HTML and Graphics Authoring Programs
Paint Shop Pro V6.0: This is easily the best graphics editing program
for beginning graphics artists. Lots of people argue that Adobe Photoshop
is better, but ignore them for now. Take your time with PSP, it's like a
stepping stone on the road to Photoshop.
You can pay for Paint Shop Pro, but I've found that you can find it in a
shareware version. Right now, I could only find it available for America
Online members, but I'll keep looking and if I find anything, I'll put a
link up here. Or, in the meantime, ask a buddy of yours who has AOL if they'll
send it to you, cause it's a really expensive program.
AOL Members Click here.
CoffeeCup V5.0: Honestly, I've never used this program. I'm a little
too old for it. :) I'm from the era of AOL Press -- a very simple HTML editor
that was released by America Online a few years ago as shareware. Sadly,
it's not available anymore and I'm still working with AOLPress
and HomeSite. So, we'll both have to go on faith that AOL knows what
they're talking about here. If this program replaced AOL Press, it should
be pretty good. Sadly, it's only available for AOL users, but I'll keep my
eye open to try and find it elsewhere. Or, if you happen to know of a better
shareware program, email me.
AOL Members Click Here
Webspace
Geocities: This is the one
free webhosting company that I'm impressed with at all. Meg for meg, this
is the best deal. They give you 15megs, a smaller ad banner, online help,
a short address (compared to those hideous Angelfire addresses where you
can get lost in all those slashes and dots), and oodles more.
A few people are frightened by the stories of Geocities dumping pages, but
that's bound to happen, even with professional webhosters where you pay for
their services. As long as you keep backup files of your site on your harddrive
it won't be a problem. And besides, it's not too likely to happen.
A few warnings, however: don't use their "drag and drop" page editor. Stay
away from it. Run from it. You're going to be using HTML, and with that skill
your site will look better than anything you could create with a drag and
drop. Got it?
Another plus for this lovely program is it doesn't take long to sign up for.
Also, you can choose what you want the ads to be that are placed on your
site. Thank heavens, you can finally avoid those ads for pornographic sites
that have gotten quite a few Harry Potter webmasters in trouble, even though
they had no control over the advertising. Thanks to Geocities, now you can
control the content. Yippie!
Finally, I'm sad to report, Geocities has stopped allowing FTP access. This
means you can't use a program like WS_FTP to upload straight to your Geocities
account. Normally when things like this happens it's for security reasons.
WS_FTP to open servers such as that one is an easy route for hackers. I know
Geocities has had problems with that in the past, so this was just inevitable.
AOL Members: If you're a member of America Online, you're automatically
alloted ad-free webspace. Each screen name has 10megs to play around with,
completely free of charge, and completely ad-free. It's a grand deal. Hint:
Do NOT sign up for AOL Hometown. It only gives you 2 more megs, but it makes
you place this huge ad over the top of your page. Definitely not worth it,
in my opinion.
AOL Members Click
Here
Website Amenities
WS_FTP LE: This is arguably
the best FTP program you'll be able to find for free. There are more advanced
programs that they sell, but it's just silly to pay for them when all you
need is the basic program. Look for the free evaluation version, fill out
the form (if your parents don't want you to give out your address, say you
live at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC -- Congratulations, you
now live at the White House! Woohoo!)
Sparklit.com: All sorts of wonderful
options all in one convenient location. From guestbooks to webpolls, and
back again, they've got pretty much everything -- and it's free! Happy day!
Dreambook: Looking for a free
guestbook service? This is the best one I've found. I thought I'd found a
goldmine with Guestbook.de -- little did I know they put disgustingly perverse
ads on all the guestbooks. :) Thankfully, Dreambook uses almost the same
format as guestbook.de, and you get to choose what kind of ads you want on
the site using their lovely rating system. It's easy to update, manage, and
so on. Definitely the best out there that I've seen.
SiteMeter - One of the absolute best
counter services I've found. With one itty bitty graphic you can
see how many visitors you've had each day, how many plain hits,
and not only that, you can tell where they came from. Ever wondered
if people are actually using those links you set up with
Yahoo.com? Now you can find out.
More services coming soon, when I have more time. :) |
