Archive for the ‘Website Development’ Category
Monday, November 10th, 2008 |
by Andrew Whiteman
1. Smart Objects
The Photoshop integration which was begun in Dreamweaver CS3 has been enhanced in CS4 to offer via the use of Adobe’s Smart Objects technology. A Photoshop file can be imported directly into Dreamweaver and will automatically come in as a smart object.
Photoshop images are can be inserted using the same techniques as inserting any other image file: Insert - Image; dragging from the Files panel; dragging from the Assets panel; or using the Insert toolbar. A Photoshop-style Optimise window automatically appears and you can choose the settings appropriate for that particular image usually GIF, JPEG or PNG.
Once the image has been imported, an icon is displayed in the upper left of the image indicating that it is a smart object. Also, in the Property Inspector, the location of the original PSD file is shown in a box marked “Original”.
The fact that the image is a smart object means that if we resize it in Dreamweaver, it will automatically be re-optimised and a new version of the image will be generated with the new dimensions. (In previous versions, resizing an image would mean that the browser was responsible for resizing leading to poor image quality.
Photoshop images are can be inserted using the same techniques as inserting any other image file: Insert - Image; dragging from the Files panel; dragging from the Assets panel; or using the Insert toolbar. A Photoshop-style Optimise window automatically appears and you can choose the settings appropriate for that particular image usually GIF, JPEG or PNG.
Once the image has been imported, an icon is displayed in the upper left of the image indicating that it is a smart object. Also, in the Property Inspector, the location of the original PSD file is shown in a box marked “Original”.
In Dreamweaver CS4, the Property Inspector contains buttons which allow you to switch between HTML and CSS options. When working in the CSS options, you can now target a specific CSS rule before choosing an attribute or, if necessary, create a new rule.
3. Improvements to CSS styles
HTML is a notoriously sparse environment which relies on files created with other technogies to add functionality to web pages. Typical examples of related files are server-side includes, CSS, JavaScript and XML. Dreamweaver now includes a feature called “Related Files” which enables you to edit the content of such files, without having to open them separately, and to instantly see the effect of your changes on the main file.
In Dreamweaver CS4, the Property Inspector contains buttons which allow you to switch between HTML and CSS options. When working in the CSS options, you can now target a specific CSS rule before choosing an attribute or, if necessary, create a new rule.
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Thursday, September 4th, 2008 |
by Crystal Eikanger
Life isn’t really like a box of chocolates; it’s more like a restless ocean. There is an ebb and flow to everything. Every day waves tumble through our lives. Some are huge and will crush you into the rocks on the shore, and other times they are no more than ripples that are barely noticeable.
Problems must be faced as they are. If you have a big problem, even if its big, its better to confront it than to ignore it. That’s not easy, I know, some problems may cause you to really struggle but at least you try. Face the problems and you will be living your life on “calm waters”.
Working as a freelance worker on Rent A Coder can be like riding the swells and troughs of the waves on the ocean. It has its ups and downs. If you aren’t careful in studying the waves of communication between your buyer, or your coder, you may find yourself down in the trough, and drowning in arbitration. Can this be avoided? Yes!
There is an amicable arbitration called self-mediation. This one is often unavoidable as many times we tend to use it. However, formal arbitration can’t be avoided and is often the cause of many struggles and disappointments for Rent a Coder users.
However, formal arbitration is there and nothing can’t prevent you to enter into arbitration, nothing EXCEPT for a big secret that RACsuccess shares with you on a report on formal arbitration. This secret is a huge secret never revealed before that really explains how you can avoid formal arbitration. Written by Luis Lazo, this report is a must have for everyone!
If you have read Rent A Coder’s legally binding Custom Software Seller/Buyer Agreement, then you know that mediation is a diplomatic negotiation between both parties where both parties compromise and win; and arbitration is more like going to a court trial where somebody is going to lose. So, you can probably understand why formal arbitration is feared by anyone in Rent a Coder. It can compromise the rating of the coder or the buyer, even though arbitration really is a good process for protecting both parties’ interests.
Knowing this, Luis Lazo shares on the free 14 page reort on formal arbitration how anyone whether coder or buyer can avoid formal arbitration. There is just one single and simple secret that everyone should know. This report is a must have for anyone, even for anyone who thinks he/she knows it all!
Also, when you sign up at RACsuccess to get this free report, you will get access to 40 free videos that teach you everything you need to know about how to navigate through Rent A Coder’s site tools and how to find that Custom Software Seller/Buyer Agreement that you really need to read, if you haven’t already. After you have read the free “Formal arbitration and how to avoid it” report from RACsuccess, you won’t need to worry about getting pulled out to sea in an arbitration undertow.
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Thursday, September 4th, 2008 |
by Chris Channing
Web host companies are growing in size, and are in high demand due to the massive amount of web sites being created daily. Free web hosting and commercial paid hosting is available for all users.
Free web hosts are popular amongst people that are learning to build a site and want to make something quick and simple. Free web hosts rely on advertising and other methods to support their servers to allow free space for users. These ads can be tedious and annoying to certain users, but many do not mind them. Bandwidth limits are usually around 5MB or 1GB for some. Large sites should not use a free web host. To find a good free web host, choose one that meets the amount of space you need, and one that does not use too many ads.
If you need to upload large single files at a time, you should find a free web host that will allow this. Most free hosts do not allow large single files at one time, so larger files would need to be broken up into bits before being uploaded. A good free web host will have good access rates, not slow or unreliable ones. While free web hosts generally have bugs and unreliable rates of access, its possible to find good ones that are not like that.
If you want to build a large and fancy site, a paid web host is pretty much necessary. They offer a massive amount of options for users, and are much easier to work with and customize. A great reputation is an important factor for paid or commercial web hosts. Consider the number of users that are happy, and the uptime speeds as well. Its not recommended to use a web host that has an uptime speed of anything less than 99.5%.
While free web hosts have very few options, a good paid host should have the exact opposite. There should be a wide range of bandwidth options available for users, as well as payment options, and tech support options. Its very important to choose a web host that has an always open tech support, and even more important to find one that has reliable tech support that can actually help you.
A few other things a good web host will have available to you are, refunds if something goes wrong on their part, a few options for payment, and powerful servers. Things do happen to web host companies, and if they flub and mess up your site because of something on their part, they should refund you your cash. Different payment options allow you test drive it for a period of time, instead of being trapped in a one year payment. Its always good to pay for one month first, and if you like it, extend that payment for however long you want.
Closing Comments
If you are looking for a good web host, use the above suggestions for what a good web host will have for their company. Everything is dependant on you and what you want!
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Thursday, September 4th, 2008 |
by Jordan FeRoss
What is the definition of SEO web design? By definition SEO stands for search engine optimization. Search engine optimization is a complex process that depends on many factors that calculate the position of a website. Most SEO companies usually only do search engine optimization to a currently designed website. Furthermore, web design companies only do web design and simply do not have the knowledge of SEO. But a group of Texas Web Designers from “Reach A Web” have mastered both!
You are often left with a website that either looks really nice but with awful Google placement, or a website that was designed by someone and the SEO Company that you hired has placed a bunch of content and keywords that took away from your design. Why? Why can’t you have both? The answer to that question is simple: Redesign your website using a company that can do both from the start. Starting over is the only way to locking a successful website. With the Texas Web Designers of Reach A Web you can finally get the best of both worlds.
Why should you limit yourself to a website that offers very little of either exposure or looks? Your business is great and your ideas are even greater. You owe it to yourself to have both the presentation and exposure to secure your next online sale!
As SEO companies can charge upwards of $2,200/mo, this team of Texas web designers charge “2 for the price of one” for work completed done in Texas. You can come out with a complete website and SEO package for under $4000.00. Why don’t we do the math? A custom website will cost you somewhere around $3,500 minimum. Tack on another $600 for your initial SEO report (takes them about 15 minutes to complete). In addition, you have another $700.00/mo for 6 months of SEO to worry about (and that can take up to 18 months). That is a total of $8,300.00. That alone is a savings of 4,300.00 while you get an ethically designed website that complies with all the codes of ethics of Google.
Let’s face it; SEO companies are not web design companies in nature. Those expertises are divided in two: SEO specialists and Web Design specialists. That is of course until you find a company that is truly good at both. The Texas web designers at REACH A WEB are the one of the few groups that can do both. They listen, care, and deliver with excellence.
Just think and take a deep breath. Give your web presence a moment and think of the opportunities. Now, give your presentation a thought. Are you really maximizing your website’s potential? Don’t short change yourself on either. Your website is your store today and tomorrow. Find a good web designer that can accomplish both the sharp SEO work and the web design evn if it has be done from the ground up. You will simply thank me later!
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Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 |
by Matt Hedges
A web host facility allows anyone to make their own piece of the internet for anyone else to visit and see. People can load some documents, documents, data, messages or interesting bits of information in this area. There are some web host firms, which will offer room on their operator in addition to providing an Internet connection to you, commonly in a center for data. Some net hosting firms also place a connection to the Internet on servers that are not owned by them, in addition to providing space on data centers. A collocation is the term given to this style of hosting. To take advantage of this situation and obtain this space, a user has to have an internet connection and have other servers to use. It offers an entrance to your documents and to Mail server for other people on the World Wide Web, allowing them to see the site and swap emails with you. Normally the more basic web host will offer a limited amount of files and storage to their customers but more advanced firms will offer a lot more services. These could include emails and script installation tools.
Web host features you should be aware of:
You must consider your budget needs and what storage and bandwidth you require before choosing what web host features you want. If you have an e-commerce site you will need a payment facility. This can be done through SSL, Secure Sockets Layer, encryption and the addition of a shopping cart. If you run a forum or discussion board services like PHP or Perl are useful as is CGI scripting. In addition you may wish to be able to access database such as Microsoft SQL Server, Postgre SQL or even MySQL. All of this means your initial tasks should be to focus on what you need to have to run your site as extra costs equals extra money. This means knowing how much bandwidth you’ll want, what limit of storage space and will you need facilities like protection from spam or assistance with building your site.
It is very essential to find a reliable web hosting company that have the ability to cope up with troubles on system breakdowns. There are certain guidelines, with the help of which you can avoid the common mistakes while searching a web site hosting company.
Somethings you need to Do:
Undertake a lot of research: Study all the different web host firms and compile a list of the features you need. Compare the firms and how they match your list. See which one offers the best deal. Remember to search forums and ask webmasters and other users for what they think about a company. Read online reviews of companies and see what other users say. Study the awards and achievements if a company. Try to find out what data centers they use, how many customers they serve, how many staff members they employ and what support they offer. If you can, discuss matters with a client who already uses the company.
Create a list of what you require: Items like bandwidth size and space for storage are vital for all site owners and a list should be made of what you really need. A higher level of these functions would be good but is it worth paying for? If you don’t really need them could you use the money in other ways? If you believe you may need these features but are not definite, try and find a host that offers some room to grow. This will give you a better chance of avoiding big bills for exceeding your usage limits.
Do have a good back up plan: It is wise to plan a back up support in advance to deal with any kind of system breakdowns or other related problems. You can not always rely on your web hosting company to keep backups of your sites, as most of them don’t. However, in certain cases the new companies do keep the backups. Keeping good back ups ensure that you will suffer less amount of data loss and downtime if you ever do have problems with your host and plan to move somewhere else.
Do check for contact support: Before deciding on a particular web hosting company, contact the potential company and ask them a few simple queries about their service, expertise and experience. Look out how promptly as well as the way they provide you the answers. The main objective of this is to estimate their response time as well as the quality of their reply.
Somethings you Must not Do:
Do not base your decision on only the cost: Choosing a host firm always by price is not a sensible option. The saying you get what you pay for is very true for some web host providers. This may be okay for some but you will be very unlikely to get a quality product or service from these firms. A quick way to consider price and relativity is to think of paying 0.50 cents for 1 GB of bandwidth. If high quality matters to you, try a price about three or four times higher.
Ignore the chance to use a free web host: If you want people to take your firm seriously, avoid this common mistake. Free web hosts are able to offer this service by offering adverts on the site. It is obvious that customers are not a fan of this and many users will not consider you a serious firm if you do this. It is also true that some of the advertisements on the site can cause damage to your computer. This is another thing consumers disapprove of and will weaken your reputation. If you are getting customer credit card information and want to be seen as reputable it is always best to work with a web hosting professional.
Do not trust customer testimonials blindly: It is advisable not to trust the customer testimonials published at the site of your potential web hosting company. Most of them are self created or just a part of the whole story, thereby better not be taken at face value. Instead, you can read the reviews or better go to the various online web hosting forums and speak to the webmasters, who have been using or have earlier used the services of the same company. This will give you better and authentic information about the company’s services. However, if the web hosting company lists contact information as well as the web site of the testimonials listed then they may be reliable.
Avoid looking for free domain incorporated with web hosting: Most of people have a tendency to go for web hosting companies that offer free domain along with its hosting plans. But it is always better to keep the domain separate from the hosting company. Purchasing hosting plan along with free domain is fine as long as the domain is registered in your name and belongs to you. However, in most of the cases, such companies register the domain to their name and just let you to borrow it. Hence, there always remains the risk that they might hold the domain as hostage if in case you decide to move to a different web hosting company.
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Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 |
by Chris Channing
When a business starts to expand their services to meet new clients, they will need to bridge the gap to the Internet. The Internet is a vast marketplace that opens a small business up to many opportunities- but this is going to be tough to achieve without a proper web design and development project. Don’t fret, however, as options in web design are quite compelling.
Because small business is comprised of so little help and has much to do for the owner, web design isn’t usually something that can be learned over a short period of time. Even for those who already know how to design websites, the process is going to be very time consuming, which could draw attention away from the business itself. Thus, it’s usually best to outsource the development to a web design company.
Sophisticated designs are important for a small business, so as to not “scare” any potential clients away due to a lack of intelligent design. Thus, small businesses should tell web designers who are consulting for them to keep things clean, simple, and functional. Anything more might be a burden to potential clients. It’s very possible to drive away extra profits simply because a design was too gaudy.
Not everything in web design is “just for looks.” Web development is another aspect that solves problems through easier applications. An application may be used to stay in contact with customers via an online contact form, for instance. Back-end applications may even track details of the business, or even track where visitors are coming.
As the industry goes, most small businesses will pay a lot more in the physical world for a web design job than they would if they purchased online services. Real world businesses know that customers that visit them are probably not too keen on web design elements, so they can charge extra where possible. Internet web design companies also face more competition, so they have to likewise stay competitive in pricing.
Web design and development is a big money-maker for those who take part in it, but don’t expect to cut too many costs in the process. A cheap web design service will give you exactly what you pay for, while the “big dogs” will have a service that is on par with big business designs. In the end, one can easily spend hundreds to thousands of dollars, depending on what is requested by the small business owner.
In Conclusion
Remember that there are more than just a few web design companies out and about- and always ask around for a few samples on previous works. In the end, let your instincts tell you where to take your small business next.
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Friday, August 29th, 2008 |
by Dave Jones
WordPress is now the best software for designing, building and maintaining a website. Originally developed and designed for bloggers to create personal blogs, WordPress is now the world’s most popular blogging platform. Recently WordPress has been further developed and enhanced so that now it is also the best system for creating any type of website you might need. And it is free!
With open source software like WordPress you can build as many websites or blogs you want for free. Do not waste time and energy looking for other website builder solutions as the Wordpress software will provide all that you need.
Wodpress is design for ease of use for everyone including those that do not have special technical skills. If you can use the software in Microsoft Office you will have no problem with the WordPress Content Management Software.
There is no requirement for knowledge of source code such as php or html and you save on costs as you can set up your site yourself. Just build your own website for free as the only cost to you will be your time and even this will not be much after you have learned how to build you first website.
It is recommended that you host your new site with a good web hosting company, install the software to build your website and then look for a Theme that will determine the style of your new site. There are many free themes available and because they are so easy to install you can test many before deciding on the right one for your new website.
Even if you decide that you want a better theme for your site in a few months time it will be just as easy to change. You may even decide to buy one of the more complex premium themes to give your site that really professional look. If you want a great looking website then WordPress is definitely the way to go.
Special pieces of software called Plugins are also available to enable you to add extra functionality to your website. These too are also easily installed by a single mouse click and you never see the code but just the enhancements to your website that the plugin provides. Most plugins are also free and can really add more power to your website in many different ways.
An RSS feed is provided as standard with WordPress and this means that any new content you write will be quickly notified to the search engines, such as Google, resulting in effective web site promotion to new visitors, who will also be able to subscribe to your RSS feed for future updates. This type of website promotion works well with all the search engines and you will quickly get higher rankings with a WordPress site.
Do not even look at the competition, but choose WordPress now as the best website builder software for you new sites. It is simple to use, powerful, stylish, versatile and best of all it is free!
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