Tim Matheson Blog - Productive Tips and More

browser-shots.gifIn the past I have mentioned Browsercam a ‘pay’ for service that allows you to test a site in multiple browsers / operating systems. While this is a great tool for professional web developers who don’t mind paying for every test. There is an alternative for freelance web developers and the weekend warrior. Browsershots.org is a FREE service that allows you to specify settings such as screen resolution, Flash media player, and more. Once you have chosen your configurations and submitted your sites url Browsershots.org will take screenshots of your site using multiple machines with the hardware/software configurations you specified. Browsershots.org does have it’s short comings. The preview is not generated instantly and is instead added to a queue to be processed in the order it was received. This creates a delay and you have to check back with the page, but it beats the hell out of calling everyone you know with a different type of system, browser, etc. to ask them to check out your site and send you a screenshot.

Link: Browsershots.org

Need an XML sitemap for your site but don’t want the hassel of doing it by hand? If so the XML Sitemap generator has got your back. The XML sitemap generator allows you to spider and create a sitemap for upto 500 pages and with their premium service you can create a sitemap for an unlimited number of pages. This is a really cool tool if you need to make a Google Sitemap for your site.

Link: http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

Browsercam.com offers a “not-free” service to check how your site preforms on different platforms using different browsers. This is possible using several machines running different operating systems which accept VNC connections. After signing up for service you can use VNC to control virtually any operating system + browser configuration you can think of. This is a great tool for developers to use to ensure usability across different systems and a wide variety of users. The internet today is far more advanced than it was 10 years ago. The internet of today demands your site to comply with your users personal preference in operating system and browser configuration of their machine. Sites that fail to do so typically fail tremendously when deployed by severing revenue from unsupported machine configuration. As a web designer, I find this tool to be very interesting and am pondering it’s use. In the past I have just installed various browsers, ran several operating systems on one machine, or used a friends machine with a different browser and operating system. This can be a lot of work depending on your hardware configuration and access to multiple machines. I recommend at least checking out Browser.com is this sounds like something you could use.

Browsercam.com

Miniajax.com has rounded up some useful Ajax Scripts for anyone wanting a quick and easy Ajax solution for their website. There are things like ClickHeat, a tool for heat mapping your websites click traffic. There are also some great form tools and image slideshow scripts. This site is a must for anyone wanting to get started with AJAX. Check it out at miniajax.com.

If you’re a web designer or frequently use CSS in your projects then you will love typetester.com. Typetester allows you to try out different CSS typography settings on one page with a simple interface. You can adjust size, leading, word-space, color, background, font etc. all on one page. Typetester also allows you to use your own text or the predefined place holder text. This is a must for anyone who wants to compare a CSS design before deploying it on a client or personal web site. This is definitely one of my personal favorite Web 2.0 applications.

Link Typetester.com