Resources from nSiteful
Links to Useful Web Sites

PDFCreator easily creates PDFs from any Windows program. Use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application.

We were alerted to this by a Tweet from Leo Notenboom, trusted author of Ask-Leo.com.

Leo points out the following:

Warning: PDFCreator does, indeed, do something on installation that I've written about before that annoys me deeply: by default it installs an additional toolbar. This can be avoided, but you must pay close attention during the installation process. Make sure to select the "Custom" install, and then make sure to deselect any option that references a toolbar. In a recent install I noted that this needed to be done on at least two separate screens in the installation wizard.

Read the article at Ask-Leo.com.

Royalty-Free artwork (photographs, vector illustrations, flash, and audio) at very affordable prices. Clients are encouraged to establish (free) accounts at iStockphoto.com and use its lightbox feature to share artwork choices with us.

One of several Online Color-Picker programs. Great starting point for helping clients communicate color scheme ideas to their designers.

One of several Online Color-Picker programs. Great starting point for helping clients communicate color scheme ideas to their designers.

If you want to know the features of your browser, just point it to this URL. During site development, we often direct clients to this page to trouble-shoot rendering problems.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential. W3C is a forum for information, commerce, communication, and collective understanding.

From the Web site: The Apache Software Foundation provides support for the Apache community of open-source software projects. The Apache projects are characterized by a collaborative, consensus based development process, an open and pragmatic software license, and a desire to create high quality software that leads the way in its field. We consider ourselves not simply a group of projects sharing a server, but rather a community of developers and users.

PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. There is simply no better source for documentation on PHP than PHP.NET.

From the Web site's mission statement:
The Pew Internet & American Life Project will create and fund original, academic-quality research that explores the impact of the Internet on children, families, communities, the work place, schools, health care and civic/political life. The Project aims to be an authoritative source for timely information on the Internet's growth and societal impact, through research that is scrupulously impartial.

Jakob Nielsen is one of the original "usability" gurus. His book, "Designing Web Usability", published in 2000 by New Riders, is considered gospel by some. His "Alertbox" articles, dating back to 1995, provide stimulating reading and are not without controversy.

This page succinctly offers reasons to use PLAIN-TEXT in your e-mails.

You don't have to be a Webmaster to benefit from understanding Google's guidelines for a search engine-friendly Web site.

This is the URL for submitting a Web site to the Yahoo! directory for free. Yahoo! also offers premium site indexing services.

Google is arguably the single most important Search Engine on the Web, insofar as it serves results to an ever-growing number of other search services. From its low-profile beginnings as a project out of Stanford University (when only a relative handful of techies like us used it), Google has become a major player and household word. In fact, "Google" has become a common synonym for "search", as in: "I googled Web Design and found nSiteful Web Builders". This particular page at Google.com is the one from which anyone can submit a URL for inclusion in the Google index.

An excellent resource center for information about how search engines and directories work and how Webmasters can and should design their pages to please the spiders. The site offers: explanation of concepts; "chapters" on just about every key topic related to search engine optimization; downloads;
and an excellent listing of links.

Owned and operated by Jupitermedia Corporation, this huge Web site offers excellent guidelines, news, and resources related to the Web Search industry. If you are a search engine aficionado, you will love this Web site. Be careful, however: you can spend a long time there!

Code for semantically correct xhtml/css/dhtml drop down menus, by U.K. programmer Gary Burton.

This from the site: "In 1998, Brian Platz and Jeffrey Zeldman co-founded ALA as a daily mailing list for web professionals; within months, it had found a large audience. In 1999, a complementary weekly periodical launched at alistapart.com, eventually superseding the mailing list." ALA is a prominent champion of Web standards and a loud and influential voice in the dialogue attempting to persuade browser makers to support those standards. Many Web professionals read ALA regularly, and most will tell you they do, even if they don't.

Winn Schwartau, PC security expert, author and columnist, chronicles his conversion from the WinTel (Windows and Intel) platform to the Mac. Jeff of nSiteful is still a WinTel guy, but after visiting an Apple store in the mall and reading some of this Blog, he's keeping an open mind. Good reading.

Virtual Dr. is an excellent resource for getting help for common — and not so common — problems you may experience with PC hardware, software, and operating systems. You'll find many helpful people in these forums, and responses are very prompt.

Yet another great resource for solving technical problems with hardware, software and operating systems. As of this writing, the Computer Technology Forum has 10,777 members, 12,770 threads, and 86,807 posts. Many helpful people are available to solve your nagging computer problems.

Let's face it: Much of the world depends on Microsoft operating systems for their computing. If you are one of that number, you should know how to get the latest security updates for your computer.

My wife, a teacher, referred me to this site. Sponsored by the Capital Community College Foundation of Hartford, Connecticut, the site is chock full of guidelines and informative discussions about just about any grammar and writing question you might have. Beware: the site can be addicting.

All work and no play makes the folks at nSiteful Web Builders dull. If you have never experienced this award-winning comedy series created by and starring the creator of "Seinfeld", you might be in for a treat. WARNING: This is not a PG show, and some may find it offensive. If you are a fan of the show, you might enjoy this Web site quite a lot. All episodes are described here. Be sure to visit the "Keywords" section (once you've chosen an episode); you can almost hear Larry spouting his faux pas.

If you have ever wondered about the proper use of common English words, you'll enjoy this Web site by Paul Brians, English Professor at Washington State University

Surely you have had the experience of watching a movie and knowing that you recognize one of the actors but you cannot remember what other movie he or she was in. Well, wonder no longer! The Internet Movie database is simply THE most comprehensive database of information about movies that can be found on the Web. A property of amazon.com, this online database even allows you to search by the name of a CHARACTER and to perform advanced searches to find, for example, all the movies Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan appeared in together. Surf over to IMDB.COM and have fun. But watch the clock; it's very easy to get carried away as you click on all the links and explore all the cross-references this extensive database has to offer.

If you typically watch four or more DVD movies per month, hate the lines at the video stores, and can't stand paying those late fees (or rushing back to the store in hopes of avoiding them), then NETFLIX is for you. No lines, no late fees, and (at least in this writer's experience) DVDs are often delivered to the mailbox NEXT DAY!