TIP - Tools Of The Trade

I have touched on the subject of the tools you should try to use in a previous post, but I wanted to introduce another 'clever' little script and decided that it was worth resurrecting the advice so that I could '... kill two birds ...', in a manner of speaking!

 

A screenshot of EditPad Pro in use.

The thumbnail on the right is a screenshot of my favourite text editor. If you mouseover the image you will see the effect I am introducing you to in this post. Like 'Thickbox' and 'Lightbox', this is JavaSript, and it provides one way of displaying your graphics without costing you much in the way of overhead. The actual image is a large(ish) 912px by 710px display, and I have set the parameters for this display to show the image at its full scale, because I have textual matter in the image that I want my visitor to read. In practise, especially if you only want a photograph to be displayed at a larger size than the thumbnail, the larger image can be set to any reasonable size that can be accommodated within an average viewers browser window; probably 800px by 600px would be sufficient to showcase any image you post. The script also has a hidden function that allows the viewer to go to the full-sized raw image when clicked. This is good for Blogger, where clicking on an image usually takes the viewer to the raw image in another window.

 

EditPad Pro displaying 'syntax coloring'
for an HTML document.

Similar screenshot, but this time with the HTML document tab selected. Here you can clearly see the colour coding or 'syntax coloring' of the HTML document (stop squinting at the back - mouseover the image!) which makes it a breeze to check all the different lines of code. It also helps if you activate the line numbering feature. Most of these features are available in the 'Lite' version which is FREE for personal use. You really should visit the EditPad Lite homepage (it will open in a new window!) to check out the many features.

I was an avid user of EditPad Lite for years, then one day I realised I used it so frequently that perhaps the Pro version was something I ought to be investigating. Not one to part with my money easily, I checked (and double-checked) the features page and realised that there were some Pro features that would make my life a whole lot easier. So, out came the credit card. And being an impulsive sort of guy, I also bought AceText at the same time. I will introduce you to the author, Jan Goyvaerts, in my next post. Suffice it to say that he writes small utilities that do exactly what they say they will do, and you get lifetime updates and support. What's not to like about that?

BTW, I composed this whole post in EditPad, copied it and pasted it into the 'Edit HTML' window, NOT the 'Compose' (or WYSIWYG) window of the post. I previewed it, tweaked anything that didn't appear to display as it should, and then hit 'PUBLISH POST'. Done!

So much for the 'clever' thingy I promised to introduce you to. Now you have an idea how it works. The 'mouseover' effect enlarges a thumbnail without the visitor having to leave the page. And, if they really want to see the raw image, all they have to do is click the enlarged image to be taken to it.

Cool, huh? But you'll have to wait for the next post to read the full 'skinny' on the 'how to' ...

 

Monitor it . . .

Have you ever wondered whether your visitors see your pages exactly the same way you do? I don't mean the content, I mean the display. Are the subtle colours you've chosen for your site displaying exactly the same way on your visitors' screens? Is that carefully spaced caption or title displaying in exactly the same way in the other guy's display?

1. They must, mustn't they?
2. Never given it a thought!
3. Is this a problem?
4. Not bothered!

To answer the last observation first; you should be, or you're not putting enough effort into your blogging. Only you know what answer to give to the first two, but the answer to question 3 is an emphatic "Yes".

I have 5 monitors that I check to see how things are being displayed, especially when it comes to the 'size' of the display, but not one of them renders the colours exactly the same as the others. Close, but no cigar! No, this isn't degenerating into a play-ground bully mantra of, "My one is bigger than your one!" I was just trying to make a point that if I can't get 5 monitors to 'synch' to the same colour spectrum here under the same roof, what chance do you think you have of getting your colours to display the way you wish them to, across the internet? But you can do a lot to minimize the problem, and that is where a little 'tool' can come in handy (ouch! that is comparable to the play-ground bully comment above!).

Korax ColourDrop 4: A Color Picker with some subtle features. You can save your swatches too.

(Note: this is a direct link to the installation file. Since the file is an 'executable' I downloaded the file again and ran it through a virus checker and can declare it 'clean'. A habit you should adopt whenever you take stuff off the internet, whether or not you consider the source to be okay! It seems that Korax still hosts ColourDrop 4, but they don’t have a page dedicated to the application on their site).

If nothing else, it is a fun tool to use. You will never need to 'guess' a colour again, and you can even get the value of the colour of a single pixel, if that is your wish. In any case, download this little beauty and start to use it, and you might find you keep returning to it more and more frequently, even if it is only to satisfy yourself that your initial 'guess' was right!

By the way, it is FREE!

 

TIP - Picture displays 101(b)

This is an experiment to attempt to 'integrate' the lightbox variant, called "Thickbox", into a standard Blogger post.

If it works, then I've cracked this prickly little problem. Keep your fingers crossed, because if this thing comes off, none of our blogs are going to be viewed the same way ever again!

And if this works I will try the 'Gallery' display for pictures, still using 'Thickbox', but it will require much more editing of the HTML in the post. I am sure that a lot of people will throw their hands up in horror at this suggestion, but I will attempt to walk you through all the processes, step by step, until editing your pictures becomes second nature.

And I will explain HOW in the next post.

Promise!

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Update: 11 May 2007

Darn, but it only works 'partially'.

The script is being called successfully in both these examples, but the larger image that was uploaded to the Blogger server for the first attempt is 'refusing' to open!

The image on the right opens as it is expected to, the only difference is that the larger image is on a different server (my own). Don't understand why this is happening, but I am investigating . . .

Watch this space!

Promise!

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Update: 19 May 2007

Cracked it! I will post the step-by-step 'tute' as soon as I've managed to get all the screen captures necessary to make things crystal clear.

Watch out for a new post!