Ask iBAM: Web Design Mac Apps

Tagged Ask iBAM by Brent on January 23rd, 2008

Our pal James comes back with another “Ask iBAM” question for the masses. This time it’s about web design Mac apps. This should be a good hearty conversation starter. There’s a ton of apps out there and everyone has their fav’s. What’s your weapon of choice? Here’s James’ question:

Got another question for you and the iBAM readers. As I sent in earlier I am preparing to make the switch to a mac with a new 24″ iMac. I was mainly waiting for MacWorld just in case anything minor was announced for the iMac. I am a freelance web designer and developer right now and have been browsing apps for the Mac for what I do. I’m wanting to get the opinions of your readers on which ones would be the best to get. I’m not used to anything special as now I use Notepad++ for all coding and FileZilla for ftp. Some of the apps I’m currently looking at include CSSEdit, Transmit, Coda and YummyFTP. What are your opinions on these? Would Coda be the best route with the its editor and transmit or does CSSEdit have an advantage? Basically looking for the word of fellow web designers on what you like about each or prefer between them. I also used to do freelance video editing in the past but time hasn’t allowed me to in awhile but plan to get back into it. What apps are recommended or what apps do you guys use? Or is Final Cut the best/only choice? Thanks for the help.

I certainly have my opinions as to my favorite apps. But I’m open to try something new as well. So here’s my list:

For video editing, I’m a really long time Adobe Premiere (Pr) user so most of the time I use Premiere CS3, but I do own Final Cut Studio (FC) and I try to play with that as much as possible. I have a feeling, I will end up in FC for the long haul, but for now, I’m just so fast in Pr, that it’s what I use. I haven’t gotten into Motion much or Live Type. I’m still pretty hooked on After Effects (Ae).

That was me. Now… What about you?



  • I figured I'd throw in my two cents as well. I use Smultron and TextExpander and Transmit. I love the simplicity of Smultron and its free! It also opens fast which is important to me, and I love editing files on my server by just selecting the file and hitting command+J. I love to type it all out but text expander saves me sooo much time, its like an auto complete for your whole computer, really check it out its amazing. I've used cyberduck and transmit and I love transmit, its worth the couple bucks. Cyberduck is ok, its free, but buggy I've found. I tried Coda but didn't really like it, still a little too bulky for me.

    Smultron
    http://smultron.sourceforge.net

    TextExpander (be sure to get the HTML snippet file)
    http://www.smileonmymac.com/textexpander/

    Another neat plugin, it adds syntax coloring to safari's view source. http://www.tildesoft.com/Misc.html
  • I dunno about Coda either. I tried it today and all it did was lock up. I'm so fast with Textmate. Is there a reason for someone who usually just types it all out to switch to one of these apps? Are they really faster?
  • Will
    I've been a huge fan of TextMate + CSS Edit, but I guess it all really boils down to your workflow and needs. I use Photoshop + Color Scheemer for design side.

    http://www.colorschemer.com/osx_info.php

    Coda is indeed a really cool app for most small to midsized development needs, but I don't really fit into the workflow it provides, so I've sort of skipped over what Code has to truly offer.
  • I made the switch in May of 2006. Following is a brief list of what i've found are my fave apps for webdev and such:

    I love TextMate for coding (those bundles are sooooo powerful) and SubEthaEdit if you will be doing any sort of real-time paired or group coding.
    What Bethany feels for BBEdit i feel for TextMate. Didn't care for BBEdit but i do Ruby on Rails, XHTML, CSS, Python, Release Notes, XML, SQL and AppleScript coding. http://macromates.com and http://codingmonkeys.de

    Also get the TextMate book from http://pragprog.com. It helped me really understand TextMate.

    I haven't played with Transmit or Cyberduck enough to know what the difference is so i'll punt on the FTP client. Sorry :(

    NetNewsWire is a great (and now free!!) RSS reader. http://www.newsgator.com/Individuals/NetNewsWire/

    Make sure you install Quicksilver as well. its a quick launch app. It starts when your Mac boots and allows you to start applications by hitting Ctrl+SpaceBar and then typing the first few letters of the name of a program. It also does SOOOOO much more. Merlin Mann has a few great tips of how to do things with it. Very powerful once you learn some of the basics. http://www.blacktree.com

    Adium X is a free multi-protocol/service IM client. Kind of like Trillian on Windows. http://www.adiumx.com

    If you have to handle .rar files in any way UnRarX is a great(free) .rar tool. http://www.unrarx.com

    smcFanControl allows you set the speed of your cooling fans from right in the menubar. It shows your CPUs temps and lets you create presets. Works really well for helping me keep my MacBookPro cool. http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23049

    AppCleaner is a free program "uninstaller." Yes you can "uninstall" an application by dragging its icon in the Application folder to the trash. But lots of apps i've tried leave things behind. I'm anal retentive about everything that was installed being uninstalled. AppZapper does the same thing but is not free. http://www.freemacsoft.net/AppCleaner/

    Mail.app has been pretty cool. You can even set it up to work with your Gmail account.

    If you need some office apps, look at NeoOffice (free, http://neooffice.org) or Apple's iWork '08 ($79).
  • I use BBEdit for HTML editing and nothing I've used before beats it. It's packed with so many *useful* features. I feel like I find something new that saves me hours of time every time I open it up.
  • Thanks for the list guys. I have looked at Coda and might still get it. I bought the MacHeist II Bundle so I have CSSEdit now (although can't use it yet until I get the iMac) so I'm looking forward to trying it. Transmit seems to be the choice for most as far as FTP so its on my list.
  • I use a combination of TextMate, Transmit, Photoshop and a nifty little plugin for Safari called Tidy which shows your XHTML validation status in the statusbar on the fly (http://zappatic.net/safaritidy/) -- which saves a little time flip-flopping between browsers. I don't use CSS editors because I don't trust them to do shorthand yet.

    Coda is a very nice app, but the text editor is still miles from replacing TextMate for me. Not sure it ever will. If I die, I want my TextMate buried with me.
  • Brent, you have a pretty good set up with the apps you have listed, however, I would really recommend Coda.

    Shawn Blanc has an amazing review of it here.

    Additionally, if you don't use Coda's FTP client I would use Cyberduck until Flow makes it debut.
  • I used to use a combination of Textmate + CSSEdit + Transmit with some Photoshop for the graphics. I have recently switched to using Coda and Photoshop exclusively now. Coda does everything I want it to. When I am "working on my site" it is now one task. However, if you want the best text editor, ftp client, and CSS editor, Textmate + CSSEdit + Transmit is the way to go.

    Also, I use Final Cut Express and love it. Definitely recommend it. It's cheap and powerful
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