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Web Site Maintenance Tools, Software
Section 1: Cross-Browser, Cross-Platform Compatibility Web Site Testing Tools, Software
Screen Capture Software and Tools, Simulators, Online Tools, Browser Tools and Documentation, Reference Charts
The Web Site Maintenance Tools, Software section has annotated links to screen capture software, articles, tutorials, software, online tools, and more to help ensure cross-browser, cross-platform compatibility for your Web sites and to check your Web site's links.
Within Section 1 below you'll find annotated links to cross-browser, cross-platform compatibility Web site testing tools and software, including screen capture software and online screenshot tools, Web browser simulators, downloadable screen capture software and online tools, Web browser tools and documentation, reference charts. Some of the screen capture software include video capture software, too. Also included are links to Windows Web browsers, Mac Web browsers, Linux Web browsers, and more. As you probably know already, it's important to check and test your Web site to help ensure that it looks great and works beautifully regardless of the browser or platform used.
See Section 2: Web Site Link Checking Tools, Software for helpful free and commercial Web site link checking software and online tools.
Do you know of some good articles, tutorials, tips, Web sites, books, or other resources related to cross-browser, cross-platform compatibility, link checking, or other helpful tools? Recommendations are welcome and encouraged!
On this page:
- Screen Capture Software and Online Cross-Browser Screen Capturing, Screenshot Tools
- Simulators, Software for Browsers and Alternative Devices
- Browser Add-ons, Extensions, Plugins for Testing Cross-Browser, Cross-Platform Compatibility
- Web Browsers and Browser-Specific Documentation for Web Site Designers and Developers
- Browser Stats, Trends, Browser Support Reference Charts
Also within Tools, Software:
More Tools, Software within Web Site Resources:
- Accessibility
Accessibility Tools, Software - Color Color Tools, Software
- Creativity, Inspiration Tools, Software for Brainstorming, Creativity
- CSS CSS Tools, Software
- Fonts Font & Typography Tools, Software
- Graphics Graphics Tools, Software
- HTML HTML Tools, Software
- Information Architecture Information Architecture Tools, Software
- PHP PHP Tools, Software
- SEO, SEM SEO, SEM Tools, Software
- Typography Typography Tools, Software
- VisiBone HTML and Color Popups
- Planning, Managing Web Sites Web Site Planning, Project Management Tools, Software
- XML XML Tools, Software
More Tools within Articles, Tutorials, Tips:
Screen Capture Software and Online Cross-Browser Web Browser Screen Capturing, Web Browser and Computer Screen Screenshot Tools
While simple, quick screen capture utilities are included with all or nearly all computers, whether Windows, Mac, Linux, etc., screen capture software and online screen capturing tools provide far more features and capabililties. This listing is geared to especially help Web site designers, developers, and site owners, but of course they're handy for anyone needing screenshots. You'll find free screen capturing software and online tools along with commercial screen capture software and online screenshot tools. Some of the screen capture software include video capture software, too.
Downloadable Screen Capture Software, Screenshot Software
Have some recommendations? Please let us know.
- Hypersnap, by Hyperionics
Highly configurable screen capturing software. Captures screens with editable text, captures long, scrollable windows, saves captured screenshots to a variety of formats, does image editing, format converting, and so much more. Popular, recommended software. For Windows. [Software by Hyperionics.] - SnagIt, by Techsmith
Highly configurable, easy to use, fantastic screen capturing software. Captures scrollable screens, regions of a screen, a specific window, whatever you need. Also includes video recording, video capturing, recording capability, captures screens with clickable links intact and editable text, saves captured screenshots to a variety of formats, does image editing, and so much more. Editor note: I've used SnagIt for many years with my Web design client work (SKDesigns) and highly recommend it. It's not “just” a screen capture tool. It's far more. I especially appreciate its scrolling window captures, as it alleviates having to take several captures and suture them together. SnagIt captures an entire Web page, regardless of its length. Disclaimer: I'm just a happy customer - I receive no kickback by endorsing or recommending SnagIt or Techsmith. Five-star rating by PC Magazine. For Windows. [Software by TechSmith.]
Online Cross-Browser, Web Browser Screen Capturing, Screenshot Tools
For more online tools, see Online Web Browser Simulators below.
- Browser Cam
Subscription, fee-based service that creates screen captures of your Web pages loaded in a multitude of the latest and older browsers, numerous operating systems and versions, a wide range of screen resolutions, and full page or partial page screenshots. Recently added PDA and other small screens. Includes virtual computer use, too. Incredibly helpful and valuable tool. Free trial. - Browsershots
Free service that takes full page screenshots with Mac OS X (Safari) and quite a few browsers for several versions of Linux. For example, as of 19 Dec 2006:- Debian (Linux): Konqueror 3.5.4
- PLD Linux: Epiphany 2.14.3, Firebird 0.7, Firefox 1.0.8, Firefox 3.0a1, Flock 0.7.7, Netscape Navigator 4.8, Opera 9.02, Phoenix 0.5, SeaMonkey 1.0.5
- Ubuntu Edgy (Linux): Epiphany 2.16, Firefox 2.0, Galeon 2.0.2, Mozilla 1.7.12
- Mac OS X: Safari 2.0
- iCapture
Free screenshots with OS X 10.4.8 and Safari 2.0.4. [Free service provided by Dan Vine.] - ieCapture
Free screenshots with Internet Explorer 7. [Free service provided by Dan Vine.] - IE NetRenderer
Free screenshots - “This IE Browser Compatibility Checker allows you to see how your website is rendered by Internet Explorer 7, 6 or 5.5, as seen from a high speed datacenter located in Germany” Does a good job, immediate results - no waiting. [Free service provided by IPInfo Security Patrol.] - lixlpixel Screen Capture
Free screenshots with these Mac browsers: Safari 2.0, Internet Explorer 5.2.3, Mozilla 1.7.7. The screenshot results are immediate, too - no waiting. Works great. Donation requested.
Simulators for Web Browsers and Alternative Devices
See also the Web Browsers and Web Browser Resources section below.
Free Online Web Browser Simulators
- AnyBrowser.com
Great resource for checking your Web site against a variety of browsers and versions and for browser information — “the place to find out how to make your Web site viewable, usable and informative for the majority of your visitors.” Free. - Lynx Viewer
A free online Lynx simulator tool to view your Web pages as they would be viewed in the Lynx text-only browser. Free. [Via DJ Delorie.] - Web Page Backward Compatibility Viewer
See how your Web pages measure up with this helpful online tool from Delorie Software. Other helpful tools at this site, too, such as the Lynx Viewer. Free.
See also:
Downloadable Web Browser Simulator Software
- Palm OS Simulator
Download this free simulator to simulate a Palm device on your computer. You do need to register, but it's all free. [Available via PalmOS Developer Web site.] - WebTV Viewer Tool
Download this free simulator to simulate WebTV on your own computer to check how your Web site is viewed with WebTV with WebTV's free WebTV Viewer Tool. Especially helpful for Web site designers and developers (and quite an eye-opener!). [Available via MSNTV Developer Web site.]
Web Browser Add-ons, Extensions, Plugins for Testing Cross-Browser, Cross-Platform Compatibility
The tools listed below directly or indirectly help with cross-browser, cross-platform compatibility. As usual, check for browser version and compatibility with your browser of choice.
Testing Tool Extensions For Firefox, Mozilla
- Accessibility Extensions for Firefox and Mozilla
Created “to make it easier for people with disabilities to view and navigate Web content based on the structural markup used to create the Web page,” it's also helpful for developers check structural markup, related links, access keys, navigation links, and more. [Extension created by The Illinois Center for Instructional Technology Accessibility, University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign.] - HTML Validator Extension for Firefox and Mozilla
An extension based on Tidy. “Tidy is embedded inside Mozilla/Firefox and makes the validation locally on your machine, without sending HTML to a third party server.” Features include letting you know HTML errors that Tidy can't fix or understand, HTML errors that Tidy can fix automatically, and (optional) HTML warnings for the 3 priority levels defined in W3C WAI. Quite handy and works well. [Extension by Marc Gueury.] - User Agent Switcher
Browser extension for Firefox and Mozilla to make it easy to switch browser user agent strings. This extension is especially handy for testing your Web site project, .htaccess rules, and more. For Firefox and Mozilla. [Extension dated 01/17/2006, by Chris Pederick.] - Web Developer Toolbar Extension
This extension adds a menu and a toolbar to the browser with various web developer tools, including tests for CSS, forms, images, objects, outline, redirects. You can disable/enable a variety of things, too, such as Java, JavaScript, CSS, page colors, popup blockers, and more. You can outline a variety of things, such as headings, block level elements, deprecated elements, external links, and more. You can also resize the browser window to several sizes and add your own, too. You can also validate your markup, your CSS, etc. Lots of helpful tools within this extension. [Extension by Chris Pederick.]
See also Accessibility Accessibility Tools - Evaluation, Repair, Transformation Tools, and More.
Other Helpful Cross-Browser Tools, User Agent Tools, and Related Tools
- Down for Everyone or Just Me?
Check to see if a Web site is down everwhere or if it's just you. Helpful, easy, free tool. Just type in a URL and it instantly provides results to let you know if a Web site is down everywhere... or not. [Web site: Down for Everyone or Just Me?.] - What's My IP Address?
What's My IP Address? is a Web site that will tell you the IP you're using to access the site. In addition, you'll find many other helpful tools and a forum, too. Networking tools include a port scanner, traceroute, gzip tester, whois lookup, and more. Text-related tools include an HTML Characters Chart; a Code Pastebin tool to share and debug code; String to Timestamp tool to convert textual date / time strings into Unix timestamps; a Regexp Tester to create and test regular expressions quickly; a Hash Generator tool to calculate hashes: MD5, MD4, CRC32, SHA1, SHA256, and more; a Text Encoding tool for URL encoding, HTML entities, Base64, Gzip, and Char Count; a Text Case Changer tool to make your text all UPPERCASE, lowercase, etc. Very helpful tools here. You'll find much more at this site, too. [Web site: What's My IP Address?.] - What's My User Agent?
What's My User Agent? is a Web site that will tell you helpful information about the user agent you're using to access their site, including the user agent string and its breakdown, the browser's HTTP header information, your IP address, and your country. It also shows the user agent strings of the last 20-30 visitors to the site, too. Helpful to identify and confirm your current user agent string, especially with testing. [Web site: http://WhatsMyUserAgent.com.] - What's That Site Running?
“We report a site's operating system, web server, and netblock owner together with, if available, a graphical view of the time since last reboot for each of the computers serving the site.” Very handy tool, especially if you're looking at a potential project and need to know some basic server information. [Free tool by Netcraft.]
Web Browsers and Browser-Specific Documentation for Web Site Designers and Developers
In addition to cross-browser, cross-platform testing with current and older Web browsers, trying out a multitude of Web browsers can help give designers and developers helpful insight on creating Web sites that work well with them. Many are free or at least have downloadable trials. Here are just a few that Web designers and developers typically use for testing, along with resources that archive browsers.
Web Browsers and Web Browser Resources
Windows Web browsers, Mac Web browsers, Linux Web browsers, and other Internet browser software.
- Browser Archive
Evolt.org's incredibly thorough archive with over 100 browsers with links to their sites. As you'll see, there are so many browsers besides Netscape, Internet Explorer, Opera and iCab! - Microsoft Internet Explorer
Available for Windows computers (no longer available for Mac). Free. - Mozilla Firefox
Free Web browser for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris. Free. - Safari
Free Web browser for Mac OS X, now available for Windows, too. Free. - Opera
Free Web browser for Windows, Mac, Linux, mobile phones, FreeBSD, Solaris, OS/2, QNX. Now free.
Lynx Text-only Web Browser
Lynx is a great text-only browser to use for testing. See also my article on this at my weblog, A few Tips for Using Lynx.
- Pre-compiled installable Windows version: Lynx 2.8.5rel.1 (via csant.info). Go to the bottom of that page for the Lynx 2.8.5rel.1 installer (1.68MB) — it's a zip file.
- Lynx for DOS 386+ or Win32 (via fdisk.com)
- Lynx Mirror Sites
- Blynx, a speech-friendly version of Lynx
- Lynx for Mac OS (via Apple's website)
- Pre-compiled installable Mac OS X version: currently for OS X 10.2, version 2.8.5 dev16 SSL OSX 10.2 Installer Package and version 2.8.4 OSX 10.2 Installer Package.
Web Browser-Specific Documentation for Web Site Designers and Developers
Documentation for Windows Web browsers, Mac Web browsers, Linux Web browsers, and other Internet browser software.
- An AOL Guide For Webmasters
Official information from AOL about designing Web sites that will work and look fine (or at least decent!) for AOL members. - Apple Developer Connection: Internet and Web
This page provides an index of available sections. - CSS Support in Safari
At-a-glance chart that shows Safari's CSS support. - Designing For Television
From WebTV. How to make your Web site look good on a television set. - Safari Documentation
Index page for sections on Safari documentation and support for HTML, CSS, DOM, JavaScript, and other programming. - Safari HTML Reference
- Web Specifications Supported in Opera
You can read about support for the latest version of Opera and for previous versions. Includes information for their Web browser, mobile and voice profiles, XML, CSS, WAP, and more.
Web Browser Stats, Trends, Browser Support Reference Charts
Which browser and browser version supports what technologies? These charts will help sort through the sea of information. See also CSS Reference Charts, Tables for more on browser support.
Browser Support Charts
- Browser Chart
From Webmonkey. Thorough, well organized chart to quickly see what is supported by a variety of browsers, versions, and operating systems. Includes old browsers through the latest. Very helpful. - Browsers
Peter-Paul Koch's thorough evaluations and testings results for JavaScript, some CSS, DHTML for Netscape 2 thru 6, Internet Explorer 3 thru 5, Opera 3 thru 5, iCab, Konqueror, and noscript browsers. Links, resources, and overall great Web site of info. His site also has many tips and tutorials on all the above, too.
Web Browser Stats and Trends
- Browser News: Stats
Considered the main source for checking on the latest with browsers and stats. Terrific Web site with helpful stats, links to more information. Lots here! [Browser News and Stats by Chuck Upsdell.] - Browser Stats
Statistics from the W3Schools Web site. They currently provide quite a few helpful charts: browser stats by month going back several years for the most popular browsers at the time; OS platform charts (ie. Windows XP, Linux, Mac); display resolution; color depth; JavaScript support (or turned off).
