Item:Browser Testing Sites
Lawd, but I'm like a broken record sometimes. If you design web sites you've got to test in more than just your fave browser or you're going to be in for some nasty surprises just when you don't want to be.
This goes for all you Internet Explorercentric Windows peeps who never test in Firefox or Chrome but it goes TRIPLE TIMES for all you crazy Mac folks that REFUSE to test yr pages until the last damn minute and then get all surprised that everything's gone to pieces.
To help avoid the HUMILIATION of discovering that your carefully crafted CSS creations crack in Chrome, freak in Firefox, suck in Safari or just plain break in Explorer test your pages using either one of these fine sites.
IE Netrenderer lets you check your pages against various versions of Internet Explorer (thought the preview can be bit rough IMHO). Or try Browsershots which will test against a huge number of browsers and generates screen grabs from each of them. (Thanks to Tim Baggaley for these.)
Both these methods are better than nothing...although they still add a bit too much of lag to the testing process but if you're using a Mac – check out the next item.
Item:Virtual Box
As noted above the average Mac based web designer has a nigh-pathological aversion to testing their pages in non-mac based clients. Given that 99.9999% of all users don't use Macs and view pages using Microsoft Internet Explorer and not Safari, this is a silly thing to do.
But do it they do because the are SCARED of Windows and will not let an ugly PC anywhere in their uber-tastefully appointed workspace.
For years I've suggested using either Parallels Desktop of Fusion VMWare as Virtual Machines so that Windows can be run on a Mac. I was a fool. Use Virtual Box from Sun. It's Free! It's fast. It's better than Paralells.
You still gotta buy a copy of Windows though. (And that will hurt.)
Video Tutorial:Introducing Adobe Configurator for Photoshop CS4
Adobe have released a fantastically useful new utility that can make Photoshop much easier to deal with.
Check out the video then download Adobe Configurator from the Adobe Labs site.
Video Tutorial:Define Sites in Dreamweaver
People seem to keep forgetting to do this before they start working in Dreamweaver.
Folks, you've gotta Define a Site before you start or things just won't work out. Check it out...
Update: Books from Amazon
Make me rich!
Buy my recommend computer books from Amazon. A handful of pearls in a vast pond of mediocrity...
Video Tutorial: Adobe CS3 – Improved Photoshop / Dreamweaver Integration
Adobe engineers, ever watchfull of your workflow ways, have significantly speeded the endlesss toing and froing between Photoshop and Dreamweaver.
Check out the video...
Video Tutorial:Rollovers with ImageReady CS2
In an astounding new departure – Video Tutorials.
Here, the first of many, hosted by those fantastic humans at youTube, is a guide to creating rollover buttons using Adobe's ImageReady CS2.
Notes:Dreamweaver
Fresh and New! Quick reference to compliment a course. Not a manual but a good set of notes reminding you how to set up a new site, create templates, use CSS etc.
Come and get it. Dreamweaver PDF.
Link: Test Multiple Versions of Internet Explorer On One Installation of Windows
You've gotta test on mutiple browsers, we all know that. But one factor that can prevent effective cross-browser testing is the annoying way that it's been impossible to have more than one copy of Internet Explorer per installation of Windows.
This means that it's easy to overlook testing on different iterations of IE, mistakenly forgetting that just 'cos it works in verision 5.5 or whatever, that it'll work in 6.0 or 5.
Three big cheers then for, Ryan Parman of www.skyzyx.com who because he's a good, generous person, has packaged various Standalone Explorers which allow you to test your pages against just about any version of Explorer you care to.
Notes: Photoshop Guide
Now added for your image editing delight - Photoshop PDF Notes. Not a tutorial but a pretty good guide to the tools and commands available.
It's in three sections:
Part One - preparing and enhancing images for print and the web
Part Two - selections, masks, paths, filters and fills
Part Three - layers, typography, design and workflow
Link: World's Biggest CSS Reference
Brian Wilson, not of the Beach Boys, has compiled and rigorously tested this comprehensive review of CSS compliance across all the major browsers. He even does HTML as well.
This is an essential site which has solved lots of problems for me and loads of other people.
Link: CSS Zen Garden
Same code different style sheets! Check out the CSS Zen Garden .
The very clever CSS Zen Garden uses multiple style sheets to format the same content in lots of inventive ways.
Article: Print Styles:
Hidden Miracle of CSS
A CSS cliche is that it allows you to separate content from presentation, but what does this mean to you?. Well here's a good 'un – how about having two stylesheets controlling the same page, one for on-screen, the second for print... For instance this page has a black background on screen - awful wasteful of ink if you ever want to print out any of my incredibly useful hints 'n' tips. So why not tell it print out in nice normal black out of white, and kill the navigation while we're at it.