Basic Tools for Web Functionality

With a browser, a text editor and an email address plus a computer that is linked to the web, you are set. So what's the point of this article? Answer: enhanced functionality. With a few more software installed into your computer or flash drive, you can greatly expand the capabilities you already have with the tools mentioned above.

When you first logged into the web, the very first tools that you were introduced to were the browser (normally Internet Explorer) and the email (a Yahoo or HotMail account). The browser makes it all happen. One won't be able to "see" the web without it. The email address that one receives through an email account becomes one's pass to the many free services offered by the web. In fact, what got me started on creating websites is a Yahoo email account that brought me to Geocities!

These two tools are enough for a lot of activities that are web-related. For example, a web browser allows us

• to enter into our email accounts and post messages using our email address
• enter a web-based chatroom
• download free stuff
• post articles through a blog

Our email address not only gives us the possibility of exchanging messages, but it opens doors for us. It functions as a kind of web ID. You cannot publish a blog, for example, without your email address.

To the browser and the email account, we add a third tool that you have always had in your computer but didn't pay attention to until this time: the text editor. Windows has Notepad; Linux has Vi. Those who write long emails probably have found it useful in the past to first write their messages offline using Windows Notepad. This saves on internet connection especially when one logs into the web using an internet card. The text editor is not only good for writing email drafts. If you wish to create webpages, the text editor is just the application to use. When used in tandem with a browser, one won't find a WYSIWYG necessary. Blog articles are basically web pages, hence, the best way to prepare one's drafts is to type them first via a text editor.

In short, with a browser, a text editor and an email address plus a computer that is linked to the web, you are set. So what's the point of this article? Answer: enhanced functionality. With a few more software installed into your computer or flash drive, you can greatly expand the capabilities you already have with the tools mentioned above.

The Browser

Filipinos got introduced to the web via Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser the most popular browser -- even today -- in internet caf´e;s and household computers. But the problem with IE 5-6 (I don't know about IE 7 which works only with some versions higher than Win98) is not only its vulnerability to hackers but also its lack of additional functions. This wouldn't be so obvious if not for the appearance of Mozilla Firefox and the new Opera. To enhance your web experience and your work in the NewsRoom, try out the Mozilla Firefox. Its basic features can be expanded through addons that redefine the way one uses a browser. There are so many kinds of addons that when intelligently deployed can turn the Firefox into a web browser for web publishing, research and as a network tool. This, apart from the tabbed browsing feature makes Firefox a great ally on the web.

The Blog Client

Those who are familiar with an email tool called the Email Client -- such as MS Office Outlook -- shouldn't find the concept of a Blog Client strange. It is a piece of desktop software that allows one to write one's blog using a MSWord-life interface and publish it afterwards to the web. If you go to the WordPress Codex, you'd find that there are a lot of blog clients which can be used to post blogs to our NewsRoom. One of these is Qumana version 3.0 of which works with WinXP. Those who learned blogging through LiveJournal would be familiar with Semagic. Both these blog clients work with WordPress. If you are working with the Mozilla Firefox, you can have a blog client by adding the plugin called ScribeFire. It is a blog client that can work not only with WordPress but with other blog applications as well (e.g. Blogger)

Enhanced Notepad

Let us say you don't want to download an application nor add plugins to a browser. You can still of course Windows Notepad for creating offline drafts of your news report. However, Notepad has a problem. It can't manage files that are larger than 64kb. This is the reason why Notepad when opening a file sometimes asks you if you'd prefer to open it instead in WordPad, the native RTF editor of Windows. Apart from this, Notepad also has other limitations that make it's use cumbersome in many respects. There are many good Notepad replacements available on the web for free and are quick to download. Of these I would recommend either one of the following:

• EditPad Lite
• Notepad2
• NoteTab Lite