Favourite Website Resources
In order to make a decent website, you need decent website resources and tools. There’s a lot of bad ones out there, but there’s also some gems. Here I present to you my favourites (gems, obviously!) and why they rock. I hope these can be of some use to you for your own website development needs.
Website Management
GoFTP
GoFTP is a free FTP program that you can use to upload files to your web space. I had been looking for a free FTP client for quite some time and found this. It’s got the features that you’d find in a program you’d have to pay for and I find the file transfer speed is quicker than any other clients I have used.
Wordpress
Wordpress is a blog/content management system script. It is very useful and used by many bloggers. I use it not just for my blogging needs, but for creating pages too. I love Wordpress because it is easy to use, easy to customise and very versatile. There is also many awesome plugins that can be installed to make Wordpress even more useful. I have listed my favourites on this page.
Web Page/Graphic Design
Notepad++
I don’t use any fancy web page editing software (Dreamweaver, Frontpage, etc.). You don’t really need to. Notepad++ is a handy web page/programming editing tool. Coding is in different colours so you are able to pick out bugs easily, line numbers are displayed too. This is especially handy for coding in programming languages such as PHP. It’s not just your average Notepad program. Best of all, it is free of charge!
Photoshop
Photoshop is my baby, oh how I love it. It is a graphics creation program that is full of wonderful features. You are able to make superb website graphics with it. I use it for almost all of my graphic creation needs. There’s just so many things you can do with it. If you’re really into your graphics then give it a go.
Paint.NET
If you can’t afford Photoshop or need to create less extravagant graphics then this graphics package is for you. It’s amazing for a free program (yes, free!) because it has features you’d only expect to find in pricey packages. You are able to work in layers and create many different effects. It also loads up pretty quickly. It’s wonderful for pixel graphic creation, which is what I use it for. It is worth the download, believe me!
Tutorials
Melissa’s Dynamic Wordpress Sidebar
You may have noticed lately that more web designers are using multiple sidebars. It makes sites much more user-friendly having sub-navigation. Melissa’s tutorial is just what you need if you want to have changing sidebars in Wordpress. I found another method and used it, but it got tedious having to edit files and keep adding code to make sure that new pages I created had the correct sidebar showing. This tutorial isn’t like that, it’s a much more easier method and you don’t have to keep editing page after page. I now use Melissa’s method. Two big thumbs up from me!
Wordpress Plugins
Akismet
Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. This is a wonderful plugin that works a treat. I have tried other anti-spam plugins before, but they are no match to Akismet. No blog spam has ever gone through since I have had this installed.
DoFollow
In Wordpress all comment links have a little tag called “rel=nofollow”. Apparently this is a way of reducing spam, however it is a flawed method since spam doesn’t rely on listings in search engines, it relies on clicks. The only thing having the no follow tag will do is prevent your visitors from receiving hits on search engines through their comments. I want to be nice and let my beloved readers get hits (aww), so I have this plugin installed. It gets rid of the no follow tags in comment links.
SCF2 Contact Form
This handy plugin allows you to have a contact form through Wordpress. It uses the Wordpress comment routine to filter and approve messages. It is like a private messaging system, you can view correspondence through the Wordpress admin. You can view e-mails and reply to them without having to go into your e-mail client. It can also work with Akismet (see above) or Bad Behaviour (another anti-spam plugin) to filter out spam. It’s very easy to install and use, it is the most useful form plugin I have seen yet.
Search Unleashed
Wish you could use your blog search for not only your blog posts, but your pages and comments too? This is the plugin for you. When somebody searches, their keywords will be highlighted. This is a good plugin because your visitors will able to perform more broader searches since more content will be available to them. Good, eh?
