Innovative Tools You May Not Have Heard Of

1. NotePad ++ - While notepad is adequate, Notepad ++ excels (plus it's Free). Notepad is an excellent HTML editor in that it is plain and simple. Sometimes too plain and simple. Notepad ++ adds some really powerful features without crossing the line of being a GUI HTML editor.
   
   Some of the cool features are: * Opening up files in multiple tabs (great when you have files with similar content to copy and paste). * Drag-and-drop (time saving feature). Highlighting of brackets (way cool...helps you find those missing brackets, parenthesis, etc.) * Line numbers with word wrap. Say you have a huge piece of code (tag) with word wrap on. It will indent the code (tag) on the same line number regardless of how many lines it actually occupies on the notepad. This makes looking for mistakes so much easier.
   
   Trust me, you will absolutely love NotePad ++.
ColorZilla - I'll be honest with you. I'm really bad with colors. I can't pick a color out of palate and say, "That looks good" or more importantly match two colors together. What I do is find something on the web that looks pretty good, then I use the eyedrop tool on Colorzilla to tell me what the exact color it is. I can't tell you how useful this is. I suppose I could go to the source code and see exactly what the color being used is, but when there are multiple style sheets this can be more difficult than it seems. Plus I like tools to make things more easy. Isn't that why we have computers, software, plug-ins, etc.?
2. Wordpress - I'm not talking about Wordpress.Com where you create free blogs but Wordpress.Org where you download free open source "blogging" software to where you can have a wordpress.com like interface on your website. (Both sites are owned and operated by the same company).
   
   In the beginning people used wordpress to create blogs on their domains but people quickly discovered that wordpress was so customizable through plug-ins and themes that not only could you make great looking blogs but you could make superior looking websites. Wordpress is perfect for the super geek because it is open source and can be manipulated in so many ways. It is also perfect for the amateur because you can put up a superior looking website without knowing ANY HTML, php, Java, etc. A relative amateur can make a very professional looking website in a very short period of time using the wordpress platform. Here are some examples of wordpress sites:
   
   http://www.ferryto.eu/
   
   http://ma.tt/
   
   http://www.riptapparel.com/
   
   http://www.bridinel.com/
   
   The great thing about wordpress is that you can create and manage your content quickly and efficiently. It is very realistic to be able to create a several thousand page website with relatively little effort or just have a nice clean small personal website as well.