Microsoft's official IEBlog points out one of the less obvious features of Internet Explorer 8's most recent beta: the ability to use alternate style sheets, effectively enabling people to define their own approach to site layout. While it's likely to be some time before this feature is widely supported, it's worth remembering when you're laying out your pixel-precise site design that user interference is likely to be more common in the future.

Windows only: Free application CSS Toolbox streamlines working with cascading stylesheets (CSS) through auto-completion, syntax highlighting, and several more advanced features that make it stand out from a regular text editor. For those of you who don't know, CSS files are the building blocks that style the web. CSS Toolbox offers advanced features for building out your stylesheets, including a CSS beautifier, validator, and even compressor. This one isn't of much use to non-developers, but if you are a designer (or you have any inkling of learning about web design), this app looks like a real winner. On the other hand, if a solid text editor is all you want, check out our Hive Five Best Text Editors. CSS Toolbox is a free download, Windows only.

Planning to spend some time during one of those mythical "free" weekends whipping your web site into shape? Open Web Design, a free and frequently-updated collection of site templates handed out without copyright, is a great place to start looking. We've posted similar collections before, but Open Web Design trumps our archives for up-to-date designs and breadth of material—images, CSS templates, and standard HTML are all available. The site is free to use, and registration lets you submit ideas and post to a forum.

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Web monkeys comfortable with CSS can now apply their style skills to Google Docs. A new (to us) item in the Edit pulldown menu lets you apply standard CSS styles to your Google Doc. A Google Group exists to help you work out any kinks in the process, and a Googler offers a beautiful resume template (available for you to copy into your own Docs account) all styled with CSS.

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Note: The text below isn't exactly what I said on stage (I believe the audio will be available as a podcast at some point), but it was the script that I worked from. Throughout the text I've noted which slide was on screen during a particular section. Apologies for the length of this post, it was an hour-long talk!

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Open Source Web Design (OSWD) collects web site templates from amateurs and professionals and makes them available to download free of charge. If you don't have the time (or the chops) to create a sharp looking web site, you can download a high quality template from OSWD instead. There are over 2000 superb designs that can be modified for your upcoming class reunion, wedding, block party, etc. If you've never tried to create a web site, a download from OSWD coupled with a free graphical editor like Nvu should be enough to get you started.