Here are 3 simple useful tools to help you keep your web site working well.
Browsershots
Browsershots lets you see how your website looks in different types and versions of web browser. It takes a few minutes to do its stuff, but it has a comprehensive list of browsers and you can’t argue with the price. It’ll never be as good as setting up a proper testing environment and installing the browsers yourself, but it’s not bad - and a great way of avoiding the trap of only ever testing on the web browser you use yourself.
Wave
When building your website, it’s important to think about how accessible it is. (An accessible website is one which usable by as many people as possible.) It’s good practice to adhere to to accessibility guidelines, and means people with disabilities will find your website easier to use. Wave is a tool to evaluate how accessible your site is - it will show you what you’re doing right, and where you can improve.
W3C link checker
It’s easy to get links right when you first add them to your website. But as your site grows, pages change. The same happens to external sites too, so links which once worked often end up at a ‘page not found’ error. This link checker scans every link on your web pages, telling you which ones work, which ones don’t - and exactly what’s wrong with them.
Thursday, 26 June 2008
Website of the day
Need a break? Here is a fun place to go
jacksonpollock.org
Has cheered my day!
(just wiggle and click your mouse)
jacksonpollock.org
Has cheered my day!
(just wiggle and click your mouse)
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Firefox 3 released
Released yesterday evening, the new browser from Mozilla aims to improve it's place as the main competitor to internet explorer. 
Firefox 3, three years in development, is faster, has a vastly reduced use of system resources, and clever new tools for your bookmarks and browser history. Most notable is the fact that Firefox 3 includes many built-in security-related features, such as great antiphishing protection, which Mozilla claims makes Firefox the most secure browser on the market today.
Mozilla are also aiming to break the Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours and are hoping for 5 million downloads on the day of release. In comparison, version 2 of Firefox managed 1.6 million downloads on the day it was originally released, 24 October, 2006.
Firefox 3 was made available for general release at 6pm (BST) and in the first couple of hours after release Mozilla's download site was either very slow or unreachable, most likely due to extraordinarily heavy demand - a good sign that they will reach their target number of downloads.
A big change is the Smart Location Bar, nicknamed the 'Awesome Bar'. If you start typing in words into the browsers address bar, Firefox 3 searches through your history and bookmarks and presents a drop-down list of recently accessed pages with those words in the address or title. It can make getting to your favourite pages a lot easier, even if you don't bookmark sites, so handy for the forgetful among us!
There are numerous add-ons available for Firefox, even easy to install in the new version, which allow you to customise your browser with reminder tools, weather reports, music player controls and more.
A word of warning for people with older operating systems, Firefox 3 does not work with Windows 95, 98 and ME.
If you haven't already tried Firefox, this new version might be what it takes to tempt people away from Internet Explorer. Upon starting up for the first time, Firefox will ask you if you wish to import anything from Internet Explorer and this is your opportunity to move your Favourites over.
Take a look at the full features or download at Mozilla's Firefox page
Firefox 3, three years in development, is faster, has a vastly reduced use of system resources, and clever new tools for your bookmarks and browser history. Most notable is the fact that Firefox 3 includes many built-in security-related features, such as great antiphishing protection, which Mozilla claims makes Firefox the most secure browser on the market today.
Mozilla are also aiming to break the Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours and are hoping for 5 million downloads on the day of release. In comparison, version 2 of Firefox managed 1.6 million downloads on the day it was originally released, 24 October, 2006.
Firefox 3 was made available for general release at 6pm (BST) and in the first couple of hours after release Mozilla's download site was either very slow or unreachable, most likely due to extraordinarily heavy demand - a good sign that they will reach their target number of downloads.
A big change is the Smart Location Bar, nicknamed the 'Awesome Bar'. If you start typing in words into the browsers address bar, Firefox 3 searches through your history and bookmarks and presents a drop-down list of recently accessed pages with those words in the address or title. It can make getting to your favourite pages a lot easier, even if you don't bookmark sites, so handy for the forgetful among us!
There are numerous add-ons available for Firefox, even easy to install in the new version, which allow you to customise your browser with reminder tools, weather reports, music player controls and more.
A word of warning for people with older operating systems, Firefox 3 does not work with Windows 95, 98 and ME.
If you haven't already tried Firefox, this new version might be what it takes to tempt people away from Internet Explorer. Upon starting up for the first time, Firefox will ask you if you wish to import anything from Internet Explorer and this is your opportunity to move your Favourites over.
Take a look at the full features or download at Mozilla's Firefox page
M D Armitage
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