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Our Tools

Tools and technologies change over time and the target audience's environment (screen size, bandwidth, etc.) does as well. We strive to take advantage of what makes sense for your clients.

We primarily use the following tools to develop sites as needed: Adobe's Creative Suite 3 (Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, PhotoShop, Illustrator, Contribute 3); JavaScript; PHP; XHTML; and IBM's Lotus Domino and associated LotusScript and Formula language (if applicable). We can work with most graphic formats to generate web-compatible graphics. We can work with most text and publishing software formats. When it makes sense, we generate Adobe PDFs and can add audio, video and animations. We can also incorporate other existing code like Java or E-commerce packages or services from organizations like PayPal Merchant Tools, Network 1 Financial, Yahoo Merchant, and more. We use a proprietary software package to analyze and optimize your site for excellent Search Engine results, and can even track your pay per click campaigns (more on Search Engine Marketing).

In addition to the software, we take advantage of various technologies and techniques including cascading style sheets (CSS), forms, frames (where necessary), standard and disjointed rollovers, navigational bars, jump menus, server-side includes and scripts (e.g., CGI and PHP), templates, library items, link and spell checking utilities, validation tools, SEO tools and more.

We use xhtml strict as the Doctype for most of our clients, providing the best balance between legacy and future browsers. We believe using CSS to the maximum extent possible for your browser target audience is a best practice. It speeds up downloads, provides greater design flexibility and reduces maintenance time. Generally this means CSS version 1, since CSS version 2 support is not widespread enough at this time. Which browser version we target depends on your current and prospective users, but we generally target version 5+ browsers, since most people use Internet Explorer (IE) version 5 or greater. We do consider version 4 browser issues where it makes sense. We try to avoid the use of frames, but sometimes it is the best tool for a job, such as when integrating external websites together. We usually use Javascript, PDF and Flash technologies, since they have widespread acceptance, although we generally avoid Flash as a splash page or for navigation. We avoid Java unless there is a compelling reason due to various issues. We use jpg and gif graphic file types and try to use web-safe colors and fonts where possible. We've found that semantic markup with a seperate CSS document for the presentation is the right combo for both flexibility and accessibility.

We are hosted at Globat and have worked with other web hosts (Kiva, ConsulTech, Earthlink, HoosierNet, Indiana University, WorldView Multimedia Technologies, Vivtek, Webnow.com, Register.com, Insight Communications, MidPhase, Itricity, and IQuest). We can help you make your hosting decision if needed. It is important to consider your requirements before deciding on a host since their cost, capabilities and performance vary considerably.

We also are familiar with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act regarding accessibility guidelines for people with disabilities and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The former impacts decisions such as image alt tags and color contrast, whereas the later impacts form design and your web policies. Privacy policies and copyright are also considerations for every site.

The larger the job the more important it is for us to work together to define your requirements explicitly. We strive to incorporate these technologies and guidelines to the extent that makes sense for your organization and target market.