Modern Web-building technologies allow designers to realize their most daring and creative ideas. Enhanced interactivity and a remarkable visual appearance can be achieved by means of such tools as Flash, JavaScript and Papervision3D, to name just a few. These strengths usually impress and entertain visitors and thus are often used for conceptual artistic presentations and promotional campaigns.In this post, you’ll find a collection of amusing websites that, by combining unconventional (and sometimes bizarre) ideas and clever JavaScript and Flash effects, will entice you to play on them for an embarrassing long time.[Offtopic: by the way, did you know that there is a Smashing eBook Series? Book #1 is Professional Web Design, 242 pages for just $9,90.]Bizarre and Beautiful WebsitesRecord Tripping Record Tripping is a nifty experimental game by Bell Brothers. You are invited to solve a series of puzzles by scratching a record with your mouse’s scroll wheel. Clever game play and a lovely interface make this online Flash game as fun as it is weird.Sound of Hamburg Here is one of the most creative and unconventional Flash websites we’ve seen lately. Sound of Hamburg lets you compose music on and with the city of Hamburg. The combination of brilliant idea and unique interaction makes for an absorbing Web experience.Echogenesis Echogenesis is another interactive brainchild of Bell Brothers. This exciting Flash website lets you explore five natural environments and experience a variety of sound and visual effects through your interaction.Verbatim Championship Verbatim Championship is a hilarious Flash-based website where you can build your own “Media Monster” using Verbatim recording devices and use it to fight other monsters.Incredibox This fun and well-developed Flash application lets you conduct a beatbox or a capella band. The website is available in both English and French.De Montagetafel This website was definitely among the best for Flash Web design for 2009. You are invited to try your montage skills and create your own documentary on an edgy topic.Optus Whale Song An amazingly creative experience is offered by the Australian telecommunication company Optus on its official website. You can compose a song for a whale and make an orchestra perform it. This is a must-see Flash website.Flurrious If you like to create things, this website will keep you busy for hours (especially in winter). Using a versatile Flash editor, you can compile your very own snowflake and watch it dance in an artistic snowfall.Blues Maker Blues Maker is a fun online Flash application that allows you to create a fine blues song. The list of options is rather limited; still the process of song-making is quite enjoyable. The design of the website is really cool, too.Bubole Bubole will definitely make you smile. It is an amusing monster builder and game. You create a weirdo and make it fight with monsters created by other players. The funny sound effects and typography are nice touches.Ball Pool (not Flash) Ball Pool is a beautiful jQuery website with a simple yet absorbing concept behind it. Just click and shake your browser to generate more colorful balls. A simple and fun app to cheer you up in the middle of a working day.Bank of Imagination How often do you start sentences with “What if…”? If you have a rich imagination, consider investing in the Bank of Imagination. This Flash-based interactive website allows you to note and save your “What if” thoughts. You can also observe other global flights of fancy by browsing other user messages.Google Gravity This website probably won’t be of much interest to the average Web user, but SEO specialists will love it: who else could stare at Google’s downfall for ages?Flame Flame is a brilliant JavaScript painting tool that proves that anyone can be an artist. The program was created by Peter Blaskovic as part of his experimental project “I am Artist.” Using a number of nifty drawing tools and, of course, your imagination, you can create some cool psychedelic drawings and then export them in a resolution of 1680 x 1050 pixels. All you need to use this tool is Java (probably already installed on your computer).Ball Droppings Ball Droppings is a cool JavaScript experiment that lets you create music in a quite unusual and tricky way: just draw lines with your mouse to bounce the balls that fall from the hole.Beans This is the pearl in our collection of bizarre JavaScript and Flash websites. Who would have thought that crushing little screaming beans could be so much fun?Labuat Labuat is the most beautiful and enjoyable time-killer in our selection. It’s a song illustrated by an interactive brush that reacts to music, and the lyrics won’t leave you cold.Why Do You Stay Up So Late? Why Do You Stay Up So Late? is a compelling lyrical poem accompanied by a beautiful Flash animation. Such a creative combo gives the website a special feel.The Infinite Oz The Infinite Oz is an interactive Flash animation that features a collaboration between nine acclaimed international artists. Exploring fantastic sci-fi worlds that replace each other infinitely is a quite relaxing pastime.Annamika kaleidoscope Catherine Hubert created this Flash kaleidoscope to provide Web users with a place for meditative contemplation.Neon Bible This interactive video for a song by Arcade Fire is weird and hypnotizing at the same time.Drum Machine Drum Machine has several pre-loaders that play before the actual animation starts. In most cases, you would not wait so long for a Flash website to load, but Drum Machine is an exception. a mesmerizing combination of animation and sounds won’t let you leave.Soundtrack for a Book This exquisite Flash website belongs to the Singapore-based indie band Concave Scream. A myriad of colorful particles assembled into 3-D book covers, set to dreamy music, makes for a beautiful and calming Web experience.Papervision3D.org Before entering the official website of open-source Flash framework Papervision3D, you have a chance to explore an interactive 3-D underwater environment.Condiment The portfolio of creative communication agency Condiment features a clever JavaScript jigsaw puzzle. This engaging feature, set against a neat and stylish design, makes the website a pleasure to browse.The Digital Invaders This Flash website takes some time to load, but incredible animations, showing an awfully funny crowd of invaders, fully compensate for that.Bio-Bak Bio-Bak is indubitably a trendsetter when it comes to bizarre Web design. Enter this kingdom of the absurd and fun to load up on positive emotions.Donnie Darko Okay, here is the most extraordinary movie website you may have ever seen. It engrosses you in a mysterious and suspenseful journey based on the 2001 US psychological thriller Donnie Darko.Paul Neave You will never get bored on this website. This online home of interactive designer Paul Neave is a fount of engaging Flash applications and games.Salt Films This website of film production company Salt Films tastes delicious. Elegant and funky graphics, creative animation and interactive salt shakers for the work of film directors deliver the most pleasing Web experience.BonusAnd Then There Was Salsa Although not a website, this cool video ad shows Flash in its glory.About the AuthorJulia May is a freelance writer now working with FlashMint, a top-class provider of beautiful Flash templates and smart jQuery templates.(al)© Julia May for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine Post tags:
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I posted to smashingmagazine.com
Bizarre Websites On Which You Can Kill Time With Style
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- design
May 25 2010, 9:26am | Comments »
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I posted to smashingmagazine.com
There’s No Such Thing As A Bad Client
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Hardly a day goes by without hearing a client horror story from one designer or another. Whether I hear about it in person, by email, over the phone or on Twitter, one thing seems clear: designers seem to like complaining about their clients almost as much as they enjoy taking their money.Everyone has a client horror story. Plenty of websites and blog articles feature creative professionals venting their spleen. You can find some of these linked at the bottom of this article. I encourage you to read through them; some are really quite outrageous, but I hope your thoughts are tempered by what I’m about to say.[By the way, did you know we have a brand new free Smashing Email Newsletter? Subscribe now and get fresh short tips and tricks on Tuesdays!]What Makes A “Bad Client”?Each person has their own definition of a bad client, depending on their outlook, personality and tolerance. A few universal traits sum it up for me.Doesn’t PayThe worst of them all. Any other “bad” characteristic is usually manageable compared to this one. Clients who don’t pay or delay payment never realize the trouble and pressure they heap on you, especially if you are a small company or freelancer, for whom cash flow is king. A world of trouble awaits all parties if you have to get legal about it. In this situation, not only do you lose out on income that you have rightly earned, but you could lose out on jobs because your time is consumed by chasing debtors.Wants Something for NothingA lot of designers and developers start out in the industry by offering free work to friends and contacts as a way to get their foot in the door. I know I did. There comes a time in your career when this has to stop, and doing it can be difficult. But there are always a few clients who see this situation as the norm.I no longer do free work unless it’s for charity or something else I believe in strongly. But this hasn’t stopped a few clients from expecting free samples before commissioning further work. It’s all a bit “carrot and stick,” but in my experience more often that not the carrot never appears, and you end up feeling like you got whacked with the stick.You have a portfolio for a reason. If a client can’t decide whether to hire you based on that, then forget it.Moves the Goal PostsThis situation can creep up on you, and before you know it, you’ve done a lot more for the client than you were paid for. The client will accept your very reasonable quote, but then begin bolting on extras as the job progresses, sometimes in such small doses that you are unsure whether it falls in the agreed plan. This usually happens when the client is unsure from the outset exactly what they want from you. We’ve all heard the line, “I don’t know what I want until I see it.”Makes Strange DemandsThis is probably the most common complaint against clients. The king of all demands is, of course, “Can we make the logo bigger?” The Clients From Hell website displays endless examples of strange requests.Plenty more complaints could be added to this list, but they would be smaller annoyances that everyone gets in their daily job, such as: poor communication, being badgered by clients, clients who know it all, disorganized or emotional clients and, of course, gossips. You may well be scratching your head at this point. I’ve clearly pointed out a few ways in which clients can be bad, after proclaiming that they don’t exist in the title. The trick is deciding whether to let them be your clients at all.No Such ThingI remember when I was a kid, I used to believe monsters were lurking in every dark corner of my bedroom. Every shadow and silhouette seemed menacing and scary, despite the fact that the rest of my family would tell me that there is no such thing as monsters.Eventually, you grow up and realize that the shadow cast by your Transformer is completely benign and has no ill will against you. But believing or seeing is not enough; you need experience. You grow up and learn; you grow out of bad habits; sometimes you grow new ones.Bad clients are the monsters under the bed when your creative career is young. They are very real and can give you plenty of fear and stress. But there are ways to grow up and get rid of them, until they become stories that you tell younger designers to scare them.It comes down to experience and necessity.Experience And NecessityExperience can’t be taught. It’s one of those things that is gained only by doing. You have to get burned to learn when something is hot. You should regard every bad client you encounter, whether at the beginning, middle or end of your career, as a learning experience—a stepping stone to help you avoid similar situations.Experience: Taking the Rough With the SmoothAt the time, it sucks. No one likes working for bad clients. But you have to step back and look at the bigger picture. Sure, you may lose out immediately if a client doesn’t pay you, but in the long run this experience will probably save you vastly more money because it will make you change your working practices so that it doesn’t happen again.Experience counts for nothing if you don’t use it to keep from making mistakes again and again. Some will argue that you can’t guard against bad clients, that you either get them or you don’t, that it’s a lottery. I would say that with enough experience you can spot a bad client from a mile away. Experience won’t solve all of your problems. Sometimes you will need to exercise simple skills such as patience, communication, adaptability and understanding.A lot of client conflicts arise from a lack of knowledge. Sometimes the client just doesn’t understand what we do as creative professionals, and this accounts for many of their crazy requests. Our job as designers is to help them with their particular goals. They always have a target in sight; they just don’t know how to hit it. Communication is all-important. You have to understand what the client wants, and the client has to know what you need to do to make it happen.Every client is different, and each has to be handled a different way. You’ll have to be attentive to some; others will require a standoff-ish approach. The important thing is finding a way to draw clear lines of communication, so that both parties know exactly what they’re getting out of the business transaction. Hopefully, the client will educate you as much as you do them.There is no better condition to learn in than extreme pressure—at least for me. Has a client ever made such a strange request that you had to sit down and think, “How would I even achieve that?” But it spurs you on. You’re forced to learn different ways to work because the client doesn’t think like you. They don’t have your knowledge or sense of “how things are done.”The next time you get a seemingly bizarre request, just go with it. It’s part of the excitement that every designer should seek out. Don’t worry if it isn’t “normal practice,” or even bad practice. Experiment a little, even if only to humor the client and prove that your way is ultimately the right way.Necessity: A Glutton for PunishmentNow we come to necessity. The truth is that any client, no matter how fussy, impolite or demanding, is a good client if they pay a fair wage for the work done. It’s as simple as that. Everyone has bills to pay. We all do jobs that are less than creatively satisfying just to get the cheque at the end. We deal with people who we might not like in exchange for a little extra cash, and we’ll put up with a little more crap than usual because we like to eat.But everyone makes choices, and our choices define us. Clients have the power to sack us anytime they want; and for freelance designers, that’s a two-way street. It may mean a drop in income; perhaps the bills won’t get paid on time this month. No matter the consequences, the choice is open to every designer out there.ConclusionsThe only “bad clients” are the ones you take on in spite of your better judgment. At a certain point in a designer’s career, they are able to tell whether a particular client will be trouble. At that point, clients aren’t so much bad as they are self-inflicted pain for the designer.We all know that the career of a designer is a steep learning curve. Bad clients have to be a part of that curve. At the time it’s frustrating, maybe even financially dangerous, but each one is a stepping stone to learning how to do things better.When the day comes that you have earned the luxury of being able to pick and choose who you work for, bad clients won’t really exist. Perhaps that day is a mirage and I’m full of it; but for now, as I work towards that goal, my only “bad clients” are the ones who refuse to pay 50% up front. Everything else they throw at me is a challenge that better equips me for the next one.I’d like to know your thoughts on this. How do you react to bad clients? Can you look back on bad experiences and learn from them? Can you spot bad clients? Have you reached good-client nirvana?Bad Client StoriesClients From HellA Collection of Horror Stories and Quotes from Bad Clients, SpeckyboyBad Clients and How to Avoid Them, Freelance FolderWhy Bad Clients Aren’t Always BadClients Aren’t Stupid, Web Designer NotebookThe Biggest Myth of Graphic and Web Design, Graphic Design BlenderClients Are Not Demons From Hell, Freelance FolderRelated PostsYou may be interested in the following related posts:How To Successfully Educate Your Clients On Web DevelopmentDealing With Clients Who Refuse To PayIs John The Client Dense or Are You Failing Him?(al)© Ken Reynolds for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine Post tags:
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- workflow
May 25 2010, 6:25am | Comments »
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I posted to designmeltdown.com
Fat footers – your sites junk in the trunk
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/designmeltdown/uecD/~3/9v0RXM5Rfe4/
The usage of large footers is very common these days. The logic makes great sense; if a user reaches the end of the page you should reward them with direction to additional content, not just leave them hanging. Check out this collection for fresh ideas on the topic. http://www.visualswirl.com/2010/02/fat-footers-the-long-tail-of-your-website/
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- Footers
May 25 2010, 5:00am | Comments »
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I posted to smashingmagazine.com
Free Designer’s Portfolio Icon Set (12 High Quality Icons)
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Today we are glad to release a Designer’s Portfolio Icon Set, a set with 12 original high-quality icons in the resolution 256×256px. This set was designed by MediaLoot and released especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. Both layered PSDs and transparent PNGs are included. The set contains icons related to avatar, portfolio, brushes, mail / envelope, color palette, colored pencils, tablet, laptop computer, moleskine notebook, DSLR camera, easel with canvas and coffee cup.Download the icon set for free!You can use the set for all of your projects for free and without any restrictions. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The set may not be resold, sublicensed, rented, transferred or otherwise made available for use. Please link to this article if you would like to spread the word.previewdownload the set (.zip, 4.4 Mb)Behind the designAs always, here are some insights from the designer herself:All of us designers need graphics and icons for our own sites, not just for client’s sites, so we designed this icon set with that in mind. The set contains 12 big icons in 256×256 format. Both layered PSDs and transparent PNGs are included. We like to call it our ‘designer portfolio icon set’. The set includes the following icons:AvatarPortfolioBrushesMail / EnvelopeColor PaletteColored PencilsTabletLaptop ComputerMoleskine NotebookDSLR CameraEasel With CanvasCoffee Cup (who said designers drink too much coffee?)Thank you very much, Jon & Co.! We appreciate your efforts.© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine Post tags:
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- Freebies
May 24 2010, 1:00pm | Comments »
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I posted to designmeltdown.com
Minimal and clean designs
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The minimal style is exceedingly popular these days, and when combined with a very clean approach the end result is some fantastic design. This collection of examples demonstrates these styles perfectly. http://webdesignledger.com/inspiration/60-minimal-and-super-clean-web-designs-to-inspire-you
May 24 2010, 5:00am | Comments »
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I posted to smashingmagazine.com
Website Archives Design: Good Practices and Examples
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The archive is one of those often-overlooked parts of a website that doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Too often it’s thrown on a page that’s no different from any other page on the website, or it’s ignored altogether. The archive offers a lot of room for creativity, though. Whether you opt for an abbreviated one in the sidebar or footer or devote an entire page to it, the archive an opportunity to make your design stand out.[By the way, did you know we have a brand new free Smashing Email Newsletter? Subscribe now and get fresh short tips and tricks on Tuesdays!]Best PracticesWhile there is plenty of room for creativity, there is also a number of things to keep in mind to make sure your archive is functional and user-friendly.1. Use as Much Space as You NeedThere’s no sense cramming your archive into a space that’s too small. If your archive is extensive, consider devoting an entire page to it, rather than forcing it into the sidebar or footer.Neography uses a lot of white space to showcase its posts. Every single post is highlighted with red on the calendar. Also, short excerpts are displayed in the chronological order under the calendar. Nice design.The opposite is also true. If your archive is small or fairly simple, you may not need an entire page for it. Instead, consider putting it in the sidebar or footer or even in a drop-down menu.2. Make It Easy to FindYou archive should be findable by casual visitors. Put it (or a link to it) somewhere obvious: the header, footer or sidebar are the best choices. Label it clearly, too, so that visitors know this is your archive and not an off-site link.Instead of naming its archive section “blog posts”, “older blog posts”, “recent articles” etc., Kyle Meyer calls it “Archives” and prominently places it in the main navigation on the top of the page. Also notice the archive design approach: the posts are placed vertically according to the timeline. An interesting solution.There’s no point in having an archive if you make it impossible to find.3. Clearly Delineate ItEspecially if it appears in your sidebar or footer, your archive should be clearly defined and distinct from surrounding content. This can be achieved with a border, a different font, color, whatever you want. Make sure it’s immediately apparent where your archive begins and ends.If your archive is on its own page, consider omitting things like the sidebar, which might add to the visual clutter. If not, make sure it’s at least obvious which parts of the page are the archive and which are the regular sidebar, header and footer content.4. Use CategoriesIf your archive is big, use categories to make it easier for visitors to find content they’re interested in. Even in a smaller archive, categories can be useful. Just remember that too many categories can confuse users more than they help.On Colly.com users can browse archives by year or by categories.Alternatives are a date-based archive (which works well for personal blogs but is less effective for topic-based websites) and a tag-based archive (which is particularly helpful on blogs with diverse content and for very large archives).5. Don’t Show the Full ContentIf you give the archive its own page, don’t show the full articles on that page. All that does is take up space and make it more difficult to navigate.On her redesigned portfolio site, Veerle Pieters gives her archive an own page and shows only excerpts of the articles together with illustrations. The excerpts are placed in two columns and are sorted by date.Instead, include just the title or the title and a short excerpt (one or two sentences). This keeps the page looking clean and organized and makes skimming much easier.6. Give Your Visitors Various View OptionsIf you are displaying excerpts on your archive page, it may be useful to provide users with an option to quickly scan the titles of the articles instead of scrolling the excerpts of the articles endlessly. A simple switcher would be enough. You may want to use cookies to save the current preference of the user, though.VisitMix provides two view options to its readers: by default, the excerpts view is selected, but if you click on the corresponding icon in the right upper corner, the view changes right away. Unfortunately, this state is not saved, so if you prefer to browse archives in the “short” view, you would need to always click on the icon first.7. Split Things UpNo one says your entire archive has to be contained within a single list. Especially if your archive is in the sidebar, consider breaking it up with lists of the most popular posts, random posts, most recent posts, etc.Lists like these can help visitors find interesting and relevant content that they might not find in a conventional archive. They also add more visual interest to your website, depending on how you structure them. A list of random or featured posts also draws attention to posts deep in your archive that might not get much traffic otherwise.Do You Even Need an Archive?Not every website needs a dedicated archive. Some designers opt for just category-based navigation instead. Others have no archive navigation other than an “Old posts” link.If your website has timeless content that visitors might find useful six months or a year down the line, then an archive can be valuable. On the other hand, if it’s a personal blog that has mainly a chronological structure, then you could safely forget about an archive unless you really want one.Also, consider offering a category-based or tag cloud-based system to access older posts, instead of a formal archive. Either might be more useful for visitors looking for specific content. An archive, though, can present an interesting and efficient method for visitors to find content that they’re not explicitly searching for. Consider this carefully before deciding not to include one on your website.ShowcaseQN5 Blog QN5 includes an area in the sidebar to show both recent posts and posts with the most comments.WellMedicated WellMedicated includes a small section in its sidebar for most popular and most recent posts.The Official Squarespace Blog The Squarespace blog displays its archive by month, right alongside the category archive in the sidebar.Inspect Element Inspect Element sets its “Most Popular Posts” section apart with a background texture.Burciaga The archive here is kept simple: just a list of links by date.Learning jQuery In addition to an “Archives” link in the header, Learning jQuery includes a brief list of popular posts at the top of the sidebar.BHoff BHoff’s archive is located in the sidebar, organized by date and shown alongside the category list.jord&chan The archive here is in the footer, organized as a simple chart by month and year. Months with no entries are shown in lighter type than those with entries.Cut & Taste Cut & Taste puts its archive on a separate page, with a link in the header. On the archive page, articles are organized by date.Web Is Love Web Is Love has a brief list of its most popular articles in the sidebar. Other archived posts can be accessed through the categories in the header.Twirk Ethic Twirk Ethic organizes its archive by category and displays it in an AJAX slider, linked from the main navigation. One of the most elegant solutions in this showcase.Web Design Ledger Web Design Ledger has an extensive list of recent posts in the sidebar, accompanied by thumbnails.ThinkVitamin ThinkVitamin puts lists of popular and recent posts in its sidebar.Obox Design Obox includes a brief list of recent posts at the top of its sidebar, with icons.Jason Santa Maria Jason Santa Maria devotes a page to his archive, with a list of recent posts as well as lists broken up by category, date and tag.Jaredigital Weblogue A page is devoted to this archive, linked from the sidebar on the main blog page. The archive page itself is kept simple, with articles organized by date.Cynosura The archive here also has its own page (linked from the header) and is organized by category.Maxvoltar Maxvoltar’s archive is linked from the sidebar and is presented in a well-organized table on its own page.Rustin Jessen Rustin Jessen’s archive is given its own page and is organized by tag, type and date.City Cyclops Comics City Cyclops Comics put both its comics archive and its blog archive on a single page, with the blog archive organized by date and positioned in the sidebar. The comics archive is given much more space and detail.The FontFeed The FontFeed offers a simple drop-down menu, among other options (“Search” and “Subscribe”), to browse its archives by month. Simple but effective.BestBlogBox A simple solution: a sidebar widget that displays the archive by month, as well as tag, log-in and latest tweets options. It saves space and is also user-friendly.Spyre Studios Spyre Studios devotes a page to its archives and includes simple date-based links in the sidebar.Josdigital Another website that devotes a page to its archive, this time with thumbnails for the main posts instead of text, as well as some featured posts with text excerpts below.Productivedreams Productivedreams includes a widget that displays popular or recent posts. Another simple but effective solution.Podlob It makes sense for a photoblog to have a more visual archive, and this calendar with thumbnails works brilliantly. This kind of set-up is obviously best suited to blogs that are updated daily (or close to it).Epaper Central Another website with a simple sidebar-based list of recent posts.Thomas Finley Thomas Finley dedicates a full page to his archive, with an option for the latest posts as well as links by month.Nonesuch Records Nonesuch Records lets you browse its archive by date, category and artist, all in easy-to-use drop-down menus.(al)© Cameron Chapman for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Be the first to comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine Post tags: archives
May 24 2010, 1:53am | Comments »
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I posted to smashingmagazine.com
Make Your Own Bookmarklets With jQuery
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SmashingMagazine/~3/4V9AaRf5MXg/
Bookmarklets are small JavaScript-powered applications in link form. Often “one-click” tools and functions, they’re typically used to extend the functionality of the browser and to interact with Web services. They can do things like post to your WordPress or Tumblr blog, submit any selected text to Google Search, or modify a current page’s CSS… and many other things!Because they run on JavaScript (a client-side programming language), bookmarklets (sometimes called “favelets”) are supported by all major browsers on all platforms, without any additional plug-ins or software needed. In most instances, the user can just drag the bookmarklet link to their toolbar, and that’s it!In this article, we’ll go through how to make your own bookmarklets, using the jQuery JavaScript framework. [By the way: The network tab (on the top of the page) is updated several times a day. It features selected articles from the best web design blogs!]Getting StartedYou can make a faux URI with JavaScript by prefacing the code with [removed], like so:<a href="[removed] alert('Arbitrary JS code!');">Alert!</a>Notice that when we put it in the href attribute, we replace what would normally be double quotes (") with single quotes ('), so that the href attribute’s value and JavaScript function don’t get cut off midway. This is not the only way to circumvent the problem, but it’ll do for now.We can take this concept as far as we want, adding multiple lines of JavaScript inside these quotation marks, with each line separated by a semicolon (;), sans line break. If your bookmarklet won’t need to be updated later, this method of “all inclusiveness” is probably fine. For this tutorial, we’ll externalize the JavaScript code and store it in a .js file, which we’ll host somewhere else.Here is what a link to an externalized bookmarklet looks like:<a href="removed();">Externalized Bookmarklet</a>This link looks for the document’s body and appends a <script> element to it, with a src that we’ve defined—in this case, http://foo.bar/baz.js. Keep in mind that if the user is on an empty tab or a place that for some reason has no body, nothing will happen because there is nothing to append to.You can host the .js file wherever is convenient, but keep bandwidth in mind if you expect a ton of traffic.Enter jQueryBecause many of you will be familiar with the jQuery framework, we’ll use it to build our bookmarklet.The easiest way to get it inside our .js file is to append Google’s CDN, but with a bit of extra logic:if (typeof jQuery == 'undefined') { var jQ = document.createElement('script'); jQ.type = 'text/javascript'; jQ.onload=runthis; jQ.src = 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js'; document.body.appendChild(jQ); } else { runthis(); }
function runthis() { // your JavaScript code goes here! }Clean and simple. This first checks to see whether jQuery is already loaded, because many pages you visit might already use it, and we don’t want to be redundant. If it’s not already loaded, we bring it in from Google and set the function runthis() to run when it is done loading. If jQuery has already loaded, we skip straight to runthis().Grabbing InformationDepending on the kind of bookmarklet you’re making, it might be worthwhile to grab information from the current page. The two most important things are document.location, which returns the page’s URL, and document.title, which returns the page’s title.You could also return any text that the user may have selected, but that’s a little more complicated:function getSelText() { var SelText = ''; if (window.getSelection) { SelText = window.getSelection(); } else if (document.getSelection) { SelText = document.getSelection(); } else if (document.selection) { SelText = document.selection.createRange().text; } return SelText; }(Modified from JavaScript Get Selected.)Without going into too much detail, this code first defines an empty SelText variable, and then uses a couple of different functions to try to fill it with any selected text or content, with each method specific to certain browsers. Not as simple or as clean as we might like, but it’s functional.Another option is to use JavaScript’s input function to query the user with a pop-up:var yourname = prompt("What's your name?", "my name...");Character EncodingIf you’ll be putting all of your JavaScript in the link itself rather than in an external file, you might want a better way to nest double quotation marks (as in, “a quote ‘within a quote’”), rather than demoting them to single quotation marks. Use " in their place (as in, “a quote "within a quote"“):<a href="[removed]var yourname=prompt("What is your name?");alert ("Hello, "+yourname+"!")">What is your name?</a>In this example, we have encoded the spaces as , which might benefit older browsers or ensure that the link doesn’t fall apart in transit somewhere.In JavaScript, you might sometimes need to escape quotes. You can do so by prefacing them with a backslash ():alert("This is a \"quote\" within a quote.");Putting It All TogetherJust for fun, let’s make a little bookmarklet that checks whether a word is selected on the page and, if one is, searches Wikipedia and shows the results in a jQuery-animated iFrame.We’ll start by combining the framework from “Enter jQuery” with the text selection function from “Grabbing Information”:if (typeof jQuery == 'undefined') { var jQ = document.createElement('script'); jQ.type = 'text/javascript'; jQ.onload=runthis; jQ.src = 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js'; document.body.appendChild(jQ); } else { runthis(); }
function runthis() { // your JavaScript code goes here! }
function getSelText() { var s = ''; if (window.getSelection) { s = window.getSelection(); } else if (document.getSelection) { s = document.getSelection(); } else if (document.selection) { s = document.selection.createRange().text; } return s; }Next, we’ll look for any selected text and save it to a variable, “s.” If nothing is selected, we’ll try to prompt the user for something:var s = ""; s = getSelText(); if (s == "") { var s = prompt("Forget something?"); }After checking that we’ve actually received a value for “s,” we’ll append the new content to the document’s body. In it will be the following: a container DIV (wikiframe), a background veil (wikiframe_veil) and a “Loading…” paragraph, the iFrame itself and some CSS to make things look pretty and to affix everything over top the page.if ((s != "") && (s != null)) { $("body").append("\ <div id='wikiframe'>\ <div id='wikiframe_veil' style=''>\ <p>Loading...</p>\ </div>\ <iframe src='http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?&search="+s+"' onload=\"$('#wikiframe iframe').slideDown(500);\">Enable iFrames.</iframe>\ <style type='text/css'>\ #wikiframe_veil { display: none; position: fixed; width: 100%; height: 100%; top: 0; left: 0; background-color: rgba(255,255,255,.25); cursor: pointer; z-index: 900; }\ #wikiframe_veil p { color: black; font: normal normal bold 20px/20px Helvetica, sans-serif; position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 50%; width: 10em; margin: -10px auto 0 -5em; text-align: center; }\ #wikiframe iframe { display: none; position: fixed; top: 10%; left: 10%; width: 80%; height: 80%; z-index: 999; border: 10px solid rgba(0,0,0,.5); margin: -5px 0 0 -5px; }\ </style>\ </div>"); $("#wikiframe_veil").fadeIn(750); }We set the iFrame’s src attribute to Wikipedia’s search URL, plus “s.” Its CSS sets it to display: none; by default, so we can give it a grander entrance when the page is loaded via its onload attribute and a jQuery animation.After all this is added to the page, we’ll fade in the background veil.Notice the backslashes at the end of each line of appended HTML. These allow for multiple rows and make everything easier on the eyes for editing.Almost done. But we need to make sure that these elements don’t already exist before appending them. We can accomplish this by throwing the above code into a ($("#wikiframe").length == 0) conditional statement, accompanied by some code to remove it all if the statement returns negative.The resulting .js file:if (typeof jQuery == 'undefined') { // http://www.hunlock.com/blogs/Howto_Dynamically_Insert_Javascript_And_CSS var jQ = document.createElement('script'); jQ.type = 'text/javascript'; jQ.onload=runthis; jQ.src = 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js'; document.body.appendChild(jQ); } else { runthis(); }
function runthis() { if ($("#wikiframe").length == 0) { var s = ""; s = getSelText(); if (s == "") { var s = prompt("Forget something?"); } if ((s != "") && (s != null)) { $("body").append("\ <div id='wikiframe'>\ <div id='wikiframe_veil' style=''>\ <p>Loading...</p>\ </div>\ <iframe src='http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?&search="+s+"' onload=\"$('#wikiframe iframe').slideDown(500);\">Enable iFrames.</iframe>\ <style type='text/css'>\ #wikiframe_veil { display: none; position: fixed; width: 100%; height: 100%; top: 0; left: 0; background-color: rgba(255,255,255,.25); cursor: pointer; z-index: 900; }\ #wikiframe_veil p { color: black; font: normal normal bold 20px/20px Helvetica, sans-serif; position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 50%; width: 10em; margin: -10px auto 0 -5em; text-align: center; }\ #wikiframe iframe { display: none; position: fixed; top: 10%; left: 10%; width: 80%; height: 80%; z-index: 999; border: 10px solid rgba(0,0,0,.5); margin: -5px 0 0 -5px; }\ </style>\ </div>"); $("#wikiframe_veil").fadeIn(750); } } else { $("#wikiframe_veil").fadeOut(750); $("#wikiframe iframe").slideUp(500); setTimeout("$('#wikiframe').remove()", 750); } $("#wikiframe_veil").click(function(event){ $("#wikiframe_veil").fadeOut(750); $("#wikiframe iframe").slideUp(500); setTimeout("$('#wikiframe').remove()", 750); }); }
function getSelText() { var s = ''; if (window.getSelection) { s = window.getSelection(); } else if (document.getSelection) { s = document.getSelection(); } else if (document.selection) { s = document.selection.createRange().text; } return s; }Note that we fade out and remove the wikiframe content if the user re-clicks the bookmarklet after it has loaded and if the user clicks on its background veil.Here is the HTML bookmarklet to load that script:<a href="removed();">WikiFrame</a>WikiFrameAnd there you have it. A working example of what you can do with a bookmarklet and jQuery!Make It BetterThis example was fun, but it definitely could be better.For starters, it isn’t compressed. If your script will be accessed a lot, keeping two versions of your code may be a good idea: one normal working version and one compressed minimized version. Serving the compressed one to your users will save loading time for them and bandwidth for you. Check the resource links below for some good JavaScript compressors.While the bookmarklet technically works in IE6, its use of static positioning means that it just kind of appends itself to the bottom of the page. Not very user-friendly! With some more time and attention to rendering differences in IE, the bookmarklet could be made to function and look the same (or at least comparable) in different browsers.In our example, we used jQuery, which is an excellent tool for developing more advanced JavaScript applications. But if your bookmarklet is simple and doesn’t require a lot of CSS manipulation or animation, chances are you may not need something so advanced. Plain old JavaScript might suffice. Remember, the less you force the user to load, the faster their experience and the happier they will be.Things to Keep in Mind and Best PracticesUntested code is broken code, as old-school programmers will tell you. While bookmarklets will run on any browser that supports JavaScript, testing them in as many browsers as you can wouldn’t hurt. Especially when working with CSS, a whole slew of variables can affect the way your script works. At the very least, enlist your friends and family to test the bookmarklet on their computers and their browsers.Speaking of CSS, remember that any content you add to a page will be affected by that page’s CSS. So, applying a reset to your elements to override any potentially inherited margins, paddings or font stylings would be wise.Because bookmarklets are, by definition, extraneous, many of the guidelines for JavaScript—such as unobtrusiveness and graceful degradation—aren’t as sacred as they normally are. For the most part, though, a healthy understanding of best practices for traditional JavaScript and its frameworks will only help you:Develop a coding style and stick to it. Keep it consistent, and keep it neat.Take it easy on the browser. Don’t run processes that you don’t need, and don’t create unnecessary global variables.Use comments where appropriate. They make jumping back into the code later on much easier.Avoid shorthand JavaScript. Use plenty of semi-colons, even when your browser would let you get away without them.Further ResourcesHelpful JavaScript ToolsJSLint JavaScript validation tool.Bookmarklet Builder Made way back in 2004, but still useful.List of Really Useful Free Tools for JavaScript Developers Courtesy of W3Avenue.JS Bin Open-source collaborative JavaScript debugging tool.How to Dynamically Insert Javascript and CSS A well-written examination of JavaScript and CSS appending, and its potential pitfalls.Run jQuery Code Bookmarklet A pretty cool script that checks for and loads jQuery all within the bookmarklet. Also has a handy generator.Google AJAX Libraries API Do you prefer Prototype or MooTools to jQuery? Load your preference straight from Google and save yourself the bandwidth.JavaScript and CSS CompressorsOnline Javascript Compression Tool JavaScript compressor, with both Minify and Packer methods.Clean CSS CSS formatter and optimizer, based on csstidy, with a nice GUI and plenty of options.Scriptalizer Combines and compresses multiple JavaScript and/or CSS files.JavaScript Unpacker and Beautifier Useful for translating super-compressed code into something more human-legible (and vice versa).CollectionsmyBookmarkletsBookmarklets.comBookmarklets, Favelets and Snippets Via Smashing Magazine.Quix “Your Bookmarklets, On Steroids.”Jesse’s BookmarkletsMarklets(al)© Tommy iamnotagoodartist for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine Post tags: bookmarklets
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May 23 2010, 1:40pm | Comments »
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I posted to smashingmagazine.com
Adobe Fireworks: Is It Worth Switching to CS5?
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SmashingMagazine/~3/6ECIVQlcPYc/
Adobe Fireworks is the Swiss Army knife for many developers and Web, UX, UI and graphic designers. The application is known for its versatility, excellent blend of vector and bitmap tools and powerful built-in wireframing and prototyping options. Also, according to the SoDA 2010 Digital Marketing Outlook survey, Fireworks has become an important tool for many digital agencies: it now has the same standing as other core Adobe products, such as Flash, Flex and Dreamweaver (to the question “Which technical skill sets, if any, will you look to hire or contract in 2010?”, approx. 12% of the survey respondents replied “Fireworks”, and to the question “Which tools/products will you or your organization use in 2010?”, more than 44% of the survey respondents replied that they will be using Fireworks).A lot of official Adobe pages cover the latest version of Fireworks, CS5, in detail: for example, the new Fireworks CS5 product page; the Fireworks CS5/CS4/CS3 comparison chart; and the pages that highlight Fireworks CS5’s Web workflows and design workflows.But none of these official Adobe pages actually answer the question that so many design professionals are asking in the first place: is Fireworks CS5 really better? Will it save you time and effort? Are the new features worth the upgrade price? This article gives detailed answers to these questions. We’ll present a neat list of Fireworks CS5’s new features and improved workflows, along with examples of how they will make your work much more efficient. [By the way: The network tab (on the top of the page) is updated several times a day. It features selected articles from the best web design blogs!]1. Better PerformancePerformance ImprovementsOne of the most notable (and welcome) improvements in the latest version of Fireworks is performance. Fireworks CS5 is faster and more lightweight, it uses less RAM and it is much more stable than any previous version of Fireworks.For example, look at the following performance graph. Testing was done on a five-year-old Lenovo ThinkPad, with a 1.5 GHz Intel Pentium-M CPU and 1.5 GB of DDR memory. Performance graph of start-up times.Notice that start-up times are much better for the CS5 version, and Fireworks CS5 may need less than 4 seconds for a “warm” start on a five-year-old machine; some Mac users already report similar performance improvements.More performance stats:“Cold” launch times improved by 3 to 9% (average)“Warm” launch times improved by 30 to 32% (average)Memory (RAM) usage reduced by 2 to 16% (average) Graph of general performance improvements.So, while major new versions of Adobe applications are usually more resource-hungry than their predecessors, seeing that this is actually the opposite case with Fireworks is a pleasant surprise.Better Handling of FilesFireworks CS5 opens and saves PNG files faster, better and more reliably.It also allows you to open multi-page Fireworks PNG files much more easily, because the open dialog shows a preview of all of the pages inside. Multi-page preview in the “Open” and “Import” dialog boxes.(NOTE: Files created in Fireworks CS4 (and earlier versions) will not have the preview option available by default; a Fireworks PNG file must be saved at least once in Fireworks CS5 so that the multi-page preview becomes available for this file.)Integrated Recovery OptionsFireworks CS5 is much stabler than its predecessor. Still, in case the worst happens and Fireworks CS5 suddenly crashes on your Mac, it automatically places a recovered copy of the file in a Recovered Files folder on your desktop. Windows users are protected, too: they can use the AutoBackup extension, which works perfectly with both Fireworks CS4 and CS5. The extension works on Windows and Mac and automatically saves copies of all opened PNG files at a user-specified interval inside a folder named FWAIRBackup (which is located on the same path as the original file). Fireworks CS5 Windows and Mac users are protected from data loss.2. PI Panel ImprovementsThe powerful property inspector (or PI) panel has always been the core of Fireworks and one of its best features. From this panel, you can instantly change almost any available property for almost any selected object on the canvas: vector object, bitmap object, text object, a group of objects, etc. The new PI panel in Fireworks CS5 (overview).In Fireworks CS5, the PI panel has been largely improved. It now responds much faster, and compared to CS4, the “refresh” times are reduced, especially on Windows. It also has many new features. Let’s look at the four most important ones:New “Constrain Proportions” Option for Resizing ObjectsNo need to use the Numeric Transform tool anymore when you want to resize an object and keep its proportions locked. The new “Constrain Proportions” option on the PI panel simplifies this and saves you time (and a few extra clicks). The PI panel option to lock the proportions of an object.New Dithering Option for GradientsGradient Dithering is a new feature introduced in Fireworks CS5. When working with gradients, switching the Gradient Dithering option “on” or “off” is now just a click away. PI panel option for switching Gradient Dithering on and off.New Stroke Alignment OptionsNeed to change Stroke Alignment properties? You don’t need to open the Stroke options anymore — just use the new Stroke Alignment icons, right on the PI panel. The Stroke Alignment options on the PI panel.New Compound Shape ToolsFireworks CS5 has a powerful new feature: Compound Shapes (more on this feature later). Creating and editing them is done easily from the PI panel, too. Editing Compound Shapes on the PI panel.3. New Text Engine FeaturesFireworks CS5 has a much better text engine, with many new features and tiny enhancements that will help in your routine work with text. Here’s a quick list of the enhancements:Kerning, tracking and leading between characters in a text block can now be easily controlled using only the keyboard (simply put the cursor in between characters and use the keyboard arrow keys).The slider value for kerning and tracking has been increased to 200.If you open a PNG file created in Fireworks v. CS3 or lower, the kerning and tracking values will be automatically mapped and the look of the text will be preserved.A new option (unique to Adobe Fireworks) allows you to multi-select characters and words in a text box and then style them together at once. This is complemented by another new option that allows you to auto-select similarly styled characters, words or paragraphs inside a text block, and then modify their styles at once.An editable and auto-completing font list box feature has been added (Windows version only).Now, you don’t need to restart Fireworks after installing a new font (Windows version only).Undoing (Ctrl/Cmd + Z) and redoing (Ctrl/Cmd + Y) at the character level is now possible while you’re in text-editing mode.Double-clicking selects the word, and triple-clicking selects the entire paragraph.In the Layers panel, text object layers are now marked with a tiny “T” icon, for easier recognition.A Text Overflow indicator appears when extra characters (that don’t fit the text-in-path or text-on-path) exist.Copying and pasting text from any version of Microsoft Office into Fireworks is much improved.The number of characters that can be copied and pasted into a Fireworks text block at once has been increased from 2000 to 8000.(We may highlight and explain text engine improvements in Fireworks CS5 in greater detail in a future article.)4. Improved Adobe CS5 IntegrationIntegration of Fireworks CS5 with other Adobe CS5 applications is much improved.Fireworks CS5 now supports ASE swatches, the same color file format supported by Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign and Kuler. The .ASE support will allow designers to easily exchange color schemes between Fireworks and other Adobe products.Fireworks CS5 has very good integration with Adobe Illustrator CS5. Fireworks CS5 can import graphic assets from Illustrator CS5 almost perfectly, and copying and pasting directly from Illustrator CS5 into Fireworks CS5 is possible with a high level of fidelity and editability, too (there exist only a few exceptions to this).Fireworks CS5 can export in the new FXG 2.0 file format, and FXG 2.0 files can be imported into Illustrator CS5, Flash Catalyst CS5 and other Adobe programs with almost no loss in editability.Fireworks CS5 is integrated with Adobe Device Central CS5 (read the article about Adobe Fireworks CS5 and Adobe Device Central titled “Mobile workflows using Fireworks CS5 and Device Central CS5“).The integration with Adobe Photoshop CS5 is excellent, too. Fireworks CS5 can import graphic assets from Photoshop CS5 very well. Fireworks CS5 has much better support for Photoshop PSD files. Adjustment Layers in a PSD file now retain their appearance when opened or imported in Fireworks. Gradient round-tripping is now possible between Fireworks and Photoshop.5. Miscellaneous New Tools And FeaturesCompound ShapesFireworks CS5 has powerful new vector tools in its toolset, called Compound Shapes.Compound Shapes are special vector groups that give you greater vector power. You can create new compound shapes out of existing vector objects and you can also draw in several compound shape modes.A Compound Shape group allows the editing and styling of several vector objects as one, while preserving the original vector objects inside the group. The individual objects can be easily re-edited or ungrouped at any stage.To use the new Compound Shapes, simply select several vector objects together, and then use one of the available Compound Shape operations (found on the PI panel): Add/Union, Subtract/Punch, Intersect, Crop.After you have created a Compound Shape group, editing individual objects within the group is easy: simply use the Subselection tool (white arrow) to select and modify any individual object. To edit the Compound Shape group as one object, switch to the Pointer tool (black arrow).Here’s a simple example: Example of Compound Shapes.The introduction of Compound Shapes in Fireworks CS5 gives designers even more flexibility, because the standard vector combine workflows (Modify → Combine Paths → Join/Split/Union/Intersect/Punch/Crop) can be complemented by the new non-destructive combine vector workflows.Compound Shapes are also fun for all kinds of creative artwork: “Monsters,” a creative use of Compound Shapes (illustration by molif.com).Dithering Option for GradientsFireworks CS5 now has a Dithering option for gradients, which almost completely reduces any “banding” in radial or linear gradients. The new Gradient Dithering option reduces “banding” in gradients.NOTE: The Gradient Dithering option is available for Radial and Linear gradients only. For now, other types of gradients in Fireworks are not supported.Reverse Option for GradientsFireworks CS5 allows you to easily reverse the direction of any kind of gradient, which can save time. Reverse Gradient option.Snap-to-PixelSnap-to-Pixel is a new feature in Fireworks CS5 that allows you to fix instantly almost any blurriness in a vector object (or a group of objects), after some complex transformations have been applied to it.To apply this command, use Modify → Snap To Pixel, or the Cmd/Ctrl + K shortcut.This is one of the best and most useful new features in Fireworks CS5.TemplatesFireworks CS5 introduces Templates. Now you can easily create and share your own PNG templates inside a small or large design team.To use this new feature, simply select File → New from Template to open an existing template, or File → Save as Template. Templates options in the File menu.Fireworks CS5 comes with several pre-built templates (neatly organized in a few groups: Grid Systems, Mobile, Web, Wireframes, etc.). Users can extend these easily by creating and saving their own templates.Better CSS Export OptionsFireworks CS5 has much better CSS and HTML exporting options. Here are some highlights:A new option to export multiple pages as CSS, HTML and images at once; a great feature for quickly exporting your designs as dynamic, clickable prototypes.It is now possible to tag text objects by tag name to output the text with a particular HTML tag.A Text Area symbol has been added for improved HTML-form prototyping.There is a List Item symbol to allow for the creation of unordered lists (both normal text lists and lists with links).Font sizes are now in percentages to allow for easy and flexible text resizing in all browsers.Divs with set heights now have min-height equivalents to allow for text resizing and any amount of content.Many other small and big improvements have been added to the CSS Export script.Global Preference for GridsIn Fireworks CS5, preferences for grids are now global and can be overridden for individual documents. Global preferences for grids.Redesigned Align PanelThe Align panel is improved and more powerful. It now remembers the most recent settings used and is more usable. Align panel options.New “Copy to Clipboard” Option for ColorsYou can use standard option for copying color values of any selected color, or use the new option for one-click copy of the color value. Copying color #hex values is now easier.New “Don’t show again” Option for Resample DialogWhen you copy and paste objects between files that have different resolution (dpi setting), Fireworks will ask you if you want to resample the pasted vector or bitmap object. While it is certainly useful to have this option, experience have proved that leaving the original dpi setting of the object to be pasted is often the best choice and leads to better results.So now in Fireworks CS5, you can select the “Don’t Resample” option and check the “Don’t show again” checkbox. Setting will be remembered and in the long run, this new option may save you time. Better paste options for documents with different dpi settings.6. Early (P)reviewsFireworks CS5 was released just a few days ago, but the (p)reviews thus far have been largely positive. Let’s read some of them:Fireworks CS5 is a very strong release.… For Fireworks CS5, more than with any other release in our history, we listened to our users. They told us that we needed to make sure Fireworks had rock-solid stability and reliability, and that we needed to refine the existing features before thinking about new ones. That’s exactly what we did, and the results are impressive.— Bruce Bowman, Fireworks Product Manager at AdobeI’ve had the unique opportunity to spend some time working with the new Adobe Fireworks CS5, and it has been a pleasure. The stability improvements are immediately noticeable, and although this has been described as a “stability release,” there are some very useful new features that should not be overlooked.… Overall, Adobe Fireworks CS5 is a fantastic release. Stability, new features and a smoother workflow with other Adobe products keep it as the front-runner when designing for pixels on the screen.— David Hogue, Director of Information Design and Usability at Fluid, Inc.Aside from the major performance, stability, install and memory enhancements… there are tons of tweaks under the hood of Fireworks CS5!— Darrel Heath, freelance web designer and developerAdobe has published a really extensive piece surrounding the details behind Fireworks CS5. I’ve talked about it with a few designers, both Fireworks and Photoshop users, and had a gut feeling that it would be mostly a bug-fix release. While every Adobe product under the sun needs at least one full version release consisting of mostly bug fixes, I gladly welcome Fireworks CS5. The fixes mentioned in the piece have me really excited to put more time into working with the application after it’s released.— Jonathan Christopher, front-end developer at Overit MediaFireworks CS5: improved performance, more precise control over the pixel placement of design elements and a streamlined, accelerated workflow.— Webdesigner DepotAdobe Fireworks CS5 is better than ever. The engineers searched high and low to find ways to make Fireworks faster, more stable and easier to use. I know I’m impressed and I hope… you will be too!— Jim Babbage, author at Lynda.com (Part 1, Part 2)Enjoy the increased stability and polish in Fireworks CS5. If you haven’t upgraded in a while and passed over CS4 as some people I know have done, don’t pass on CS5. It will make your current workflows much smoother and does add a few welcome new features. I highly recommend it!— Stéphane Bergeron, freelance Web designer at Webfocus Design7. ConclusionSo, is Fireworks CS5 really better? For me, it is. Fireworks CS5 may not be absolutely perfect or contain any “wow” features. But at the same time, it is a very welcome release — fast, stable, polished, with lots of tiny refinements and additions that will make your design work more efficient.I wasn’t able to list all of the new features and improvements in Fireworks CS5, but I hope your curiosity now is piqued enough that you will want to try Fireworks CS5 soon. If so, grab the 30-day free trial or order Fireworks CS5 from Adobe (either separately or as part of Web Premium CS5, Design Premium CS5 or Master Collection CS5).Finally, check out other recent articles about Adobe Fireworks published on the Smashing Network:The Ultimate Round-Up of Fireworks Tutorials and ResourcesAdobe Fireworks Tutorials and Downloads: Best ofAn Explosion of Adobe Fireworks ResourcesWe hope to see more smashing Fireworks-related articles in the next few months, so if you have questions, feel free to share them in the comments!(al)© Michel Bozgounov for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Be the first to comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine Post tags:
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May 22 2010, 1:48am | Comments »
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I posted to designmeltdown.com
Login forms
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/designmeltdown/uecD/~3/CimWE8v7JUM/
Login forms are yet another minor detail in the overall build out of a site it is no wonder they often end up not getting as much attention as they might warrant. They are such a critical usability point that it only makes sense to carefully consider their structure. This set of samples demonstrates various approach to this often overlooked element. http://www.webanddesigners.com/25-login-page-design-for-inspiration
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- Login Forms
May 21 2010, 5:00am | Comments »