MachForm is only getting better

MachForm is a form building application that you can run on your own servers, totally under your control. What is does is take all the work out of creating, styling, processing and collecting forms and form results. After reviewing many like services, I must say MachForm is above them all and with the release of version 2 its only getting better.

Whats new:

• Email Autoresponder
• Better, Prettier Email Design
• Fully Customizable Email
• Revamped Entry Manager
• Columns Display Preference
• Entry Viewer
• Printer Friendly
• Forward an Entry
• Submission Review
• Full PHP Embed Code
• New CAPTCHA option
• SSL Support

(read more)

Another thing that I use to judge an application is developer interaction. The developer for MachForm is a super nice guy that is highly responsive to his users and their issues and ideas.

Link:
http://www.appnitro.com/

Also, check out the demo's:
http://www.appnitro.com/demo/

Vista Web Buttons

Vista Buttons helps you create Vista/XP/Win98/Mac rollover html buttons and html drop down menus with ease.

Well done, but the look is not a style I really like. I guess if you want a website to look like a desktop application running in Vista then it would be great but I have to ask. Why would you? Why have a website look like Vista (2nd behind Windows ME in acceptance).

I will say they have done a great job capturing the look and if this is a look you want you will probably not find a better tool to get it done.

Link:
http://vista-buttons.com/index.html

10 AJAX Effects to Boost Your Website’s Fanciness Factor

Here’s a collection of 10 powerful – yet easy-to-implement — AJAX effects to supplement your web page’s interface. These were picked using a “bang for your buck” methodology; meaning that these effects were chosen specifically because they provide high-impact effects with very little effort in installing and using them.

Link:
http://sixrevisions.com/rapid-development/...

Amazing Photosynth Demo built on Seadragon

10 trends that will define logo design in 2008

Logos are the ultimate mark of distinction and everyone loves them. We see logos everyday - on the highways, on consumer goods, on the Web and in the institutions and organizations we support. Read about the different types of logo designs here and learn what principles and techniques are used to create them. Discover what the future holds for logo design!

Link:
http://www.logoorange.com/logo-design-08.php

Give your laptop a custom look with Schtickers

Establish Retrofitted Designs as a sustainable high-design decor and organization products manufacturer that balances its commitment to profitable growth and community focus.

What a cool and innovative idea. Seems like more and more companies are offering means to make your electronic devices a bit more personal (check out ColorwarePc.com). Schtickers goes beyond the custom look by allowing a bit more 'feel' to your laptop with suede products available.

I would use a black one with my tribal logo on it .

Link:
http://www.schtickers.com/

How Google Ended Up with Their Logo

Ever wonder how Google ended up with the logo that they did? The designer of the logo, Ruth Kedar recently talked about what went into the process and even shared some of her early ideas. Surprisingly it started out more complicated and ended up as the more simple logo that is known around the World today.

Link:
http://.../how-google-ended-up-with-their-logo/

7 must-read Webmaster Central blog posts

Our search quality and Webmaster Central teams love helping webmasters solve problems. But since we can't be in all places at all times answering all questions, we also try hard to show you how to help yourself. We put a lot of work into providing documentation and blog posts to answer your questions and guide you through the data and tools we provide, and we're constantly looking for ways to improve the visibility of that information.

Topics:

• Googlebot can't access my website
• URL blocked by robots.txt
• Why was my URL removal request denied?
• Flash best practices
• The supplemental index
• Duplicate content
• Sitemaps FAQs

Link:
http://.../7-must-read-webmaster-central-blog.html

Big list of CSS Menus

12 CSS menus

Advanced CSS Menu Trick

ADxMenu

Bulletproof Slants

CSS Dock Menu

Menus at CSS Play

Tree Frog slide and fly menu

Creating Liquid CSS Tabs for Menus

Drop Down Tabs (5 styles)

CSS: Menu Descriptions

Deluxe CSS Dropdowns and Flyouts

8 web menus you just can't miss

Son of suckerfish (great multi-level menu)

14 Free Vertical CSS Menus

Advanced CSS Menu

Inline Mini Tabs

How to fix PNG opacity in IE6 (IE PNG FIX)

You know that one browser that has only a vague association with modern web standards? Yeah, Internet Explorer. Wouldn't it be great if it supported stuff like translucent PNGs?

Well, now you can add decent PNG support to IE5.5+ on Windows with no changes to your website HTML source code. This script will add near-native PNG support with full alpha opacity, with only one line in your CSS file, that applies to all tags and also background images!

This was just implemented in a project or mine that uses lots of high quality, transparent background, PNG files. Added it in about 2min and it works like a charm.

Link:
http://www.twinhelix.com/css/iepngfix/

In case you want another option check out this IE PNG Fix. Implemented just as easy but seemed to cause issues with img tags that use the vertical-align css property.

Graphic Designer Contracts Agreements Forms & Web Designers Contracts

Contracts and forms for designers are an important part of any design business. No matter if you are a graphic designer or web designer, a solid contract or good pre-project questionnaire can make every project go smoother.

A good contract can go a long way. Not only does is provide you, the designer/developer, a level of protection but it forces you to properly define the project and deliverables. This way both parties know whats expected of them and the client knows what they will be receiving from you.

Link:
http://.../graphic-design-contracts-agreement-forms-webdesigner/

MachForm is the best form creator around

I blogged about pForm last week saying how great it was for creating some very stylish forms on an easy to use, free, online service. It would seem that there is a commercial version available that takes pForm to the next level, called MachForm (same company).

From the dev:

MachForm is an intuitive, browser based, self-hosted HTML form builder program. Designed as a modern HTML form builder, it makes use of the latest web technologies like AJAX, CSS, and Javascript to provide a fluid browser based experience

What does MachForm do:

• Drag and drop interface
• Numerous field type selections
• Ultimate Spam Protection
• Easy form manager
• Email integration
• MySQL database integration
• Form validation
• Export data to Excel or CSV
• Password protected form
• Limit one entry per IP address

Some things that could be better:

• The tooltip could be a floating tooltip. The current one could widen your page if you pull the form into your design - happened to me.
• Give the ability to create your own groups of fields (like the address block). What I was looking for was to create a block for Phone numbers (phone, mobile, fax) under a single block. If/When this gets added it will make this tool extremely customizable.

Basically, I will be using MachForm to create all forms in the future. I may provide the plumbing but having the interface done is a huge savings for me.

Good Job!

Link:
http://www.appnitro.com/

10 Principles Of Effective Web Design

Usability and the utility, not the visual design, determine the success or failure of a web-site. Since the visitor of the page is the only person who clicks the mouse and therefore decides everything, user-centric design has established as a standard approach for successful and profit-oriented web design. After all, if users can’t use a feature, it might as well not exist.

We aren’t going to discuss the implementation details (e.g. where the search box should be placed) as it has already been done in a number of articles; instead we focus on the main principles, heuristics and approaches for effective web design — approaches which, used properly, can lead to more sophisticated design decisions and simplify the process of perceiving presented information.

Link:
http://.../10-principles-of-effective-web-design/

Free Advanced DHTML Color Picker

Once we’d modularized the color picker code it made sense to offer it to others to use on their own sites and projects. So here is the code to get our Color Picker working on your site for free. (We’ll even host the files)

Very nice. I wish I had a project to use this in.

Link:
http://.../free-advanced-dhtml-color-picker/

Build a better table

This article is about the proper usage of tables, for tabular data. How you can implement them with accessibility in mind and how to make them appealing for the eye using CSS.

Results are pretty good looking. Amazing how a little style can make something look so much more professional.

Link:
http://veerle.duoh.com/.../a_css_styled_table_version_2/

pForm is a great online form builder

pForm is an online form builder that assists in building a form with some great effects and a very professional look. When you are done with building the form you can down the html code to use it on your website.

This is probably one of the better form builders around.

Link:
http://www.phpform.org

Ultimate guide to logo design

Logo design is arguably one of the most important and valued areas of design. A quality logo design combined with the branding of an organization or company can become one of the most powerful forces in today’s society. If you love logo design as much as I do, then I am sure you will enjoy these logo design tips and resources.

Link:
http://.../design-a-logo-the-ultimate-guide/

Free Logos:
http://.../create-logo-for-free-with-help-of-blank.html

IE7 JavaScript library

IE7 is a JavaScript library to make Microsoft Internet Explorer behave like a standards-compliant browser. It fixes many HTML and CSS issues and makes transparent PNG work correctly under IE5 and IE6.

Link:
http://code.google.com/p/ie7-js/

See it in action:
http://ie7-js.googlecode.com/svn/test/index.html

Safari 3.0.4 for Windows released

Apple released a pretty big update to the Safari 3 Beta browser for Windows this morning. One of the most notable additions is the spelling and grammar checking, which can be done inline if you so desire.

Link:
http://.../safari-304-for-windows-spelling-and-grammar-check/

Download Safari:
http://www.apple.com/safari/

Create a logo for free with help of blank templates

Create your own logos from free blank logo templates designs. We [LogoTemplater] are creating free blank logos templates and free vector art images in Adobe Illustrator EPS files for free download. Use our graphics designs for your website, company or MySpace icon graphics.

I figured I would give it a quick test and here's is a logo I did in 5min:

Before:

After:


Link:
http://www.logotemplater.com/

Microformats

Designed for humans first and machines second, microformats are a set of simple, open data formats built upon existing and widely adopted standards.

Basically its small snippets of HTML code that better organizes and identifies data like people, addresses, events and such.

About:
http://microformats.org/about/

hCard Microformat Creator:
http://microformats.org/code/hcard/creator

Online website creator with Jimdo

Create your own beautiful website. It's really easy to create your own JimdoFree-Page: just sign-up, follow the link to your own Page, integrate pictures, videos and texts in seconds, change the design with a click, add as many pages as you want...and show your swifty JimdoFree-Page to your friends.

These are good for what they are for and that's simple website for you personal use. I would not recommend using a service like this for your business website but for a personal website or a website for a small organization it might work very well.

Link:
http://jimdo.com

EDraw Flowchart

To create flowcharts, organizational charts, and other diagrams for business and technical processes rapidly, designing does not need to start from scratch. Abundant flowchart templates, symbols and samples provided along with the software will help to quickly create new flow diagrams. Numerous colors, fonts, shapes, styles, and symbols for each object of the flowchart are usually available to create ones own template that can be saved for future use.

After much looking and evaluating other flowchart software I came to the conclusion that this application is by far the easiest to work with. I read no help file and was creating flowcharts in a matter of minutes. The interface is clean and setup pretty well. All in all, for the $49 price tag, I would not hesitate to recommend this to anyone looking for a solid flowcharting application.

Link:
http://www.edrawsoft.com/flowchart.php

Muller Formula or Predictable Color Preferences

More than half a century ago, Aemelius Müller, professor at the academy of Winterthur, Switzerland, came up with a formula that could predict the appreciation of a color-combination. In other words: Müller was able to predict which combination of colors most people would probably like.

Interesting enough and I guess if I wasn't colorblind I would appreciate it more.

Link:
http://.../the-muller-formula-or-predictable-color-preferences/

30+ Firefox Add-ons for Web Developers & Designers

Firefox has cool add-ons which make the job of website designers and developers much easier. Here is our list of 30+ excellent Firefox add-ons that every web developer and designer should know about.

Link:
http://.../30-firefox-add-ons-for-web-developers-designers/

Better blogger templates

Some new and different blogger templates to give your blog a more unique look.

Link:
http://www.geckoandfly.com/blogspot-templates/

Clearview to replace Highway Gothic

The typeface is the brainchild of Don Meeker, an environmental graphic designer, and James Montalbano, a type designer. They set out to fix a problem with a highway font, and their solution — more than a decade in the making — may end up changing a lot more than just the view from the dashboard. Less than a generation ago, fonts were for the specialist, an esoteric pursuit, what Stanley Morison, the English typographer who helped create Times New Roman in the 1930s, called “a minor technicality of civilized life.” Now, as the idea of branding has claimed a central role in American life, so, too, has the importance and understanding of type. Fonts are image, and image is modern America.

Link:
http://...r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

That's alot of font

80 Beautiful Typefaces For Professional Design is another great article by Smashing Magazine which talks about 80 of the best, in their opinion, fonts to be used by professional designers. What I like the most out of the articles written by Smashing Magazine is their use of screenshots and graphics in the articles. They use a lot of graphics in the articles which means that even if you don't have the time to read the articles you can get something out it just by skimming through it.

Keep up the great work and looking forward to the next article.

Link:
http://...beautiful-fonts-typefaces-for-professional-design/

The Open Source Web Design Toolbox: 100 Tools, Resources, and Template Sources

In fact, the open source model, which began with programmers, has been so successful that it is currently being applied in government, media, education and private business. But despite these new applications, the unique combination of the open source model with the universalism of web design remains one of the ideal applications of open source. This pervasiveness of the open source spirit in web design now means that you can use open source software to design both graphics and your CSS and HTML, and you can also use the dozens of reliable open source code resources or thousands of templates to base your own designs on. In this article we highlight 100 open source web design tools, resources, and templates.

Link:
http://...100-tools-resources-and-template-sources/

Stripe Generator

Another web2.0 graphic, thingy creator. Kinda like the web2.0 logo creator.

Is it useful? Not really. Is it fun to play with? Not at all.

Link:
http://www.stripegenerator.com/

See how a website looks in other browsers

Use one of the websites below to see how a website will render in other browsers. Critical step in designing a website is to ensure that designs renders the same in the major browsers: IE6, IE7, Firefox, Safari and Opera.

IE NetRenderer:
http://ipinfo.info/netrenderer/index.php

Browser Cam:
http://www.browsercam.com/

BrowsrCamp:
http://www.browsrcamp.com/

iCapture:
http://www.danvine.com/icapture/

ieCapture:
http://www.danvine.com/iecapture/

Website page layout templates using CSS

Some great examples of page layouts using CSS as the primary layout method;

CSS Layouts:
http://layouts.ironmyers.com/

Layout Galore:
http://blog.html.it/layoutgala/

Even more layouts:
http://www.thenoodleincident.com/tutorials/box_lesson/boxes.html

If you need a custom designed website then check out my website design services.

Is your Web site 'usable'?

You try one company's Web site. It's plain, but it lists pricing information, the models it services, and its contact information. Then you try another company's site. It makes you sit through a three-minute Flash presentation before letting you explore the site. (There's a "skip this intro" button at the top right, but the button is camouflaged.) And, instead of getting pricing information, you have to fill out a form and wait for a salesperson to call.

With probably millions of websites competing for the same thing your website has to be as easy as possible on the user. Make it confusing, too difficult or too many clicks to get around and your users will move on.

Link:
http://.../online_marketing/is_your_web_site_usable.mspx

How to clean the HTML code from Word

I released another tool that can be used to throw together quick web pages and page elements called Easy HTML Editor. This is a really cool tool for making quick page elements and has a feature that I use and that's the ability to clean the code from MS Word (instructions provided on the page).

Feel free to play around with it and make suggestions for improvements.

Link:
http://www.veign.com/tools/easy-html-editor/

A big thanx to FCKEditor for all their hard work on this amazing component.

New web design book hits the mark for beginners

This is a fantastic book for anyone looking at creating their own website using Microsoft's latest web design application called Expression Web. Expression Web is setting itself up to rival the biggest players in the web design business (like Dreamweaver) and having this book will bring you up to speed in a short period of time.

The reason I like this book is its not the typical 'this is how you use this application' type of book. This book teaches you the proper way to create a website using current and established technologies. What this means for a beginner is not only to you learn Expression Web but you are also getting a strong foundation on building websites. This is important as you grow and gives you knowledge that can be carried to other design applications.

Link:
http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/1590598059/...