HTML Editor Reviews | Reviews and Discussion of (X)HTML Coding Tools

Review: Espresso 1.0

MacRabbit’s newly released Espresso has clearly been positioned as a rival to Panic’s Coda (review), with each striving for one-window web development supremacy on the Mac. What’s interesting about comparing these two apps, however, is their different approaches to what’s essentially the same basic functionality. Each program is defined by its heritage: Coda shares a lot of its DNA with Transmit, featuring powerful FTP and project management tools. The weakest part of Coda is the text editor. Espresso, on the other hand, is CSSEdit’s much more multi-faceted younger sibling and it has learned many of CSSEdit’s tricks, plus a slew of new ones. As a result, Espresso’s strongest feature is the text editor.

Continue reading Review: Espresso 1.0 »

MacHeist 3 Bundle Announced

Another year, another MacHeist. This year’s bundle includes some interesting apps for Mac web developers, including MacRabbit’s new Espresso HTML editor and Realmac’s Little Snapper screenshot app. And don’t miss out on World of Goo, which is a great physics-based indie game. Check out the MacHeist website for the full list of programs on sale for $39 USD. The MacHeist sale ends in 13 days.

Mac Bundle Box: 13 Apps for $49

For the next 11 days, you can purchase the Mac Bundle Box for $49 USD. The Mac Bundle Box includes:

• Relationship ($39)
• Code Collector Pro ($25)
• DrawIt ($40)
• Espionage ($24.95)
• Cover Stream ($20)
• DEVONnote ($24.95)
• QuickScale ($20)
• Project Calculator ($19.99)
• Transcriva ($29.99)
• Magnet ($39.99)
• Involer ($20)
• Stuf ($20)
• Blog Assist ($9.95)

When you buy the Mac Bundle Box, 5% of your purchase gets donated to charity: water, an organization that brings clean drinking water to people in developing nations.

Layers Screenshot App 50% Off Today Only

Layers, the new screenshot app that captures your screen and saves each window and icon as its own layer in a PSD, is on sale for $10 USD on MacUpdate today.

Layers generated a lot of buzz on its release about a month ago, and it certainly looks interesting, but I can’t think of a good use for it myself. Still, $10 is hard to beat. Let me know if you purchase or already own the app — how do you use it and how does it fit in your workflow?

Foxmarks Now Supports IE and Safari

Foxmarks, the bookmark and password synchronizer for Firefox, now also supports Internet Explorer 6 & 7 and Safari 3, letting you share bookmarks across multiple OSes and browsers. Last March, I wrote about using BookIt and Foxmarks to accomplish the same thing, but BookIt doesn’t support Firefox 3. Now, you can simply install Foxmarks. You can download Foxmarks from the Foxmarks website.

FontExplorer X Pro 50% Off / Fontcase Released

Mac font management tool FontExplorer X Pro is currently available for EUR 39 until the end of February. You can download a 30-day trial on the FontExplorer site.

In related news, Bohemian Coding’s Fontcase — another Mac font management tool — has recently been released and is selling for EUR 35. A demo can also be found on their website.

Tools of the Trade: Balsamic Mockups

Thanks to @masuga on Twitter yesterday, I discovered a product called Balsamic Mockups — an Adobe Air application for quickly and easily creating low fidelity user interface (UI) mockups and wireframes. Here’s a very quick sample of the top portion of my business website:

The interface and the drag-and-drop elements are all meant to have a handwritten/handdrawn esthetic, as if you were using pencil and paper to create the concept. This is so clients don’t confuse the wireframe with an actual design. Yet, despite the rudimentary look of the drawings, the mockups can be surprisingly detailed. For example, you can add scroll bars to windows, highlight table rows and tabs, add different icons, etc. Check out the sample mockups and the intro video to get an idea of what can be done.

Overall, Balsamic Mockups is very intuitive and easy to use. The elements are all drag-and-drop and most everything can be resized and repositioned as required. There is a version of the software for the desktop ($79 USD) as well as collaborative versions for Confluence, JIRA, and XWiki. Since the program is built on Adobe Air, it works on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Save $41 on Navicat for MySQL

Today only: MacZot is selling Navicat (OS X) for $62 USD — a savings of $41. From the description:

Navicat for MySQL is a powerful MySQL Database Server administration and development tool. It works with MySQL server version 3.21 or above and supports most of the latest MySQL features including Trigger, Stored Procedure, Function, Event, View, Manage User, and etc. It is sophisticated enough for professional developers yet easy to learn for users who are new to MySQL. With its well-designed Graphical User Interface(GUI), Navicat for MySQL lets you quickly and easily create, organize, access and share information in a secure and easy way, taking your MySQL administration to the next level.

LittleSnapper, Skitch, and Web Snapper: Why You Still Need All Three

… or, more accurately, why I still need all three.

LittleSnapper, Skitch, and Web Snapper are all screen capture utilities for the Mac. LittleSnapper, released yesterday, is the newest of the bunch; it lets you capture and catalogue “snaps” of your screen or web pages. Skitch, which has been in public beta for over a year, lets you quickly and easily grab and share portions of your screen or entire windows. Finally, Web Snapper integrates with Safari and captures web pages, giving you the option of saving them as images or PDFs.

While all three are great products, none of the three does it all. Below is a summary of what each program excels at.

Continue reading LittleSnapper, Skitch, and Web Snapper: Why You Still Need All Three »

LittleSnapper Released

Realmac Software’s latest app, LittleSnapper, is now out of beta.

LittleSnapper is a screen capture utility that lets you grab entire webpages, windows, or a portion of your screen. You can catalogue and organize your captures, annotate them, and share them via Flickr, FTP, or through Realmac’s own QuickSnapper service.

LittleSnapper is $39 USD. You can download a free demo from Realmac’s site, which lets you capture up to 30 images.