Today's topic is about tools that can help anyone not familiar with HTML or CSS to create a great site. I only stumbled across it recently because I am preparing an e-portfolio for my Master's Degree. An e-portfolio is like an electronic resume, but can contain much more. It is now becoming almost a necessity when applying for any kind of job that requires a demonstration of competency in a number of areas. You can, and should, display any digital artifacts that you have created, which can include photos, audio files, videos, documents, powerpoint presentations and spreadsheets.
I made an attempt to create this document using the software provided by the university I attend. They actually had two different ones. I found both of them very limiting in terms of what kind of style you could use to display your work. I decided, because I was determined to produce something original to simply create a website under my own domain that would do the same thing.
It wasn't until I actually started doing research about e-portfolios that I came across this amazing service offered by, you guessed it, Google. It's called Google sites, and any other data you have stored with Google, such as in Google Docs, Picasa Web, YouTube, etc., can easily be integrated into the e-portfolio. What I liked best about it is that while they do have a number of templates for style you can choose from, the appearance is totally customizable, and they even suggest starting with one of their templates and introducing changes to their style. Any change made is immediately updated in a preview area, so you can see the effects right away.
They offer many "gadgets" that can be incorporated into the site. I was even able to incorporate this blog in it's entirety into the site, and embedded my resume and my written assignments, which are all at Google Docs into the pages as well. You can do all of this without any real HTML or CSS knowledge, and all editing is done remotely, so you can add to it and edit it from anywhere there is an internet connection. It makes creating new pages a snap, and even creates a sitemap automatically every time you do.
There is no apparent limit on the number of pages a site can have, or to the number of sites that can be created, but since it's a part of your Google account, the total amount of space for all the Google products you use probably can't exceed 7.5 GB. Even with all my uploaded documents, saved emails, and hundreds of photos stored at Picasa Web, I'm still only at 1% of the total.
There is also a way to place any site within your own domain name, but the URL you are supplied is very user friendly. I was able to create a CNAME record for my domain name at the place I host my website, and then specify the new address at Google sites. Even though it's still under construction, you can check out the progress I've made on my e-portfolio site so far at http://eportfolio.barbhall.com
Of course, google sites can be used to create any type of website, and also provides templates depending on the type of site. The e-portfolio is just one of many available.
My rating: 4.5 stars out of 5! 
No discussion of web editing would be complete without discussion the tools I use to create them. I really wanted a WYSIWYG (that's What You See Is What You Get) editor. There are many for HTML, but I wanted one for PHP and CSS editing as well.
For HTML, my favourite has always been Arachnophilia. I've been using it for so many years, there have been many versions of it published since I started. I tend to stay with an older version because it let's you preview your page with any web browser you want. It has an internal browser, and a powerful replace all that let's you replace one string with another in all open pages if you want to. The newer versions are written in Java, which works on any platform. I'm sticking with the 4.0 version myself, which only works on Windows. Suits my purposes just fine. Get it here at http://www.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/index_old.html
My rating: 4 stars out of 5!
For CSS, my hands down favourite is Eclipse Style. This is a very powerful editor that not only takes the guesswork out of CSS, it gives you a preview of what your style will look like, and with each attribute that is changed, the view changes too. Save it and you have your CSS elements arranged in alphabetical sequence, with all punctuation and spacing automatically done. Get it at http://www.greeneclipse.com
My rating: 4.5 stars out of 5!
Finding a PHP editor was much harder, well, a free one that is. When I finally did find one, I was pleasantly surprised to find one that had WYSIWYG. Because PHP resolves at the server, it comes bundled with an internal PHP server that you must install to be able to preview the code, if you don't happen to have one installed on your PC (most people don't). I'm not sure where the code was built, but during the install, you can select your language. I of course, selected English. About the only complaint I have about this software, is that the tool tips, and some of the components of the software are in another language - could be Spanish or Portuguese. A minor annoyance considering what else the program can do, and it wasn't enough to make it unusable. Support for hot-keys is limited to a only a few functions and is not customizable. Still pretty good though. You can get it at http://www.brothersoft.com/php-editor-download-36654.html
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 5! 
I'm choosing this topic as the first because many of the other tools I'll be discussing are related to web development, and since you can't have a website without somewhere for it to live, it seems like a good place to start.
Hosting opportunites exist galore, and many of the free hosting sites have annoying popups and advertising. I didn't want that on my website, since it seemed to advertise businesses that were similiar to mine and in my neighbourhood.
So I needed free hosting for two purposes. First I needed a place for my site to live, and second, I needed one that could host an online course I'm developing.
This is what I found:
The first one Key to School, located at http://www.keytoschool.org is a free hosting site for Moodle courses. Moodle is a course management system software title. It is also offered for free, and is extremely powerful. It requires a PHP environment and SQL database. These particular requirements made it very difficult for me to host my courses at my home based web server. I'm a geek but not a supergeek. This service made it possible to host my Moodle course. There were limitations on what kind of theme you could use, but custom themes are now available. If you wanted extra modules installed that could increase Moodle's functionality, a quick email to technical support and it's done. Great service for free, and there is no advertising, spyware or popups.
My rating: 4 stars out of 5! 
The other, Megabyet, located at http://www.megabyet.com is also free for Moodle but it does so much more. It offers up to five domain names per account for free, free ftp, cpanel functionality and generous bandwidth limits. You can also have up to 50 subdomains, and up to 5 domain names per account. A built-in FTP function and content editor is really cool too.
My rating: 5 stars out of 5! 
So this is where my two sites live for now. I do receive gentle requests from megabyet to upgrade to a paid service, but the free one is so full of extras, I see no need to do so.
Coming soon, I'll start reviewing the tools that I've come across that can help you build the website of your dreams at no cost.
I'm sure that there are blogs just like this numbering in the hundreds. So you may see stuff here that you've seen elsewhere. Lately I've been uncovering, almost on a daily basis, software, services and other tools that are available for free. I've now grown so accustomed to not paying for anything, that my search for whatever I need sometimes takes longer than I want it to.When I do find something that really shouldn't be free, I can't help but feel like I've "stuck it to the big guys". I marvel at the generosity of those that publish software or make services available for free, when there are comparable paid software titles or services that charge.So that is what this blog is about. While I can't promise I'll be posting every day, I will post often, each post will contain a new title or service that I've either tried or am currently using. I'll be including links so that you'll be able to download it and try it yourself. For what it's worth, I'll even assign my rating to aspects of the software or service.Please come back for regular reviews, and please suggest anything you'd like to see here. I'm always looking for new "cool tools for free". :)
