JustHost.com

the web hosting company that stores all the files for the CantorEducator.com web-site

CoffeeCup HTML Editor

for editing the web pages. The web pages are created using a combination of HTML, CSS and JavaScript coding.

 

HTML

CSS

JavaScript

 

W3.CSS

a CSS framework from W3Schools.com with support for desktop, tablet, and mobile design

SBL Hebrew Font

widely acknowledged as a beautiful font for rendering Hebrew text in print and on web pages.
It is copyrighted by the Society for Biblical Literature (SBL) and Tiro Typeworks

Compare the following text rendered in the default Hebrew font and the SBL font:

Default Hebrew font:

וַיְגָ֖רֶשׁ אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֑ם וַיַּשְׁכֵּן֩ מִקֶּ֨דֶם לְגַן־עֵ֜דֶן אֶת־הַכְּרֻבִ֗ים וְאֵ֨ת לַ֤הַט הַחֶ֙רֶב֙ הַמִּתְהַפֶּ֔כֶת לִשְׁמֹ֕ר אֶת־דֶּ֖רֶךְ עֵ֥ץ הַֽחַיִּֽים׃

SBL Hebrew font:

וַיְגָ֖רֶשׁ אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֑ם וַיַּשְׁכֵּן֩ מִקֶּ֨דֶם לְגַן־עֵ֜דֶן אֶת־הַכְּרֻבִ֗ים וְאֵ֨ת לַ֤הַט הַחֶ֙רֶב֙ הַמִּתְהַפֶּ֔כֶת לִשְׁמֹ֕ר אֶת־דֶּ֖רֶךְ עֵ֥ץ הַֽחַיִּֽים׃

Hazzan Sohn thinks the SBL Hebrew font is more readable, which informed her decision to use this font on CantorEducator.com web pages. It is similar to the Davka FrankRuhl font used in rendering the PDFs of the biblical texts, which are freely available in the Downloads section.

FileZilla

FTP application for transferring the web site files to the CantorEducator.com web site account hosted at JustHost.com

https://validator.w3.org/nu/

a great place for validating the consistency and correctness of HTML coding

Quizlet.com

Holds the flashcard sets that Hazzan Sohn uses for teaching trop names. Each flashcard has a picture of a trop symbol on one side and the name of the trop on the other. The flashcard sets are grouped by trop family (siluk, etnachta, zakef-katon, tevir, etc.)

It's important to make sure that the web-site can be viewed "correctly" on a variety of platforms and web browsers, so every time a new feature is added to the web‑site, it's viewed on a PC, on a tablet and on a smartphone to make sure everything looks the way it's to intended to be view - easier said than done sometimes. Here are the browers used to test the look‑and‑feel:

Olympus DS-2400

small hand-held recorder that allows for stop and start recording on the same track (kind of like the electronic version of the old tape recorders). This is useful when recording a long Biblical verse and want to stop in the middle to re-group before restarting to finish it. The same recorder has been used since 2011.

Olympus DSS Player Standard Dictation Module

PC application for transferring the recordings from the Olympus DS-2400 to a PC. It can also convert the original Olympus DSS recordings to WAV files.

FREAC (Free Audio Converter)

PC application for converting WAV files to MP3 files

MP3tag

PC application for tagging MP3 files with custom information (track title, author, album, etc.)

DavkaWriter 7

for all the trop and text resources that have been created

DavkaWriter 7 macro language

for writing the macros (mini computer programs) to format Biblical and siddur texts for teaching individuals with special needs.

Microsoft Paint

the standard Windows graphics application for making PNG files

Noteworthy Composer

for creating trop music notations that can be converted into pictures that can be transferred to Word files.

Microsoft Word

for combining the trop symbols and music notations

SnagIt

for taking screenshots of the trop symbol and tune content in the Word files. The screen shots are copied into Paint to make PNG files.

Inkscape

for converting PNG files to SVG files, which are good for using on a web site with content that gets viewed on a variety of screen sizes (PC/Mac, tablet, smartphone, etc.) and need to stretch or shrink without losing visual resolution.