Helpful Sites For Web Building

December 9, 2007 — Mrs. Mecomber

Here’s a handy-dandy list of tools found at websites that are very helpful for web- and blog-building. It’s a list I’ve kept tucked away for my own work, but I’ll leave it with you if you promise to take good care of it. :)

HTML with Style
All About.com Web Design
CSS Basics
Color Schemer Online
HTML Color Names
WebMonkey
Browser-safe Web Palette
Visibone Color Lab
Official Seal Generator
Cool Text Graphics Generator
Brilliant Button Maker
Adam Kalsey’s Button Maker
Flooble.com
Better Fonts.com
Fontica.com
Javascript Kit
Free Stock Photos
Free HTML Editors
Design Meme

You might want to bookmark this page or the links that will be helpful for your projects. I use them frequently, and in the next few posts about customizing your blog, I’ll be referring to these tools from time to time. Enjoy!

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Posted in blogs, free programs, free stuff. Comments Off »

Free Blogger Templates

December 9, 2007 — Mrs. Mecomber

I’ve seen a lot of ugly templates out there in the the blogosphere. It ain’t pretty. The Blogger default templates are OK… but boring. In preparation for my upcoming series on How to Customize Your Blogger Blog, I’m going to assign you a little homework. I’ve presenting you with a list of websites that offer free Blogger templates. There are a lot to choose from. Some are better than others, of course, and not just in style. Some are easier to use, easier to customize, and some are in other languages. Here’s my list:

Gecko & Fly
Free Blogger Skins
Blogcrowds
Final Sense Blogger Templates
Template Panic
50More Beautiful Blogger Templates from Mashable
Free Blogger Templates
Blogger Templates Directory
Blogger Templates.org
Free Blogger Templates

I personally recommend the great choices from the first three links.

Tip: if English is your first language, get a template in English.

I had once downloaded and installed a template made by a Spaniard. It was a beautiful template, and I can read Spanish. Mostly. But after playing with it, I decided I didn’t want the template anymore. When I went to a new (English) template, I found some traces of Spanish still in my widgets html. So my date read “lecha” for a while until I finally noticed it, lol.

Anyway, look around at the templates in the lists below. Get a plan and I’ll soon show you how to fix up your boring, default blog into something that says you.

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Posted in Blogger, blogs, free stuff, templates. 2 Comments »

Coming Soon

December 9, 2007 — Mrs. Mecomber

I’m in the process of blogging a few tutorials about how to customize your blog. I know the past few posts have been about free programs- I’ve had these ideas for a while and I wanted to get them off my chest! I’ll be posting a large series of tutorials as soon as I have them together. Stay tuned!

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Free Educational Software for Children

December 9, 2007 — Mrs. Mecomber

Outstanding. Incredible. Spectacular!

I’m talking about the lists of free educational software to be found at Owl & Mouse. We have downloaded all their programs and my kids have benefitted from it in innumerable ways.

We really enjoy their geography programs. I have the children go over them from time to time, even when we are not doing geography lessons. The programs are so simple, yet so customizable. You can have the child practice his skills locating continents, countries, states, capitals, landmarks, physical features, and more. The game is played like a jigsaw puzzle, and the child drags and drops the puzzle piece on the map where it belongs. There are different settings where you can make the game harder (for example, by eliminating borders) which makes it great for older kids. I can’t rave enough about the geography programs.

Owl & Mouse also have other programs for little learners, and some are online games. There are letter-learning games, reading games, build a medieval castle game, build a town or village game. These are great for very young children. Hey, grandparents, these are great for when your little grandkid comes over and laments that he or she is “bored.”

We’ve enjoyed Owl & Mouse programs for years. I think your kids will pick up a lot with them, too. What have you got to lose, anyway? It’s free!

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Posted in educational programs, free programs, fun programs. Comments Off »

Flying High with Google Earth

December 9, 2007 — Mrs. Mecomber

If there is one Google product you had to have, it would be Google Earth. I thought everyone had heard of Google Earth, but I was talking to some folks recently who’d never heard it! I like the program so much that I wanted to be sure to mention it.

The family has used it countless times. My kids are geography experts now. I have used it to map our travels, and my husband likes to look at air bases around the world. It is truly an amazing program.

You can find anywhere in the world (even your property). I love looking at other countries and cities, like the city of Amsterdam in Holland with its gorgeous canal system, and the Thames in London.

Google Earth has many other features besides looking at the earth’s surface. You can skew your view to look across (it’s a little cheesy looking because it’s computer generated, but the Grand Canyon and Rocky Mountains still looked neat). You can zoom all the way out and spin the earth with your mouse cursor (fun). You can track your journeys, as Google Earth will measure distances and place markers for you (a virtual pin board). It will show you major (and some minor) attractions in localities. And best of all, it will show roads, boundaries, names of rivers, lakes, and mountain ranges, and everything! It’s great and we love it.

You have to have an online connection to view Google Earth. I have been offline and it does work, but the maps will only show what is in your computer cache, and no new material.

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Posted in free programs, fun programs, Google. Comments Off »

The Gene Pool

December 9, 2007 — Mrs. Mecomber

When the family members are home for the holidays is the perfect time to accumulate and organize genealogy information. I’m the big family researcher, and I’ve got tons of papers, files, folders, photos, and documents. My grandmother left behind reams and reams of all the information she’d uncovered. I have slowly, over the course of five years, been going through it and trying to digitize it to share with everyone. It’s a long process.

I’ve tried a couple of geneaology programs– I even paid for one– but the one I’ve been happiest with is the free PAF, or Personal Ancestry File. There’s a new version out (5.2.18.0), which has multi-language capabilities, and even gives you the ability to download the stuff onto a PDA.

PAF is GEDCOM compatible– a must for any serious genealogy program. I’ve been pleased with PAF. I’ve been able to upload my PAF/GEDCOM files onto RootsWeb easily, too. You might like this if you are still pencilling things into charts and notebooks. :)

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