It is of course imperative to have a practically fast loading website so that your visitors are not left in a loop of waiting. Also remember that search engine algorithms do take your website loading time into consideration when pushing your ranking. Most likely, your visitors will come to your site for reading interesting and valuable content or to make a purchase, so why not make their visit enjoyable? Learn how to create a fast loading website with these 10 effective tips:

10 Effective Tips for a Fast-Loading Website

About Images and Graphics – We all know minimizing the usage of images can be a good deal for a fast-loading website, but what if it is not possible? Well, when designing templates, logos, buttons, and other necessary elements in Illustrator make sure they are created as vector images. As these images are big in size, turn them from CMYK to RGB and also ensure you decrease it to exact size that is required by your site. Remember resizing needs to be done only in Illustrator or Photoshop for quick loading. Make use of an excellent tool called GifBot that helps you shrinking your graphics right on a webpage quickly.

Make Most Out of CSS – CSS is a revolutionary tool for fast-loading website, actually many developers these days prefers designing the whole website using CSS. Just because it is a simple HTML code, it has an advantage of loading fast. However, working on CSS requires creativity, so make sure you try out different styles in CSS. Because CSS styles are in HTML, you would further save time and have the same unique effects you’re behind.

Example1: You can use CSS3 properties to give border radius instead of background images,

-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
-moz-border-radius: 5px;
border-radius: 5px;

Avoid “So-Called” Creative Stuffs – How about adding as flash movie or a dancing object to the website to impress visitors? I’m sorry but it a bad idea, your readers would only feel assaulted with these so-called creative stuffs. Using plain Html is best as too many fancy things that impress you might bog down the loading time and will cause visual overload to your visitor. It is best to make minimal usage of such objects or even better to avoid it.

Respect Your Site Content – Placing content wherever possible will leave your reader confused and lost. Your content is valuable and the most important element of the site, so it is ok if you have more to share, but it is bad to stuff them all at one place. Basically, long content pages will take long time to load. Hence, break them into different relative sections so that the size is minimized for each page. Give some room for your reader to breathe and enjoy surfing.

Know Your Backgrounds and Buttons – Using background images will only say your website is “amateur”, because no professional site make use of background images that distract the reader. The main problem is it will take longer time to load than the usual. The same holds true in case the site has end-number of buttons. Best is to optimize your button and background in Photoshop, if the loading time really matters to you. Use appropriate web colors for background and roll over buttons to help saving loading time.

Example: You can use css for gradient properties (Tip: use colorzilla gradient editor for generating css properties online)
background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, rgba(0,0,0,0.65) 0%, rgba(0,0,0,0) 100%); /* FF3.6+ */
background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,rgba(0,0,0,0.65)), color-stop(100%,rgba(0,0,0,0))); /* Chrome,Safari4+ */
background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, rgba(0,0,0,0.65) 0%,rgba(0,0,0,0) 100%); /* Chrome10+,Safari5.1+ */
background: -o-linear-gradient(top, rgba(0,0,0,0.65) 0%,rgba(0,0,0,0) 100%); /* Opera 11.10+ */
background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, rgba(0,0,0,0.65) 0%,rgba(0,0,0,0) 100%); /* IE10+ */
background: linear-gradient(top, rgba(0,0,0,0.65) 0%,rgba(0,0,0,0) 100%); /* W3C */
filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#a6000000', endColorstr='#00000000',GradientType=0 ); /* IE6-9 */

Turn Your Images Into Tables – These days’ tables can be an excellent alternative to graphics and images. It is a must to learn to make use of tables offered by the web design program as it will reduce the load time of site. You can definitely give an artistic feel just by making use of table with background color and cool text. Remember, the more you dig down HTML to create a website, the faster you will have your website load.

Chuck Down Animated Gifs – We have increasingly saw that a simple looking website gain more popularity than animated one. Why use Animated Gifs when we know that it can slow down the loading time? There might be lot of hype about animated gifs on site, but can give horrifying results when visitors come to you. You want your visitors to come and come again, so do it with simple and fast loading website. By all means attractive design and good content can drive traffic.

Useless and Repeated Pages – Do you need them? If not, then minimize your web pages with required information and make sure you don’t duplicate them. This is very important for saving time on site navigation. Point-to-Point information is always appreciated by people. We all love manageable sites, which helps easy navigation without getting bogged down. So ensure you take away all your useless and repeated pages.

Love HTML – If you looking to save time on loading then take care you design most of your site in HTML. There is always room for creativity and the best creativity is used when designing website with HTLM code. It will not only save time, but it is relatively easy to deal with. Make use of tables, colors, CSS styles, different fonts to create it. Also know that your website should be completely error free.

Keep Your Eye Open – So your site is ready, and the work is over? No, not really, you need to keep an eye open on your website and observe the pages often. Checking often will help you locate bugs (if any) and will improve it overall. Fix the error immediately if you come across any for over all good performance!

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10 Best Wireframing Tools For Designers

1. Omnigraffle

For web designer and developer working on a Mac, Omnigraffle is an award-winning yet simple to use tool that produces graphics, diagrams, flow charts, organization chart, page layouts and fast mockups of your website quickly using drag-and-drop WYSIWYG interface. The latest edition Omnigraffle 5 not only create amazing wireframes and mockups, but also offers a new layout engine, which means your design process will be more varied and faster than ever before.

Interesting features of Omnigraffle Wireframing Tool

• New Layout Engine
• Bézier Lines
• Bézier Shapes
• Mini Inspectors
• Style Tray
• Stencil Search
• Outline View
• Multiple Page Documents
• Diagram Styles
• Improved Import/Export: PDF, PICT, OmniOutliner
• Graphing Tools
• Smart Guides
• Auto Layout

2. Axure

Axure RP enables application designers to create wireframes, flow diagrams, prototypes, and specifications for applications and web sites. It provides the features you need to get started quickly whether working alone or collaborating with your team. You will extremely find it easy to create layout with drag and drop feature. Further even the basic links and advanced interactions are explained on the tool without programming. You will find an interactive HTML prototype created with the documentation in MS Word format.

Interesting features of Axure Wireframing Tool

• Design efficiently.
• Experience your design early to test ideas.
• Engage stakeholders to gather valuable feedback.
• Automate specifications avoiding tedious documentation.
• Enable design collaboration.

3. Balsamiq

Balsamiq Mockups is an Adobe AIR application for generating wireframes features hand-drawn, sketch-like interface elements library. The wireframes made with it look very much like a draft that is you can make simple mock-ups that also looks simple. Using Balsamiq Mockups experience like you are drawing, but it’s digital, so you are free to tweak and rearrange controls easily, and impressively the end result is cool. With 75 pre-built controls to select from, you could design anything from a super-simple dialog box to a full-fledged application, from a simple website to a complicated web apps.

Interesting features of Balsamiq Wireframing Tool

• Fast, intuitive user interface
• Seventy-Five Ready-to-Use Controls
• Shortcuts Everywhere
• Property Inspectors: Always Nearby, Never in Your Way
• Linking Mockups Together
• Unlimited Undo and Redo
• Open, Portable Data
• Fully Integrated in the way you work

4. Pencil

The Pencil Project is a free addon for Firefox. They have a unique mission to build a free and open source tool for making diagrams and GUI prototyping that everyone can use. There are interesting features like built-in stencils that make web design easier and more professional. You can further personalize your tool bar with the capacity to install user-defined stencils and speed up the design process. You will soon find more cool features coming to the Pencil Projects.

Interesting features of Pencil Wireframing Tool

• Built-in stencils for diagraming and prototyping
• Multi-page document with background page
• Inter-page linkings!
• On-screen text editing with rich-text supports
• Exporting to HTML, PNG, Openoffice.org document, Word document and PDF.
• Undo/redo supports
• Installing user-defined stencils and templates
• Standard drawing operations: aligning, z-ordering, scaling, rotating…
• Cross-platforms
• Adding external objects
• Personal Collection
• Clipart Browser

5. HotGloo

Hot Gloo is the online wireframe application presently in free beta that focuses on creating mockups as true to the final product as possible. You are further allowed to drag and drop elements, scale, link, name and rename them. Editing, commenting and sharing the developing process with client is very simple. Where other tools concentrates on simulating the creation of a mockup by hand and the ‘rough’ flexibility that comes with it, HotGloo aims to create a framework as clear and precise as possible.

Interesting features of HotGloo Wireframing Tool

• Smooth the planning process
• Get a clearer picture of site information
• Provide a precise framework for designers & coders
• Build up a more intense project relationship with clients
• Improve the communication process

6. iRise Pro

iRise enterprise visualization gives companies a powerful way to fully experience business software before development. With iRise Pro stakeholders can see and interact with proposed applications early in the process to ensure the right systems get built. iRise is an essential strategy to accelerate delivery of business critical software with lower cost and risk. It also helps to create a high fidelity version of the simulation.

Interesting features of iRise Pro Wireframing Tool

• Real-time, team-based collaboration
• Self-guided stakeholder
• Powerful comments management
• iConnect™ API
• iBloc™ API
• Facilitates multi-user usability tests
• Check-in/Check-out for disconnected authoring
• Secure access to critical intellectual property through LDAP
• Centralized administration

7. Microsoft Visio 2007

Microsoft Office Visio 2007 drawing and diagramming software makes it easy for IT and business professionals to visualize, explore, and communicate complex information. Go from complicated text and tables that are hard to understand to Visio diagrams that communicate information at a glance. Instead of static pictures, create data-connected Visio diagrams that display data, are easy to refresh, and dramatically increase your productivity.

Interesting features of Microsoft Visio 2007 Wireframing Tool

• Visualize, explore, and communicate your systems, resources, processes, and the data behind them.
• Be more productive by integrating diagrams with information across sources.
• Visualize and act on complex information by displaying data in diagrams.
• Create diagrams faster by letting Visio connect shapes for you.
• Communicate complex information with new templates and shapes.
• Effectively convey information with professional-looking diagrams.
• Communicate using diagrams and share them with a broad audience.

8. iPlotz

iPlotz allows you to rapidly create clickable, navigable mockups and wireframes for prototyping websites and software applications. You can also invite others to comment on the designs, and once ready, you can then manage the tasks for developers and designers to build the project. Check out the iPlotz review by Readwriteweb

Interesting Features of iPlotz Wireframing Tool

• Drag-and-drop functionality,
• Focuses on Web site wireframes.
• Allows users to import other media – like specific images
• text editing – change size, justification, and formatting of a whole text block.
• Simple sketch tool
• User Friendly

9. MockupScreens

Mockup Screens does more than just letting you to create mockups of your pages. It allows you to sketch screen mockups of your application and manage them in scenarios. Users can experiment interactively with clients and quickly visualize scenarios of applications before the coding or design is started. It can prove really useful if you use this application during presentation or meet to explain how your site will perform.

Interesting features of MockupScreens Wireframing Tool

• Fast Screen Drawing
• Creating Storyboards And Scenarios
• Standard Set Of Screen Elements
• Additional Elements For Web Applications
• Additional “combined” elements
• Ease Of Use
• Slideshow Or HTML Presentation
• Exporting Screens As Images
• Screen Annotations With Icons And Comments
• Simulate User Interaction

10. Pidoco

Pidoco is a real time collaborative online platform to create interactive web and software prototypes, and to test, discuss and optimize them. As a completely web based wireframing tool, it let users to create fully clickable wireframes or prototypes, and its remote access means that a team of designers could further work on and share your project from various locations.

Interesting features of Pidoco Wireframing Tool

• Several people can work on wireframes at the same time.
• Clickable wireframes
• Easy remote usability testing
• Fast and easy Prototyping
• No Software Installation

The price may vary depending on the one tool to other, but yes there are trial versions available for each wireframe tool mentioned above, so make sure you try them out first. Also let us know your favourite wireframing mockup types tools and if we missed them out. You can get in touch with us via Twitter, Facebook and RSS!

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A website is predominantly the most important marketing tool for a startup or any other online business. Besides designing an aesthetically pleasing website, a web designer is expected to design a functional and conversion effective website. It is always best to apply some of the best practices for designing websites. One such practice is mapping out the website structure and content by designing simple online sitemaps and web mockups.

You can now draw sitemaps and link them to your webpage mockups, so your clients can visualize and explore the entire website design even before a single line of code is written. Look up for a good online sitemap creator, or try Creately for free! Creately is an online collaborative diagramming software, perfect for distributed project teams to collaborate and iterate on Sitemaps, Web Mockups, Flowcharts or just about anything visual.

With the practice of designing sitemaps, web mockups and wireframes beforehand, planning your site can be made amazingly easy! Here are 5 reasons why sitemaps and web mockups are useful to Web Designers!

1) Illustrate Website Structure and Content

Developing a sitemap is probably one of the first steps that should be undertaken by web designers to illustrate the hierarchical structure of your website plan and its various sections. By doing this, the web designer can share the conceptual structure of the site, and help the clients visualize how the site has been broken up from the main page into other linking pages.

2) Effective Project Communication

A Sitemap is the best organizing tool which helps the designer communicate the main areas of the site, and the different page types within the site. Now, share your sitemap and encourage comments during a project discussion to get effective feedback from your clients and team members. This would bring about productive project communication by bridging the gap between clients and designers!

3) Visualize Design Layout

Designers can mark the pages with special functionality – pages that need to be loaded securely can be marked differently to the pages that features video content and so on. The sitemap should also include the pages, where each page links to webpage mockups. So the clients can now visualize the structure together with the design layout!

4) Smiling Customers!

Engage clients in your project discussions and give them greater visibility of the project. Review and revisit the sitemap and the web mockups as your understanding of the project improves. New pages, updated structure and simple changes to the page will keep the designs up-to date and ensure less confusion in your project team. Having the site built on valuable user feedback and managing their expectations, you’ll have nothing less than happy and satisfied clients!

5) Save Time and Money

As you know World Wide Web is dynamic in nature, web designers have to understand that the overall design is likely to change over time. Thus, before the coding begins, detailed planning of the site is essential! Share the sitemaps and mockups with your team and clients by inviting them to review and comment. Incorporate these comments to arrive at the agreed structure and design layouts, and  stay focused to avoid hours of rework. Quickly iterate over your Mockups to reduce project turnaround times, and settle down with the complete, up-to-date design document before writing a single line of HTML code.

As a web designer, by  using Sitemaps and web mockups in each of your website design projects, you’ll give your clients the best possible satisfaction in working with you and your team!

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• Adobe and Typekit Join Hands to Bring Famous Fonts to the Web

Typekit’s Bryan Mason announced

Starting today, you’ll be able to use classics like Adobe Garamond, News Gothic, Myriad, and Minion plus many more on your website — all of them newly optimized and hinted for the screen,

The Adobe type team has put a lot of work into these fonts, bringing their years of experience with type and staying focused on the best practices for the web. In addition, they have also made fonts available at every Typekit account level, he added.

This announcement was made on the 1^st anniversary of Typekit and it believed in giving web designers a place to legally and simply license fonts for their website. With the addition of the Adobe fonts, designers will now have wider choice and further access to some of the most popular fonts from the print world.

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• Adobe Flex 3 – License Free for Unemployed Web Developers

Frobee.com is a nice website that provides you the facility to create and watch flash slideshow. Also you can embed the slideshow on your website with the help of HTML file which is available to download after you create it.

Creating slideshow from image is easy. Just visit the site, click on the “Add photos” button. Now browse the photographs from your computer. You can play with different settings available on the site. You can change the background color, width and height, add captions in the slideshow. Also you can change the transition, display, and position of the photographs.

After done with settings, click on “Save” button. You can download the Zip archive on your computer. The archive contains SWF file and HTML sample code. You can either directly click on the HTML file to run the slideshow on your browser or embed it into your site.

This tool has an easy to use interface and it is free to use. No sign up is required for using this site. You can include many photographs to create a slideshow.

Check out Forbee.com to create Flash slideshow easily.

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• 10 Wonderful Collection Of jQuery Slideshow Tutorials

1. Galleria

Galleria jQuery Plugin

You can’t just miss out on Galleria when looking for excellent jQuery Sliding show techniques and tutorials. Galleria is a javascript image gallery written in jQuery. It loads the images one by one from an unordered list and displays thumbnails when each image is loaded. It will create thumbnails for you if you choose so, scaled or unscaled, centered and cropped inside a fixed thumbnail box defined by CSS.

Interesting Features of Galleria

• Unobtrusive javascript
• Degrades gracefully if the browser doesn’t support javascript or CSS
• Lightweight (4k packed)
• Displays the thumbnail when the actual image is loaded
• CSS powered – create your own gallery style
• Super fast image browsing since the images are preloaded one at a time in the background
• Can scale thumbnails and crop to fit in thumbnail container
• Can be used with custom thumbnails and more

2. Image Scroller

Building a jQuery Image Scroller

Image scrollers employ the jQuery’s brilliant animation qualities and by and large incorporate loads of fun with code. Obviously there isn’t anything new about Image scrollers; but new versions of the same keeps popping up most of the time. Mainly these new developments are a result of the user initiation that is for example, for the current displayed image to swerve over a button to be pressed or any other specific action will be required. The new Scroller is completely different and this is designed to be autonomous that it starts scrolling once the loading of the page is done.

Interesting Features of Image Scroller

• Autonomous Scrolling;
• Widget is totally cross- browser.
• Interaction to enable an option to change the direction of the animation.

3. Gallerific

A jQuery plugin for rendering rich, fast-performing photo galleries

Galleriffic is a jQuery plugin that provides a rich, post-back free experience optimized to handle high volumes of photos while conserving bandwidth.

Interesting Features Of Gallerific

• Smart image preloading after the page is loaded
• Thumbnail navigation (with pagination)
• jQuery.history plugin integration to support bookmark-friendly URLs per-image
• Slideshow (with optional auto-updating url bookmarks)
• Keyboard navigation
• Events that allow for adding your own custom transition effects
• API for controlling the gallery with custom controls
• Support for image captions
• Flexible configuration
• Graceful degradation when JavaScript is not available

4. Flickr Gallery

Open Source Flickr Photo Gallery Using jQuery

An amazing open source image gallery designed specifically to aid the concepts of jQuery, is the Flickrgallery, it even allows one to easily pullout the photos from the Flickr photoset directly. This plug-in makes the dynamic image gallery a reality. Some time users face lightbox issues when working on same page, so you can first learn how to resolve jQuery, Prototype, and lightbox issues to make them work on same page.

Interesting Features Of Flickr Gallery

• Pulls out images from the Flickr photoset easily.
• Compatibility to provide Light- box effect to small images.
• Easy to add or remove images from Flickr
• Thumbnail navigation with superb scrolling bar

5. Resizable Image Grid

Create a Resizable Image Grid with jQuery

Dragging and sliding your images are no longer confined to your desktop applications like the Picasa or similar apps.  You can make your image grid dream come true even on your web page, hats-off to the resizable image grid.

Interesting Features Of Resizable Image Grid

• Dragging & Sliding of Images on the web.
• Fun working with em unit

6. SlideViewer

jQuery Image Slider

Sorting or arranging the images and the photos on display on your webpage has become such an Easy task. Thanks to the jQuery intelligent option SlideViewer.

Interesting Features Of SlideViewer

• Listing of images.
• Creates of dynamic links, for easy accessing.
• Clicking next, the image will smoothly slide over to the next position.
• Option to customize animation, time for transition.

7. Supersized

Full Screen Background/Slideshow jQuery Plugin

The image transition or the sliding is all taken to new heights. jQuery’s commitment in the web designing stream is further been imposed strongly by these full screen Image gallery, It’s completely hypnotizes you, Cos it makes you feel that you are almost running a desktop application.

Interesting Features Of Supersized:

• Image ratio is maintained while resizing to suit the browser.
• Navigation key permits Pause, play, forward & back options.
• Images are cycled around as slide shows.

8. GalleryView

Content-gallery plugin

A complete in-house solution from jQuery is their very own formula for successful Content-gallery visualization java script is the GalleryView. It serves a complete visual glory of animated view of the gallery. If you are working with WordPress then know to add featured content slider into WordPress using jQuery. Also note that if you are using jQuery 1.4.x, please update to GalleryView 2.1. A minor bug fix has been implemented for the new version of jQuery.

Interesting Features Of GalleryView

• Any HTML content can be displayed using this vibrant java Apps.
• Timing of the animation can be employed using timers plug-in.

9. PikaChoose

PikaChoose jQuery Image Gallery

Pikachoose is a lightweight Jquery plugin that allows easy presentation of photos with options for slideshows, navigation buttons, and auto play. Pikachoose is designed to be easily installed, easy to setup, and well… all around easy. Creating an image gallery shouldn’t be a complex thing. I’ve created a new plugin that I’m packaging with PikaChoose called SliderJS.

Interesting Features of Pikachoose

• Easy navigation and auto play
• Easy to install and set up
• Thumbnail navigation with superb scrolling bar

10. Image Flow

Image Flow jQuery Plugin

The Apple bug has also successfully bitten our JQuery genius. A more of an inspiration on the likes of Apple’s Cover flow, this Java based scripts serves the very same effect completely flawless. Keyboard or mouse Scroll or dragging all possible in this amazing tool.

Interesting Features Of Image Flow

• Navigation possible with Keyboard or mouse Scroll or dragging.
• A free Application for any site.
• Just 11 KB (uncompressed mode) means it leaves a very small foot print.

You might also be interesting reading our Top 50 Design and Web development Resources that help you understand the concept of jQuery in a better way. We would love to hear you in case you use some of the best jQuery slideshow techniques and tutorials apart from mentioned above. Meanwhile you can add us on Facebook and Twitter for more updates!

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1. CSS3 Cheat Sheet

2. 5 Techniques To Acquaint You With CSS3

3. CSS3 Background

4. CSS3 Please

5. CSS3 Gradient Generator

6. CSS3 Click Chart

7. CSS3 Generator

8. Compatible Tables For CSS3

9. CSS3 Preview

10. CSS3 Color Names

11. CSS3 Wrapping

12. CSS 3 Cheat Sheet

13. CSS3 Selectors Test

14. CSS3 Transforms

15. Power Of CSS3

16. CSS3 Generator Widgetpad

17. CSS Contents And Browser Compatibility

18. Firefox 3.5 For Developers

19. CSS Current Work

20. Most Practical CSS Cheat Sheet

Do let us know if you have more CSS3 cheat sheets and resources via comment.

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About an year ago i described  the advantage of using content aware scaling in Photoshop CS4 and now i’m going to show a screen cast of breezy CS5. Editing images and background are just a single click away in Photoshop CS5 with the help of content aware fill.

Check out the screen-cast

Before Content Aware Fill

After Content Aware Fill

I would also recommend 10 Photoshop tutorials and resources for web designers. If you are a designer or even have an eye of inspirations then you should also checkout following few articles.

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• 10 HTML / CSS Resources
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Before Content Aware Fill- Second Example

After Content Aware Fill- Second Example

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• 20 Stunning Photoshop Text Effects Tutorials
• Top 10 Photoshop Tutorials Resources for Web Designers
• Adobe Announces Photoshop Express for Mobile Devices

20 Stunning Photoshop Text Effects Tutorials

1. Reflective Liquid Type

2. Old School Type – Line Gradients

3. 3D Text Scene

4. Bee Movie Text Effect

5. Bubble Text Effect

6. Candy Coated Text Effect

7. Color To 3D Text Effect

8. Deep Grunge Text Effect

9. Fire With Glossy Reflection

10. Glowing Text Effect

11. Gold Text Effect

12. Grass Text Effect

13. Ice Text Effect

14. Mafia Text Effect

15. Milk Typography Effect

16. Neon Text Effect

17. Richly Ornate Typography Illustration

18. Spectacular Style Text

19. Steam Powered Typographic Treatment

20. Text In Stitches

Bonus – Water Text Effect

Do you have any favorite effects, or have you seen some other text effect tutorials on the web that you prefer using, please feel free to share them in the comments.

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RapidWeaver is a next-generation web design applications to assist you easily create professional good-looking websites in minutes. It is a template-based website creation tool, from Realmac Software, and is exclusive to Mac OS X. You might have come across tons documentation before starting a blog or a website. But with RapidWeaver all you need to do is to download the application and start playing with it.

Interesting Features of RapidWeaver:

• Offers clean, beautiful code that adheres to modern web standards.
• Drag and Drop technology
• CSS / HTML / PHP code inline editing
• Powerful (and numerous) plug-ins
• iPhoto Integration and Automatic Navigation building
• FTP & Mac Publishing
• Side by side, text and code
• Lots of nice templates along with Flash Based Slideshows
• Blogging with RSS Feeds and excellent Podcasting
• Photo, Movie Albums and styled text
• New version is compatible with Snow Leopard.
• Scale & Rotate Images
• Smart Publishing

How does RapidWeaver Work?

Well, working for this excellent app is very easy. You can choose following types when working on any new website project – Blog, Contact Form, File Sharing, HTML Code, iFrame, Movie Album, Offsite Page, Photo Album, QuickTime, Styled Text. For example, if you need to create a blog, all you need to do is click on “Add” button on the main page and select “Blog” as your option. Next give title for your blog by selecting “Save” option on file menu. To further change other elements of your blog such as caption, header, footer or other, you should open General Tab of the setup menu, where the options are available.

Advance option such as external links or other services such as Google Analytics can be added with the help of Setup menu. Next the very important part comes, which is adding content. If you want to add some text content, just type it in the top area of the right panel. The toolbar that divides this area from the Themes one offers you with buttons for altering the font, alignment, style, or the color of the text. It further comprises of a drop-down menu that is actually a shortcuts for adding titles, new paragraphs or subscripts.

Then you can choose from many themes that suits your blog best. Do a preview check before finalizing the theme. Further when you need to add images, you can use the excellent drag-and-drop technology and pull it from your desktop. Then of course you will be eager to know how does the website look with content and images, so click “Publish” and there you go.

Conclusion

Overall, it is very much possible to create a website in 15minutes with RapidWeaver, which is beyond doubt amazing. And the best thing is you don’t have to be a HTML and coding guru to build your own blog here. Just by providing some standard forms and valid server detail you can complete the task. This user-friendly editor is well-suited not only to newcomers to Web design, but is also brilliant for small business owners who don’t wish to spend a lot of time learning the tricks of Web design and development, in fact, even children can give it a try.

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1. GettyImages

Gettyimages is the leading provider of digital media worldwide, creating and distributing a range of assets – from royalty-free stock photography and editorial images to footage, music and multimedia – that help communicators around the globe tell their stories. Getty Images creates and distributes the world’s best and biggest imagery collections, making them available in the most reachable and usable way – 24 hours a day, every day. From contemporary creative imagery to news, sports, entertainment and archival imagery, their products are found each day in the full range of traditional and digital media worldwide.

2. Corbisimages

The Corbis Royalty-Free Collections covers health, nature, sports, and a full range of current, relevant subject matter. Search unlimited-use images at incomparable value. Corbis imagery is packed with power and emotion and includes areas such as business, technology, people, lifestyle, nature, places and backgrounds. It’s a library of more than 140,000 images and 264 CDs from which to choose from.

3. iStockphoto

iStockphoto is the internet’s original member-generated image and design community. Get easy, affordable inspiration with millions of safe, royalty-free photographs, vector illustrations, video footage, audio tracks and Flash files. The site’s photo library contains over 4.5 million stock photos, vector illustrations, Flash files, video footage and audio from over 75,000 artists.

4. Photoxpress

PhotoXpress.com is the world’s largest free premier-quality image bank, providing creative professionals a vast and legal image library for both personal and professional use – including Web site design, brochure illustrations, advertisements and editorial illustrations. You get free, high quality, high resolution images and that is up to 10 downloads a day.

5. Freedigitalphotos

At freedigitalphotos you get thousands of royalty free photos and illustrations for websites, newspapers, magazines, video and TV productions, iPhone applications, PowerPoint presentations, forums, blogs and school work. All photos available there are free for corporate and personal use. Every image is free, with an option to buy high resolution versions for use in print or graphic design. If you are a photographer then you can create a free account to share and sell your photos.

6. Morguefile

Morguefile offers outstanding collection of photos for download. The morguefile contains photographs freely contributed by many artists to be used in creative projects by visitors to the site. Don’t forget to check out their top free photo collection, which is indeed worth looking at. The best part of morguefile is that you can download images from the site without even creating an account.

7. Imageafter

Imageafter is a large online free photo collection. You can download and use any image or texture from our site and use it in your own work, either personal or commercial. In the directory you can expect free high resolution images of objects, places, animals, mechanics, insects, signs, circuits and plants etc. All stock photos can be freely downloaded and used in you commercial or personal works. The size of the images range from 1600×1200 to 2560×1920.

8. Photovaco

Photovaco offers free stock photos with high resolution for both personal and commercial projects. You can use these free photos in websites, video, TV production, forum, blogs, school projects and print medias including newspapers, magazine, books, CD covers. That means you can download, edit and use all photos anywhere and anyhow you like except for abuse.

9. Jupiterimages

Jupiter Images is one of the leading suppliers of stock photography in the world – with a comprehensive photo library covering royalty free images and stock illustration. You’ll find top collections including Ablestock, Comstock and PhotoObjects. Between them, they offer imagery for almost any project, with a wide range of conceptual and lifestyle photography, including everything from holiday photos and sports stock to industrial shots.

10. Picturesindia

Picturesindia is an Indian site that wishes to provide an enticing and enchanting journey for its viewers by presenting them a collection of royalty free images, encompassing sections of never explored India. This unique collection has all possible intricate details that will surely be a visual treat for its viewers. From images of hotels, monuments and tourist attractions of India to photos of ancient Indian civilization everything is just a click away at Pictures India. Browse through the vast collection of images of India and download these images free of cost for various purposes like advertising, publishing and web designing.

So which is your favorite site to get royalty-free images? Do share those excellent sites with us via comment.

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eHow

eHow is an online knowledge resource with more than 337,000 articles and videos offering step-by-step instructions on “how to do just about everything”. eHow content is created by both professional experts and amateur members and covers a wide variety of topics organized into a hierarchy of categories.

CNET

It is a part of CNET website, where the tech expert offer you free online how to classes and tutorials on everything from iPhone technology to photography. You can search for more than 1,000 tips offered and help on various buying guides and tech related topics.

Howstuffworks

HowStuffWorks is a commercial edutainment website that was founded by Marshall Brain explaining the how many things work. The site uses photos, diagrams, videos and animations to explain complex terminology and mechanisms in easy-to-understand language. It covers hundreds of subjects, from car engines to lock-picking to ESP.

Wikihow

WikiHow is a wiki-based community with an extensive database of how-to guides. wikiHow is a wiki, which is a website that anyone can edit. It operates on open source software and an open content licensing model allowing free use and community ownership of the content. wikiHow’s mission is to build the world’s largest and highest quality how-to manual.

Howto.wired

Wired is one of the most interesting website you will come across. While many may not that that it does have a How-To section that is full of help. This is the site carries many technology tutorials that truly help you in figuring out how do things yourself. In How-to Wiki you can search the library, create an article, join the community, and many more.

How to write a resume

How to write a resume is all-inclusive sites that assist a job seeker with how to write a resume without any costly mistake. Further the site also helps you to write cover letter, distributing a resume to hiring managers, and assistance for composing a thank you letter. This site is been designed for everyone from a novice job hunter to the hr professional.

Garysimon

If you are looking for some web design information then this is your source. It gives you fully comprehensive step by step tutorial, from design to HTML & CSS. Gary Simon has over 8 year of experience in web and print industry and offers excellent design tutorials. You will also learn how to make money here.

Howtodothings

HowToDoThings strives to solve people’s everyday problems by compiling reliable information from experienced contributors and making it available to inexperienced readers. Some category would include, Automotive, business, careers, health and fitness, spirituality and many more. Explore and have fun.

How-to-podcast

How To Podcast is an interesting sites that teaches you how to create podcast in an fun way. The site further comprises of everyday terms, step-by-step instructions, informative articles, video tutorials, and real world examples.

Howtodrawmanga

Do you love manga? If so, then you will have great time visiting how to draw manga. You can find amazing tutorials on drawing manga. Apart from taking online manga classes, you can also read online manga, check the blog, and take part in manga forums for more interesting stuffs.

How-to-meditate

We all know the importance of mediation, who has time to join those lengthy classes? That’s why, how to meditate was created to offer practical information about Buddhist meditation in clear, simple and easy to understand for all. You can also check out breathing mediation, Meditation for Beginners – Videos, Books on Buddhism & Meditation, and many more links.

Wonderhowto

WonderHowTo.com is a community-fueled, search engine and directory for Free How-To Video. With an index of more than 225,000 videos (October 2008), they provide the largest, most contemporary, and most diverse resource in this increasingly vibrant space.

Makezine

MAKE Magazine brings the do-it-yourself mindset to all the technology in your life. MAKE is loaded with exciting projects that help you make the most of your technology at home and away from home. We celebrate your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your own will.

Howstuffismade

Howstuffismade (HSIM) is a visual encyclopedia that documents the manufacturing processes, labor conditions and environmental impacts involved in the production of contemporary products. It is a free, independent, academic resource published by engineering and design students, who research and produce summative photoessays describing the life cycle of the product, with a view to improvement.

Digital-photography-school

Digital Photography school is a website with simple tips to help digital camera owners get the most out of their cameras. Discover how to use your digital camera with their Digital Photography Tips. They have a community of photographers of all experience levels who come together to learn, share and grow in our understanding of photography.

Howtocleanstuff

This is a bright and beautifully designed website offering you tips on how to clean stuffs. There are latest guides on cleaning just about anything. You can learn everything from How to wash a rabid monkey to how to clean your PDA.

Treehugger

TreeHugger is the leading media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream. Partial to a modern aesthetic, we strive to be a one-stop shop for green news, solutions, and product information. They have handful of excellent tips on how to go green on your daily life and make it better.

Howtogeek

How to geek offers awesome collection of computer tutorials that carries everything from building your own computer to how to work with open source software and much more. You should not miss this site if you find yourself in from of computer every now and then.

Video-tutes

Video-tutes is one of the most admired website that offers video tutorials for variety of software programs including Photoshop cs2 & 3, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash 8 and Flash 8 video, Adobe Premiere pro and more, 22 titles in fact. Tutorial video collection is designed to help beginners and those wishing to learn new software to become productive faster & those wanting to advance their skill set.

Blog-tutorials

At Blog Tutorials, you get help on how to build a blog (or improve your blog if you already have an existing one). Whether it’s about blog software, writing, or even earning from your blog, this is the source for everything on blogging.

These are some How-to sites that you will not regret visiting. We all are here to learn and share, go ahead enjoy surfing through. Meanwhile, you can also follow me on Twitter and bloggers here have a great opportunity to join hands together with – Bloggers On Twitter.

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1. Adaptd

2. Alexcohaniuc

3. Authenticstyle

4. Ayushsaran

5. Caitlinhathaway

6. Ceegraphics

7. Cesarvillegas

8. Circografico

9. Daleharris

10. Designdisease

11. Eisforeffort

12. Emotionslive

13. Energycell

14. Eveninglab

15. Fa-d

16. Fortysevenmedia

17. Garethdickey

18. Graphicgirlz

19. Havocinspired

20. Jasonreedwebdesign

21. Joshtilton

22. Juandiegovelasco

23. Karoliang

24. Kavoon

25. Loworks

26. Mac-design

27. Madebygiant

28. Madelikeme

29. Madetokill

30. Markmcgall

31. Mediaredefined

32. Netdreams

33. Nisgia

34. Pikaboo

35. Pinkcactus

36. Ronniesan

37. Sebdesign

38. Shanemielke

39. Shannonmoeller

40. Simpleart

41. Skillicorn

42. Southernmedia

43. Spoongraphics

44. Swaylo

45. Thibaud

46. Toddstowell

47. Tylergaw

48. 0at

49. 55eleven

50. 84colors

These are most creatively designed sites I came across and hoping you enjoyed surfing through. Meanwhile you can follow me on Twitter – Its Free!

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Top 10 Photoshop Tutorials Resources

1.Psd.tutsplus - This is a blog/Photoshop site made to house and showcase some of the best Photoshop tutorials around. They have tutorials that not only produce great graphics and effects, but explain the techniques behind them in a friendly, approachable manner.

2.Good-tutorials – Good-Tutorials is the largest source of tutorials on the web today. You can view some of the top techniques in relation with Photoshop design, CSS, Flash, HTML, JAVA, PHP and more.

3.Photoshoptutorials – From basic Photoshop effect to Animation and layout, this one has everything you need. You can also download some of the best Photoshop brushes and Action here.

4.Smashingmagazine – This site delivers useful and innovative information to Web designers and developers. You get the latest trends and techniques in Web development. You will be convinced with the quality of the information presented with Smashing Magazine.

5.Templatetuts – It’s one the best web design tutorial resource for designers on the web. Do not forget to check out the resources and freebie section which has some interesting information for all designers.

6.Planetphotoshop – A nice tutorial site where you can learn some unique Photoshop effect from rain to fire. They have forums and review section for you to discuss the difficulties you face in designing.

7.Pixel2life – Pixel2life is among internet’s largest tutorial index catering to graphic designers, webmasters and programmers, with 51,784 tutorials listed in 88 categories! You also get additional resources to such as articles, programming script and code gallery, hardware reviews, free graphics and stock photography and much more!

8.Browse.deviantart– Excellent group of designers like Andrew McCann, Danielle McKay, Daniel Sowers Jr, Chris Bolt and more are behind deviantart.com. If you wish to become pro in overall designing, you can’t miss this one.

9.Photoshopsupport – Photoshop support features Photoshop tutorials and tips by Jennifer Apple, and offers links to other free Photoshop tutorial sites. You get Adobe Photoshop tutorials and links to free Photoshop brushes, plugins and resources, a blog with the latest Photoshop news.

10.Pslover – A clear and easy to understand list of Photoshop tutorials are available with PSlover. You can submit your own tutorials as well and learn from the experts.

Top 10 Flash Resources

11.Flash.tutsplus – This is a blog/Flash site made to house and showcase some of the best Flash, ActionScript and Flex tutorials around. You get tutorials that not only produce great graphics and effects, but explain in a friendly, approachable manner.

12.Entheosweb.com- apart from great tutorials you also get web design resources including templates, background images, galleries, Flash games etc. Nice group of people letting you know everything about flash.

13.Learnflash– Whether you are beginner, intermediate or advance learner of Flash, learnflash has solution to all level. You can download free tutorials and learn via watching videos.

14.W3schools – w3schools is well known for all the design and development tutorials. It gives you an excellent step-by-step guide to Flash. You can’t miss on this if you want to pro flash.

15.Adobe.com – This Adobe tutorial is especially designed for advanced learners who wish to know high-end ActionScrip. Check out the latest ActionScript 3 resources to get started with or migrate your existing projects to the current version of ActionScript.

16.Flashperfection – This is another excellent tutorial to master Flash. Check out the menu to learn anything about Flash. 3D Tutorial is also available here.

17.Tutorialized – Anything you need to learn about design and development can be found with tutorialized. Do participate in forums for queries regarding any development platform.

18.Knowflash – Easy to understand tutorials for flash are available with Knowflash. You will find video tutorials for you to learn the simple way.

19.Entheosweb – This site is maintained by an enthusiastic group of people mastering in Flash. Learn cool Flash effects and basic Flash concepts with these simple Flash MX 2004 and Flash 8.0 tutorials.

20.Gotoandlearn – It’s a superb guide dedicated only to Flash platform. You learn with all latest and easy techniques with gotoandlearn.

Top 10 jQuery/JavaScript Resources

21.Docs.jquery- A smart group of people are responsible for maintaining the site, in turn offering you solution to all jQuery question. Check this site for anything you need regarding jQuery.

22.W3schools – Many believe JavaScript is a difficult language to learn altogether, but you must check out w3schools to learn it the easiest way.

23.Webdesignerwall – This is a must check out jQuery tutorials for designers. This article contains 10 visual tutorials intended for web designers and newbies on how to apply Javascript effects with jQuery.

24.15daysofjquery – You can have complete understand of basics regarding jQuery. Get ready for some easy to use script with 15daysofjquery.

25.Learningjquery – Learning jQuery is a multi-author weblog providing jQuery tutorials, demos, and announcements. They have tutorials for all skill levels, and each entry is categorized by level of difficulty.

26.Codylindley – One of the best sites designed for jQuery. The site’s focal point is a blog that reflects on Web development, Web standards, CSS, XHTML, CMS’s, site optimization, PHP, MySQL, Macromedia Flash, accessibility, information architecture, visual design, interaction design, and information design.

27.Remysharp – Remy offers brilliant guild to jQuery. Apart from jQuery lessons you can also read few interesting blogs posted there.

28.Sohtanaka – Sohtanaka is a passionate Web Designer and Front-End Developer seasoned in working in the fast-paced, ever-changing web environment. You will enjoy learning through the process as it is well-maintained site.

29.Dustindiaz – This is a bright looking site designed by Dustin who expertise in JavaScript and let you know some of the outstanding tips on it.

30.Net.tutsplus – this site offers tutorials and articles on technologies, skills and techniques to improve how your design knowledge. They cover HTML, CSS, Javascript, CMS’s, PHP and Ruby on Rails.

Top 10 HTML/CSS Resources

31.Yourhtmlsource – This site has excellent HTML tutorials and well-researched links on all aspects of web design, equally suited to beginners and advanced webmasters.

32.W3schools – Again as mentioned earlier this source can be of great help if you desiring to learn HTLM.

33.Htmldog – I’m sure you know this site. The idea of HTLM Dog is to take the somewhat convoluted official specs for XHTML and CSS and present them in a much more readable fashion.

33.W3- This short tutorial is meant for people who want to start using CSS and have never written a CSS style sheet before.

34.Htmlcsstutorials – A nice site designed with easy navigation to offer you knowledge about XHTML and tips on CSS. You get complete reference for html CSS with examples.

35.Html – HTML.net provides guidance and help about designing and developing websites.

36.Tizag – This can be a stepping stone to the budding webmaster and a handy reference to the veteran developer. Tizag is always changing its tutorials and references to incorporate the latest in web design.

37.Boogiejack – This is an HTML help site featuring standards-based HTML tutorials, CSS tutorials and other website design help and resources.

38.Htmlgoodies – This site has group of lessons set up to be covered over a week’s time, one tutorial per day. HTMLGoodies is your resource for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, ASP and other web development topics.

39.Echoecho- You can use this tutorial either as a complete introduction or as an A-Z reference to HTML. If you’re completely new to HTML you should start with the section that covers HTML Basics.

40Css-tricks – You can locate hand-full of video and text tutorials with CSS-trick. Don’t forget to sign up with their RSS to get some smart tricks on CSS.

Top 10 Web Design Forums Resources

41.Digitalpoint – This is a place designed to discuss about website design and get help with, Photoshop, Flash, JQuery, HTML, CSS, DHTML, etc.

42.Sitepoint – You have great source of information on all platform related to design and development

43.Designerstalk – Anything to discuss about graphics, illustration, programming and more

44.Smashingmagazine – Discussions about current trends and recent developments: design reviews, showcases and interesting or unusual designs are all possible here.

45.Webmaster-talk – A cool place to discuss your knowledge on various platform and get help from the experts

46.Webdesignforums – This is more like a tutorial offering posts with great information.

47.Webdesignerforum- Get help and advice on planning your web design project. This is also a great source for news from the world of design & development and other exciting events.

48.Webdevforums- Web designers and web development professionals get your fundamental web master tools and information here. This is your source for basic website builder knowledge.

49.Webdesignchat – Discuss about your web designing problems, techniques, softwares, websites, latest tricks etc

50.Webdesignforum – You can discuss tips on web design including the use of popular web design software. And get help on any issues related to various platforms.

We have listed some of the best and most useful sites for you to get help on everything associated to web design and development. Please feel free to share the one you love!

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