Best of the Web – April
While naturally in my totally unbiased opinion, the best thing to happen on the web in April was the launch of NETTUTS, there is of course tons of great content out there. I’ve put together some of my picks of the best things to pop up during April …
HTML + CSS + Javascript
The Highly Extensible CSS Interface
April saw Cameron Moll finish off his extensive series on developing an interface using CSS and jQuery with the final post – Testing for Extensibility.
Build a Horizontal Sliding Tabbed Archive with jQuery
Last week we ran our tabbed navigation tutorial, Sam Lu has his own jQuery tabbed nav tutorial which has content sliding in from left and right. Neat effect!
30 Exceptional CSS Techniques and Examples
I love a good roundup and SixRevisions is only too happy to provide them! Make sure you flick through their archives and see all the other neat lists they have.
This is How you get sIFR to Work
sIFR – the Flash/HTML technique to get custom fonts on your page – might look tricky to use, but with the aid of this walkthrough, it’s a piece of pie!
4 Uber Cool CSS Techniques for Links
CSSGlobe is one of my favourite sites for great snippets of CSS and they don’t let you down with this great post!
Better Pull Quotes: Don’t Repeat Markup!
CSS Tricks has a neat bit of technique to use so that you don’t have to have two blobs of the same text on your page to make a pull-quote. It makes use of jQuery to achieve the result and is quite simple to achieve!
Reset Stylesheets
CSS newbie walks you through why and how reset stylesheets work, along with a couple of links to some more popular ones.
Image Fades using jQuery
The latest tutorial from jQuery for Designers shows us how to fade images into each other using … you guessed it jQuery!
6 Most Important CSS Techniques You Need to Know
A bunch of useful CSS tips to take to heart, certainly taught me a couple of things!
Improve Form Usability with Auto Messages
One of my favourite blogs – Woork … who doesn’t love that picture of Antonio? :-) – has published a neat little tutorial on adding a little message using Scriptaculous.
MarkItUp
Turn any textarea into a markup editor. Html, Textile, Wiki Syntax, Markdown, BBcode or even your own Markup system … Can’t wait to test this out, looks very cool! (Via WebResourcesDepot)
Flash!
Build a Parallax Gallery
Nick La of WebDesignerWall takes you through building a horizontal scrolling environment using alternating scroll speeds to give it a 3d-esque feel. You can also find a neat Parallax extension for sale over at our sister site FlashDen.
Making an MP3 Player in AS3
The design may not be too attractive, but this is still a handy tutorial on using AS3 to put together a little MP3 player …
Getting Started with Flash
Looking for a solid introduction to Flash? Look no further than Carlos’ great little intro.
Creating an XML Slideshow (Actionscript 2)
XML Slideshows are the bomb and this tutorial will walk you through creating a simple fading slideshow using Actionscript 2.
Non-AS Photo Presentation
Don’t want to use Actionscript to make your image slideshow? Try this basic masking tutorial that produces a nice effect.
Object Oriented Scrollbar
Flash tutorial master Lee Brimelow released a new two-part video tutorial on creating a scrollbar, watch them at GotoAndLearn …
Content Management Systems
Build an Expression Engine Site From Scratch
OK so this didn’t technically happen in April, but I found it in April so it kinda counts! Anyway if you’ve ever wanted to play with Expression Engine then this is the tutorial for you. It’s really long, so long it’s become a book that you can purchase from Lulu if you’d like your tutorial in the convenience of paper and ink. Definitely worth checking out!
Blog Perfume – WordPress
This isn’t so much something that happened in April as just an awesome WordPress site that I’ve been meaning to link up for ages! Created by Ray of WebAppers it’s a great resource for WP junkies.
Cushy CMS
I’m not 100% sure if Cushy just launched, but certainly it only just popped up on my radar during April. Looks like a promising CMS, definitely worth checking out.
An Introduction to Movable Type Templates
DevLounge brought us not one but two useful MT tutorials with the introduction and also Anatomy of a Movable Type Template
Powerful List of WordPress Plugins
Noupe does one of their gigantic lists, this one on WordPress plugins, plenty of ones I use regularly in there! In case you’re wondering that screenshot is of Fluency – an alternate WP-Admin skin. Nice!
WordPress Template Heirarchy Diagram
Michael from WPCandy has done over WordPress’ diagram of the template heirarchy to give it a bit more visual edge, nice job Michael!
Miscellanea
10 Common Mistakes in Redesign
I hate to say it but I’m guilty of quite a few of these mistakes – especially "Launching before the new design is cross-browser tested" :-) That’s my achilles heel!
Five More Principles Of Effective Web Design
Continuing on from their 10 Principles of Effective Web Design Smashing Magazine gets us to 15 solid foundations for good web technique. Speaking of principles of web design, you might want to check out the article I wrote back last year on PSDTUTS – 9 Essential Principles of Good Web Design. Now that’s a lot of principles to read about!!
Build an AIR application using Dreamweaver CS3
Jonathan Snook of Snook.ca writes up this simple introduction to making an AIR app using the Adobe AIR extension for Dreamweaver.
Getting Started with Ruby on Rails
In their latest edition AListApart has been posting on getting going with the ubiquitous Ruby on Rails with both Getting Started and Creating More Using Less Effort
The Web Developer’s SEO Cheat Sheet
SEOMoz is my favourite place to go for SEO advice and this neat little PDF checklist is a handy little download for forgetful web devs.
Subversion for Designers
I use subversion when working on the FlashDen codebase and I have to say it will really help your productivity and workflow if you are working on big projects. I’ve yet to try using it on my regular work but am planning to soon! In any case this is a great introduction…
Developing with Google App Engine
This month Google launched their new App Engine product, a cloud service for running Python apps. If you’re looking for an introduction, ThinkVitamin’s got a good one…
Planning a Semantic Website
The "Semantic Web" is meant to be the next phase of the web, and IBM has a long article about planning a website focussed this way. I must admit I didn’t make it through the whole article, but if you’re looking to get the jump, I’m sure it’s worth it!
101 AIR Resources to add to your toolbelt of Awesomeness
You know I love 101 lists, but I never get through them. Still here’s one for all you AIR junkies to bookmark away.
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