Resources
Web site rules, opinions, statistics and how to, are available in abundance on all the elements. Here you will find a selection of the ones we find useful. If you have your favorites, please share them with the community by sending the information to us for posting here.
St.George Campus + Tools
Multi Media Storage
A complete solution for streaming, capturing, and publishing Rich Media presentations. If your files are over 10 meg (maximum file size in the CMS), use this repository and link to your file from your site. Send a request for a departmental account and instructions via email to mymedia@library.utoronto.ca
http://mediacast.ic.utoronto.ca
IT + Services Directory
www.its.utoronto.ca
UofT Webspace guidelines and templates
www.its.utoronto.ca/web-services/guidelines.htm
Online payment for your events.
http://www.moneris.com
There is a UofT account. When you set up your departments account, ask for UofT member pricing.
If your form requires more than the ACM Survey Pagetype offers, try this one.
http://www.surveymonkey.com
Newsletter mailings
mailchimp.com
Site Maintenance
Site maintenance must be scheduled into your annual work flow. See below for helpful maintenance tools.If you have a favorite resource to share, or can't find what you need, email cms.help@utoronto.ca
Backup your site or parts that are changing. Here is a tool to back up or take a mirror copy of your current site for an in-house archive of the content.
www.httrack.com
Link Check Tools
At least annually, check every link on your site. Here are free online link checking tools which minimize the task for you.
linkchecker.sourceforge.net
validator.w3.org/checklink
www.brokenlinkcheck.com
home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink (requires download)
Accessability Compliance
The rules
http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag20.php
Overview
Online compliance checkers
http://wave.webaim.org
http://www.usability.com.au/resources/wcag2checklist.cfm
http://achecker.ca
http://validator.w3.org
Acrobat accessibility tools for pdf files
http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/training.html
Screen Reader Simulator and valuable information
http://webaim.org/simulations/screenreader
http://webaim.org/articles/screenreader_testing
Strategies to enhance the user experience
http://www.nngroup.com
Design tools
UofT Campus Pictures - please obtain the owners written permission to use. Share your campus photos with credit of course.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/utoronto/pool
Video Conversion
www.smallvideosoft.com
Image Editors
Resize your images in a batch lot or online. Maximum resolution 100dpi. Image size for slideshow 7"w X 5"h,Head shots 1.5"w X 2"h, JPG files. Line art or single color pictures should be saved as GIF or PNG.
paint.net A fully loaded paint program.
www.shrinkpictures.com Online image editor
http://download.cnet.com/FastStone-Photo-Resizer Batch resize slideshows
Pick a web safe color
http://www.visibone.com/colorlab
Test your text color with background color for WCAG compliance.
http://snook.ca/technical/colour_contrast/colour.html
Convert font size points to pixels and ems and %. What is a point?
http://pxtoem.com
Create a mosaic from your pictures
www.andreaplanet.com/andreamosaic
Capture a Screen Shot of your Desktop.
graphicssoft.about.com/cs/general/ht/winscreenshot.htm
http://toolbox.vmn.net
MS PowerPoint file size reducer. Alternately, save as a pdf and optimize.
http://download.cnet.com/FileMinimizer-Office/3000-2250_4-10565714.html
www.sobolsoft.com/pptsize
Sites of Interest
www.w3.org
The World Wide Web Consortium
"(W3C) is an international community where Member organizations, a fulltime staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. Led by Web inventor
Tim Berners-Lee, W3C's mission is to lead the Web to its full potential."
useit.com
Jakob Nielsen's Website "knows more about what makes Web sites work than anyone else on the planet" ( Chicago Tribune, March 6, 2000 ) Great resource for web usability design and statistics.
http://www.about.com
An online neighborhood of hundreds of helpful experts, eager to share their wealth of knowledge with visitors.
www.webmonkey.com
Tutorials, tips and advice for designing and building websites and programming web applications. Articles for beginners, professionals, students, grandparents, bloggers and programmers of all skill levels.
salut.utoronto.ca
ODLC sanctioned Toastmaster club for admin staff (appointed, PM, IT). Improve your leadership and speaking skills in a positive and supportive environment. Financial cost may be reimbursed as self development by your department.