Internet Browsing, Web Design and Email Client Software
Internet Browsing
Internet browsers are the software applications used to view web pages. Thankfully the main ones are free to download and use, so the only issues to consider are their functionality, safety and ease of use. Browsers have improved vastly in the last few years, and the choice across operating systems has increased too.
Firefox is my choice and recommendation, as it's standards compliant, has some good safety features, a large open source development community, and lots of useful plug-in applications. Other browsers include Apple's Safari, Opera, Google Chrome, and Microsoft's Internet Explorer. At version 8, Internet Explorer is vastly improved in terms of its standards compliance, and many of the display problems present at version 7 have now been eliminated.
Website Design Software
KompoZer is an open-source web page editor and uses the same Mozilla Gecko layout engine as Firefox. It is a further development of an earlier open-source HTML editor called Nvu.
KompoZer has four viewing modes: Normal, HTML Tags, Source, and Preview. "Normal" and "Preview" both enable you to edit content in a WYSIWYG graphical interface, "source view" is a code based HTML editor, and "HTML Tags" tries to display both graphical content together with lots of HTML tag references. The latter is fairly cluttered and I don't find it very useful.
"Normal" and "preview" are very similar: Normal is more functional with hover-over link information, dashed borders around <div> elements, and graphical representation of anchors and scripts. "Preview" is a clean, browser like display that allows you to add and edit content.
I use it in source view to ensure precision of design and integrity of coding, but I add and edit most content in Normal graphical view.
KompoZer has lots of supplementary features including a built in FTP client and CSS editor, but I have found these to be less than user friendly and prefer to use it simply as a HTML editor, for which it is very reliable and functional.
Notepad is the simple text editor that comes with Microsoft Windows.
If you prefer to hand code every item of content, then you could use this instead of HTML editing software. Because I am also a content writer, I prefer to use KompoZer so I can hand code meta and layout elements in source view, but add and edit most of the content in the graphical interface mode.
I use notepad to hand code external CSS style sheets, htaccess files, robots.txt, and XML sitemaps.
To quickly check my code for W3C standards compliance, I preview the web page locally in Firefox and use the HTML Validator add-on. This is a great piece of web design kit; you simply double click the little icon in the bottom right corner of Firefox and the source view opens up with an embedded report of any validation anomalies. If, like me, you design to a strict document declaration, this a very efficient way to find any empty paragraph tags and other anomalies.
FileZilla is another well developed and supported software application from the open-source community. From its name, you may think it part of the Mozilla corporation, but it isn't.
FileZilla is an FTP client used for uploading web files from your computer to a website hosting server. I've used it for many years and found it very easy to use, functional and reliable.
Email Client Software
Email is one of the most versatile, comprehensive and efficient communication mediums available. It's quick, convenient, and costs virtually nothing. You can include images (HTML format), attach all sorts of files, and even send/ receive text content on your mobile phone!
Many people use email to some degree, but don't take full advantage of it because they use web based mail. This entails going to a website and logging in to receive your emails - rather like going to the post office to collect mail in the absence of your postman. But if you use email client software to retrieve your mail from a mailbox server, it can be automatically delivered to your desktop - like the postman delivers your snail mail! Furthermore, if you use more than one email address, the client software can collect email from all of your accounts, and display and store them all in one place. You can also set up folders, nested folders and filters to handle and categorise your mail in varios ways - like having your own e-sorting office.
The argument often quoted in favour of web based email is that you can access your mail via any browser equipped computer: but you can do that with most mailbox server accounts; it doesn't mean you have to rely on such exclusively, snubbing your e-postman!
I use and recommend Thunderbird
for email. It's a well
developed open source (free) application with excellent standards
compliance, spam filtering, and a series of useful plug-in extensions /
"add-ons". You can work at your computer and Thunderbird can be working in the
background, notifying you when an email arrives via audio
confirmation and a brief
display of the mail header at the bottom right hand side of your
desk top.
The screenshot (right/ above) shows Thunderbird with a few extensions installed which include the calendar extension "Lightning", "Maximise Message Pane", and "Minimise To Tray", which as the name suggests, enables the program to run from the system tray. It also works well with AVG's excellent anti-virus software, seamlessly virus scanning and certifying your mail.
I would be happy to set up Thunderbird, configure it to correspond with an email hosting server account, and teach you how to use it. Check out my Computer Tuition section for details.
