01
Jul
2008
I used to take screenshots of websites with Print Screen and then in Photoshop crop the part that I wanted to keep, but I always figured that there had to be a better way. So after I installed Firefox 3 I went looking for good extensions and I came upon Screengrab! created by Andy Mutton. This excellent Firefox extension lets you take a screenshot of a selected portion of the page, what is visible on the screen, or the whole page scrolled down all the way to the bottom. This last option is fantastic when you need a screenshot of the entire page, which might be several screenfuls all the way to the footer, and there is no cutting and pasting involved. The extension automatically removes all of the browser chrome from the image so you will not see the navigation bar and tabs at the top or the scrollbar to the right. You have the option of either saving the screenshots as PNG or JPG images, or copy the image to the Clipboard so that you can paste it in your favorite image editing application.
28
Jun
2008
Jacob Gube from Six Revisions recently wrote an article called 25 Outstanding WordPress Designs that featured 25 handpicked WordPress blog designs. I was honored that my blog was picked and included in this great company; two of my personal favorites from this list are ISO50 (check out the beautiful prints) and coda.coza. If you are not familiar with Six Revisions you should really give it a read. It is one of a handful of web development/design sites that I frequently visit to find out about new techniques and to be inspired. Here are a couple of great articles to get you started: 30 Exceptional CSS Techniques and Examples and 9 Practical Ways to Enhance your Web Development Using the Firefox Web Developer Extension.
31
May
2008
At first thought it might seem like a strange concept to name galleries that showcase exceptional website designs after a computer style sheet language, but once you understand how CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) revolutionized website design it makes perfect sense. CSS has simplified the creation of great and consistent-looking websites by separating the content from the way it is presented. CSS galleries are awesome sources for inspiration when creating a new website or blog, and if you make it a habit to follow the featured websites in the CSS galleries you can easily spot new trends, and maybe even tell what the next big thing is.
10
May
2008
I have been a big fan of Smashing Magazine ever since I discovered the website a year ago, for that reason I was really surprised to notice that my little blog was featured in one of their articles; and I have not even promoted my website. The article in question is titled Now More Than Ever: 50 More Excellent Blog Designs and it features, you guessed it, fifty awesome blog designs from all over the web. These blog designs were chosen because they clearly reflect the personalities of the designers. I am really honored to be included among all the great work; it gives me confidence to maybe even participate in Smashing Magazine’s monthly Desktop Wallpaper Calendar features.
28
Apr
2008
Here is a selection of ten podcasts that I like to listen to or watch during the week. I do not personally use Apple’s iTunes for downloading podcasts since it is such a hassle to use; instead I opt for subscribing to the podcasts’ RSS feeds. I have found the two best producers of podcasts to be Revision3 (video podcasts) and Leo Laporte’s TWiT (audio podcasts).
21
Apr
2008
I had been waiting for a while for WordPress 2.5 to be released so that I could finally start blogging. I figured that I might as well wait for the long-awaited new version of the content management system before I started coding, in case it was a major upgrade so that I would not have to rewrite any code. WordPress 2.5 was released on March 29th, and ever since I have been (slowly) working on my blog. My previous website was all hand-coded and did not use any content management system which made it hard to update. The advantages of using a blogging system like WordPress is that it makes it really easy to add new posts, change the design with templates, add tagging, search posts, and let readers post comments.
The blog is still pretty basic. I will refine the design and add extra functions the following weeks. What I will be looking into is sIFR for the headlines, something like Lightbox for bigger images, cleaning up the forms, and adding some content to the sidebar. I am also interested in learning jQuery for all my JavaScript needs. So please stick with me, and I will try to find interesting topics to write about.
