Running XAMPP and Apache with IIS on the same Windows PC
is easier than you might think. Just configure IIS or Apache to listen to a
different port. Assign the one you are currently using most to port 80, and
the other to port 8080 or the available port number of your choice. I've had
both servers running simultaneously for several months without any problems.
See Running XAMPP and Apache with IIS for simple instructions on how to
do this. If you're a Microsoft developer who needs to work more confidently
in a LAMP environment, or vice versa, having your own development server is
a low-stress way to expand your skills.
Color and transparency will be even more fun to work with
in CSS3. Firefox and WebKit browsers (Chrome and Safari) already support
RGBA and HSLA.
It's time to start playing with the depth these methods add to web pages.
Internet Explorer does not support either technique yet, but where a solid
color is an acceptable degradation, why not go for it?
ASP.Net Master Pages now merge my layout elements with
each content page. Can you see the difference? No? Good! I just switched from
Dynamic Web Templates to Master Pages. The transition was painless. For
details about managing common, but frequently-changed content, see
Expression Web DWT with Includes and
ASP.Net Master Pages with User Controls.
Cleaning up Word to HTML conversions is time consuming. Regular expressions can make it faster and easier. In Regular Expressions to Clean Word I explain methods I use and some handy "regexes." If you're repelled by code, there's one regular expression you should know that can remove all Word styles and attributes from every paragraph tag in a document. It's explained in the article, and you can skip the rest if you want to.