I frequently send myself emails containing interesting finds of the day from my 9-5 job to my home office. Today’s a snow day and I decided to post some of the older email links here.
I’m constantly searching for new scripts. I should probably learn to program my own but I just don’t have the patience for hard core scripting in PHP or Javascript.
Here are a couple of good finds:
- PDFmyURL.com Simply type in a URL, click the fancy submit button and save the URL to a PDF.
- Glider Examples – Easy to use ajax script for creating sliding content/carousels.
- Gmap – Google Map plugins using Jquery
- Jquery Backstretch – add dynamically resized images to your websites.
The folks that make XSitePro were kind enough to give me a copy of their web design software for evaluation and inclusion in my marketing on this site. I figured this would be a great time for my son to start his new website, BlindSideCreations.com.
During the web design process my son will act as a guest blogger here. And we will be asking one question from time to time? Is XsitePro so easy a 10 year old can create a professional looking and functioning website?
Welcome my son Brandon. He will explain his initial thoughts on XSitePro and his custom design process.
Hi my name is Brandon. At first I picked a design. They have many choices of designs. I pick a design that looks like a notepad I realized that it was kinda boring. I picked a blank design. The blank design was cool because you got to import a header a footer and a sitemap. I added some html games that were fun. For my header I did a spray paint logo using MS Paint. The tools were very simple. What was frustrating was that when you type on a page. Its really hard to center it and write a paragraph properly. Overall it was very easy.
Brandon will be writing more blog posts in the near future about his experience with XSitePro. All links in this post are trackable links. So if Brandon happens to generate a sale, the commission I get paid will be put into his savings account.
I have not used XsitePro myself except to assist Brandon in entering the ftp information so that he could upload his site up to our web server. XsitePro has a built in FTP client so he is now able to update the site himself with one click of a button.
So is XsitePro so easy a 10 year old can build a professional looking site?
I would say so far the answer is Yes if you use the build in templates.
Google Labs has introduced a useful tool for web designers simply called, Browser Size. Enter your URL in the search box and see how your site fits in numerous browser resolution sizes.
One thing this tool fails to do is left justify websites who have their designs centered.
Thesis Theme for WordPress: Options Galore and a Helpful Support Coummunity.
Free Wordpress themes are bountiful but many free themes have strings attached and/or largely unsupported by the developer. Some require a link back to the developer, others hide spyware in the code and some break after Wordpress implements a major upgrade.
In the long run you might be better off using a premium theme like Thesis. It costs just $77 for one site or $164 for unlimited usage. Thesis is very popular due to it’s continued support and the ability to customize your site without being a Wordpress guru.
Plus Thesis is very SEO friendly.
I plan on switching my Wordpress driven sites over to Thesis soon. So many sites and so much yet to do.
If your in need of a Ajax based content slider, take a look at this tutorial/script by WebDesignBooth.com. I found it very EZ to set up and manipulate.
This script is based on jquery and jflow.
Another good scrollable content slider is available at Flowplayer.org. Actually they have a great set of scripts all based on jquery. An impressive scrolling content slider is located at http://flowplayer.org/tools/demos/scrollable/demo-area.html.
See a live demo here.
The only issue I have with the script from flowplayer.org is getting the content to autoscroll. The script by webdesignbooth.com has a autoscroll version available for download thus much easier to get started with unless you’re already a jquery wiz.
First off, I love jquery. I could not tell you the first thing about programming scripts using jquery but there are a plethora of ajax scripts that utilize jquery. One recent find,
Smart Columns w/ CSS & jQuery by Soh Tanaka uses jquery to keep pages from scrolling left to right in any size screen resolution. This script works with fixed width and liquid designs. Check out the demo.
I’ve downloaded and played with just about every lightbox script available. My favorite lightbox script was greybox (at the time of this posting their site was down, http://orangoo.com/labs/GreyBox/). Greybox is nice, easy to use and it’s free! Then I found Floatbox and I don’t think I will ever use another lightbox script again.
Floatbox is a very versatile lightbox clone. You can open just about any file imaginable inside a floatbox including html content, iframes and flash files. Not only does the content open up in a new window, you can easily group images or content to create an image gallery. Floatbox is not free. It cost $20 for a single domain and if you need it for more than one site you do get a bit of a discount for each additional site.
You might ask yourself, “why buy a lightbox script, there are dozens of free scripts available?” The floatbox script is supported by the script writer and is imporoved upon every couple of months. Plus he is great about answering questions via email or forum. I had a few issues in getting some custom looks working and he responded to every email quickly. For the $20 it’s well worth the cash. Plus you’ll impress your clients with some nice lightbox effects.
AJAX is more or less fancy Javascript that can be used with ASP.net, HTML or PHP. Since I’m not much of a backend programmer, I usually search for a script that I can make my own. Usually the scripts are free or require a donation.
If you need to add some cool image effects, nice looking forms or tables or web 2.0ish effects to your site then you should check out the following:
- AJAX Rain – a library of over 1100 AJAX scripts. If you need an image gallery, check this site first. Most are free if you give credit to the author or be nice and make a small donation.
- Freeajaxscripts.net – All the scripts listed here are free for non commercial use.
- Dynamic Drive DHTML code library – In addition to original DHTML scripts
and components, they offer some AJAX scripts.
- Smashing Magazine – This site is a great resource in general for web designers. The link from here directs you to a post with some useful AJAX scripts.
I recently came across, QuotationsBook.com, and thought, “Hey, some of these quotes would look great on my blog posts.”
I thought this quote was fitting for today’s economy:
“Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.”
Jefferson, Thomas
Happy Blogging!
