Quexim

Become a better web developer in 5 minutes

Sunday, August 8th, 2010

Firebug

If you’re not using Firefox for web design, you really – really – should be. Besides being standards-compliant and supporting thousands of useful plugins, it also supports Firebug. Firebug lets you dig into your coed in real time and try out edits and changes as well as giving you a whole range of debugging tools. What’s more, Firebug also supports Yslow a Firebug plugin from Yahoo! thyat’s pure gold. It gives you accurate readouts of your page download time and has built in tools for getting more code and minifying images by using All Smush It to reduce image size without degrading quality.

Filezilla

FileZilla is an open-source FTP client which supports sFTP. FileZilla is stable, easy to use and fast. Don’t pay for an FTP client when FileZilla is available.

Download FileZilla

Snippets

Every time you write a clever line of code, discover a unique new tool or find an elegant way to write something you should save it. In the future this will save you more and more time as you go on. You should try and keep your snippets up to date and replace them as you find better alternatives. At the very least, consult a site like CSS Tricks which has a massive, ever-growing collection of freely available web design snippets.

Frameworks

Consider looking at using a framework. In CSS BluePrint is a fairly well-known standard for preventing yourself from writing repetitive code. Perhaps you’d rather use something simper? There’s plenty out there. I use a modified version of WhiteBoard CSS for WordPress, a framework which I add to with snippets I collect.

What does the client need?

The most important thing in my experience is to balance a client’s needs with your desires and their intentions. What I mean by this is that if a client needs a website selling microwaves they need it to sell, you’ll naturally want it to look fantastic and so will they, but you will be doing a better job by making a website that works rather than one that lives up the imaginary ideals of what a ‘good website’ is in your head. A good-looking, well-coded website that sells nothing is a bad website.

Personas for Firefox

Monday, January 11th, 2010

If you’re up to date enough to be running the new Firefox 3.6 release candidate, then you’ll be able to take advantage of a groovy new feature, Personas for Firefox.

Personas are basically skins, but with a better system for installing and previewing them it’s become a breeze to switch what clothes your version of Firefox is wearing.

Please note: The new release candidate may not yet be entirely stable or compatible with your plugins.  if that’s the case, just wait a few weeks until Firefox 3.6 is released officially.  If you’re impatient like me though (I’ve had no problems with this Firefox release), get downloading, the links are below.

Get the new Firefox release candidate here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.6/whatsnew/

Get Firefox Personas and the personas plugin for faster switching here: http://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/

What’s [in] a browser?

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

If the above is a question you’re not sure of the answer to, then why not take 5 minutes to stop and improve your internet experience?

An internet browser is what lets you navigate the web and view and interact with websites and web applications.  Some people are peripherally aware of browsers, though they may not be familiar with the term, others have a decent idea of the differences between the options available to them.

Here, for your delight and delectation is a quick run-down of the most popular options:

Internet Explorer

Most people’s first experience of the web comes through using Internet Explorer.  This browser is included with Microsoft’s Windows operating system and new users often [wrongly] presume this is their only option for browsing the internet.

Many people are using an out of date version of Internet Explorer, which means less compatibility with modern websites as well as more security vulnerabilities.  If you don’t want to change browsers, the very least you should do is update to the lateste version,  Internet Explorer 8.

Download the latest version of Internet Explorer at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/

Firefox

Pretty much the most popular browser overall in Europe, used by approximately 47% of people online, Firefox is fast, strong and easily adaptable.  If you currently use internet explorer, Firefox can import all your bookmarks and settings to make the transition seamless.

You’ll find many addons for Internet Explorer also have Firefox versions, so it is unlikely that you’ll encounter any problems at all in switching over.  Best of all, Firefox has a massive repository of addons that you can install in one click: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

Download firefox at http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/

Opera

Opera is a browser with a rich history, originally created in 1994. Over the past few years Opera has become totally free, eliminating the browser adverts that originally came with it. Opera has long been standards compliant, adhering strictly to internet design protocols, but remaining user friendly and fast.

Download Opera at http://www.opera.com/

Safari

Safari comes pre-installed on Apple computers.  Versions are available for Windows computers as well.  Safari performs well, though lacks the range customisable features in Firefox and Opera.

Download safari at http://www.apple.com/safari/

Google Chrome

Chrome is the most recent addition to the web browser market, created by Google. Chrome has a slightly different modus operandi to the other popular browsers and is optimised for fast speed with web applications, most notably Google’s own online office and email applications.

Whilst Chrome is probably the fastest browser on this list, it is still in its early stages and lacks the ability to customise it to any great extent.

Download Google Chrome at http://www.google.com/chrome