Owner: Designer Knowledge blog - designerknowledge.net URL:http://designerknowledge.blogspot.com Join Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2007 08:24:07 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: A web design blog for beginners and experts. Links to the best freeware, free alternatives to expensive
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How to download YouTube videos to DVD 2007-12-27 06:21:00 I have had many people ask me how to download video from sites such as YouTube
, and the simplest way I have found is to enter them in KeepVid.com. Once entered, right click and choose save as on the link provided (make sure to enter a unique filename and change the extension to .FLV)The video will then be downloaded in the FLV (Flash Video) format. This is a format of compressed video that is designed for the web. FLV is not the most ideal format to work with as it has been compressed and resized for fast loading on YouTube - meaning it is a last resort if you would like to view the video on DVD. Always search sites such as Google Video to see if there is a higher quality version available (often YouTube videos
are appropriated from other sources, so look around!) I would also recommend
Div Layouts for Myspace 2007-12-27 01:55:00 I'm not the biggest Myspace user, but I have had requests to design and build CSS layouts for Myspace before. These initially were a challenging and demeaning task, but then I discovered some helpful sites on the web to assist with this process. By the way, if you are not familiar with Myspace CSS layouts, they are layouts that use modified CSS code to change the default behaviour and look of a Myspace profile layout. The best starting advice I can give is to learn some of the MySpace custom CSS codes which will help you understand the code you will be generating later on. Then you should visit #bbzSpace Div Overlay Generator which is a graphical generator which will allow you to create the beginning of your customised myspace profile. Once you have the basic parts Read more:Layouts
Improve your Search engine ranking 2007-12-27 00:59:00 There are a number of ways to increase the traffic through your website, the primary one being to improve your SEO (search engine optimization.) Through the use of a meta tag generator you can list relevant keywords and output them to be pasted in the HTML code of your website. The best way to attract new visitors to your website is to use terms that are current and popular. You can track these by visiting websites such as Google Trends which list the most commonly searched terms and divides them by region, city and language. Alexa is also another SEO resource, which will allow you to check on the rating of your website in comparison to the rest of the web. (Update 21/1/08) It has been brought to my attention (thanks to the anonymous commenter!) that Alexa bases the statistics solel Read more:Improve
, Search
Free website templates 2007-11-25 05:46:00 FreeWebsiteTemplates.com has a range of free templates which include the original Photoshop (PSD) files in the package. This means you can use the layout as a start off point for your website
, and will give inexperienced Photoshop users a head start. Freelayouts.com also has a selection of HTML layouts for you to peruse.
Freeware broken link checker for your website 2007-11-25 04:54:00 Xenu's Link Sleuth is Freeware
for PC that allows you to scan a website
for broken links. This is a time consuming process to do manually, and if you have many links this program may save you hours. (PC, Freeware) For the Mac users, Integrity allows you to visually check your website for broken links and redirections. (Mac, Freeware)
Freeware Font Mangers 2007-11-25 04:04:00 Font Frenzy for PC is a freeware font manager for Windows that allows you to selectively install and uninstall fonts on your computer to speed up performance and boot up times. You can revert your installed fonts back to the default set that come with Windows and then selectively view and install ones you need. This is a must if you have a lot of fonts. (PC, Freeware
.) For the Mac users, I have found a font manager called FontExplorerX which assists in the management and installation of fonts.
Photoshop tutorials/tips 2007-11-19 04:41:00 Here are some links to Photoshop
tutorial websites I have used before: Photoshop Support Tutorialized Good Tutorials Check out Trevor Morris' site for a set of useful guide to the Photoshop keyboard shortcuts as well as a downloadable set of alternative keys that add keyboard shortcuts for many common menu functions (such as cropping, level adjustment etc.) The site also features a Photoshop cheat sheet for all versions from CS through to CS3. Shutterbug has a 2 page article on how to speed up Photoshop loading time by modifying settings to perform optimally on your computer. Those who have recently upgraded to Photoshop Cs3 will benefit from the use of the "Highlight new features" workspace. Click "Workspace" then "What's new in CS3" t
Free open source content management system 2007-11-19 04:18:00 Joomla! - Joomla is a free CMS (content management system) for content publishers on the world wide web. Rich in features, this fully customisable and features the ability to utilise plug-ins to extend the functionality of the system. Definitely recommended for those who create websites for their customers, and are looking for a free alternative that is well documented and supported on the web. Joomla replaces and automates the process of creating/programming a back end for your website and features a number of free built in website templates. Check out the Joomla! Wikpedia page for further information.
How to accept payment on your website 2007-11-17 00:45:00 Paypal is the easiest way to securely accept credit cards, sell products/services or take donations from your website
visitors. The user is given a secure online form to fill out and is then returned to your website upon completion. Paypal also has a Shopping Cart feature, which allows your customers to buy multiple items conveniently.
Free image vector converter 2007-11-12 19:48:00 VectorMagic - VectorMagic is a free online image vectorizer. In other words, it allows you to upload any image and it will provide a vectorized version for you to download. Definitely useful for design projects where you need to scale images to a larger size. Read more:converter
Firefox for web designers 2007-11-10 03:53:00 Firefox
features the ability to add customisable add-ons and plugins to enhance your browsing experience. It allows you to browse the web securely and more quickly than most other browsers. Once you have grabbed the latest version of Firefox, I recommend downloading the following Firefox addons: Web Developer - Adds useful tools for web designers to the Firefox browser interface. Allows you to view the page with scripts/CSS/images disabled, edit the CSS, view the page as it would appear in other window dimensions and many other features too numerous to mention. All-in-one Sidebar - This useful tool allows you to view the current page's source code alongside the page itself. It also puts the downloads toolbar in a side window, which is preferable over the Downl
Freeware clipboard utility 2007-11-10 02:57:00 ClipX is a freeware Clipboard extension for Windows. It allows you to view your previous clipboard entries (text and graphics). It also features a search function for older entries. Definitely useful for web designers! Read more:Freeware
Freeware file comparison utility 2007-11-10 02:25:00 ExamDiff - ExamDiff is a file comparison
tool that allows you to compare two text files side by side. This can come in handy when comparing HTML/CSS files between versions and can save many hours of frustration. It features a full search utility and allows you to edit the files from within the program. A full feature list is available here. (Freeware
, PC)
Open Source vector graphics editor 2007-11-10 02:17:00 Inkscape - Is an open source vector graphics program. This can be used to create logos, graphics and layouts for your websites. The interface is similar to Illustrator and is available as freeware for Mac, PC and Linux. Another interesting program I have discovered is called Artweaver which is a graphics editor designed to simulate natural brush tools. (Freeware, PC) Read more:Source
Freeware HTML compressor 2007-10-16 09:22:00 Absolute HTML Compressor - This program is designed to clean up your HTML, remove unnecessary whitespace and to reduce overall file size. It allows you to compress entire website folders and to save backups in the process. (PC, Freeware
)
Freeware image viewer 2007-10-16 09:14:00 Irfanview - One of the first programs I recommend to people who design for the web. This small, fast Windows freeware can view almost any image format (including Photoshop PSDs and other high-res image formats) and has plugin support to enable it to open video and document files. Irfanview also has in-built image editing tools such as a sharpen filter, colour adjustment and colour correction, which come in handy for last minute adjustments to images. Click here to see the full list of supported file types. (PC, freeware) Read more:Freeware
Free online file conversion 2008-10-30 08:10:00 Zamzar is a free service which converts a range of formats and sends them conveniently to your e-mail. Read more:online
Free codec pack for Windows XP 2008-10-30 07:49:00 The Combined Community Codec Pack is a frequently updated codec package which will cure most video/sound codec issues - click here for a list. It comes with two utilities - Media Player Classic and Zoomplayer which are both freeware media players.From the CCCP FAQ: "the CCCP was created to replace the video playback packs provided by several anime fansub groups in favor of a single reliable pack c Read more:Windows
Useful Firefox addons for Web Designers 2008-10-30 07:36:00 Screengrab Saves entire webpages as imagesFireshot is a Firefox
extension that creates screenshots of web pages. Unlike other extensions, this plugin provides a set of editing and annotation tools, which let users quickly modify captures and insert text and graphical annotations. Such functionality will be especially useful for web designers, testers and content reviewers. It's possible to choose Read more:Designers
, Useful
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