Overview Cool Tools Update For Library Web Sites Darlene Fichter University of Saskatchewan Frank Cervone Northwestern University November 15, 2004

Cool Tools  Third year –Highlight new tools each time –Check our site for past presentations  Types of Tools –Server –Client side –Web based –Inexpensive or open source

Crafty Syntax Help Chat   A multi-user, multi-operator, multi- department live Help support chat system that allows the operators of the websites to monitor their visitors as they are browsing the site and proactively open a chat session with the visitor

Zoom In: Bookbinding's, Maps and Photos  CSS and JavaScript  Compatibility –cross browser support for newer browsers with good implementations of CSS

The Rasterbator  Create huge rasterized images  Cover a library wall with: –New program or service –Winning photo

Open ClipArt Library   Public domain clipart library

Dimensionizer  Menu plugin for Mac OS X that allows you to find out the dimensions of an image with one click Height, width

Online Image Editor  Free editor if you’re in a bind and need to work on a couple of images  Downside: annoying ads and you’ll need to maneuver around them to use controls

3D Flash Animator   Create animations, interactive components for sophisticated website interfaces and arcade-style games

Multimedia  Serious Magic –Do-it-Yourself Video –$ basic product for web training videos

Wink   Tutorial/presentation creation software –Primarily aimed at creating tutorials on how to use software –Creates Flash files –Demo fileDemo file

For Developers  HTML text editor that you can add to your applications  Has powerful WSIWYG toolset like Word toolbar  Free, Open Source  Internet Explorer 5.5+ and Gecko browser (Mozilla / Netscape) compatibility  XHTML 1.0 support

FCK editor  Server side –ASP.Net –ASP –ColdFusion –PHP –Java

osTicket   Open source, problem tracking system

Handy Lookup Tools  HTTP Headers –Verify that the correct MIME type (the Content- type: line) is being sent for each file type –Is your web server dishing up UTF-8 when you’re character set is charset=iso –  What is my IP? –

META Tag Analyzer   Critique and advice on web page META tags

Productivity Tools: mail2web.com

Access: Web Browser, PDA, …

Lynx viewer   Use for testing web site accessibility

Lynx on Windows   A version of Lynx that runs directly on the Windows platform

Spurl – Social Bookmark and Research Tool Thumbnail, Internet Archive, who links to them?

SubEthaEdit  Edit the same document, live, in real time, together with everyone in your group  Mac OS X  Cost: $

WebNote   “Sticky note” note taking application

Primo PDF  Download and install Microsoft ® –Windows® 98 –Windows ME, –Windows 2000 –Windows NT® –Windows XP®  A minimum of 30 MB of available disk space  Convert from Word, Excel, PowerPoint

Font Comparison Utility  mpare.html mpare.html

NXPowerLite   Reduces the size of a Powerpoint presentation

Tools that Keep You Smiling  Your own library “ELF”  Consolidate your library accounts  Get notices before items are due  Receive alerts on overdues and holds  Receive text message alerts for holds

Translation Wizard   Let’s get international!

More Cool Tools ?  Choose Cool Tools in Darlene’s furl bookmark service   Subscribe to Darlene’s RSS feed for the Cool Tools topic  Link on her home page -

Integrate Thumbshots  Free or pay service  Free – attribution  Integrate into dynamic pages/search results