Comments on: Appetite

By: deesto

deesto — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 20:33:17 +0000

being one of the seemingly few that are “stuck” (term used loosely) in a Win/PC environment, it’s almost demoralizing to hear about these cool, productive (and cheap!) tools that are Mac-only. Michel gave a great, comprehensive list of his fav dev tools, but plainly a few of the big “bloated” boys dominate the PC world. granted, there are some great open-source tools out there (GIMP comes to mind), but we seem sorely lacking in comparable content editors, for example. or maybe that’s just my perception.
any recommendations?

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 16 May 2006 05:47:59 +0000

I hate to say 'me too', but me too on TextMate.. I've finally put BBEdit to bed after a few years of sitting on the fence. TextMate integrates pretty well with Transmit, too. Otherwise, I'm stubbornly sticking to Fireworks in favour of Photoshop (as with many of these things, it was just the first one I used), and would suggest Color Schemer Studio for quick colour ideas. On the topic of 'productivity', how cool is Coverflow? I know I don't get much done without it.

By: Michel Bozgounov

Michel Bozgounov — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 12:00:59 +0000

@Fritsie: As you can see, some of us do use Dreamweaver, but most of the time in code view;-) @Dan Boland: [QUOTE]...I don’t use Dreamweaver because it’s slow, bloated and annoying. Any app that thinks it can “help” me by trying to auto-complete every tag I start is not for me...[/QUOTE] Dan, let me answer to your points: a) It's not so slow on a Pentium 4 with 512+ MB DDR ;-) b) It's not so bloated - you can select which features you want to use, and simply igonore the others:))) c) Nor it is annoying. It's just different from some other text/web editors! And I've tried a lot of them:) d) Finally, auto-complete can be completely turned off or set in a way which suits you the best. I know well most of the tags in xhtml/css, which I am usin' every day, but when DW suggests me the possible choices when I start typing, it helps me visually and sometimes prevents me from doing simple stupid typos (like background: #CCC url(somefile.gif) top left no-repaet ;-P) Besides, I can even customize, which tags/css properties I would like first to see in the auto-complete and which exclude completely (for example, rarely used ones, which is nice). OK, I think it's mostly a matter of personal choice and taste:) I am accustomed to DW in code view, I like its integrated FTP capabilities, and its interface. I guess, if I can find some similar app, which will give me similar features [one-click file upload while working on it, without having to browse through local/remote dirs seeking for the correct corrseponding ones (ctrl+shift+u to upload); nice tag closing feature (start @Nev:: Anything similar to Paparazzi in PC environment?... @Jordan Arentsen: Yes, and Dreamweaver combines within itself two nice features - good code view/code edit/code check/tag close, & good global site management, including nice FTP features. That's why it's my choice for that moment:) As for Fireworks, I've discovered I am doing small graphics-related tasks in it in a matter of seconds, so I switched to it years ago, when it was Macromedia Fireworks MX only (or version 6, if you prefer;-) Yes, Photoshop is more powerful. But FW is simpler, has good vectors support / features, it is fast, and it's interface is very user friendly (change background color / stroke color / style / effect / in less than 5 seconds and 2 clicks ;-) @Steve: The web developer toolbar is really helpful. I use it everyday now, especially the "CSS" tool, for a quick test/experiment in "real view", it's really good! @all: Hmmm, I'm rather puzzled that no one mentioned the very much useful and simple tools Iconico offers: the Color Picker and the Screen Calipers?... Am I the only one using them / needing them in everyday work? ;-)

By: PatrickC

PatrickC — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 17:30:23 +0000

skEdit is wonderful. I also use Transmit, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Flash.
But just recently I started using Fireworks for web mockups and, although I haven’t got completely used to it yet, I have to say it is a far superior programme for this task.
The thing about applications is that you need to keep it simple. Use good applications that get the job done and that you enjoy using (and if possible can save you some time on routine tasks).

By: Adam Craven

Adam Craven — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 15:18:49 +0000

While not so much a direct productivity application. Rainlender is an ideal calender for your desktop. It's great for time management, putting in your appointments and remembering those anniversarys we forget!

By: mark a. foltz

mark a. foltz — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 08:55:01 +0000

Well, if I limit “productivity apps” to things I use to organize my life, it really boils down to two for me:
(1) gmail and the star icon
(2) backpack and the backpack dashboard widget for anything more complex than one email thread
but what really ties it all together is my pocket-sized moleskine … better than any PDA I have ever used.

By: ryan

ryan — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 17:53:52 +0000

For my money, I think TextMate (macromates.com) is the best thing for text editing on the Mac. If you know your HTML and CSS (or any other language, for that matter, this app is a beauty). There is a simple (and free) Favicon-export plugin for photoshop (see http://www.telegraphics.com.au/sw/), and for billing, invoicing, etc., I use Side Job Track (free, see sidejobtrack.com), which has come a long way. And of course, the Firefox extensions Web Developer Toolbar and Aardvark are also…well, what would I do without those?

By: Steve Williams

Steve Williams — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 00:56:15 +0000

Surprised you didn’t mention the Firefox web developer toolbar – I’ve found that ever more useful of late.

By: Manuel

Manuel — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 22:41:20 +0000

Hello I comes from Austria and by coincidence into the Blog came, you writes here over a Intressantes topic at opportunity would like I with it to enter more in greater detail and express, but to me still different Blogs regard to I defenitiv commit myself. Until soon and kind regards from the alpine country Manuel.

By: Olav

Olav — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 18:05:37 +0000

If you REALLY want to be productive, delete your feed reader.. ;)