need some dummy / random text as content prototypes but don’t want to use text like ‘content here’ or ‘blah blah blah’? very often you see dummy text beginning with ‘Lorem ipsum…’.

try this lorem ipsum generator to generate paragraphs and lists of text. the site also explains that it’s not a random text but taken from a latin literature.

even though there are standards, some browsers still like to use their own standard, like … IE (surprise!?) – different versions of IE will also render your site differently.

in addition, there are million browsers and platforms out there. you can’t install everything nor have all those platforms to check your website compatibility.

to check what your site look like in other browsers and platforms, use this tool to ensure your site is more or less consistent or not too far out. note: be patient, it may take a while to get screenshots.

color combinations list – select the color theme to return a list of color combinations. the site include test tool to see how colors look on the screen.

another color combo tool - select one or more colors to return a list of combinations. the author noted that this tool does not follow the color rules.

color contrast checker – contain color slider tool to set colors for foreground and background and to check if the combination pass the color and contrast difference threshold.

i’ve been using firefox since it was in beta and love it! the only times i’m forced to use IE is i have to access sites that supports IE only (shame on you!)

ok, there’s another incident when i have to use IE. to make sure the websites i developed work and look good on IE. just because there are still lots of users who think IE is the browser.

for web development, firefox is a more superior browser. it has addons to aid development.

here are some of the addons i use (all free!):

• fireftp – ftp client.
• web developer – adds a menu on firefox with various tools. read this about its uses.
• colorzilla – eyedropper and color picker.
• show ip – shows the ip address of the current web site. so i can distinguish if i’m looking at production or development version - at work production and development are on different servers.