On this page you will find links to a variety of highly recommended Essential Software that are Free-To-Download & Free-To-Use or Free-To-Download & Free-To-Try. Most of the software listed below is Free-To-Download & Free-To-Use.

Free-To-Download means you are free to visit a website in order to download their Free-To-Use and/or Free-To-Try software from their website. It does not mean that website is paying your Internet (Telephone) Charges during that download.

Free-To-Use software is normally free to use forever or at least until the company stops its production. Companies normally distribute a Free-To-Use version of their software in the hope you will like it and then upgrade to their Paid-For version of the same software. The Paid-For version is normally better in performance and/or has extra features. Sometimes though a company, like Microsoft, might distribute a Free-To-Use version of their software for Test purposes. For example. In 2006 Microsoft Office 2007 Beta was distributed in order for people to test it for bugs (errors). The testers, known as Beta Testers, had until the end of 2006 to test Microsoft Office 2007 Beta for bugs. After that certain major features of Microsoft Office 2007 Beta would expire.

Software made for testing should have the word Beta, or Release Candidate (i.e. RC1 or RC2), attached to its name to denote it is currently in test-mode (Beta) or is almost ready for public use (RC). The benefits for the Beta Tester and RC User is that they get to road test software before it is officially released, which in the case of Microsoft Office 2007 Beta was good for Programmers and Teachers but not good for the general public - This is because Beta software in general can crash/break Windows Vista at its worst due to the amount of bugs (errors) each piece of beta software can contain. So be careful before deciding whether or not to download and use/test Beta software. When software reaches the RC stages it tends to be more robust.

Free-To-Try software is usually the Paid-For version of that software but with one or more tiny limitations. The software could have an Expiry Date (Trial Period) limiting it for example - The software runs as the full version for 14 Days for example before switching back to the Free-To-Use (feature limited) version. Or the Free-To-Try software just expires after the Trial Period without switching back to a Free-To-Use version.

Version Numbers. If you have ever wondered about the numbers next to a software title (i.e. SoftwareName 8.1.93) they are the Version Number and Revision Number. The version number is normally split into the Major Number (i.e 8) and the Minor number (i.e 1). The major number stays the same until the software is rereleased as a Major update (i.e. SoftwareName 9). A major update usually means the software has had many of its problems fixed and/or had new features added to it. Whereas the minor number normally only changes when the software is rereleased with Minor problems fixed, but no new features added. The Revision number (i.e. 93) is normally changed when, after a rerelease, the author(s) spots a problem/mistake in the software, quickly corrects the problem/mistake and then rereleases the software. So if you want to keep up-to-date with a certain piece of software it is wise to check that software's website occasionally so you can download and then upgrade to the latest version. Remember, you may need to uninstall the current software first before upgrading.

Open Source. Software known as Open Source Software means you are permitted to use the software and to modify/improve its source code as well as redistribute the software in a modified or unmodified form.

Freeware. Software known as Freeware means it is Free-To-Use at no cost, although these days some authors introduce their software as Freeware but then charge a small fee. Years ago Freeware meant Free. Depending on the conditions of the Freeware author(s) the Freeware software might or might not include the source code, and might or might not be redistributable - You might only be able to get it from certain software vendors. Freeware can be classed as Free-To-Use (above).

Shareware. Software known as Shareware usually means it is Free-To-Use for a trial period only. During the trial period (i.e. 14 Days) some of the software's functionality might be crippled/disabled or it might be fully functioning software until the trial period has passed. Either way. When the trial period has passed the software either no longer works (expires) or some, more, of its functionality crippled/disabled. Paying a Shareware Fee will reactivate the software, making it completely functional again....for a another trial period (i.e. 1 Year) or forever. Shareware can be classed as Free-To-Try (above).

When creating a website it is very important to test its compatibility with the other web browsers. DO NOT get lazy and fall into the mentality of The majority use Internet Explorer so why test my website with the other web browsers. That mentality can creep into anyone simply because you have done the hard work of creating the website for Internet Explorer and feel it would be too much work to then start making alterations for the sake of the other web browsers. By downloading/installing the other web browsers and testing compatibility with them you will be rewarded in the knowledge that your website is so good that it works with all the other web browsers. On top of this your product(s)/service(s) web page(s) can be viewed by a wider audience.

An example of compatibility would be when writing code for different Media Formats (i.e. Flash Animation, Windows Media and so on). As media changes so does its format. Certain web browsers might not have any problems displaying a video made in the .wmv format whereas they might have problems displaying a video made in the .mov format. That's if the media is displayed within the web browser - If the web browser opens a Media Player instead there might be further problems, especially if that media player cannot play the media. You might not know of media problems with your website until you test it with each web browser.

Below is a list of most, if not all, of the major web browsers available that work with Windows Vista. Simply click on the heading/title of a web browser to get to its homepage and/or download page.


Internet Explorer 8

Internet Explorer is the web browser that comes with Windows and is downloadable from the Internet Explorer website. Windows XP comes with IE6 built-in, Windows Vista comes with IE7 built-in and Windows 7 will have IE8 built-in but for now IE8 has been released for Windows XP and Windows Vista users. Internet Explorer is the most popular web browser, due to the fact it is shipped with Windows.


Firefox 3.6

Firefox is the rival to Internet Explorer and it is becoming more and more popular as new features are added. As a web developer and webmaster you should definitely download this because of its range of Web Developement Tools/Extensions/Add-Ons. For example. With certain extensions installed it can check that your source code is compliant with the W3Schools HTML/CSS Standards by checking your code for errors. It can also check your code for Dead HyperText Links as well as Disable JavaScripts and give a whole host of information about a particular web page and its features. Simply search the firefox website for Web Developement Add-Ons.


Maxthon  2.5.11.3390

Maxthon is a web browser from China. It has been downloaded over 150 Million times, so if you do not want to leave out the chinese audience I would download this web browser if I was you. I did notice the version string states MAXTHON 2.0 even though it is currently on version 2.1.4.4751 (something to note if you are using the php $HTTP_USER_AGENT string to detect the browser version).


Google  Chrome  4.0.249.78

Google Chrome is a new web browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make your internet experience faster, safer, and easier. It caters for those users who do not want all the fancy gadgets normally associated with a web browser - It is a kind of Search Only, View Web pages Only web browser. Although I do not think this will be as popular as the other major web browsers it will still have an audience, so as a rule of thumb test your code against it.


These next web browsers serve no real purpose for you other than to download them for compatibility code/media checking. Many of them are used by minorities only (each one less than 10% of the overall web browser usage).


Flock  2.5.6        Opera 10.10        Safari  4.0.4        K-Meleon  1.5.3        Avant  Browser  11.7 (Build 46)

Flock is a web browser that has been fully integrated with a wide range of social networking websites and popular blogging tools, which basically means it allows the user to share text, links, pictures, videos and more.

Safari is Apple's attempt to break into the world of Microsoft Windows users and to keep Apple migrators happy as well I should imagine.

Below is an assortment of recommended software, that works with Windows Vista, to get you started in Website Management, Website Design and so on. Simply click on the heading/title of each one to get to its homepage and/or download page.


AceFTP  3  (Freeware)

An FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Client is the program that allows you to connect to a FTP Server, which basically means the program that allows you to upload (transfer) your website files (web pages, images, videos, etc) from your computer to your web space (public_html folder / web hosting provider's server/computer). The Protocol part is the technical way in which your website files are transferred.

AceFTP is a very easy piece of software to use. I rank this higher than WS_FTP, FileZilla, SmartFTP and WinSCP. Those are fantastic on features but do not have the same Easy-To-Use UI (User Interface) as AceFTP. The art of making a good program is in its design and simplicity, in this case in its Easy-To-Use UI. Behind the scenes make a program as complex and/or as feature rich as you like but before all that make it simple for the user. The other FTP programs tend to be more Technical Information based in my opinion but you might not agree. Therefore try all of them and see which one best suites you.

Current Prices for the Pay-For (Professional) versions:  AceFTP Pro 3 (£26), WS_FTP PRO (£38), SmartFTP Pro (£31)


ColorCop  5.4.5  (Colour Picker)

ColorCop is a program that allows you to grab a colour from the screen. It is ideal for those occasions when you see a colour you like, on a website background for example, but you cannot tell what the exact RGB (Red, Green and Blue) components it is using. In other words, you could not state "That is definitely Orange" because it is a shade of Orange. In that case you would use ColorCop's eyedrop mouse pointer to hover over that shade of orange so that ColorCop could then display its RGB components. You could then use that shade of orange for your own website background for example. Another great colour grabber is Absolute Color Picker.


Corel PhotoImpact X3

PhotoImpact used to be owned by ULead but has since been taken over by Corel, of CorelDraw fame. They have revamped PhotoImpact to produce PhotoImpact X3, which apart from the cosmetic make-over is roughly the same with a few extras added in. So it will be worth your while getting an older version of PhotoImpact if you can (i.e. PhotoImpact 8 or PhotoImpact 12), especially if you are a Windows XP user. Windows Vista users can opt for an older version but I would recommend PhotoImpact X3 purely for compatibility if anything else.

PhotoImpact, from version 8 up to PhotoImpact X3, is a great piece of software for the web designer. The beauty of it is in the way it handles transparency for .png graphics and the way effects can easily be applied. It is a bit expensive ($49.95 or £34.25 with tax, at this time) but worth it, especially if you are not scared to use transparent graphics on your web pages. It is also excellent for creating Logos, Banners, Business Cards, Leaflets and so on - You could easily run (design) a business with it. Note: IE6 does not support transparent .png files but IE7, IE8, Firefox and other modern web browsers do.


Cover Commander 3.1

Cover Commander by Insofta is a program that allows you to design a cover (box shot) for your product. A cover (box shot) design is normally used on your website as a product image for your E-Book, CD/DVD and so on. The design in this software include: CD/DVD Cover, Book/Manual, Product Box, Spiral Book, Credit Card and Curved Screenshot. At £31 (Approximately $51) it is not cheap, but it does do its job very well. The graphics are very smooth looking, especially on the edges of a book. If you want to try it out you can download the FREE Trial version that is fully functional, but with a watermark.

Cover commander is very easy to install and comes with a very nice, easy-to-use, user interface (control panel) that includes a set up wizard. Setting up a new project (cover) is simply a case of choosing a default cover template (i.e. an e-book cover template), choosing which images to use for the front and sides, rotating/positioning/sizing the cover, adding shadow if need be and then saving the cover design as an image file.....ready for your web page. It really is that easy. A few clicks and a few alterations only. The bulk of the work comes from your front cover image which you should of designed in a photo package for example. On top of this, the program also has advanced lighting/reflection/shadow settings that you can play with and preview alongside your cover design. Overall an excellent program that produces clean looking graphics (cover design images).


Easy Screen Recorder  1.3

Easy Screen Recorder is a program that can Record Screen (Desktop) and Audio (Microphone) activity and save the recording as an AVI Video (.avi) file, which makes it ideal for creating Video Tutorials. Easy Screen Recorder is fast at converting the recording into AVI, is very compatible with Windows Vista and is moderately priced ($29.95. Approximately £20). If you want to record with a better codec (video file encoder/decoder) than the codecs supplied with Windows Vista, either download/install Ffdshow-Tryouts and XVid together or download/install the K-Lite and/or Vista codecs packages on their own (they already come supplied with ffdshow-tryouts and xvid).

K-Lite Codec Pack 5.7.0,   Vista Codec Package 5.6.1,   Ffdshow-Tryouts Beta 7 and   XVid Codec 1.2.2.

If you want to convert an AVI Video (.avi) file into a .wmv (Windows Media Player) file or a .flv (Flash Player) file for example take a look at the Leawo Video Converter (below). And if you want a Flash Video screen recorder that is very stunning I would suggest FlashDemo Studio, but it is pricey though ($59 Lite Version / $119 Full Version).


E-Book Maestro Pro  1.80

E-Book Maestro Pro is a program that wraps/compiles the content of your web pages (text, images, javascript, css and so on) into one .exe (executable/launchable) file, known as an E-Book, which is then viewable with E-Book Maestro's internal content viewer (web browser). This means the user simply downloads your e-book (i.e. E-Book.exe), double clicks on it and then views its content as if they were viewing it on the internet. The beauty of an e-book though is that it works offline, so no need for an internet connection and no waiting for web pages to download. The only time the user would need an internet connection is when they click on an external website/web page link, within the e-book, such as a link to a Microsoft web page for example. In other words. Keep your www.mydomain.com/mywebpage.html links internal, like mywebpage.html instead of www.mydomain.com/mywebpage.html.

The E-Book can be password protected, made to expire after a certain time period and/or made to expire after a certain number of double clicks (launches), therefore protecting your hard work. At ($34.95. Approximately £22) I think this price is very small to say it is protecting your hard work. At this time (20.09.2009) it is on offer at ($19.95. Approximately £13).


FLV Media Player  1.88

FLV Media Player is a very simple .flv video file player, that supports other file formats too. It is very light on system resources and smoothly plays .flv video files. A great little player.


Focus Photo CDs

The FOCUS Photo CDs are normally sold in PCWorld but Focus does have its own website - Go to the Focus website and search for photo. There you should find the following CD Titles. If you cannot find any title search the PCWorld website instead.

500,000 Images (4 CDs), 30,000 Photos (2 CDs), 15,000 Business Images (2 CDs) and 15,000 Educational Images (2 CDs). GSP also do one called 50,000 PhotoArt (3 CDs). These CDs combined will give you enough Royalty Free Images (Photographs and ClipArt) to create many categorized (themed) websites. Example Categories: Education, Food & Drink, Health & Safety, Nature & Wildlife, People, Religion, Signs & Symbols. GSP is now owned by Avanquest - Just search their website for photo art.


Grabby  3.3  (Screen Grabber)

Grabby is a screen capture program, which means it can take a picture of the screen and store it as a photo file (i.e. .jpg file). Grabby allows you to take pictures, one at a time, automatically or manually. If automatically, you can set the rate at which pictures are taken (i.e. every second). Grabby is an ideal tool for creating snapshots (pictures) of software installation, computer error windows and general screenshots for your website purposes. SnagIt is a commercial product that is well worth a look at. It allows you to add objects (i.e. Arrows and Text for explanation purposes) to your snapshot as well as shape and highlight areas of your snapshot amongst other things.


IcoFX  1.6.4  (Icon Editor)

IcoFX is an icon editor that comes with 40+ custom effects that you can apply to your icon (icon image). You would normally need an icon editor to create your website favicon and/or your e-book icon. One of the nice things about this icon editor is that it can create an icon from a picture, so that you do not have to draw your own icon (icon image). You can if you want to though. Another nice thing is its ability to use different size and colour formats. This enables you to create a standard 32 x 32 icon with 256 colours for example or a big 256 x 256 icon with true color (24 bits) for example. And what's more is that it is freeware.


jQuery  1.4.1

jQuery is a library (file) full of pre-coded JavaScript routines, known as a JavaScript Library, that you call up (insert) at the top of your web page HTML code. You then use small lines of jquery code, also within your web page HTML code, to execute jquery Photo Gallery routines, jquery Form Verification routines, jquery Media routines and so on. The small lines of jquery code are all you need to know/learn as the jquery library routines already do the bulk of the work for you.

Although jQuery is for the programmer, it does do a lot of the work for you. So you could learn jQuery code in a lot less time than you think. Alternatively. You should recommend it to your website programmer as it will make their life easier.


Leawo Video Converter  2.2.0.2

Leawo Video Converter is a very reasonably priced, and very easy to use, program that can convert audio/video files between different file formats. Examples: AVI to .mpg or .wmv. WMV to .avi or .flv. MP4 to .mp3. And so on - Too many to list here. On top of this, it can trim video footage, join two videos together and raise its volume. So if you need to edit your video slightly or only want to convert an AVI Video file, to .wmv for example, you should try the Free AVI Converter first (on the same website). At $14.95 (approximately £9) though I do not think you will be disappointed with the purchased version. The support Leawo gives is fantastic. I bought Video Converter at version 6 and have been getting free updates ever since. In fact, I reported a bug to them and they gave me version 8 before it was officially released.


PSPad  4.5.4  (Freeware)

PSPad is an allround website developer's Text Editor. It can open all the common file types associated with web developement - html, php, css, perl, vbscript and javascript for example. It can also spell check in many languages, have many documents open at the same time and has various editing functions to cleanup and monitor your code. This is a must for anyone who wants to create/edit web pages and scripts.


Web Easy Professional 8

Web Easy Professional 8 is a commercial Website Design package. It has an Easy-To-Use UI (User Interface) with Drag & Drop capabilities, Special Object Effects (i.e. Rollover Buttons and Object Points/Path Editing), a Blog and E-Bay Page Wizard, Over 400 Professional-Designed Templates, a Style (Layout/Pre-Template) Designer with Colour Schemes, Shopping Cart (i.e. PayPal button) support, Script Editing and more. At £39.99 it is a little expensive for creating just one website, but if you intend to create many websites this software is reasonably priced.

Although there are other website design packages out there doing roughly the same thing, such as Serif's WebPlus x2 (£29.99), I find this package more supportive of GIF Animation, DHTML, CSS and JavaScript in general. Packages like this state "No Programming Required", because they automatically generate the website code for you, and this is true of this package. However. If you want to edit the code yourself some packages do not format their code properly - It is all over the place and in a mess. This package produces Clear, Uncluttered, Easy-To-Interpret code that makes life easier for the HTML/CSS beginner for example. And the code meets the W3Schools Internet Standard as well. One reason to buy this package, out of all others, is because of the Templates. Most templates you see in packages these days are Bland, Square (literally: no curves or contours) and Lack Colour and Imagination - Not with this package. The total opposite. Even if you do not use one single template, their design alone will inspire you to create something special.


XAMPP  1.7.3

XAMPP is a very easy to install Apache Distribution for Linux, Solaris, Windows and Mac OS X. The package includes the Apache web server, MySQL, PHP, Perl, a FTP server and phpMyAdmin. This basically means you can install/emulate an Apache Server on your computer so that you can run/test your web page content (i.e. PHP Scripts and MySQL Databases), from within its own Public HTML (htdcocs) folder, just as though it was live in your web space. You can setup a MySQL Database on your computer, run PHP Scripts an so on.

Although XAMPP is for the programmer, it could come in handy if you want to tweak a piece of code you found on the internet or a piece of code that your own website programmer has made for you. Better still. You could install XAMPP, ask your website programmer to demonstrate its use to you and then start tweaking. If your website programmer does not know how to install XAMPP and/or demonstrate its use to you I would look for another website programmer and probably strip them of their title: Programmer!!


7-Zip  4.65 (File Zipper)

7-zip is an Open Source file zipper, which means it can compress (shrink) and decompressor (expand) one or more files into one ZIP file. Or put another way. If you have a folder containing ten 1MB files 7-zip can compress (shrink) those ten 1MB files into one smaller ZIP file. The original ten 1MB files are left intact, untouched, because 7-zip makes a copy of those files only - It compresses the copy files, not the original files.

How small is the zipped (compressed) file? Answer. This depends on the nature of the copy file(s) being compressed and other factors. For example. Has an original file (now a copy file) been compressed already with another zip program? If so, it might not be able to be compressed much more. In general though you should be left with a zip file that is half the size of the copy folders/files. So the ten 1MB files should be compressed to give you a zip file of 5MB or less.

Decompression is the opposite. One zip file is decompressed (expanded) into one or more larger files. So you could have a zip file (also known as a Archive) that is 8MB but contains twenty 1MB files. Therefore, when you decompress the zip file you need 20MB of hard drive space to accommodate the twenty 1MB files.

A file zipper is good to have in general (for email attachments and so on) but it is also good to have for file downloads. If you are selling music online you could zip (compress) the music files into one zip file, saving valuable website space and adding extra protection at the same time. Some file zippers offer password protection for zip files for scenarios just like this, whereby someone has illegally obtained your music zip file. The main file zippers are 7-Zip, WinZip, WinRar and JZip but there are plenty of other zippers out there (many of them Free-To-Use).

Below is an assortment of recommended PHP Scripts that may require a MySQL Database. A lot of them you might find on your Control Panel but might not have the up-to-date versions installed on your website. Simply click on the heading/title of each one to get to its homepage and/or download page.


Coppermine  1.4.26  (Media Gallery)

A media (photo and video) gallery with plenty of features. Create public and private (username and password) galleries (Categories and Albums). Label the media (i.e. each photograph). Search for media. SlideShow Viewer. Many media formats supported. Many languages supported. And so on. It is quite easy to set up as well. The private (username & password) gallery side of it makes it worth installing.


MultiWebQuiz  1.5  (Quiz)

MultiWebQuiz allows you to set up Multiple Quizes within one website. For example. If you were doing a computer quiz you could set up a Hardware quiz and a Software quiz. The beauty of MultiWebQuiz is that it can create up to 6 Answers for each question, make them multi-choice and give the user the option of switching between tests. The way MultiWebQuiz easily allows you to create a quiz is unbelievable, a pleasure to set up and use. The only downside, for me, is lack of Email Results support. If you could email the results to the administrator (you) you could hold competitions. Saying this, I would think with a little PHP tweaking you could have some kind of email support. MultiWebQuiz is well worth downloading/installing even if it is only to give your users a, non-email-resulted, test.


Webpage  Password  Protect  2.13

Webpage Password Protect enables you to password protect your web pages by adding just one line of PHP code, which is ideal for membership purposes. If the user has Cookies enabled they will not have to re-login to each protected web page. This is a very simple but powerful PHP Script. The user comes to a protected web page on your website and is then asked for the UserName & Password. Upon entering the correct username & password that web page is then displayed properly - Entering an incorrect username & password will display the Login web page again.


Membership  Login  1.0

An excellent script that is easy to implement. It enables you to password protect your web pages by adding a section of PHP code at the beginning of each web page you want protecting, which is ideal for membership account purposes. This code uses a MySQL Database, as opposed to a Flat (Text) File, which means with the VTY script (DB Editor - see below) as well you can easily manage that database. It does not use Cookies but these could be implemented by a programmer - View the Forum to see what has been possible.

Membership  Login  2.1. These new php scripts now incorporate Recaptcha technology and JQuery JavaScript to validate form entry (required fields). Recaptcha means a human visitor has to physically enter two words into the RECAPTCHA edit box before they can submit the registration form. On top of this, the website templates have been reworked and enhanced. If you are not comfortable with JQuery JavaScript and/or do not need Recaptcha, for whatever reason(s), I would suggest using V1.0 of the php scripts.


Search  Website  1.0

An excellent script that is easy to implement. It enables you to search for keywords, within a MySQL Database, which is ideal if you want customized search results within your web page(s), as opposed to using general/external results from a Google or Windows Live search macro for example (i.e. instead of using a WebMaster tool from Google or Windows Live).


PHPList 2.10.10  (Mailing List)

PHPList is a Mailing List manager that allows people to subscribe to your NewsLetter (i.e. your monthly promotional email). Each time someone subscribes to your NewsLetter you automatically receive their email address in your Mailing List. Each month you then send that list an email message designed as a NewsLetter, which normally contains your latest happenings/news and latest special offers. They have subscribed to your NewsLetter for News and/or Special Discounts. To fill a NewsLetter each month can be challenging, time consuming and research heavy.

PHPList allows you to create and save HTML Templates and use them in email messages. However. Due to many email clients (Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Hotmail and so on) disabling Images and Templates, for virus/security reasons, your template may be stripped of its images or be disabled altogether. Many users of Outlook Express and Windows Mail for example have their security setting Download Images: Block Images.....In HTML Email switched off by default. With this in mind, you can still create a HTML-like page from the compose message section of PHPList. Either way, these days you should word your NewsLetter and keep it in Text format as opposed to HTML format. PHPList also allows you to create many lists whereby you just tick which members go into which list(s). One great thing about PHPList is that you can compose a NewsLetter or Email Message and send it later.....days/months later because you have to press a button before it sends. So if you do not press the button nothing is sent but the NewsLetter or Email Message is saved.


VTY  1.6  (MySQL DB Viewer/Editor)

VTY allows you to view and edit your MySQL Databases, one at a time. Simply log-in to your database and view its content. This is very easy-to-use and ideal if you do not know MySQL programming but would like to view/edit your MySQL Database(s). I found this so good that I added email functionality to its code.


Wordpress  2.9.2  (Blog)

A Blog is collection of ongoing, regularly updated, articles (web pages) that are written by amateurs and professionals alike. The idea of a blog may be a Diary (i.e. day-to-day happenings), a Medical Journal (i.e. health & beauty) or whatever. Not everyone writes their own articles though. Some articles are written by professionals and then bought by or sold to amateurs for blog inclusion. One reason for this is because blogs can be heavy maintenance if you are writing your own articles and having to answer questions about them from your adoring public. This in turn means a blog might also have to act as a Forum (Questions & Answers Board). On the positive side, having a blog means you can buy a Medical Article for example and then have Medical Affiliate Links along side it. Affiliation is a scheme whereby you have a link to someone's product on your blog (or website) and receive a commission each time someone clicks on that link and buys the product. Affiliation Links require a membership code, from a company such as ClickBank.

WordPress is one of the more popular blogs, but there are others such as b2evolution. WordPress is very easy to install, as are most blogs. The hard part is knowing what paid-for articles to include in your blog, what to write in your own articles and what subjects to talk about. Especially if your blog is, latest, news orientated. These days many subjects have been written about, and many products have been affiliated, so to have a good blog is to have excellent, unique, articles. The blog itself is the engine/code that takes care of (organizes) your submitted articles and maintains the forum-like, article-like, structure. So really, a blog is a Article Viewer, a Forum and an Affiliate all in one.


YaBB  2.4  (Forum)

A Forum (or Bulletin Board as they used to be known) is basically a Questions and Answers Board where people asks questions and you, and/or other members of the board, answer their questions. A forum is a great way to support/help your users, especially if you sell a product or teach the mechanics of something. However. A forum can also be very time consuming if it becomes popular. In some cases you might not be able to maintain it yourself, due to other work that needs doing on your website, so it might be wise to set up a forum when you really do have the time for it.

YaBB allows you to create public and private (username & password) boards, so you can create membership boards if you want to. And because each board can contain categories it means a forum can be split into different, specific, areas of interest to the user and/or into different, specific, parts of a product. If you can no longer run the forum, due to other commitments for example, help is at hand in the form of a Moderator. Setting up a Moderator means setting up a Guest Administrator (i.e. a friend) who has enough control over your forum to run it (i.e. set up membership, ban members and so on) but not enough control to delete you as the Administrator for example.

YaBB (Yet another Bulletin Board) and phpBB 3.0.6 are two leading PHP Scripted bulletin boards, although there are others out there. phpBB is a lot easier to set up than YaBB so you might like that better if you are just starting out with a forum, but programming-wise and appearance-wise I would use YaBB.

Below is an assortment of software/add-ons that you really should have installed on Windows Vista in order to test your website, and other business material, for compatibility with Flash Animation/Movies, PHP Scripts and so on.


Adobe  Reader  9.3

Adobe Reader is a Free-To-Use document reader (viewer) for the PDF file format. A PDF file stores its information in such a way that its contents (i.e Text and Pictures) can be Enlarged or Shrunk when viewed with acrobat reader or similar programs. And the way media and images are embedded makes this experience more enjoyable. For example. If you were to look at a Car Manual (Engineers Book) and look at a PDF Car Manual file they would look the same because of the way pictures and text are embedded. Adobe Reader has plenty of features, including Speech, to make reading a PDF file less boring. Adobe Acrobat is the software that allows you to create a PDF (Manual/Guide) file.

With many commercial companies writing their Software Manuals and so on in the PDF file format, and including Adobe Reader on their installation CDs as standard, it makes sense to have Adobe Reader installed on your computer. Microsoft Office 2007 can, with the aid of SaveAsPDFandXPS.exe (see below), save a WORD document as a PDF file.


Flash Player (10.0.45.2)  /  Shockwave Player (11.5.6.606)

MacroMedia were the company who made ShockWave Player and MacroMedia Player - Now owned by Adobe. Basically. When you see a website using Animations and Flashing Adverts (Adverts that change picture every second or so) they were more than likely created with a Flash or Shockwave product. Flash Player is mainly needed for displaying Adverts in Internet Explorer whereas Shockwave Player is needed when playing Games and so on. My advice though, if you want an easy life, is to download both of these Free-To-Use products free from the Adobe website. Some web pages might not work properly otherwise. This is because more and more companies are using these products to promote/advertise their goods.

Microsoft has launched SilverLight - Microsoft SilverLight 3.


Java SE Runtime Environment 6 - Update 18

Java SE Runtime Environment, which is nothing to do with the programming language called JavaScript, is basically a programming/scripting language (engine) of its own that Games and Language (i.e Chinese) websites use in order to run their code. So if you are trying to get an internet (online) game working, even after you have downloaded and installed Adobe's Flash Player and Shockwave Player (see above), it may be because you have not installed Java SE Runtime Environment.


Microsoft Office 2007 - FileFormatConverters.exe

FileFormatConverters.exe installs an Add-On that allows Microsoft Office 2003 users to open/edit/save files saved in the Microsoft Office 2007 formats.


Microsoft Office 2007 - SaveAsPDFandXPS.exe

If you have bought Microsoft Office 2007 this add-on allows you to save your Documents in the PDF format or XPS format. This is ideal if you create User Forms (i.e Questionaires or Application Forms) or need to create a PDF file, for printing for example, so that your Objects do not move.

SaveAsPDFandXPS.exe is for the Office Genuine user only.


Microsoft Viewers

If you have bought a computer recently priced at £500 or less it probably only has Microsoft Works installed on it, not Microsoft Office 2003 (or 2007). If this is so you can still view Microsoft Word 2003 and Microsoft Excel 2003 files by installing the Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel viewers. They allow you to View and Print Word (.doc) and Excel (.xls) files respectively as well as Cut & Paste their contents where possible. Alternatively you can download the free-to-download & free-to-use office software called OpenOffice which can Open, Edit and Save Microsoft Office 2003 files including .doc and .xls files.

All HTM, CSS, PHP and MySQL files in the websitecreationhelp.com folder and its sub-folders are (c) John White, 2010. All Rights Reserved.