Despite being a very annoying roadblock for most web designers, IE6 isn't a necessary evil. The main reason it is still present in the browsers charts, is because visitors are using it — period.

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Backgrounds are important. Whether they're used on a website, on a drawing, on an image compo or on a mobile phone, they give an undeniable "cachet" to your creation, while also improving the viewing experience by increasing the focus on the content. And while they're tons of free or shareware applications to create these backgrounds, there's also a lot of free online tools that will do the same in seconds. This list of 15 online generators will allow you to create your own background, stripes and tartans in a couple of clicks!

» 15 Online Background Generators

When it comes to creating content, there are two options: either you rely on the software installed on your machines, or you use online applications. Of course, these two options are quite different: you can do much more with Gimp or NVU than with an online form generator or an online button maker. But to save time, ask yourself: is it worth launching Photoshop every time you need to design a background pattern?

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RSS feeds and XML are great things. Through the use of standard APIs, they allow you to pull out data from any website that supports these protocols, and reuse the collected material in your own applications. But what if you want to do the same with a website that has neither RSS feeds, XML, nor a dedicated API ? Well, you use dapper!

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It's always interesting to dig into others's pages. Not for stealing, but for learning. It's good to interact with other developers/designers, because you can always learn from anyone, regardless if they are a newbie or an expert. Now if you have Firefox, you can simply stick to the web developer toolbar, that contains lots of useful features. But what would you do if you had the ill famed Internet Explorer or any browser which does not have the features like Firefox? XRAY rescues you from such situations.

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When it comes to blogging, you can rapidly drown yourself in the ocean of available solutions. Dotclear, Wordpress, Blogger, Skyblog, Kelblogs, Squarespace... You name it! However, all those heavy contenders may lack a bit of simplicity. That's where Chyrp comes to play.

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Every website includes a certain part of interaction with the visitor, most often through forms people have to fill in in order to get more info, ask for a quote, get in touch, leave a comment, etc. Designing a form is certainly not what web designers like best. In fact, if you're like me, you should rather hate this step. Whatever I try, my hand-coded forms always looked ugly and amateurish. Until one day, I found this lovely little tool that designs perfect forms: Appnitro's pForm.

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