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Web Design Tools for a Mac

C

CLindel

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 6, 2009
3
0
I've been using a PC for about thirty years now, and a Mac for only a couple of months. I can create web sites from scratch, or at least I think I still remember how to do that, but it's been awhile since I have felt like spending my time in the creation of a site, opting to concentrate on content.

I have several web design options for a PC, NetObjects Fusion and Dreamweaver being the ones that I use the most; in that order because I like the simplicity of NOF, although I sometimes use Dreamweaver to clean up some of the code problems inherent in NetObjects Fusion.

Rather than installing Windows on my Mac, which I know that I could do, I would rather use Mac applications.

I've looked at a few different Mac web editors, and have purchased RapidWeaver, but haven't worked with it enough to have an opinion on it yet. Create, by Stone Design, also looks very good.

I'm interested in hearing the opinions of those of you who have tried different Mac web editors, particularly someone who has made the transition from a PC. I am looking for something, like NOF, which will allow me to very quickly put a working site together but which will also give me control over the site styles so that I am not saddled forever by someone else's site design.

For example, NetObjects Fusion uses site styles, most of which aren't that great out of the box, but it's reasonably easy to create your own site styles, or tweak another style to achieve the desired effect.

Most of the web editors that I have looked at seem to be focused on photo display sites. While I use images on my sites, displaying photographs is seldom the chief focus of the site.

Anyhow, I'd like to hear your opinions.
 
angelwatt

angelwatt

Moderator emeritus
Aug 16, 2005
7,852
9
USA
I only use BBEdit. I only use text editors. I've never found a WYSIWYG type editor to be able to handle what I need. You should also check through the stickies on this forum as people have listed most every web design/development app for the Mac.
 
blaster_boy

blaster_boy

macrumors 6502
Jan 31, 2004
282
4
Belgium
Rapidweaver is very WYSIWYG and has a lot of templates that are extensively customisable via their interface. To create more you either need to buy ones or make your own.
Shutterbug is out there as well.
Flux2 (theescapers) is in beta right now, and is a mix between hard-coding css files and wysiwyg.
Coda and Espresso are more code-editor-like.
 
F

foshizzle

macrumors regular
Oct 17, 2007
240
0
espresso

I just began exploring web design (basic HTML/CSS, starting with PHP now). I am using espresso because I got it with the macheist app package. It is a great coding app in my opinion. The builtin preview is nice, but i cant get it to work with PHP. Not a big deal. Having 'projects' is also great, you can set it to auto save to a FTP server and merge or update project files. Probably similar to what other apps can do. The UI is nice and helps to keep everything organized. It is a newish app, just beyond version 1.0, but it's been great for learning.

http://macrabbit.com/espresso/
 
Melrose

Melrose

Suspended
Dec 12, 2007
7,806
399
I just bought Coda, and it's been a HUGE timesaver.

It's very slick to use. I code by hand, and used to use Smultron (free) prior, but Panic just had a big sale so I snapped it up. I can edit files right on the server now, and it's got a very easy to handle FTP built right in, along with snippets, coding syntax modes (including MooTools mode, which is great)...

I love it.

'tween Coda and Photoshop, I got me covered. And Transmit for large files. :)
 
B

beg_ne

macrumors 6502
Jul 3, 2003
452
0
Best thing is to try a few of these apps and see which ones work best for you. Most/all of them should have free trials available.

You could even give iWeb a try, the version that comes with iLife 09 can upload the files to any ftp site you have. I haven't used it in that capacity and you may find the templates etc. too restrictive but it can't hurt to give it a look.

Personally I use Coda nowadays, usually I'll just setup a wordpress blog, find a nice template and then tweak the images, css etc. to get the desired look.

I have Adobe's CS3 Suite but I don't use it for web and can't really stand their software anymore, its too bloaty, slow, buggy and they just don't seem to give a crap about their customers now.
 
decksnap

decksnap

macrumors 68040
Apr 11, 2003
3,075
84
I use Fireworks + CSS Edit + Smultron and/or Dreamweaver, but I envision that slot becoming Espresso.
 
wheezy

wheezy

macrumors 65816
Apr 7, 2005
1,280
1
Alpine, UT
+100 for CSS Edit, buy it learn it love it. If you don't know how to use it, keep using it until you do.

On the main code, I use Coda. If Espresso would have been out 18 months ago, I probably would have jumped on that. I'm too familiar with Coda and the Snippets etc now to want to give Espresso a fair try, but if it's anything like CSS Edit, it's a good contender.

DW needs to die, or at least fall out of the realm of 'professional' into consumer.
 
M

memco

macrumors 6502
May 1, 2008
259
2
I'm gonna echo advice and try out several options. I love Textmate personally, but I stick to hand coding most things (TM makes it very fast, clean and easy to do) I also have Espresso, and I'm pretty happy with it as well (it didn't have a classic ASP sugar last time I checked so I don't use it for work though). Dreamweaver is available for mac, and is a very solid IDE. It has great WYSIWYG, integrated versioning, ftp and a slew of other useful features. However, I also find their code messy and unmanageable, which is a HUGE drawback for me.
 
Melrose

Melrose

Suspended
Dec 12, 2007
7,806
399
wheezy said:
DW needs to die, or at least fall out of the realm of 'professional' into consumer.
Click to expand...

I don't see how or why Dream Weaver ever got the high profile it currently has. Adobe markets it as a 'professional' app, but I've used it and it's clunky, awkward, confusing and just plain sucks. They need to drop the price by $400.

Unfortunately, I know a few design teams that use it simply for the templating feature thingie.

So much markup I've seen done with DW is so dang bloated.. The DW brain is like a red-headed step child one wants to beat. "Let's put this H1 header into a Table, nested inside another Table that adds a few px of padding on the bottom! Then, we'll tuck this into a bigger Table with the subheader (which is secluded in it's own teensy tiny little Table also), and.. Table! Table!"
 
burntpixel

burntpixel

macrumors newbie
Jun 8, 2009
2
0
I'm on a Dell XPS 600 and researching Mac's very heavily over the past couple of weeks. One of my questions was this very one, what software will I use on the Mac side for web development. I figured I would carry over the DW but that is a heavy price tag. I found Softpress offers Freeway Pro. As noted I'm still on a PC and looking to move so I have not tried this, just another option I that had not been mentioned.
 
decksnap

decksnap

macrumors 68040
Apr 11, 2003
3,075
84
Melrose said:
I don't see how or why Dream Weaver ever got the high profile it currently has. Adobe markets it as a 'professional' app, but I've used it and it's clunky, awkward, confusing and just plain sucks. They need to drop the price by $400.

Unfortunately, I know a few design teams that use it simply for the templating feature thingie.

So much markup I've seen done with DW is so dang bloated.. The DW brain is like a red-headed step child one wants to beat. "Let's put this H1 header into a Table, nested inside another Table that adds a few px of padding on the bottom! Then, we'll tuck this into a bigger Table with the subheader (which is secluded in it's own teensy tiny little Table also), and.. Table! Table!"
Click to expand...

I still use dreamweaver as a glorified text editor sometimes. You don't ever have to LET it generate a letter of code to find utility in the program.
 
Melrose

Melrose

Suspended
Dec 12, 2007
7,806
399
decksnap said:
I still use dreamweaver as a glorified text editor sometimes. You don't ever have to LET it generate a letter of code to find utility in the program.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know. My sourness comes from so many people I've know who do. They get all trumped up on their own development 'skills' and then you see what kind of stuff they produce.

I blame Dream Weaver (and FrontPage and GoLive) for trying to put web development into the hands of the common man. They have their place, but not at the expense of flooding the waters with beached whales of code. I think (me, personally) that if you want to build a website, there should be at least some learning of the standards involved. Don't get me wrong it's great if someone can do it himself, but just take some time and learn a bit first.

And kudos for using it as a text editor. :)
 
D

Dojan5

macrumors newbie
Jun 6, 2009
18
0
Unprocessed1 said:
Rapidweaver is pretty much fool proof but still very good and cheap.
Click to expand...

Foolproof? Then I'm not even a fool, even though I've been developing webpages for over 6 years now. I can't even figure out how to add a startpage to Rapidweaver, yet I bought it...

I still prefer using Wordpress for websites, I'll throw together a theme and BAM I have a nice website.
 
M

Momofthree

macrumors member
Mar 11, 2009
39
0
in the desert
I have Kompozer on my Mac.... On Windows I was using a WYSIWYG editor and I couldn't really find anything similar....Kompozer is a bit buggy but works well and it's free!

I tried Sandvox which has templates/themes which are ok...and I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to use RapidWeaver... duh! :confused:

I found a pretty neat site that deals with iWeb and what you can do with it...
http://allaboutiweb.com/

There is also Freeway Pro, Amaya, WebDesign (can't remember where I d/l that one) I haven't tried all of those ones as of yet.
 
E

eskalation.dk

macrumors member
Oct 4, 2006
73
0
Coda all the way! It's nice to use a web editor that has weeded out all the crap that you don't need - focusing on the things a real web developer needs. The only thing they lack that i looove in dreamweaver is the multiple line indentation feature (select five lines, press tab and all those lines gets indented by one tab stop, NO WAIT!!). I just found a solution for that! YES! http://menumachine.com/blog/2009/01/tab-key-indenting-for-coda/ epic.

Coda for coding, testing and FTP access
Mamp as local server and
Photoshop for layouting, then you have the perfect web design environment :)
 
P

penq86

macrumors newbie
Aug 29, 2008
13
0
FTP : Cyberduck (recently used Filezilla but it gave me problems)
Text editors: Espresso and Textmate :)
 
M

mlblacy

macrumors 6502a
Sep 23, 2006
524
40
the REAL Jersey Shore
agl82 said:
If you're looking for a professional WYSIWYG editor, Dreamweaver CS4 is unfortunately the only (and most expensive) game in town...:(
Click to expand...

Bah! Sorry... but that is complete rubbish IMO. I own DW, and completely hated every minute of it. Admittedly I was a GoLive guy, and liked the interface, logic & feel of the ap. It was much more intuitive than DW.

Check out RapidWeaver, I left DW for it, and never looked back. It is easy enough to pick up, yet complex enough to handle most of your website creative needs. The extensive list of plug-ins, and third party "themes" (think of themes as the bare bones/navigational framework to build your sites with). The themes are HUGELY malleable and it is not difficult to customize them to look uniquely "yours". Want a true tabula rasa, or blank slate to start with? Try the Blocks plug-in from YourHead...
Google Analytics integration takes only minutes...

Best of all the community of users, developers & programmers is beyond par. Hit a snag? Post a query on the forums.... often within an hour or so you have an answer, or many of them. Priceless.

Flux looked interesting, but after 2 years it is still in beta? (sorry... it looked interesting, maybe the Flux2 will change that).
Other handy tools are CSSEdit2 & TextMate. My advice is to give RW a fair shake...
Also, I am a professional designer with 25 years experience, the last 8 running my own studio... (I am one of the pros who HATED working with DW).
michael
 
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