Advice & inspiration

Top ten “how-to” guides for web developers and multimedia enthusiasts

This post is also available in Spanish

Countless sites have collected resources to help us do our job more efficiently. From lists of free open-source applications to multimedia cheat sheets, scouring the Web is sometimes the easiest way to find advice to advance our skill set. Here is my “Top-Ten” list of guides for web developers and multimedia producers from the past year …

1) 10 Tools for Quick & Effective Code Development | Design Reviver
“Developing websites and recognizing the level of technical proficiency behind the effort isn’t an easy task now-a-days. Especially with the conceptualization of multiple WYSIWYG tools that although allow you to save time they also manage to take most of the hard coding behind the process. Coding a site by hand with the use of tools that simplify the coding process can be rewarding, as you enhance your skills and further your knowledge base.”

2) 20+ Cheat Sheets for Multimedia and Web Producers | 10000 Words
“With all the keyboard shortcuts and drop down menus built into many software programs, it can be tough trying to remember every one. The following are reference sheets that will make your multimedia and web production just a little bit easier.”

3) Multimedia toolkit: 55 sites you should know about | Graphic Designr
Erica Smith aggregated 50+ Websites on a range of multimedia topics (video, timeline, mapping, graphics, etc) as well as development tools (blogs, web editors, must-reads, etc). This is a great crop of resources for all levels of developers and producers!

4) Great free apps for multimedia journalists | Adam Westbrook
(Adam also wrote a follow-up post with more multimedia apps for II in June.)
“The great thing about multimedia journalism is that it provides so much choice for treating stories. Do I write a straight article? Upload an mp3 interview? Produce a video package? An audio slideshow? An interactive map? Even a timeline? I’ve been experimenting with most of the above for both work and in my own time, and discovered there are more and more free web based applications which let you do many of these without too much technical know-how. Here then is a list of great free resources for multimedia journo’s hoping to get things done on the cheap.”

5) 100 Terrific Web Design Cheat Sheets that Will Save you Time, Money and Mistakes | Web Design Schools Guide
“Most web designers know that cheat sheets are incredibly useful. You can use them for quick reference, easy learning, and more. In this list, we’ve compiled an incredible collection of the 100 best and most useful cheat sheets out there.”

6) 7 Useful Tools for Web Development Testing | Mashable
“Before launching any new website, feature, or upgrade, it has to be tested. The worst nightmare of any programmer, designer, or business is to launch a broken website that drives away users and hurts reputations. It will only create more work, more headaches, and lost profits. Luckily, there are many great tools for web development testing. These tools test everything from CSS validation to website speed. Making sure that users and customers have a problem-free experience should be the goal of any website. These tools are the final step in that process.”

7) 25 detailed tutorials for coding up your web designs | Line 25
“One of the best ways to get into web design is to learn the process of transforming your Photoshop concept into a fully working coded website. Luckily there are various handy tutorials from across the web that document the process of writing a site with HTML and CSS in a step by step guide. This post pulls together the best PSD to HTML conversion tutorials to help you along your way to becoming a CSS master.”

8 ) 100 Free Open Courseware Classes on Journalism, Blogging and New Media | Online Degree World
“There was a time when writers and artists were at the mercy of a few decision-makers who said what was published and what was cast aside. The ease of getting your work online has made those days a distant memory. Blogging about your world, reporting what goes on around you, and even publishing your own art is as easy as setting up a blog or purchasing a domain name and creating your own website. The following free open courseware classes will help you learn about new media, writing, reporting, or even just understanding the culture or your rights as an online publisher.”

9) Ultimate IE6 Cheatsheet: How To Fix 25+ Internet Explorer 6 Bugs | Virtuosi Media
“The best strategy for dealing with Internet Explorer 6 is not to support it. Stop. Ok, I feel your frustration. You’re a web developer and you’re ready to tear your hair out because you have to support Internet Explorer 6, but, to put it tactfully, IE6 doesn’t support you. You’ve spent hours on it, but you just can’t seem to get your layout right. I can empathize. I can also help. This isn’t one of those rants about IE6 or a campaign to try to kill it. There are enough of those around the web, but they don’t help if you need to support IE6 because it still has a significant enough marketshare that you can’t ignore it for business reasons. No, this is the resource you’ve been hoping for. I’ve scoured the web for resources and also included some of my own fixes for IE6 and now I’ve put it all together in this cheatsheet/reference manual as a resource for anyone who has to deal with Internet Explorer 6. ”

10) 9 Must-Try Adobe AIR Apps for Better Productivity | Mashable
“Adobe AIR (adobe AIR) came along and changed the application world overnight. Developers could now use their web app knowledge and translate that to an application that ran on a PC, Mac or Linux (linux) desktop. For users, such as myself, we all of the sudden had the ability to find desktop apps that we loved, and use them across all of our systems in the exact same way. With this new age of “application neutrality,” I wanted to take a brief look into some Adobe AIR apps you have to at least try. Each one is focused on increasing an area of productivity.”

[Homepage photo credit: Web Design Berkshire]

Other posts that might interest you:

• 20 educational (and free!) multimedia resources
• 10 must-read blog posts to catch up from the holidays
• Multimedia guru Gabriel Dance advises on how to present data on the Web

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