Loading up your toolbelt

How did you guys make out with your first website? Ready to take on nationalgeographic.com?

Well, that was just a building block for you to start with. One step in a long journey. One keystroke in the novel of your online career. One sip from the Diet Coke of web development.

I'll stop.

Sorry about the delay. I hope this post makes up a little bit for my tardiness, and this exciting topic gets us back on track:

Are you ready for it? Here goes: I want to talk a bit about toolbelts.

First of all, I don't think it's a compound word as I've written it, but I'm a rebel, damn it, and I'm going to go with it as one word anyways. I'm also going to abuse some commas, but that will be a constant throughout this blog. In fact, let me rephrase that: I'm, also going, to abuse so,me commas but that will, be, a constant, t,,,,,,,ut this blog.

Sorry - back to the toolbelt thingie.

As somebody who's spent a bit of time working in web design and development, multimedia creation, editorial, online content management, and just online in general, I have learned that many of the things I need to know to get my job done have been tackled in some way, shape or form before, usually by somebody more specialized than me.

While things like creativity, vision, and other skills specific to me cannot be replicated, the tools I use to create things and realize vision with have been worked on, tweaked, and often perfected by somebody else. I like to think of these things, as well as my own skills, as the tools or devices that fill my toolbelt.

Note: In job interviews use the term "skillset" instead - discussions about how you think your "toolbelt" is bulging probably won't end well.

Using tools available online can save you thousands of hours of schooling, studying, coding, etc. I'm not suggesting that you skip out of school in favour of surfing the Internet all day (tried it - didn't work), but leveraging some of the tools available online can really add devices to your online toolbelt. It also helps you keep your skills and other techniques clearly defined in your mind, which will help when scoping Web projects.

Anyways, I've blabbed about "tools", "devices", and skipping out of school, so I thought today I would share some of the handy tools in my toolbelt. They may or may not help you, or you might know of some or all of these, but whether you bookmark 'em or not is up to you.

ONLINE SURVEYS

Survey Monkey - Have you been asked to put a survey on your website? Have you spent hours working on a form that submits fields into a database? Have you edited old forms to make them work with new surveys? Crikey. I've done all of the above, and for a long time surveys were no fun. What do I use now?

Survey Monkey

Survey Monkey is a cheap online survey creation tool which gives you the ability to create in depth surveys online, and then link your site to them. You can analyze the responses, create zillions of surveys without fear of losing old ones, and more. It's pretty cool. There are three levels of membership from free (limited number of questions and responses allowed) to a $200 per year Annual Pro membership (unlimited everything).
www.surveymonkey.com

MOTION GRAPHICS

Video Copilot - I love making videos for Web. I wish advertisers would buy more videos so I could make them full-time, or even just post the ones I've already made. I have a band that writes cool music and I would love to spend all day putting cool video to music. Sigh. I guess it'll stay more a hobby than an occupation for now...

One thing I'm big on now is creating motion graphics for Web video using programs like After Effects, Motion, Blender, 3D Max, Cinema 4D, Maya and some other apps, but I've been learning this stuff on my own. When it comes to huge products like After Effects, if I'm not going to go to school I'm going to need a lot of help.

Enter videocopilot.net.

Andrew Kramer and some friends have created one of the most clever, truly valuable websites on the Internet...if you want to make motion graphics, that is. Andrew Kramer is a bright and funny guy who knows scads about motion graphics and real-world applications for all of that fancy knowledge he's got. He also knows how to teach us these real world applications with cool and FREE video tutorials I can follow along with. Want to learn how to make a movie trailer by yourself? Spend an afternoon on Andrew's site. To make dough he sells DVDs full of tools he's created, stock footage, images, textures, audio tools and sounds for creating scores, filters that simulate Hollywood equipment, and then a bunch more tutorials about how to put all of it to use. They have cool names like Riot Gear and Evolutions, which "buy the sizzle" people like me love to spring for, and great content that "buy the steak" folks will enjoy. Everybody wins.
www.videocopilot.net

EDITORIAL

www.dictionary.com/www.thesaurus.com - This one is a real tool, and kind of a no-brainer. You enter a word into either the dictionary side or the thesaurus guide and you'll get returns from most of the major dictionary and thesaurus publications.
www.dictionary.com
www.thesaurus.com

Publishing 2.0 - this site is a blog about how technology is changing media, and is becoming a must read for new media-types such as myself.
www.publishing2.com

Masthead - The magazine about magazines. Sadly Masthead announced that they were going to shutter the print publication as well as the excellent online component. So far the site is still online, hopefully due to many of us squawking loudly at the announcement. Check out Masthead Online for invaluable information about publishing, New Media, a great forum moderated by Michael Brooke of Concrete Wave Magazine fame, a wonderful blog by Kat Tancock, great job postings and advice, and much more. I can't say enough about Masthead Online.
www.mastheadonline.com

WEBMASTERING/EDITING

W3.org - when you've got to get down and dirty, coding your page or making changes that aren't really possible through your Content Management System (CMS), the W3C or World Wide Web Consortium is where to go for specifications, guidelines, software, and tools for compliant Web development. Need info on Cascading Style Sheets syntax? You'll find it there, and they'll tell you how to do it right.
www.w3.org

Google - a quick search will give you thousands of references for free javascripts you can edit to make your menus come to life, or look up syntax for an odd CSS line, or how to pull data dynamically from a database.
www.google.com

EVERYTHING ELSE

Google - for pretty much anything you need to know, see, look up, map out, post online, or track analytics for, Google can do it. Some highlights:

Google Analytics - can't afford Webtrends or Omniture? Think AWStats is junk? GA provides pretty deep Web stats. It uses Javascript tagging, which has some shortcomings, but so does server log tracking. Plus it's free.

Google Desktop - got a machine full of tidbits and snippets of awesomeness? Google Desktop is Google for your computer. If your machine has half the junk mine does, and it's half as disorganized as mine, this will be a lifesaver for you. Again, free.

Google Video - not quite YouTube, but it's gettin' there. Free to good home.

Google Earth - the coolest way to spend a free hour on your computer - look for sunken ships and world landmarks with a satellite view of the whole planet. Incredible stuff, and yep, it's free.

Gmail - great Web-based email program. Free.

Blogger - I'm using it for this blog. It's fantastic. It's free.

www.google.com, um...analytics.google.com, gmail.com, blogger.com... you know what? Put a tool from the toolbelt to use and Google these products!

TIME WASTING

www.homestarrunner.com - hilarious cartoons to while away some downtime. Creativity needs breaks!

http://www.thestar.com/generic/article/121812 - Toronto Star crossword. It's not that hard. It's not written by the Star. It's less fun than writing one out from the paper. I dunno. It gets my brain going when I'm feeling a little "slow" (remember my last post? I think I had a self-inflicted "slowness" going on - this helps with those slow days, too).

Well, that's enough for now. I'll be back with an actual lesson soon. Maybe an After Effects tutorial? How about a quick iMovie briefer to help you getting started making Web video? Got any other cool "toolbelt" websites that deserve mentioning? Add a comment!!!

Drop me a line and we'll keep on making Web exciting.

Rock on!

- Russ