Webmasters constantly have a lot on their plate, what with all the
simultaneous urgent projects, not to mention the constant updating and
maintenance of their websites’ content and code or the inevitable need
to care for the user community that blossoms around successful websites
and web businesses. So it’s no wonder that they are stressed-out and
complain about not having enough time in the day. The solution lies in
online tools.
With the sheer abundance of Web 2.0 tools available these days, there
will always be an app or a website that can help ease the workload by
offering webmasters a set of instantly useful options.
Here is a list of seven of the best tools online:
1. CSS Button Generator
Produce effortless CSS buttons without even needing to upload images.
This free online tool gives you loads of options to play with, from
button colors to font and border sizes to text and box shadows. Fiddle
with the settings and once the button is to your liking, export the code
and simply copy-paste it to your HTML page.
2. JotForm
Looking for an easy way to build sign up forms, satisfaction surveys,
or even document uploader forms? In the simplest terms, this is a
WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) form builder, which means even
those with no HTML or web design knowledge can use it. Simply drag and
drop the elements of your form then copy-paste the necessary code into
your website. They have a free plan which allows you to get 100 form
submissions a month, but if you need more submissions a month, they have
two more tiers of payment for your needs.
3. Grid Designer
Here’s a free online tool that allows you to create grids (columns,
gutters, margins) that will hold your web content. Select the typography
and fonts for your body text and headings, and then easily export the
whole thing to copy-paste ready CSS, and even a sample XHTML template.
4. FavIcon Generator
Yes, favicons (favorites icons) are those unique and tiny graphics
used to identify a website in your browser bookmarks menu, location bar,
or your tabs. And yes, there are many other online tools that can
generate a favicon for your site, some even let you draw it from
scratch, pixel by pixel. This one however allows you to upload your own
image and magically turns it into a 16×16 image.
5. Loader Generato
Need some loading graphics? Those typically spinning animated gifs
that tell you something is loading are easy enough with this tool. Pick a
spinning icon and customize characteristics such as image size,
transparency and color scheme, then download the final animated gif.
6. ThemeRoller
Create customized jQuery UI themes using a WYSIWYG web tool called
ThemeRoller. Custom themes are created by adjusting settings and seeing
the UI components on the page update instantly. Then simply download the
theme when your tweaking is done.
7. MultiColor Search by TinEye Labs
The last tool is simply a dead-easy way to find creative commons
images on Flickr that you can use for your website. By specifying your
color scheme color by color, the tool searches through the database of
images on Flickr and shows you a large number of images you can click
through to. It’s a color search engine and it works effortlessly.
