 A
Webmaster’s
Toolkit and Tricks
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A Webmaster’s Toolkit and Tricks
Copyright © 2004-2005 Jason OConnor
Oak Web Works
http://www.oakwebworks.com/
If you own a website, operate or run a website, or you’re a
webmaster, this article is for you. A successful website is
created and managed by a person with an effective toolkit who
knows how to use each tool. There are a huge amount of software
applications out there for people to use for creating, building,
coding and running websites. Here are the ones you’ll find in
my tool box. I’ve been using these for many years and have had
wonderful success with each one of them.
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 who owns and runs a small business website and
who has been using Microsoft Frontpage since he started. He
is not a programmer or Web designer and has been very frustrated
managing his website. Frontpage adds strange html code behind
the scenes that takes control away from the user and often produces
undesirable results. I suggested that he try Macromedia’s Dreamweaver,
which is the software I have been using for many years.
It’s excellent
and does exactly what you want, does not add extraneous code
and makes the life of a webmaster a breeze. After playing with
it for a while, my client thanked me profusely for suggesting
it. Get it at http://www.macromedia.com.
Dreamweaver Trick:
To make a global change in your website, that is, change some
specific text or html code on every page in your site, here’s
what you do: In your top menu bar, choose ‘Edit’ > ‘Find and
Replace . . .’. In the dialog box that pops up, choose ‘Entire
Local Site’ in the top dropdown box labeled ‘Find In’. This
will allow you to make a global change. Also, note the other
choices in the dropdown box. Using this feature 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 both illustrations and photos, Adobe’s
Photoshop is hands-down the best choice for graphics manipulation
for a webmaster. It has a little bit of a learning curve, but
well worth it if you want to include awesome graphics on your
website. It allows you to create buttons, borders, shapes, symbols
and of course, it allows you to change, alter, edit and improve
any kind of digital photograph. Get it at http://www.adobe.com.
Photoshop Trick:
The Web allows two main graphics file formats, .jpg and .gif.
Therefore, any image you plan to use on your website needs to
end in one of these two extensions. (The Web allows the .png
extension too, but you ought to use either .jpg or .gifs only).
So, whenever you
plan to use a graphic on your website that you created or edited
in Photoshop, you need to save it as one of these two file extensions.
And you also want your images to be optimized so they are not
large causing long download times for your site visitors.
Do this by going
to your top menu bar and choosing ‘File’ > “Save for the Web
. . .’. You will then be able to choose .gif or .jpg in the
top right of the dialog box that opens up. You’ll also be able
to see 1, 2, or 4 versions for the same image, optimized in
different ways and having different sizes 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 and drag 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
bar and 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 moving your files back and forth from
your pc to your server. Dreamweaver has a feature that allows
you to connect directly to your server to download and upload
html files and images for your website. But I prefer to have
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 files with ease and with complete control. Get
it at http://www.tucows.com.
FTP Trick:
This is more of a suggestion than a trick. To make changes in
your html files, always download the latest file(s) from your
website’s server down to your local machine first. Then make
your changes, edits or updates, save your work, and upload the
file(s) back to your server. In other words, do your entire
html editing 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 site visitors don’t see files ‘in progress’ or errors.
** Toolkit Item 4 – WebTrends **
This tool is vital for anyone 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, how they got there, where
they went once they arrived and a huge amount of other critical
data.
Get it at http://www.webtrends.com.
** Toolkit Item 5 – WebPosition Gold **
If you want to know how your website is ranking in the search
engines, this tool is a must have. It allows you to set up a
profile for your website asking you to enter keyword phrases
and choose search engines. By running the program after you
complete your profile, it will tell you where you rank for each
engine for each keyword phrase. If you find that you’re not
ranking well, you can make changes to your website and run the
program again in a few days or weeks to determine if your rankings
have improved.
Get it at http://www.webposition-gold-2.net.
If you purchase these tools and learn to use them properly,
you’ll have everything you need to create and 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 them to
be extremely helpful. Another webmaster ‘trick’ I use is to
utilize great websites that contain excellent tips, tricks and
resources for creating and managing websites. Below is a partial
list of
the websites I visit regularly.
* Webmonkey – http://www.webmonkey.com
* HTML Goodies - http://www.htmlgoodies.com
* World Wide Web Consortium - http://www.w3c.org
* Webmaster Directory - http://www.webdevsites.com
* Free HTML Validator - http://www.feedvalidator.org
* Webmaster resources from Webmaster Toolkit. -
http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com
* Webmaster.org - http://www.webmaster.org
* The Webmaster's Reference Library -
http://www.webreference.com
* SitePoint : New Articles, for Web Developers and Designers
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http://www.sitepoint.com
* Webmaster's Color Lab - http://www.visibone.com/colorlab
* SiteProNews - http://www.sitepronews.com
* Webmaster Tool Collection -
http://www.webmaster-tool-collection.com
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Jason O'Connor is president of Oak Web Works
(http://www.oakwebworks.com) where you can get a free webmaster
newsletter and he also runs Sports & Broadway Tickets
http://www.bestshowticketslasvegas.com
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