Using the HTML Character Limit:

Wrap anything you want to be processed between the tag pairs, can be variable text or plain text. HTML Character Limiter will automatically detect valid html tags and ignore them in the character count as well as close them properly. The “chars” parameter lets you specify the number of characters and “suffix” lets you append whatever text to the end (before any closing element tags).

{exp:html_limit chars="100" suffix="..."}{body}{/exp:html_limit}

Download: HTML Character Limit (91)

A real quick way to make all your external links open in another window. All you have to do to get this jQuery snippet to work is have the rel=”external”. With that this little bit or jQuery will open the link in a blank window.

// Replace for target="_blank" to open in a new window
    $("a[@rel~='external']").click( function() {
        window.open( $(this).attr('href') );
        return false;
    });

Easy jQuery Parent Load

With this small bit of jQuery you are able to have the browser load the parent href attribute of the item you are clicking. All that you have to have on the child element is rel=”ajax”.

// Load parent container via AJAX
    $("a[@rel~='ajax']").click( function() {
        $(this).parent().load( $(this).attr('href') );
        return false;
    });

Easy Vertical Align

This little snippet can come in real handy when you are trying to center a object to the documents height. This is quite simple all you have to do to make this work is as the class vcenter to the object that you want to center to your document.

// Center Object Vertically to Document
    var doc_height = $(document).height();
    var el_height = $(".vcenter").height();
    $(".vcenter").css({"position" : "relative" , "top" :
doc_height/2 - el_height/2});

Simple jQuery Lightbox

Who needs a huge 5k Lightbox when you can build your own with as little as what you see below. This is the basic version of this snippet brought to you by Clayton McIlrath. If you would like to know everything about this jQuery snippet go to jQuery Lightbox Modal Plugin. This Lightbox is so easy to use all you have to do is style your Lightbox how you want to. Then you invoke the modal() function and that will trigger your lightbox.

(function ($) {
// Custom Lightbox, you can also find this on http://thinkclay.com/news/jquery-lightbox-modal-plugin
    $.fn.modal = function() {
        return this.each(function(i){
            var ah = $(this).height();
            var wh = $(this).parent().height();
            var nh = (wh - ah) / 3;

            var aw = $(this).width();
            var ww = $(this).parent().width();
            var nw = (ww - aw) / 2;

            $(this).css({'margin-top' : nh, 'margin-left' : nw});
            alert(dh);
        });
    };
})(jQuery);

Colour Lovers
Colour Lovers is a social resource to share and gather color trends and patterns. There are over a million color names, thousands of color palettes and patterns, comments and ratings as well as interviews and resources from topnotch designers.

Color Combos
Color Combos allows you to browse thousand of different colors combinations for getting inspired for your upcoming design. Color schemes can be browsed by individual colors. This is a great tool to store pallets as well as find colors to match ones you may already be working with.

Icon and Favicon Tools

Icon Finder
Iconfinder provides high quality icons for web designers and developers in an easy and efficient way. You simply type in a keyword into the search box and Iconfinder fetches beautiful icons which you can use royalty free.

ConvertIcon
Convert Icon is a free online service that allows you to upload an image and will return an .ico file which can be used for the little bookmark icons in your browsers address bar and folders. These icons are subtle, but very important and helpful in establishing brand and impression to your users. You can also use Dynamic Drive’s really simple FavIcon Generator.

Font Tools

Font Burner

Font Burner lets you search for fonts that you can embed in your site. You can embed the font you’ve chosen on your web pages by copying-and-pasting the code they provide (which uses sIFR).

My Fonts – What The Font?!

Ever wanted to find a font just like the one used by certain publications, corporations, or ad campaigns? Well now you can, using our WhatTheFont font recognition system. Upload a scanned image of the font and instantly find the closest matches in our database. If WhatTheFont can’t figure it out, you can submit your image to the WhatTheFont Forum where cloak-draped font enthusiasts around the world will help you out!

Font Struct

FontStruct is a free font-building tool brought to you by the world’s leading retailer of digital type, FontShop. FontStruct lets you quickly and easily create fonts constructed out of geometrical shapes, which are arranged in a grid pattern, like tiles or bricks. You create ‘FontStructions’ using the ‘FontStructor’ font editor. Once you’re done building, FontStruct generates high-quality TrueType fonts, ready to use in any Mac or Windows application. You can keep your creations to yourself, but we encourage users to share their “FontStructions”. Explore the Gallery of fonts made by other FontStruct users and download them or even copy them and make your own variations.

Typechart

Typechart lets you quickly evaluate an assortment of web typography. Once you’ve discovered the font you like, you can use the Get CSS button to obtain the style rules for it.

Typetester

The Typetester is an online application for comparison of the fonts for the screen. Its primary role is to make web designer’s life easier. As the new fonts are bundled into operating systems, the list of the common fonts will be updated. Typetester’s code structure is XHTML, styled with the finest CSS and driven by the JavaScript for manipulating DOM structures. Typetester will not work without JavaScript enabled.

Encode/Decode Tools

HTML Encoder / Decoder
This encoder makes quotes, ampersands, and other characters web friendly. With this encoder you can type or paste in the text you want to HTML encode, then press the button (or reverse the process with their decoder). Read a brief explanation of the process.

Text Encoder / Decoder
Base64 refers to a specific MIME content transfer encoding or as a generic term for similar encoding schemes that encode binary data translated into a base 64 representation. If you like this tool, you’ll also love the binary file to Base64 encoder which will help you embed files with markup: XHTML, CSS, XML and more.

Code Cleaners

Pretty Printer for PHP, Java, C++, C, Perl, JavaScript, CSS

CSS Tidy

Even advanced developers often needs to optimize their CSS code. CSS Tidy is a free, online application that will fix errors and optimize your CSS code. For example, it can automatically detect redundant styles, a very common problem of CSS codes.

Code Generation

webformfactory

Web Form Factory is an open source web form generator which automatically generates the necessary backend code to tie your form to a database. By generating the backend code for you, WFF saves you time… time you could spend doing more interesting stuff.

pForm

Create a php form in seconds with this free and easy to use tool. If you need a little more power you can check out its parent program MachForm or great alternatives wufoo and formspring (both of which offer limited free versions and paid premium versions).

Text Generators

We have all seen it and probably also used it… Lorem Ipsum text? This text is used by webdesigners worldwide to simulate the render of real text on a design. Lipsum.com allow you to create th desired number of paragraphs of Lorem Ipsum, quickly and simply.

LIpsum

HTML Ipsum

A useful little website created by Chris Coyier. It provides you with the standard Latin text already in HTML tags. Clicking on any of the blocks automatically copies the text to your clipboard!

blindtextgenerator

Browser Tests: Online-Services & Tools

Xenocode browsers

Tool for checking your website in different browsers. Xenocode Browsers allow you to lauch IE6, IE7, IE8, Firefox 2, Firefox 3, Google Chrome and Opera directly from the web. The only weak point: The service isn’t available for Macs and GNU/Linux powered PCs.

BrowserShots

BrowserShots is a free open source service that allows you to make screenshots of any web page available on the Internet (be aware that robots.txt can prevent this service). Most browser types (Firefox, Opera, IE and Safari, Dillo, Epiphany, Flock, Galeon, Konqueror, Seamonkey etc.) in relevant versions is available and you can also choose between the following Operating System: Linux, Windows, Mac OS and BSD.

You can adjust the width of the screen size (640 – 1600), color depth (8 – 32 bits per pixel) as well as the JavaScript-, Java- and Flash-support. BrowserShots rely on distributed computers that are run by volunteers and the most popular Browsers may be quite busy and it this means that getting your screenshot may take some time. As screenshots become ready they will be available for viewing individually or for download of the full package.

Crossbrowsertesting (free/commerical)

CrossBrowserTesting.com allows website designers to test the cross browser compatibility of their website across different browsers and operating systems. CrossBrowserTesting.com is a commercial service where users buy credits giveng 5 min usage each. Anyone can register and use the service for for free but the free service has a 5 min max length.

CrossBrowserTesting.com lets you log on to a remote session and take control of a operating system with a range of Browsers installed. This gives you the option to test your AJAX and Javascript as well as the layout.

Load Impact

Load Impact is a free tool which tests your site at different load levels and then displays your results in an easy to understand graph. Careful not to put your own site out of business!

Pingdom

Pingdom loads a complete HTML page including all objects (images, CSS, JavaScripts, RSS, Flash and frames/iframes). It mimics the way a page is loaded in a web browser and then displays how long each of those elements took to load using nice visual time bars. This can be very useful when you are trying to improve the efficiency of your site.

Test Everything

More than 100 online tools on one page.

JSUnit

JSUnit is a unit testing framework for JavaScript. Testing JavaScript manually is time-consuming and prone to errors, but JSUnit provides the developer a simpler, automated way of doing unit tests to ensure thorough testing at a fraction of the time it would take to test manually. JSUnit allows for the execution of automated tests for multiple browsers and operating systems. Test online

W3C Link Checker

Really handy tool for checking if all links on you web pages are valid.

Markup Validation Service

Markup that is not well formed may give your site serious presentation issues in some Browsers while they are barely visible on others. It is always recommended to validate your site with the W3C Markup Validator and fix all the errors it reports.

CSS Validation Service

Check Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and (X)HTML documents with style sheets

Character Lookup

HTML Entity Character Lookup

Need to know how to display the trademark symbol on one of your pages, this tool if just for you. The HTML Entity Lookup searches the html entities for matches to the searched character based on how the character looks. For instance, the letter “c” would match © and ¢ entity, because of the way they look. This is really a tool that you need to try to understand how useful it is (also available as a dashboard widget for you Mac users).

Domain Tools

Domainr

There are plenty of tools available that tell you whether a domain is taken or not. What sets Domainr apart is that it takes your query and then tries to create a more memorable name. Domainr helps you explore the entire domain name space beyond the ubiquitous and crowded .com, .net and .org.

Firefox addons

Firebug

Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of web development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page. This is probably one of the most widely used web developer tools out there. If you don’t have it, get it now!

Web Developer Toolbar

An extremely useful Firefox plugin which provides many tools which web developers use on a daily basis. Great for quickly validating your XHTML or inspecting HTTP header information.

Buying a hosting plan can be as easy as purchasing one online, but you should know what you’re getting into. If you don’t know all of the ins and outs of web hosting, it can seem a little confusing. From managing files to ensuring security, there are numerous things to be concerned about before making that final click. Thankfully, there are a lot of different web hosting options out there, so take the time to investigate each package to make sure you’re getting what you need to make your web presence a success. Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Easy Backups

Before you entrust your important site assets and files to a web hosting company, make sure they offer some sort of automatic backup system. It should come included as part of the web hosting package.

2. Advanced Emailing

Successfully running a website means being able to interact directly with your website visitors. You’ll want to make sure that the web hosting plan offers at least POP3 email capabilities standard.

3. Web Statistics

You will undoubtedly want to have the ability to track who is coming to your website and from where. The web hosting plan should offer some basic web analytics for free and more advanced ones for purchase.

4. PHP and MySQL Functionality

A good web hosting package should include compatibility with standard programming languages such as PHP. Also, having MySQL capabilities makes it easy to run advanced back-end operations and database tasks.

5. FTP Service and Virtual FTP

You will also want the ability to manage files remotely, securely and efficiently. FTP access lets you easily add and remove files from your system architecture. This has become a standard that you should definitely have with any hosting plan.

6. User-Friendly Interface

The days of complex programming being the only way to access your web hosting functions are gone. Today, look for an affordable hosting package that employs a simple, straightforward user interface. Many packages offer a Windows-based interface that is both familiar and intuitive to most personal computer users.

7. HTTPS Secure

HTTPS makes secure connections possible over otherwise unsecured browser connections. This basic technique for encrypting regular hypertext messages is a clear sign that your site is trustworthy and safe. This is important for member services and client log ins on your website.

8. Shell protection

SSH security shells make it easier to mange the secure files and private assets on your website. Without it, administrative actions are less secure, something that you cannot risk if you have sensitive information stored on your server.

9. Webmail

Webmail is all about access. If you are not at your private laptop or desktop and you have no specialized software to retrieve your email, you can use webmail to access your email from any computer with a working internet connection and regular web browser.

10. SPAM protection

If you are going to be able to manage your time effectively, you don’t want to deal with loads of spam mail. This is an increasing problem, so be sure that any web hosting package you are considering has protection for your inbox.

Tooltip jQuery Implementation

Tooltip HTML Implementation

The tooltip reads the target (in the example above, the target would be all <a> tags with the class of tooltip), and creates a tooltip based upon the title attribute on that link. For example:

link

View Demo or Download

Research the company or client you are selling to, gathering any interesting information you can. When you are speaking with your client common questions are: what do you know about their business or why you think your product or service would be great for them, this is your opportunity to shine with the preparation stage, if you can bust this information out you’ll have them hooked and ready to reel in! Being prepared and knowing your client will show that you have an active interest in what they are doing, and people like to hear things about themselves, we all know that’s true!

Part of preparation is getting a good sleep, it will make your day that much easier and you will be that much more sharp. After I get up from a good sleep (which is hard being an entrepreneur) I sit down and set up my goals for that day. Making a plan of action has helped me stay focused on my targets and has lead me to sales success!

Listen

When your client is talking actively be sure to listen. Don’t just nod in agreement, but also make eye contact. It’s important to find a balance with eye contact, matching the client’s behavior but also keeping a couple tips in mind: too much eye contact will make them uncomfortable and too little will make them think you lack confidence.

While you’re listening be sure to analyze the client’s words and behaviors. You can find all sorts of clues that will help you with your sales pitch, and it is another great way to show that you care about what your client needs. You should recap what your customer expresses as interest or importance while you are stating the benefits of your product.. use their words to reinforce why they need to buy from you!

Taking listening a step further by taking notes about what your customer is saying. This shows even more interest and it can help you remember to recap on some points you may otherwise forget. When you recap show the notes and go point by point with your customer explaining why your products fit their needs with their own words!

Follow Up

Always follow up, whether you get the sale or not. If you did get the sale its nice to catch any problems early so you can fix them before your customer gets frustrated. This will increase your customer satisfaction and turn customers into loyal friends to continue business. If you didn’t get the sale make sure you still follow up, most times it takes a few tries to get the sale. Make that connection with your customers and they will be very loyal!

About the Author: Justin Nowak

www.younggogetter.com

YGG began as a small forum back in August of 2005. It was originally created as an alternative to the other entrepreneur forums available at that time.

Since then, it’s grown into a large community of young go getters spread across the globe. It’s no longer just a forum. It’s exactly what our tagline says it is, the business playground for entrepreneurs young at heart.

If you have an understanding of programming logic and structure, then devguru lists all of the different system-defined Functions, Statements, Operators, Constants, Objects. Along with that, getElementsBy and JavaScriptKit list compatibility and chart out DOM references.

There are also MANY JS libraries out there and all have different capabilites and functionality that set them apart. If you’re a JS coder looking for the ease of use and power to make your code more efficient and flexible, go with JQuery. There are MANY plug-ins available for JQ as well as a very large user base to answer any questions and provide documentation. Among the other versatile libraries out there, you can try MooTools and Dojo on for size and see if you like them better.

Check out the RFP Application in action or jump right in and Download