirableresults. I suggested that he try Macromedia's Dreamweaver, which is the software I have been using formany years. It's excellent and does exactly what you want, does not add extraneous code and makes thelife of a webmaster a breeze. After playing with it for a while, my client thanked me profusely for suggestingit. Get it at Macromedia.com.Dreamweaver Trick:
To make a global change in your website, that is, change some specific text or html code on every pagein your site, here's what you do: In your top menu bar, choose 'Edit' > 'Find and Replace...'. Inthe dialog box that pops up, choose 'Entire Local Site' in the top dropdown box labeled 'Find In'. Thiswill allow you to make a global change. Also, note the other choices in the dropdown box. Using thisfeature will save you lots of time.
Dreamweaver Trick:
Did you know Dreamweaver has a 'Check Spelling' feature? If not, go to the top menu bar and click on'Text' and then choose 'Check Spelling' at the bottom of the menu. Or you could simply use your 'Shift'F7 keys.
** Toolkit Item 2 - Photoshop **
Since images on the Web are bothillustrations and photos, Adobe's Photoshop is hands-down the best choice for graphics manipulation fora webmaster. It has a little bit of a learning curve, but well worth it if you want to include awesomegraphics on your website. It allows you to create buttons, borders, shapes, symbols and of course, itallows you to change, alter, edit and improve any kind of digital photograph. Get it at Adobe.com.Photoshop Trick:
The Web allows two main graphics file formats, .jpg and .gif. Therefore, any image you plan to use onyour website needs to end in one of these two extensions. (The Web allows the .png extension too, butyou ought to use either .jpg or .gifs only). So, whenever you plan to use a graphic on your website thatyou created or edited in Photoshop, you need to save it as one of these two file extensions. And youalso want your images to be optimized so they are not large causing long download times for your sitevisitors. Do this by going to your top menu bar and choosing 'File' > 'Save for the Web...'. You willthen be able to choose .gif or .jpg in the top right of the dialog box that opens up. You'll also beable to see 1, 2, or 4 versions for the same image, optimized in different ways and having differentsizes for you to choose. Always use this tool in Photoshop for Web graphics.
Photoshop Trick:
Want to create soft, almost rounded edges on your rectangular images? Here's what you do: In your vertical'Tools' window in Photoshop, choose the top left tool called 'Rectangular Marquee Tool'. Then click anddrag your mouse on your image to make a rectangle that is 5 to 10 pixels smaller than your actual image.Make sure that it is equidistant on all four sides. Then go to your menu bar and choose 'Select' > 'Inverse'.This chooses (or selects) everything outside the rectangle you just made. Finally, go to your menu barand choose 'Filter' > 'Blur' > 'Gaussian Blur' and type 1-5 pixels in the dialog box. That's it,and now your image will have soft edges.
** Toolkit Item 3 - WS FTP **
This is a great tool for movingyour files back and forth from your pc to your server. Dreamweaver has a feature that allows you to connectdirectly to your server to download and upload html files and images for your website. But I prefer tohave more control over moving files back and forth from my local pc to my server that houses my website.Therefore, I use WS FTP (FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol). This tool enables me to move my fileswith ease and with complete control. Get it at Tucows.com.FTP Trick:
This is more of a suggestion than a trick. To make changes in your html files, always download the latestfile(s) from your website's server down to your local machine first. Then make your changes, edits orupdates, save your work, and upload the file(s) back to your server. In other words, do your entire htmlediting on your local machine and upload the latest version after your editing back to your live server.Try to avoid editing files directly on your server. This methodology will help ensure that your sitevisitors don't see files 'in progress' or errors.
** Toolkit Item 4 - WebTrends **
This tool is vital foranyone wishing to conduct intelligent e-marketing campaigns and has interest in improving one's website.It allows you to analyze your website statistics. It tells you how many people visited your site, howthey got there, where they went once they arrived and a huge amount of other critical data. Get it at Webtrends.com.** Toolkit Item 5 - WebPosition Gold **
If you want toknow how your website is ranking in the search engines, this tool is a must have. It allows you to setup a profile for your website asking you to enter keyword phrases and choose search engines. By runningthe program after you complete your profile, it will tell you where you rank for each engine for eachkeyword phrase. If you find that you're not ranking well, you can make changes to your website and runthe program again in a few days or weeks to determine if your rankings have improved. Get it at Webposition-gold-2.net.If you purchase these tools and learn to use them properly, you'll have everything you need to createand manage a website. Your toolkit will be complete. I am sure there are other great tools out there,but these are the ones I use, (and I have no affiliation with any of these companies). I've found themto be extremely helpful. Another webmaster 'trick' I use is to utilize great websites that contain excellenttips, tricks and resources for creating and managing websites. Below is a partial list of the websitesI visit regularly.
Webmonkey - Webmonkey.com
HTML Goodies - Htmlgoodies.com
World Wide Web Consortium - w3c.org
Webmaster Directory - Webdevsites.com
Free HTML Validator - Feedvalidator.org
Webmaster resources from Webmaster Toolkit. - Webmaster-toolkit.com
Webmaster.org - Webmaster.org
The Webmaster's Reference Library - Webreference.com
SitePoint : New Articles, for Web Developers and Designers - Sitepoint.com
Webmaster's Color Lab - Visibone.com
SiteProNews - Sitepronews.com
Webmaster Tool Collection - Webmaster-tool-collection.com
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