I thought I would outline a few of the main tools I use when browsing the web. Keeping these tools up to date help ensure I can access online material, and where possible I use auto-update settings to make sure the applications update as soon as a new version becomes available. (Please Note: in some circumstances – like operating systems – it can be wise to wait a little bit prior to updating in case there are problems — nothing is perfect!).

Adobe Reader - Adobe’s PDF reading application makes viewing PDF’s a breeze. Apple Mac’s have Preview built-in but I’d still recommend setting the default to Adobe Reader. Be sure to keep this up to date since PDF files are everywhere. If you’ve got Acrobat installed, I’d just use that instead of the lighter Reader app.

Adobe Flash/Shockwave Player – This is becoming increasingly important to keep up to date (many mobile phones even have Flash pre-installed now). The development of Rich Internet Applications (RIA’s) which use Flash technology and the accompanying Flex platform are a good reason to keep this up to date. The Flex Showcase presents a range of sites that use Flex to let you do everything from design your own Harley Davidson motorcycle, to checking storm warnings.

Microsoft Silverlight – The need for this plug-in is becoming more common, although Flash still dominates the video/RIA market.

Media Players – It’s a good idea to have a few types of media players since each tends to have its own proprietary format. The open source VLC media player could be a good choice if you’re looking for something that will play a variety of formats but I’ve had a little bit of trouble playing some files (probably just need to update codecs or something).

Browsers – Web browsers are very much a personal choice but since I do some web development, I have several installed. Opera, Explorer, Netscape, Safari and Firefox all get used at various times. On my PC I also use Virtual PC to run multiple versions of Explorer for testing purposes. For everyday use, Firefox and Safari are favourites.

The coolest thing about the web is the instant availability of software. I remember spending time when I was a kid looking at all the software boxes (that I couldn’t afford) in the computer shop. These days, regardless of what you require, you can access it within minutes via the web. The volume of open source software out there probably means you can even find a free (yes, legally free) version of what you need!

Here’s a handful of rich resources to improve your online writing…

Jakob Nielsen’s Writing for the Web
A List Apart – Writing

SitePoint have brilliant “Guru Lists” like the one below:

So You Want To Be A Copywriting Guru?

• Writing for the Web
• Building a Content Rich Website
• Don’t Lose Your Foreign Visitors by Insulting Them!
• Why Write For Another Site?
• Web Content: from Fabulous to Frankenstein

Make It Scannable
Use appropriate headings, bold text, and lists to mark important information. The crew at 37 Signals execute this really well – and even explain how they test the effectiveness of this via their Signal vs. Noise blog.

Go Above The Fold
Put your best material “above the fold” – that is, within the top part of the page the user sees before scrolling downwards. It’s your best chance of getting your user’s attention.

Link Meaningfully
Instead of adding a link that says “click here“, use a descriptive one like Lance Armstrong’s Bike Shop. It improves the readability and the quality of search engine indexing for your site and the destination site.

Encourage Exploration
Explain your content as best you can with the limited space you have but provide links to related sites where more extensive information is available. This way, you won’t lose your users attention, and you’ll be noted as a source of valuable referrals.

Size Matters
Keep your paragraphs small, have one idea per paragraph and make sure the opening sentence outlines the idea. Large chunks of text deter the reader.

Introduce these rules into your online writing and see how you go.

Web users don’t read, at least not in the same way as if reading a book or newspaper.

According to web usability expert Jakob Nielsen, web users scan the page, looking for words and headings that are relevant to them. On the web, less is better in terms of words, but they need to be targeted to the audience.

Popular business marketing guru Seth Godin writes in one blog post  “If you’re writing for strangers, make it shorter” which pretty much sums up the concept of writing on the web. This is where careful selection of headings and keywords is beneficial, not only from a reading point of view, but also in terms of search engine optimization (SEO) – that is, making the content of your site clear for search engines like Google and Yahoo to see.

In fact, whilst reading some of Nielsen’s work, I found myself scanning through the content and predominantly reading just the headings, bold content, and lists until I came across something of particular interest. Nielsen states “On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely”. Probably about right in my case.