8 Essential tools for technical journalists
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
We've previously covered 12 Useful online tools for journalists and 12 More useful tools, but the internet is made for techies, coders, designers and technical journalists. Here are the online tools that make our job easier.
1. Dummy Text Generator
The Lorem Ipsum generator has been around for ages as a way to create filler text for web projects. The Dummy Text Generator offers greater flexibility by offering a number of pseudo languages including Far Far Away, Kafka (who I never understood) and simple A-Z.
2. Word HTML cleaner
Any web designer worth their salt has, at one time or another, struggled with stripping proprietary Microsoft Word code from an HTML document. The simple tool from Textism allows users to upload a Word HTML document and moments later receive a page free of extraneous formatting. Dreamweaver also has incorporated a Word code cleaner into its software, but hey Dreamweaver isn't free.
3. netrenderer
An even bigger scourge to most web designers is Internet Explorer, the Debbie Downer of browsers. Instead of having to actually open the browser, anyone can use netrenderer to see what a page looks like in various versions of IE. The service itself is a little touch and go, but useful nonetheless.
4. Browsershots
For many designers, Internet Explorer isn't the sole worry. Browsershots lets users see a site in more than 60 variations of browsers, including those for Mac, Windows, Linux and Unix.
5. Font Tester
This tool eliminates the need to toggle anxiously between Arial and Verdana to pick the right font for your site. Just a quick change of some basic text properties and you can see the difference between two or three types of text side by side.
6. TextFixer
TextFixer does in seconds what would take forever in a text editing program: it can remove line breaks, capitalize sentences, uppercase or lowercase text, put text in alphabetical order and remove tabs and white spaces. It even has some nifty HTML tools.
7. Online Scientific Calculator
Sometimes multimedia projects, especially those created with HTML, Flash or CSS, require more complex math than a pen and paper can afford. If you're looking for an upgrade from Google's built-in calculator, try eCalc's impressive online scientific calculator. The user friendly tool has more features than anyone will ever need, including some I haven't seen since my TI-83 in high school.
8. Now Do This
When a bunch of tasks are piling up on your desk, use Now Do This to create a simple list that can be followed until everything is complete. The online tool is much better than the old method of sticking Post-its to a computer monitor.
The Lorem Ipsum generator has been around for ages as a way to create filler text for web projects. The Dummy Text Generator offers greater flexibility by offering a number of pseudo languages including Far Far Away, Kafka (who I never understood) and simple A-Z.
Any web designer worth their salt has, at one time or another, struggled with stripping proprietary Microsoft Word code from an HTML document. The simple tool from Textism allows users to upload a Word HTML document and moments later receive a page free of extraneous formatting. Dreamweaver also has incorporated a Word code cleaner into its software, but hey Dreamweaver isn't free.
An even bigger scourge to most web designers is Internet Explorer, the Debbie Downer of browsers. Instead of having to actually open the browser, anyone can use netrenderer to see what a page looks like in various versions of IE. The service itself is a little touch and go, but useful nonetheless.
For many designers, Internet Explorer isn't the sole worry. Browsershots lets users see a site in more than 60 variations of browsers, including those for Mac, Windows, Linux and Unix.
This tool eliminates the need to toggle anxiously between Arial and Verdana to pick the right font for your site. Just a quick change of some basic text properties and you can see the difference between two or three types of text side by side.
TextFixer does in seconds what would take forever in a text editing program: it can remove line breaks, capitalize sentences, uppercase or lowercase text, put text in alphabetical order and remove tabs and white spaces. It even has some nifty HTML tools.
Sometimes multimedia projects, especially those created with HTML, Flash or CSS, require more complex math than a pen and paper can afford. If you're looking for an upgrade from Google's built-in calculator, try eCalc's impressive online scientific calculator. The user friendly tool has more features than anyone will ever need, including some I haven't seen since my TI-83 in high school.
When a bunch of tasks are piling up on your desk, use Now Do This to create a simple list that can be followed until everything is complete. The online tool is much better than the old method of sticking Post-its to a computer monitor.
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