CSS Site Creation GUI?

Dades

Hi guys,

I'm pushing the move from tables to pure CSS in work. We maintain a lot of older sites/consoles from years back, so it's going to be a slow transition!

I'm very familiar with coding large HTML table-based sites with CSS, so what I'm looking for now is the best application to build pages in CSS only. The stuff I build is very graphic heavy and a good GUI would be a great help, although of course there are new concepts I'll need to learn too.

I'm looking at Adobe's GoLive and also Dreamweaver CS3 (still using v.4 ) as potentials. Not really bothered about external application support such as importing stuff from Photoshop.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Cheers!

Webmonkey

I personally love Dreamweaver's way of handling CSS. Its got a few nice shortcuts etc. But it can only do so much for you, you will need a firm understanding of CSS.

Dades

Thanks Webmonkey.

I've been through the browser compatibility CSS mill, so I've a fair grounding. Obviously it's "nesting" and such I'll need to get my head around now.

I'm not looking for a GUI to do everything, just a good layout so I can follow my code changes easier.

DJB

I'll have to recommend a bit of hand coding here. Use DW by all means but do it using code view only and have your html and css files open, make a change, refresh browser. Use firefox and if you can't get things to line up properly, use www.getfirebug.com to edit your CSS on the fly, then copy the code back into the actual file. Get things working in FF, fix for IE6&7 using conditional css, safari should be ok and opera too.

By taking this route, you'll learn what works and what doesn't. It might be a slow start but it'll allow you to fly through css designs in no time. They become second nature and you'll wonder how the hell you ever did table designs. Any time I have to build a table these days, I have to double check I've got the right format - I rarely build them at all.

HTH

Dave

pburns

DJB wrote: »

I'll have to recommend a bit of hand coding here. Use DW by all means but do it using code view only and have your html and css files open, make a change, refresh browser. Use firefox and if you can't get things to line up properly, use www.getfirebug.com to edit your CSS on the fly, then copy the code back into the actual file. Get things working in FF, fix for IE6&7 using conditional css, safari should be ok and opera too.

Dave

+1
Use Dreamweaver code view. The use of the shortcuts (sparingly) is no harm either, as long as you keep an eye on the changes occuring in the code. This can aid the learning process also.

Of course once that's done the browser testing/hacking begins and Firebug makes this a bit easier.

I was expecting the purists to come out of the woodwork and recommend Notepad or similar. I don't give a feck what anyone says DW is still the daddy - if used wisely...

DJB

I always use DW because I'm used to it but I only hand code everything. I love the code view, autocomplete, integrated ftp, etc.

heggie

i love CSSedit on osx

Webmonkey

DJB wrote: »

I always use DW because I'm used to it but I only hand code everything. I love the code view, autocomplete, integrated ftp, etc.

Yep that is exactly what I use it for. I hardly ever see design view, my design view is the browser

herya

If you're looking for a dedicated CSS text editor TopStyle is probably your best choice. It is a lot like code view in Dreamweaver with all kinds of previews, style inspectors, automated help, CSS cleaners, templates etc. You can easily make it your own, it's very flexible. For Windows, that is :>

Dades

pburns wrote: »

I was expecting the purists to come out of the woodwork and recommend Notepad or similar.

Likewise!

Thanks guys. I agree with the sentiments that the code view is where the real work is to be done. Not having seen a version of DW later than v.4, I've probably missed out on the new code-view features. I do like some kind of layout GUI, but on reflection once I get my head around *no tables* (:eek:) I would probably rarely use it.

I'm gonna get download the trial version and give it a whirl (I'll have a look at TopStyle too while I'm at it).

Cheers!

Bob the Builder

I have Dreamweaver MX on my other laptop here, just got CS3 in the last few weeks, my cousin got it for me a few weeks ago for €235.

It's great for CSS and PHP and programming in general(I like the popups and shortcuts), but really dreamweaver is for design.

Notepad is great, but it is very plain and CSS bugs/mistakes take longer to find.

DJB

a great little text editor is notepad2. Google it - great little program. Or if you're on a mac at all, coda is a great app.

PixelTrawler

I used textpad for all my handcoding but microsoft expression web is suprisingly decent for html/css - again in code modes.

Its free if you have an MSDN account.

Mind you I do most of my work in visual studio.