Aspiring to be a successful web developer and designer? Great idea and well-timed too, save and except overcoming the hassles that are associated with the profession. Remember the old dictum ‘Jack of all trade, but master of none?’ Well, you need to change the maxim to ‘Jack of all trade plus master of all,’ to become triumphant in this challenging occupation. However, here are a few tips and tricks that may help you achieve your goal.

Learn the basics first

Let’s get one thing cleared right away. Unless you know the fundamentals of programming and design, these tips and tricks will be of very little help for you. To start with, you need to have some first hand knowledge about HTML and CSS as well as JavaScript. You also need to take Photoshop lessons to know how to mock up a website layout. Alongside, acquire basic concept about how colors work in web designs. Finally, check out Code Academy, which is an online interactive platform that offers free coding classes in 9 different programming languages including Python, Java, PHP, JavaScript(jQuery, AngularJS), and Ruby, as well as markup languages HTML and CSS.

Learn the utility of Dummy tools

Never mind what Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit may refer to; you need to concentrate only on ‘Lorem Ipsum text generator’ to generate fake text or placeholder text as well as dummy content to fill in the blank in the absence of real content (to be mailed later by the client). However, you also need use of ‘Dummy Image Generator’ to get dummy images for designing your website. This, in fact, is equivalent of the Lipsum Generator.

Build up the Font Library

Type font or type style denotes the shape of the type face that you are going to use in your website and is crucial to the success of the venture. If these are agreeable and appropriate to the content, so much the better; if otherwise, your website will lose its attribute badly. However, you need to know the difference between serif and non-serif type faces. Serifs have semi-structural details or minor decorative flourishes on top or bottom ends such as the Times Roman or Bodoni while non-serif or sans-serif type faces such as Arial or Gill Sans will have none of these ornamentations. On the other hand, type faces such as Algerian or Comic sans convey a special message to the reader that often turns out dramatic or striking. For example, a statement like “The King is Dead; Long Live the King” in Comic Sans will carry a more striking message than when typed in Times Roman or some such conventional type faces.  In short, you need to choose the right font for your website to express or convey the message to the reader.

Plagiarism is offensive, but you can borrow ideas from others

William Shakespeare created immortal love story entitled “Romeo Juliet” but hundreds of similar romantic stories have been created by authors through generations that have received accolades from readers. So, there is no harm in borrowing ideas from others and putting these into shape in your own language, provided you do not fall in love with your Juliet in similar ways as good old Romeo fell in. According to the law (Copyright Act), three consecutive words, similar to any original statement created by anyone else will make the person liable to infringement of the act. So, be careful and act accordingly. The same theory applies to copying a design.

Photoshop is OK, but you need to expand its capabilities

Photoshop, no doubt, is an essential tool for most web designers, but you can always increase its capabilities by way of appending new actions as macros to suit your purpose. These will save you from doing tiresome tasks ‘by hand’. Go for 100 existing Photoshop actions to enlarge your collection, otherwise you need to develop your own.

Use CSS3 Generator to create cool effects

As a web designer you can use CSS3 to create numerous cool effects that were earlier attainable only with images and photo editors. But the problem lies elsewhere. When you start wring the CSS codes manually, it poses a problem about remembering all the syntax as well as visualizing the effects with the codes. Perhaps you need to alter the code many times till achieving the right look.

However, the CSS3 Generator will save you from this bother by way of providing you with simplest graphical interface for creating the desired effect.

Look for Programming-friendly Text Editor

While Photoshop proves to be an invaluable tool for web designers, a programming-friendly Text Editor is equally helpful for programmers. Even though there is no shortage of options for text editors geared towards developers on the Mac, TextMate easily tops the list. One of its winning issues is its immense programming language syntax support, helpful code snippets, expandability and integration with the OS X terminal. You may, however, are free to select your own text editor.

Alternatively, you can check out available text expansion apps to store your favorite code snippets and insert these into your code by using a few keystrokes.

Use a Framework if you wish

Leave aside greenhorns, many experienced web developers build websites using Framework because they find these easier and enjoyable to use. Frameworks help designers and developers to focus on creating unique features, as otherwise they had to spend their time on coding common, all too familiar features that appear across commonplace,  run-of-the mill websites.

A Framework, to be precise, is like a pre-built template/ structure that takes care of many of the repetitive features. However, it often lacks user interface, even though Django provides administrative interface for the benefit of users. So, you choose a Framework while building your website comfortably and at ease.

Look before you leap

As long as your new website is not hosted, it matters little with viewers. But once it goes live on the World Wide Web, people all over our lonely planet would like to take a look at it through different kinds of devices having different screen sizes and web browsers. . So, before you deploy, you need to make sure how your website will appear on different displays.  While Screenfly can show you how your site will look on different displays,  Browsershots will help you observe how your website is rendered by sundry browsers running on Windows, OS X and Linux. And for that, all you need to do is to select the browser you want and wait for screenshots to show up.