What Makes An Advanced Internet User ...someone who has mastered the available skills, and takes full advantage of all modern applications to do with the Internet and its uses. The main ingredient is to familiarise oneself with what is available to the end-user, in terms of software applications, programs, tutorials, and higher education in Internet studies in general. Sometimes the very best way to get the necessary skills and tools is to listen to the advice from others that have gone this route before us and are quite willing to share their tips and advice.

Mission Statement: This page has been developed primarily for, but not limited to, students doing Advanced Internet Studies. The main reason for this is that a student starting out on an educational course such as Internet Studies may not as yet have become aware of the vast resources of software, programs and tutorials that abound on the Web. Yet just a few of these simple tools could make his/her life so much easier and their studies so much more enjoyable.

My Experience...I started out on my student path with a knowledge brief of Zero, on what one could achieve and what was available. I perhaps advanced quicker than expected, because I started to experiment with newly-found resources, and I soon became very astute at judging the usefulness of certain software and its applications, as needed by the modern internet student. Not everyone will agree with me on certain subjects and products and indeed even the need for a page such as this. To these people, I wish them well in their pursuits, and would rather concentrate on the task at hand.

Disclaimer Any opinions expressed here are purely personal and all effort has been made to accurately characterise the products and services described herein. As much information as is practical is given regarding each individual product or service, given the constraints of time and space, but let the reader use both insight and discernment, and then ultimately judge for themselves. This page has been designed as a helpful guide, and nothing more.

Getting Started: Browsers, Which One?
Which is the best browser for Advanced Internet Students? This is a little like asking what coffee a person prefers, there are so many choices for so many reasons, but lets remember I am here to answer questions, and answer I will. Mozilla Firefox. Why? My personal experience has led to this conclusion after asking the same question myself and trying several different browsers concurrently, including the pre-installed default browser IE6. Remember "default" does not mean "not allowed to change", dont be afraid to experiment. About Firefox, Cheah Chu Yeow says under the Chapter 'Web Development Nirvana', "From its penchant for Web standards compliance, to its built-in Web developer-friendly features, and onwards across the amazingly useful plethora of Web development-oriented extensions, Firefox is without a doubt, a far more useful Web development tool than any other Web browser!"(Yeow,2005)...nuff said. For anyone interested, the Firefox logo is an active link to the website which will facilitate downloading the most recent version of the Firefox browser. Go on...give it a go.

Firefox Secrets:...so if you took my advice and you downloaded the browser, now all you need to do is buy the book. Which book? Firefox Secrets from Sitepoint by Cheah Chu Yeow. It is a First Edition paperback printed in June, 2005, comes with a bonus CD-ROM inside, and the ISBN is: 0-9752402-4-2. The author is a software developer, blogger, freelance web developer, and holds a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering. The book is a must have if you really want to get the most out of Firefox. This book caters especially to the 'Advanced Internet Student/User' who wants to fine tune their browser to their own user requirements, and install some very useful extensions. With the chosen browser being the main tool of use for internet students, you really want to make your experience as easy and pleasurable as possible. With older browsers not performing to todays standards, and the new updated versions not living up to expectations, it is certainly time to make a change.

Creating Webpages: Rapid PHP Outside of strict submission guidelines, the Modern Internet user/student should really have a good html text editor program. Yes handcoding in say Notepad for example is a must to get the necessary skills, but there are other options. Now straight away, people think of Frontpage, or Dreamweaver, or the upgrade Studio 8 amongst others, but these are a little out of reach of the average student budget. What if there were a program that edits all the modern web-design languages and it was relatively inexpensive? Now there is. Just use the active link to check the programs available at this site. Programs such as Rapid HTML, Rapid CSS, and Rapid PHP, which is actually a text editor that can handle HTML, CSS, PHP and Javascript for you. The features are too numerous to go into here, but all you need to do is go to the site and take a look for yourself. You can even download a trial version and see if you like what you get.

The Best HTML Tutorial: Joe Burns Have you ever felt totally lost in the middle of an advanced computer-skills tutorial, only to realise you are only on the first paragraph? I know I have. In my opinion, the very best html tutorial I have ever come across is the bunch of html primers by Joe Burns. Why? Well not just because of the user-friendliness, but also the simplistic conversational style that he uses to teach this rather technical and to some intimidating computer language. You may even get a laugh out of the style of his tutorials, I know I did as I ran the gamut of tutorials available. There are so many to choose from, but this is a great starting point. There are around seven primers for html designed to allow you to work at your own pace, but dont worry Joe will tell you when to take a break. Of course the list of tutorials only just starts there, you will find there are many more available, covering the spectrum of webskills and topics. Here is the link to get you on your way, and let Joe remind you that learning can be fun.

The Fastest Drawing Program on the Planet: Xara Xtreme You really should have a look at this one. It truly is a fast drawing program with all the support you will ever need. And wait till you see the gallery of other graphic artists work, you will be amazed. I am talking about Xara Xtreme from the Xara group. What appealed to me is that you dont need any previous drawing skills to use this program, its user-friendly interface makes it a pleasure to be creative. Of course it has many other features such as full photo editing and enhancement, with a list of amazing plug-ins available to add to your creativity. This software is available along with many other wonderful programs by using the active link provided.

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