Web Design Tools From Down Under

My Web Toolbox 3.3 $30

www.australianwineandbeer.com/mwt/toolbox.htm

My Web Toolbox is the work of an Australian software creator, Ian Timmins. Ian markets MWT through a wine and beer site, which may be one reason why he doesn't receive as much exposure as he might. That's unfortunate, because MWT is a little gem of a program. He's currently considering cranking up his attempts to market the program, and has one eye out for suitable business partners (a word to the wise, if you will).

To quote the creator, "The concept behind my button option is to offer a limited range of styles, but to make sure those styles can be created quickly and simply." Indeed the range of styles available in MWT is limited, but the creation of buttons and banners couldn't be easier. I reviewed version 3.2, but version 3.3 is now available, and supports frames for animated banners. As noted on the site, MWT doesn't create the actual animated graphics; you need a separate program for that function. Only GIF files can be animated, and MWT doesn't support GIFs, for reasons detailed below.

Installation

MWT is quite well-featured for such a small download, and it's easy to use as well. The program itself opens in a small toolbar that can be docked anywhere on the screen, keeping it out of the way until needed. It can also be reduced to an icon in the System Tray. MWT is simple to install and barely impacts your system: the program doesn't intrude on the registry, the system configuration, or anything else. And, to uninstall it, simply delete the program from your hard drive. I appreciate this feature. I get irritated with programs that strew registry entries through your system, intrude on your Start Menu, rewrite your configuration files, and so forth. It isn't necessary. As Ian says, "[P]robably my greatest hate with most shareware is when it deposits rubbish in the registry, which, usually, is never removed. I simply won't run shareware now that requires installing." I like the way this man thinks.

What it Does

MWT creates, edits, and modifies images (buttons and banners) for Websites. Unfortunately, the program only creates BMP and JPG files, not GIFs. This is a loss, but the reasoning has to do with Unisys's purported ownership of the GIF format and the possible legalities affecting programs that create GIF files without paying ransom to Unisys. The disadvantage of using BMP files on Websites is twofold: they tend to be much larger than comparable JPG and GIF files, and Netscape is twitchy about supporting them.

The MWT toolbar consists of twenty buttons, with more possibly being added in the future. Each button has its own function, and most are self-explanatory. The color selections are quite extensive, with the option to choose from 24-bit, HTML, browser-specific, and full-spectrum palettes. The icon button lets you view and create icon images. Conversion from BMP to JPG and vice versa is a one-button operation, as is:

• font selection and preview,
• special character display,
• capturing and copying all or part of a screen,
• slicing images into smaller chunks,
• value conversion (binary, octet, decimal, and hex), and
• viewing files in ASCII and/or hex format.

The modification of previously created images isn't quite as simple as creating your own buttons from "scratch" (which is actually creating buttons from templates), but there's nothing difficult about doing either one. The only drawbacks to creating new buttons are the small number of templates available -- basically ten basic shapes that can be altered more or less as desired -- and the limitations on the size of buttons. Added attractions include the ability to create banners, composite images, and colorized HTML fonts (including spectrum and random colorizations). The templates are all rectangular or square, though the actual graphical designs are often circular, oval, and so forth. Background colors must be chosen carefully to closely match the Web page they will go on, as no transparency option is available (no GIFs, no transparency). You do have the ability to import your own background image for the button, and this might be a better way to integrate the buttons into your site (Ian says that he believes BMP files can be made transparent, by masking the bottom left pixel).

The Wrap-Up

Overall, MWT is a small but excellent program that concentrates on a single task -- button creation -- and does it very well. That's not exactly true: as Ian points out, "More users actually use the program for the colour selection options, rather than the button creation option. In fact, button creation came late in the development of the program (which started out simply as a colour selection program). But then the colour selection options aren't restricted in the shareware version, whereas button creation is."

More options than you would expect are available, and the additional capabilities of screen capturing, HTML colorization, and banner creation only add to this program's value. The limited number of button templates is a concern, but not enough to warrant my steering you away from this program. My suggestion is to grab it and register it now, before some commercial entity scarfs up Ian's little creation, adds some bells and whistles, and jacks the price up.