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  Updated 03/13/05
The Digital Library of Web Tools

Welcome to The Digital Library

Web & Graphics Tools, Tips and Tricks

This all started out, almost 10 years ago, as a part-time obsession. Now I'm a full-time work-at-home web designer/consultant (and yes, sometimes I spend all day in my jammies). Working for yourself means you can stop for lunch any time you want to, but it also means you work longer hours than God. And of course, I never get enough sleep. But I love it. I couldn't have done it, however, without the help of the tools and tutorials I found on internet itself. Here are some tools and links I've found really, really useful:

GENERAL - IN'S & OUT'S OF THE INTERNET
 
  

. . . THE INTERNET AS A LEARNING TOOL:

Most of the stuff I learned about the internet, I learned from the web itself. There are some good books out there, but generally I rely on other websites, forums, and blogs to keep myself up to date. And when I need to learn something new, I search for it on the internet first. Most of the time information on the web is more current (and often more accurate) than books and manuals. Not always, of course, but I usually start with an internet search.

Searching the web can be done using a variety of search tools. These are my first choice, in order of my personal preference:

  1. Google
  2. Ask Jeeves
  3. Yahoo

This is obviously not a comprehensive list, but lately, you get pretty much the same results from many search engines. The reason for this is they're using the same back-end database. The three above tend to return different results, so I'm more likely to find a variety of answers to my questions. If you want to find more, SearchEngineWatch has a good series of articles and listings of all the major search engines.

Finding the information you need is largely a matter of trial and error. Try entering a few keywords and see what results you get. Some of the search engines will return better results if you enclose your phrase in quotes. This lets the search engine know you want results with exactly those words, in exactly that order. Capitalizing the words can also bring new results. If you still can't find the information you need, most search engines have a HELP button, or "Advanced Search" button, where you can find tips for targeted searching.

All this searching takes time, however. And that's how this "room" got started. I was collecting information, and it seemed only fair to share what I found most useful.


  

. . . LEARNING ABOUT THE INTERNET (OR ... How to Learn "Geek Speak")

Try these resources to get an overview of getting on the web, figure out what people are saying and suss what it's all about ...