Category Archives: Cool Tools

Cool tools are just what it says. These are apps, websites, widgets, and places on the web that help creatives, web developers, and small business owners do their jobs better. Sometimes, they’re just for fun.

For everyone, there are productivity tools to help you manage your time better. Use the mind-mapping tools to brainstorm ideas, create a web site structure, or plot an editorial calendar for your blog.

Creatives and web designers will find font-finders, alternatives to boring lorem ipsum, color meters, and image finders.

Website owners can use the site analytics tools, and several lists of online marketing tools.

There is also a big list of cheap (or even free) sources of photos to use on your website or other online marketing channels. Just follow the restrictions on copyright and don’t use photos that aren’t specifically marked for re-use.

Friday Fun: Cool Free Tools for Creatives and Freelancers

Posted on April 15, 2011 by Jodi Kaplan

Image via Wikipedia

This month’s cool tools covers everything from wordpress to music.

Down for Everyone? A simple ping tool (for you sophisticated computer types). For everyone else, just type in the website you can’t reach and see if you’re the only one having the problem.

Anatomy of a WordPress Theme This handy infographic explains all the bits and pieces of wordpress themes (so you know where to look if you need to fiddle with something.

Creative Commons Music Use it for podcasts, videos, all sorts of things. Completely legal to reuse.

Zipcast Instant meeting. Turn a slideshare presentation into an online discussion. Doesn’t need any extra software.

Friday Fun: Cool Tool!

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Jodi Kaplan

Image via Wikipedia

OK, this one is just fun.

It’s called The Google Art Project. You can see paintings and artwork from some of the world’s greatest museums (The Uffizi, The Hermitage, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, among others).

Zoom in on a particular section in high-definition, then wander along the corridors, like a real tourist. Or, search for a specific work, or a particular museum.

It’s a purple cow (in the Seth Godin sense) and an ideavirus (Seth again). It’s remarkable and it will spread. Heck, if any Chagall paintings are included, there probably is an actual purple cow.

Friday Fun: Cool Tools!

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Jodi Kaplan

Image via Wikipedia

OK, these two are really great. If I’d found them earlier, they would have saved me loads of time!

It took me ages to figure out the color of the blue font on this blog and match it to create the sign-up box at the end of my posts. With these tools, it would have taken a few seconds.

The first one was hiding right under my nose.

Digital Color Meter: It’s included with my Mac software. If you’ve got a Mac, you’ll find it in the Utilities folder. Fire it up and it will tell you the color formula (web or RGB percentages) for any color that you hover over.

Could be something on a web page, a file on your desktop, a font color in a document, anything at all. It will save you loads of time trying to match colors.

Firefox Colorzilla Plugin: If you don’t have a Mac (or even if you do), try the Firefox Colorzilla plugin. This will only work on web pages, but it will tell what color something is. It lets you zoom in, and has history and favorites palettes (so you’ll have a handy record of what colors you like). You can also pan over the page, without the scroll bars.

Friday Fun: Cool Tools for Freelancers and Writers

Posted on October 22, 2010 by Jodi Kaplan

Image via Wikipedia

Today is Friday, so it’s time for some cool tools.

This week, we’ve got everything from a backlink checker to a way to watch your site visits in real time.

Who’s looking at you?

Google Search Console Links to Your Site – this backlink checker shows who’s linking to your website or blog.

Improve your web site sales

Website Optimizer – a Google app that helps you test landing pages, write irresistible headlines, and increase your sales

Bounceapp– use this for website design changes, editing suggestions, and feedback – make your suggestions and share them
Chartbeat – real-time analytics for your site (free trial)

Turn your blog into a book

Anthologize – a free tool for converting your blog content into a book (thank you National Endowment for the Humanities)

Got more? Share them in the comments. We’re due for a roundup post, I’ll link them all back to you.

Friday Fun: Cool Tools for Web Developers and Creatives

Posted on September 17, 2010 by Jodi Kaplan

: Image via Wikipedia

Today’s list has several different font finders (a great help when I needed to help my brother match the typeface on his wedding invitations so he could print matching envelopes), and a little inspiration for writing blog posts when your brain is spinning in mud.

There’s also a link to a thesaurus that helps you rhyme (as well as find synonyms.

Lastly, a search “engine” for icons. If you’re not quite sure how to get the idea of “content management” across in an icon check here.

Font finders

Got a font you can’t identify? Send the image to What The Font. They’ll find the closest match. Or post it on their forum, where font enthusiasts will sort it out.

If you prefer the do-it-yourself approach, check out Identifont. Answer some questions about the font and their software will help you determine which font it is.

Thesaurus with a twist

Stuck for the right word? Test out the Big Huge Thesaurus. Synonyms, antonyms, even rhymes.

Blog post/story line ideas

The people (or maybe it’s the computers) at big huge labs have this covered too. Try out their story line generator.

Icons

Search the iconfinder for free icons you can download and use on your blog or web site.