Web Page Tools

I have compiled a list of programs for those people using the Macintosh platform who wish to create web pages themselves. There are similar products for PC users, but I have not used them myself and thus cannot say much about them. I can suggest several Windows products for you to try, however.

• BBEdit - the best text editor I have ever used. Does everything you could need and more. An incredible product. Also available as freeware which is less powerful but still more than you need. Handles all your text for web pages and anything else. It will open any text file and let you do things you didn't know could be done!
• Fetch - this is an FTP program, used to load files up to your website, or to download them for examination or manipulation. It is my favorite FTP application, quick, powerful, and very well designed. I use it exclusively for all FTP work, which includes all web page updating.
• GraphicConverter - this program will do almost anything to an image, either GIF or JPEG. It is one of the most powerful and versatile options for manipulating pictures to get the effect you need. Scaling, trimming, rotation, color changing and enhancement, brightness/contrast, previewing, the list is endless. If you want to do serious work on images, you need this one!
• GifBuilder - a great application for designing both static and animated GIF images. You can work on individual images, create new ones, set transparency, frame delays, flip images, transition frames, add or remove colors, set looping, change background color, etc. You can open other image formats and convert them to GIF. A fine program.
• Adobe PhotoDeluxe - a very complete suite of image manipulation, but then what would you expect from the baby brother of PhotoShop? I prefer GraphicConverter for general use, but Adobe has certain features like cloning, feathering, drop shadows, smudging, and other special effects that you just can't do in other applications. This or PhotoShop should be in your toolbox if you do custom work on images.
• Matt Paint - a simple but powerful paint program for designing your own images and modifying existing ones. It has all the features you need, while being small and easy to use. It has a great pixel editor. Only 200K!
• Painting - this is another paint program, larger and more versatile than Matt Paint that will let you do a few more things, like scaling, rotation, changing brightness, blur, etc. A very complete painting application.
• Gif Batcher - this application takes GIF images and makes them smaller by compression, removing unused colors, deleting comments, etc. It can often cut the size of a file in half or more, which means it loads twice as fast on your page. Since these modifications can change the image in ways you did not intend, always make a copy of the original first. Check out the image thoroughly before discarding the original, or keep it in an archive.
• ColorFinder - a program to help you choose colors. It has an eyedropper that enables you to sample any color on your screen from any source, as well as providing hexcode for colors to use on your page. It will also let you know if a color is websafe and makes it easy to pick one that is.
• Gif Analyzer - a program that opens GIF images, showing you the image, each frame of animated images, file size, color tables, transparency, background color, interlacing, disposal, frame delay, load time, etc. Useful to check GIF images, or preview those in your files without putting them on a page.
• Smoothie - this application will smooth the pixels or ragged images by using anti-aliasing. I use it to clean-up large fonts used for headings and logos. Works in any choice of resolution, color or gray tones
• TopoMouse - this little program will measure the size of any image or distance on your screen in pixels. Very handy at times.
• Transparency - although you can use other programs to change or determine the transparency of an image, if that is all you need to do this little application is a quick, efficient way to do it.
• IconToGif - this does just what it says, changes any Icon to a GIF image which you can then use on your web page.
• HTML Colors - this is another useful color finder. You can display text and link colors on different background colors to see how the combination looks.
• HTML Vocabulary - a handy reference for HTML tags. It doesn't take the place of reading some good books, but it is a convenient reminder of the various tags and the proper format for using them.

These applications are my main tools for designing and creating web pages. They are low in cost but high in value. If you want to try any of them I would suggest Tucows or Info-Mac or Download.com as good places to search.

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