Hey web developer novices, here are some tools and apps you might not know yet. Check them out on the weekend.
Validation
TAW and WAVE are online-tools checking site´s accessibility.
CSS
CSSVista is a free Windows application for web developers which lets you edit your CSS code live in both Internet Explorer and Firefox simultaneously
Color
Free online tool for color matching and palette design.
Pixie is an easy-to-use, fast and tiny utility designed especially to fit the needs of Webmasters and Designers. Its a colour picker that includes a mouse tracker. Run it, simply point to a colour and it will tell you the hex, RGB, HTML, CMYK and HSV values of that colour.
The Colour Contrast Check Tool allows to specify a foreground and a background colour and determine if they provide enough of a contrast “when viewed by someone having color deficits or when viewed on a black and white screen”[W3C].
Editors
Is a fast text and code editor, freeware
Notepad++ is a free source code editor (and Notepad replacement), which supports several programming languages, running under the MS Windows environment.
File Comparison
WinMerge is an Open Source visual text file differencing and merging tool for Win32 platforms. It is highly useful for determing what has changed between project versions, and then merging changes between versions.
Like WinMerge but supports three way merges and is cross platform.
WAMP / MAMP
The Uniform Server is a WAMP package that allows you to run a server on any MS Windows OS based computer. It is small and mobile to download or move around and can also be used or setup as a production/live server. Does not include a mailserver.
Firefox Extensions for Web Devs
See how the page is created, block by block, view the source code of one or more elements etc…
Draw a ruler across any webpage to check the width, height, or alignment of page elements in pixels.
alternatively check out:
The Screen Calipers floats above any other application so you can measure anything on your screen. Shareware, USD 29.50
Incredible helpful tool!!
IE TAb is a great tool for web developers, since you can easily see how your webpage displayed in IE with just one click and then switch back to Firefox. Might break your IE installation!
Lets you load pages in IE with a single right-click
Open pages in Opera from Firefox and Mozilla context menus. Very usefull for web developers!
FireBug lets you explore the far corners of the DOM by keyboard or mouse. All of the tools you need to poke, prod, and monitor your JavaScript, CSS, HTML and Ajax are brought together into one seamless experience, including a debugger, error console, command line, and a variety of fun inspectors.
Opera
MAC
- Textmate with the TXP bundle by Marios Buttner
Smultron is a text editor written in Cocoa for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger or later.
PC
Reflex Vision is a background application for Windows XP that makes switching windows faster and easier. When Reflex Vision is running, you simple use a pre-defined hotkey or hotspot, and all your open windows will scale down and reposition themselves, allowing you to see them all simultaneously. Free for testing, USD 9.99.
Password Safe is an Open Source (free) tool that allows you to have a different password for all the different programs and websites that you deal with, without actually having to remember all those usernames and passwords. Password Safe runs on PCs under Windows (95/98/NT/2000/XP).
Misc
