Special Software for Specialized Tasks

One of the key principles of lazy webmastering is to avoid doing things the hard way if there is software that can help you do it the easy way.

One of the key principles of frugal webmastering is not to pay any more for software than you have to.

One of the key principles of prudent webmastering is to try software before you buy it, to make sure it does exactly what you want it to do.

Most software programs - even the most expensive ones -- are available in try-before-you-buy versions. These are downloaded from the Internet, often deliberately crippled in some way. Some won't let you save your work; others will include a link to the company on the finished product. At the very least, they will have an expiry date, usually 15-30 days.

What these trial versions will do is let you road-test the product to make sure it meets your needs before you spend your heard earned money. I probably try five or six programs before I hit on the one that has the features, price and ease of use that I am looking for.

AAA-Logo

It took me about five minutes to design the logo shown here. First, you choose from one of the more than 100 logo templates provided. Then you can manipulate it: change the graphics (including importing your own); change the colors, the size, the gradients, and the placement. Logos can be saved as a logo project for future editing, or exported as a GIF, JPG, PNG, TIFF or BMP. You can adjust the image quality and make it bigger or smaller. Everything is done with intuitive sliders.

The resulting logo can be used on the Web, on a business card, letterhead - wherever you may need a logo. This program was so much fun and easy to use that I was tempted to found a dozen companies just so I could create logos for them.

Xara Menu Maker

	To start building your menu, you select from among several hundred templates. You then add your button text, change the colors and size and add textures, if you wish, and finally add the URL s and sub menus. I created these three menus in about 5 minutes. A neat feature: once you create the menu, you can select a different template, and all of the attributes (button names, URLs, etc.) will move right along with it. (Note: Click on the "resources" tab to see what a sub-menu looks like. In these examples the links are not active and will not take you to anything when selected.)

The resulting file is a JavaScript (.JS) file and a set of small graphics in GIF, JPG or PNG format (you choose the format.) The cute little mouse menu is less than 6 KB. You just add one small line of code to your Web page, transfer all of the files to your remote directory via ftp and it works right off the bat.

You can have any number of levels of sub-menus. The templates run the gamut from corporate to whimsical.

Download a 15-day trial version from Xara. The full version is a modest $24.99, and worth every penny.

CoffeeCup DHMTL Menu Wizard

It's free and can be downloaded from CoffeeCup Software.

You can customize the colors, fonts, borders, alignment, size and padding. Menus can be horizontal, as in the example, or vertical. But that's it: all you are going to get is boxes. No cute little mice in your navbar. Everything is accomplished on a ridiculously simple point and click interface.

Picture Dicer

Why would you want to do this? The main reason is that you can treat each slice of the graphic as a separate image and assign a URL to it to make it clickable. You can, of course, do the same thing with an image map, but this is actually easier, both for your and your site visitors. Additionally, this method is accessible for people who use screen readers; image maps are not.

You get the idea: why write 768 lines of JavaScript (after you work your way through the 2,000-page Java for Dummies book) if there is a free or cheap program that will do the work for you? Lazy webmasters search for software to take the ho-hum out of HTML.