Web Design Software

[Muel]

Web Development Software

I've been using Dreamweaver for a couple of years or so, it's great, but it's a bit bloated and I'd much rather the design and code view tabs were joined by a preview one. I've got a plugin for FireFox called IE Tab which allows firefox to use the IE engine to view websites, so you can do Windows Update from within FireFox, which is great.

Surely then it would be possible to make a plugin for Dreamweaver to scan your hard drive for web browsers, then use the engines from them to allow you to view the website from within dreamweaver? It'd make cross-browser checking easier and quicker.

I know that it would be easier just to save and refresh in FireFox, but after two years it kinda gets annoying.


If not, any other software I could check out? I want a file viewer and FTP facility, code view and preview and some way of outlining Divs.

Any help? Cheers guys!

 

[Muel]

A fellow Derbyshirian .

Notepad++ and the Web Developer Toolbar (to highlight divs etc) are practically all you need. Or if working from reference Pixel Perfect.

Oh aye mate, only just within the north west of Derbyshire by about 6 miles! I've never used Notepad++, and I already have the web developer toolbar and use it all the time, I'd just rather it was all built into Dreamweaver or a similar program.

Pho how can you miss out Firebug??

Have you considered having two monitors, one with dreamweaver open and the other with firefox auto-refreshing?

Have also had firebug before but didn't really get on with it.

I did have two monitors for a while but only a 17" CRT next to my 22". Couldn't get on with it really, I'd need another 22", but it'd be a bit of a pain to use alongside my netbook aswell.

Also when I go to work I take the netbook, so Dreamweaver is a bit bloated for it's teeny little 1024x600 display.

 

[Muel]

Web Development, not Design. Design is Photoshop/Illustrator/Fireworks, Development is Dreamweaver, Notepad, Eclipse, etc.

Cheers, sorted it now. I've never really followed the Web Development/Design world, I just took my job two years ago and taught myself to write a bit of classic HTML 4.01 Transitional. The entire sight was built without a div in sight, or for that matter, any CSS. (We did a new version last year to update the design and to account for the huge amount of information it now has to store, 72 page site now!).

I've come on since then anyway, I reckon I'm ready to go freelance. My Design skills arn't really very good at the moment but I'm practising a lot of new techniques, and I've made a few practice sites that are W3C compliant with XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS2.1.

I'm giving Notepad++ a try, seems that it will work much better on my Netbook.

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Never heard of Vi either, I'll have a look, thanks guys.

 

[Muel]

I'm going to stick to XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS2.1 for the time being, I'm still learning with them and they're supported by pretty much all browsers that are currently being used, (to my knowledge).

I shall have a play with XHTML5 and CSS3 though once I've completed the, "project plan" as it were that I've set out in my head for my going freelance.

 

[Muel]

Yeh I've read it uses some new layout tags and attributes somewhere?

But it appears that it will be possible to phase it in over time, which is great in theory, but the first thing that strikes me is that it will be a pain in the arse to keep up to date. Alright if you do it full time then it will be easier to keep in the loop but for someone like me who's going to uni in september and is just planning to pick up the odd bit of freelance to keep me going, it may be hard to keep up with the new standard as new browsers are released.

I'd imagine that Microsoft will update IE before long to coincide with the release of Windows 7? Then the next generation of operating system will be able to use HTML5 straight away.

However, that still doesn't cater for the average people out there who don't bother updating there system all the time and may still be using IE6.

I don't see the need to change over to HTML5 staight away anyway? CSS3 has some very useful attributes in there (opacity and rounded edged for a start), but is it really worth using them when you can achieve almost the same results with the "accepted standard" for want of a better phrase?