What's the difference between a tool and a resource?

Question

You've seen this before. A website that somewhere in the nav (perhaps a utility nav) has the labels tools and resources.

What do you expect to find behind each label? I feel that many sites use these two labels interchangeably to mean the same thing.

IMO, Resources should be the label if the stuff behind it contains guides, research, links to other articles, website links, glossaries, etc.

Tools should be the label if the stuff behind it contains "things" to get work done or accomplish a task – some piece of functionality.

Thoughts?

Answer 1

I would say a tool is used for carrying out an action, whereas a resource can be something passive, i.e. static data.

For example, a graphic is a resource, but something that converts a graphic from one format to another is a tool.