When you are doing a dynamic website project, it may need you to make forms to collect user information. Almost every website has contact us form which mostly consist of name, email, comment and phone number etc. These forms are easy to make and data can be sent to an email id or stored somewhere. If all you want is send data to an email id, then all you have to do is write few lines of code and use mail() function but if you need to store the data, story is different! Storing data means use of database and since you cannot read data directly from logging in database panel and reading tables, you will need to make an interface from where stored data can be read. This is where admin panel is needed. Making form and then connecting it to database, setting up admin panel to view stored data requires lot of coding. If you know coding well even then it takes some time to do this, otherwise you hire a programmer to do it for you.

Form tools make things easy for you. This free open source script is not only highly customizable but also works with variety of forms. All you have to do is make the form and then connect it to form tool (installed on your server) and that’s it! Form tool will collect data from the form, store in database and present you in clean tabular and printable format. Connect your form to Form tool is very easy and anyone without knowledge of coding can do it. I think Form tool is one of the best tool for every web developer. Download it free from formtools.org

Stripe background will go well with many type of website layout, so if you need to jazz up a website, all you need is add a matching stripe background. Now question is how to create a stripe background? I know you can do a microscopic work in photoshop using lots of zoom and then making a tiny stripe image and then repeating it using css. This is a time consuming job and when you are in website design business, time means money. Fortunately there are some online stripe generators which do the job very well. All you need to do is input hex values of colors needed in stripe, find tune using slick interface and you are done. You also get a small preview of how the stripe will look which means no more wastage of time in testing. Best part is that when you created stripe in this way, you create something unique. Sounds cool right? Why not try it yourself? Here are few selected stripe generator websites:

stripegenerator.com
kissyourshadow.com/stripe_maker.php
stripemania.com

Suddenly many web designers started discouraging using of tables in layout. It was just like discarding floppy drives from desktop computers and today when we buy a PC, it does not come with floppy drive as standard. However things have gone advance and today there is absolutely no use of floppy drive but think of a case when operating system becomes corrupt, you cannot boot and you mess up with BIOS too. This is definitely a nightmare but floppy can be used to boot in this situation and BIOS can be flashed using floppy. Ok I am not going to talk about this issue as I am not aware of latest hardware BIOS flashing method but I am writing about the importance of tables.

You might have received newsletter in emails and these emails look just like a complete webpage. If you look at the source code of these newsletter, these are created using tables. Email services and even personal email client software’s are not able to render complex CSS files so we have to rely on good old tables method. Its pity that same web designers making newsletter for their client using tables shout that don’t support using tables anymore. In real web pages too there are places where using tables is more efficient so days of tables in layout is definitely no over!

Wordpress has evolved as one of the most versatile script; it’s no more just a blogging platform. Earlier it was only used by bloggers but now people have learned how to make fully functional websites using wordpress in few minutes. All one needs is a good wordpress template which is often available for free and with little tweaks here and there, the website is ready. For any simple website requirements, developing it from scratch is a history and wordpress is the sure shot way to do it smartly. Sites like topwpthemes.com have best wordpress themes collection and you can find many varieties of themes there. With each theme, preview is provided so that you can have a better look at it before downloading. Although we all know how simple it is to install a Wp theme but installation method is also described on this site with good illustration using images so that even non-techy people can also understand it immediately.

Designing website is an art. If you don’t have good skills in art (it can be anything) then most probably your designs may look good only to you and not others. Basic things in a website design are the header, footer, menus and main content area. Header is most important because it gives a unique identity to website. Content area is often made of blocks so that it can be adjusted easily without disturbing other elements of the web page. I came to know about Template Blocks few days back which is actually a template engine written in PHP and is open source software. I love the simplicity of this software. Visit Template Blocks: Main website and you will say to yourself that why you didn’t knew about this software before. Maybe because it’s still in its early development stage but mature enough to be used in live websites without any problem. It’s a very small download but very powerful, just takes few minutes to install and then it depends on your creativity. The Ajax based interface lets you easily edit website you make using it. If this is enough to excite you then head straight to Template Blocks: Goggle Code page and download your copy now. If you are new to web design stuff then I’ll recommend to watch Template Blocks: Video Tour on YouTube and see how you can begin using it. It’s good, it’s free so recommended to everyone for giving a try. Explore the possibilities and who knows you can really come up with some really cool websites using it which everyone will appreciate.

Just a beautifully designed can not always do well. So whenever I make websites for my clients, I ask them to contact a seo specialist for getting the website optimized. This is very much needed for any website especially if it’s new because neither people nor the search engine knows about it. A seo expert knows how to promote your website and get quality traffic for it. A good seo company can bring life to any not so good doing website.