Informative Writings
» List of Useful Webpages
For anyone with an interest in designing and coding websites, here is a list of resources that I personally find useful. Please note that I’ll be continuously adding new links to the page as I browse the internet, so this will always be a work in progress.
I use this page to figure out whether or not certain tags are deprecated. It can be helpful when I want to make my pages semantically correct but don’t know whether I’m allowed to use certain tags. When you get the time, you should take a look at this page and carefully view each tag to check its current status.
For coders, it can be a challenging task to always have good, efficient coding. However, it’s always worth it in the end, because firstly, shorter coding takes up less space on your pages (meaning you’re using less memory). Secondly, you wind up saving a lot of time (and frustration) when you make yourself type less. Thirdly, when learning to write shorter coding, you become a better coder in that you learn how to write coding more quickly and effectively. The above website shows you all the ins and outs of writing shorter coding and is worthy of bookmarking.
Are you ever in need of a layout, but the only thing preventing you from making one is lack of inspiration? This website is a collective of other webpages that feature some pretty cool CSS designs. If you’d like, you can take a look at them and use them as fuel for your own ideas. Just remember to never directly copy anyone.
This is one of my favorite tutorial websites, and it was created by a person who actually knows what she's talking about and who doesn't create tutorials for the sake of it. All the tutorials there are quality, and the guides mainly cover coding-related topics such as HTML, CSS, and PHP.
Need to use a few characters that aren’t available on your keyboard? Don’t sweat it. The above link leads to a page containing numerous codes for all sorts of characters.
IE NetRenderer: Browser Compatibility Checker
Do you ever have a new design, but you don’t know if it works in older versions of Internet Explorer? Ordinarily, this would be a problem. Considering that newer versions of IE always overwrite older ones, normally it’s impossible to test on an old IE browser–which is quite an issue, seeing as a large portion of IE users use IE6.
Luckily, this service can take screenshots of any website in versions as far back as IE 5.5. All you have to do is type in the address of the webpage you’re editing, and it’ll do it for you–ideal for easy, no-hassle layout testing.
When you’re up late at night finishing a layout, and you’re too lazy to open Itunes and pay a buck for a song, Seeqpod can be your best friend! All you have to do is type in a song you’d like to listen to and play it. No membership is required, and you can even make your own playlists.
If you’re ever thirsting for insight related to coding or design, check out A List Apart–a website that focuses on web standards and is constantly striving to inform the visitor of new practices and ideas. I check it out every so often to view the articles; the webpage updates fairly frequently.
This is one of my favorite coding-related websites, because it’s informative and taught me how to use CSS in ways I never imagined were possible in languages other than Javascript. Be sure to visit this page and check out all the tutorials linked–the things they teach you how to do are really cool!
Those are all the links I’ve provided for now. Whenever I find a cool new website, I’ll be sure to add it here for all of you to enjoy.