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Universal. MacRabbit

It’s been a few years since I’ve used Adobe GoLive and, though I was a beta tester for GoLive 6, it’s never been one of my favorite programs (I prefer to use a handful of lightweight apps to get the job done). But after viewing Total Training for Adobe GoLive CS2, I’m giving GoLive another look. Host Lynn Grillo makes Adobe GoLive seem less like a web developer’s version of Microsoft Word —bloated and uncooperative—and more like something… useful.

Lynn Grillo has the cred and delivers the goods. A GoLive user since it was called GoLive CyberStudio 2, Lynn has co-authored 4 books on Adobe GoLive. She’s an Application Engineer with Adobe Systems and an Adobe Certified Expert in GoLive, InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop. An Adobe Certified Web Expert, she is also a frequent presenter at Macworld and Photoshop World.

Lynn is your “skipper” during the training, helping you “take the plunge,” tossing you “a life preserver” so “you’ll sail with the wind at your back.” The sea dog metaphors made me cringe (mercifully, you can skip the lesson intros without missing anything important), but the lessons are spot on. Her explanations areveryclear and thorough, and that’s a very good thing when you’re trying to learn a program that can be as daunting as GoLive.

In spite of the relatively short run time (approximately 7 hours), the program is comprehensive (you can view the complete course outline here and some sample videos here):

1. The GoLive User Interface
2. A Whirlwind Tour of GoLive CS2
3. The Editing Modes
4. The Site Window
5. Building a Page
6. Using Components and Actions
7. Introducing the CSS Editor
8. Advanced Page Building with CSS
9. Image Maps and Smart Objects
10. Working with Forms and Tables
11. Viewing and Editing Source Code
12. Using Color and Saving Images for the Web
13. Working with PDF and Quicktime
14. Site management
15. Publishing your Site
16. Super Secret Tips and Tricks

There are no bonus lessons for this program. Instead, registering entitles you to a free copy of MenuMachine, a GoLive extension for creating drop-down menus that would normally set you back $45.

Lynn wastes no time getting down to business. You’ll create a new site within five minutes of starting the program, followed by a thorough orientation to GoLive’s perplexing interface. The lessons sometimes seem too basic, but GoLive isn’t a very intuitive program and beginners (who may already be struggling to understand the rudiments of the web) will find Lynn’s approach reassuring. And while Lynn is careful not to lose even the greenest newbie, I found myself picking up a number of tips along the way. She almost makes GoLive look fun, and that’s no easy task.

Like all of the Total Training programs I’ve reviewed (Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 Unleashed, Total Training for Adobe Photoshop CS2, Total Training Masters Collection: Advanced Adobe Photoshop CS2, Total Training for Adobe Illustrator CS2, and Total Training for Adobe InDesign CS2), this program is highly polished and sports Total Training’s friendly user interface. The only glitch: It’s a bit surprising (and disappointing) that there still is no full screen support for this program (or for the Illustrator and InDesign trainings). But the Total Training web site continues to promise that this support is coming soon (full screen supportisavailable for Total Training for Adobe Photoshop CS2).

Total Training’s pricing strategy is something of a mystery. I’m not sure why Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 Unleashed (6 hours and 13 minutes) is priced at $59.99 and Total Training Masters Collection: Advanced Adobe Photoshop CS2 (8 hours) is priced at $149.99. And let’s set aside the debate about whether it’s a good idea to invest in learning a program that may face an uncertain future. Your time has to be worth something and if you absolutely must master the basics of GoLive, Total Training for Adobe GoLive CS2 will get you there in a day for a hundred bucks. That’s probably cheaper than spending your Saturday at the local community college and you can repeat the class as often as you like.

If you aren’t familiar with Total Training, order their free sampler CD containing over two hours of video training or view some sample tutorials online. As of this writing, and for a limited time, you can save 25% on any full series video product or an additional 10% off the lowest price on any bundle. Please note that I’m not paid to write these reviews and I don’t benefit if you click on these links, but if you’re looking for video training, I highly recommend Total Training.

Bottom Line: Who knew creating web pages with Adobe GoLive could be fun? Spend a day with Lynn Grillo and you’ll be navigating GoLive with full sails set (groan).
From: Total Training
Price: $99.99
Platform: Macintosh and Windows

If you’re a web developer and want to take a quick look under the hood in Safari, check out WebDevAdditions. This SIMBL plug-in adds a number of options to the View menu in Safari. You can toggle style sheets or view them in a separate window, disable parts of a page (images, links, tables, styles, objects, divs, or custom tags), outline parts of page (tables, block level elements, forms, links, or custom tags), or display image dimensions. Many options are invoked via shortcut keys. Want to quickly outline each element of a page and see its label and you hover the mouse around the page? Here’s how:

After installing WebDavAdditions, just press and hold the Shift and Control keys. As you move the mouse, each element is outlined in red and the tag is displayed.

You’ll need SIMBL, which is included in the download. And check out these other great SIMBL plug-ins:

AcidSearch
fiwt (find while typing)

Via Pimp My Safari, the excellent site devoted to extending Safari, published by Jon Hicks and Neil Lee.

Bottom Line: WebDavAdditions is great for sneaking a peek at how your favorite web pages are put together, or as a troubleshooting tool for web developers.
From: Les Nie
Price: Free
Platform: Macintosh

I’ve written elsewhere about my wish for a Dashboard widget that would track my site stats, and I’m happy to report that someone has finally come up with one. The ShortStat Widget from Keegan Jones—drawing on stats from Shaun Inman’s ShortStat—lets you check your hits, uniques, and recent referrers at a glance. But setting it up takes a little work. Here’s how…

First, create a database to hold your stat data (your host should provide instructions on how to create a database). You’ll need information about your database to configure ShortStat.

Then, go to the ShortStat Widget site. You’ll find links to everything you need from this page. Download ShortStat, the Gateway file, and the ShortStat Widget.

Follow the instructions in the Read Me included with the ShortStat package to install ShortStat on your server. Then upload the Gateway file to your ShortStat directory.

You’ll find some tips on using ShortStat with Moveable Type, Textpattern, and Wordpress in the “Playing Nice with ShortStat” entry on Shaun Inman’s site. Since I use Textpattern (1.0rc3), here’s what I did to set up ShortStat with Textpattern (thanks to John Hicks):

Add this line to the Index.php file in your home directory:

include($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"]."/shortstat/inc.stats.php")

My Index.php file looks like this :

To block your own IP address, you’ll need to make a few changes to your configuration.php and inc.stats.php files (thanks to John Nunemaker).

Add this line to your configuration.php file (replacing x.x.x.x with your IP address, which you can find at WhatIsMyIP.com):

$exclude = array('x.x.x.x');

This section of the configuration.php file should look like this:

$shortstat = true; // False is off
$exclude = array('x.x.x.x');
?>

Put an if statement around the mysql_query function in your inc.stats.php file. So, this line:

@mysql_query($query);
}


Should look like this:

if ( !in_array($ip, $exclude) ){
@mysql_query($query);
}
}


Now when you check your stats, you shouldn’t see any of your own activity on your site.

ShortStats is great for getting a quick sense of your site traffic, but for more detailed stats, here are two free services to try:

StatCounter lets you track your site without having to display a link to StatCounter, but your log file is limited to the last 100 visitors.

AddFreeStats doesn’t limit your log file, but you have to display a link (see the bottom of the column on the right).

Note that both services work by tracking code embedded in your pages. If you have more than one page template, you’ll need to embed the code into every page (or page template) in your site.

If anyone has any other recommendations, please post a comment.

Bottom Line: ShotStat Widget is a great way to get a quick take on your Web stats.
From: Keegan Jones
Price: Free
Platform: Macintosh

I wish I could say I always write code that’s valid, but the truth is I’m a hack. I get things to work with spit and chewing gum, and my code is a sloppy mess. Tidy Service to the rescue!

Tidy Service is an OS X Service that can clean up your code with a click of your mouse. Just highlight your markup in your preferred editor (SubEthaEdit, Tumult HyperEdit, or TextWrangler are all good choices) and select Tidy from the Services menu. There are two options to choose from: Tidy Markup and Tidy to XHTML, which generates valid XHTML. Warnings and errors are reported in OS X’s Console.

Installing Tidy is easy. Just drag the TidyService.service file into the Services directory inside your User or System Library (you may need to create the Services directory if it doesn’t already exist). Then log out and log in again, or restart your computer. Note that the Service won’t be available until you log in again. If it still doesn’t show up in an application’s Services menu, the application doesn’t support services.

You can customize Tidy’s processing options by creating a Tidy configuration file in your home directory. A Quick Reference of HTML Tidy Configuration Options is available here.

For more information, visit The HTML Tidy Project Page at SourceForge.net.

Bottom Line: Tidy Service is like having a free maid service for your HTML (tipping allowed).
From: Scott Ahten
Price: Free
Platform: Macintosh (Windows version available at The HTML Tidy Project Page at SourceForge.net).

Enkoder couldn’t be easier to use. Enter your email address and the link display text in the Enkoder window. Select XHTML or HTML 4 for W3C Compliance. You can also specify mouseOver text and an email subject. Click the Update button and Enkoder spits out your encrypted JavaScript coded address, ready to be cut and paste into your Web pages. The results look like complete gibberish:

Spiders won’t recognize it and will spin their Web elsewhere. Of course, the only way to guarantee that no one can harvest your email address is not to post it on the Web, but Enkoder will make it much more difficult for a spider to decipher.

If you’d rather not run Enkoder on your desktop, you can use an online form at http://automaticlabs.com/products/enkoderform.

Bottom Line: If you have a Web site that includes your email address, you need Enkoder.
From: Automatic
Price: Free