Free/Cheap Windows Tools

I realize in today's economy, there isn't a lot of extra money floating around. Here are some cheap tools you can use to fix your web site. I'm a Windows guy, so if the program listed isn't online, it will be windows-based.

Secrets of the Cheap Tool Trade

  1. Use 2 or 3 colors on your site — but make sure they're good colors. Unless you're a designgod, the colors need to be harmonious.
  2. Consistency is the key with type and text — 2 or 3 good typefaces.
  3. Use these faces consistently. No mixing and matching.
  4. Use CSS.
  5. Make sure your text looks good on the page — no bad linebreaks, etc. Use BrowserCam (see below) to check the look.
  6. Use "cheap" (inexpensive) art and graphics.
  7. Resize the file, not the WIDTH= and HEIGHT= attributes.
  8. Optimize your graphics and your code so your pages load quickly.
  9. Use graphics consistently.

Graphics

Stock Photos

Search Engine Optimization

Optimizing Your Web Pages

Testing and Validating Your Web Pages

Making Your Web Pages Accessible

HTML / Text / CSS

Miscellaneous Tools

Graphics

This section contains information about graphics resources.

Father Flanders' Sermon

Just because Jesus miraculously turned water into wine doesn't mean he can miraculously turn your 1280- x 1024-pixel image whose file size is 1.8Mb into an image whose file size is only 74Kb just because you changed the WIDTH= and HEIGHT= attributes to WIDTH="420" and HEIGHT="336".

This mistake is so common that it's beginning to be as annoying to me as the confessions of the students of the young men of my Jesuit high school were to Father Ambrose "For your penance say three Hail Mary's" Forsthoefel.

Father Flanders is not going to recommend three Hail Mary's, but that you do the following (if you use a Macintosh, I can't save your soul):

1. Go to the Fookes Software site and download Easy Thumbnails. I'm not going to tell you how to use the program but anyone whose IQ is higher than an ice cube can figure it out. Instead of creating little, itty-bitty thumbnails, we'll use the program to reduce the size of the picture to the size specified in the IMG tag's attributes. I reduced the 1.8Mb picture down to 74Kb just by making a "thumbnail."

2. Go to the IrfanView site and download IrfanView. Even if you download Easy Thumbnails, you must download IrfanView because it's an extremely valuable graphics tool. Trust me on this one because I would not lead you into temptation or the Valley of the Shadow of Death. What you do is load your image into the program, press CTL-R to resize it, change the width parameter to what you want (the height is automatically adjusted) and then "Save as" but before you resave it using a new name, click on "Options" and set the "Save Quality" level to a small number. I used "37" and this reduced the file size down to 34Kb.

While you're at it, make sure you also download and install the plug-ins.

You can also use IrfanView to optimize and convert your images. Go to the link above and download the file.

I just saved you a lot of bandwidth.

Color Picker

It's pretty simple. It may not be the best, but it's from Iconico, the company below so it's easy to get.

Color Picker

Screen Calipers

According to the site: "The Screen Calipers are a unique on-screen measurement tool, similar to a screen ruler. They resemble real life calipers in both form and function."

I've found it very useful when I'm creating web pages when I want to see how a page looks in certain size windows.

Screen Calipers

Stock Photos

The prices for stock photos has risen considerably in the last couple of years. Here are some free resources.

US Government Graphics (Free—probably)

As the site states:

Most of these images and graphics are available for use in the public domain; they may be used and reproduced without permission or fee. However, some images may be protected by license. Therefore we recommend you thoroughly read the disclaimers on each site before use.

"Free" Government Images

Stock.XCHNG (Free — probably)

It bills itself as the leading free stock photo site. The main issue is the site believes the uploaded images have no copyright restrictions, but they take no responsibility for mistakes or for people uploading pictures they shouldn't.

Stock.XCHNG

IStockPhoto

According to the site:

iStockphoto members are a part of an international community of artists creating a huge database of royalty-free content. Register to receive a free credit and download a file on the house. You can also download and use our free image of the week. When you're done there, browse through our forums on design and photography, and enjoy one of the most useful resources on the web.

About the files.The photos are generally medium to hi-resolution, royalty-free images: this means you can use them for a wide range of applications including print, web and video. See the license agreement for more information and details about royalty free usage.

IStockPhoto

Wikipedia:Public domain image resources

The presence of a resource on this list does not guarantee that all or any of the images in it are in the public domain: you are still responsible for checking the copyright status of images before you submit them to Wikipedia.

Wikipedia

Search Engine Optimization

If Google can't find you, then you don't exist.

Keyword Verification (Free)

Marketleap, according to their site:

Our verification tool checks to see if your site is in the top three pages of a search engine result for a certain keyword. The reason we only check the top 3 pages is because most queries don’t go past the 3rd page of search results.

Use the Keyword Verification tool

Search Engine Saturation (Free)

Marketleap, according to their site:

"Search Engine Saturation" simply refers to the number of pages a given search engine has in its index for your website domain. Check your Search Engine Saturation and compare your website to competitors. Check this information on a regular basis to see if your Search Engine Saturation is climbing or falling.

Use the Search Engine Saturation tool

Link Popularity Analysis (Free)

Marketleap, according to their site:

Marketleap has designed this link popularity tool to help search engine optimizers and online marketers to not only find out who is linking to your site, but to also run a benchmarking report to show you quickly where you stand in comparison to competitors and other major online players.

Use the Link Popularity tool

Xenu Link Sleuth (Free)

As the site says, "Xenu's Link Sleuth (TM) checks Web sites for broken links. Link verification is done on 'normal' links, images, frames, plug-ins, backgrounds, local image maps, style sheets, scripts and java applets. It displays a continously updated list of URLs which you can sort by different criteria. A report can be produced at any time."

Optimizing Your Web Pages

If your web pages are optimized, they'll be easier to maintain and, most importantly, they'll load faster. Remember, nobody ever complained that a site loaded too quickly.

Dr. HTML

There are a lot of ways to make a sucky web site. Doctor HTML offers a free (five-page per day) analysis of your web page. Once you find the mistakes, it's up to you to fix them.

Dr. HTML

Web Page Analyzer

According to the site: "Enter a URL below to calculate page size, composition, and download time. The script calculates the size of individual elements and finds the total for each type of web page component. Based on these page characteristics the script then offers advice on how to improve page display time. The script incorporates best practices from HCI research into its recommendations."

Web Page Analyzer

Testing and Validating Your Web Pages

If your pages aren't validly constructed, they may not display properly. Unfortunately, just because they validate doesn't mean they will look good in different web browsers. Here are tools to test the appearance and validate the code.

CSE HTML Validator Lite

They bill it as "...the most powerful, easy to use, and user configurable HTML, XHTML, CSS, link, spelling, and accessibility checker available for Microsoft Windows."

It's free, but it's fairly limited. If you're a serious designer, you should at least get the standard version (at $69).

CSE HTML Validator Lite

BrowserCam

It's not free and it's only cheap if you use it for one month to check out your site (if it takes longer than that...).

To see why you need it, I created my personal site using the code from the book HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS. The site looked fine in my browser on my big screen, but is less than pretty in other browsers.

BrowserCam

Making Your Web Pages Accessible

Making your web pages accessible is not only a good idea, but it's good for business.

A-Prompt

"A-Prompt (Accessibility Prompt) is a software tool designed to improve the usability of HTML documents by evaluating Web pages for accessibility barriers and then providing developers with a fast and easy way to make the necessary repairs."

A-Prompt

Cynthia Says

"Cynthia is a web content accessibility validation solution, it is designed to identify errors in design related to Section 508 standards and the WCAG guidelines. The main purpose of this portal is to educate web site developers in the development Web Based content that is accessible to all."

Cynthia Says

The Wave

Another excellent tool to check accessibility.

The Wave

AIS Web Accessibility Toolbar

I love this toolbar. It's so important that even pretend designers use it. Here's how they describe it:

The Web Accessibility Toolbar is provided by the Accessible Information Solutions (AIS) team at the National Information and Library Service (NILS) , Australia. Please read the Terms of Use before downloading and installing the Web Accessibility Toolbar.

The Web Accessibility Toolbar has been developed to aid manual examination of web pages for a variety of aspects of accessibility. It consists of a range of functions that:

  • identify components of a web page
  • facilitate the use of 3rd party online applications
  • simulate user experiences
  • provide links to references and additional resources.

AIS Web Accessibility Toolbar

HTML / Text / CSS

PSPad

This program is described as:

"The universal freeware editor, is for you if you need to:

  • work with plain text - it has a wealth of formatting functions, including a spell checker
  • create web pages - as web authoring editor PSPad contains many unique tools to save you time
  • use a good IDE for you compiler - catch and parse compiler output, integrate external help files, compare versions, and much more.....
"There is no complex install process, the program is ready to work immediately, without requiring customization. PSPad supports many file types and languages, with syntax highlighting. There are macros, clip files and templates to automate repetitive activities. An integrated HEX Editor, Project support, FTP Client, Macro Recorder, File Search/Replace, Code Explorer, code page conversion, are just some of the many possibilities that PSPad can offer you."

PSPad Home Page
PSPad Information and Download Page

WordWeb

"WordWeb Pro is a quick and powerful English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows. It can be used to lookup words from almost any Windows program, showing definitions, synonyms and related words."

It's a very nifty utility.

WordWeb

Miscellaneous Tools

ebase — for nonprofits

"ebase 2.0 is powerful and affordable database software created...for other nonprofits. ebase software and manuals are distributed free of charge, however fees are charged to access online support resources.

"With ebase 2.0 you can:

  • Integrate your data about community members in one place
  • Manage and personalize email lists within ebase
  • Track "who knows who" to build deeper relationships
  • Own your own data: Secure your data and control it in-house
  • Evaluate the cost-effectiveness of campaigns as you move donors and volunteers up the 'ladder of engagement'"

ebase

PDF995

It's a "free" suite of products (adware, which means ads will appear — see site for more details) that lets you create, edit, and secure PDFs. To kill the ads costs $9.95 each or $19.95 for all three.

PDF995