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TextMate from Macromates

What I Like

TextMate is perhaps the Mac’s most popular text editor for developers and programmers, the self-proclaimed “missing editor for Mac OS X.” It allows coders to churn out complex code with efficiency. It does this by streamlining repetitive tasks and the management of multiple files, and through command line integration. TextMate has excellent search and replace functionality, project management and text navigation tools (such as block folding, block editing and bookmarks). TextMate also has advanced syntax highlighting for a plethora of languages, and comes with several beautiful color themes built in. Perhaps my favorite TextMate feature is Bundles. Bundles are common, language-specific actions and snippets that can be activated with key equivalents and tab triggers. For example, say you are working on an html file and you want to insert a div. In TextMate, you could type div and then the tab key. TextMate would create the opening and closing tag, along with a highlighted placeholder id attribute and nice, neat indentation. Pressing tab once more would highlight the id value, allowing you to easily change. Finally, pressing tab once more brings your cursor to the content area of the div, where you can easily resume begin coding. Bundles can be edited with the Bundle Editor (ctrl-opt-cmd-B). TextMate has plenty more features, too many to discuss in this post, so check out the free, in-depth TextMate Manual.

What I Don’t Like

Once again, TextMate, like Coda, is a wonderful application so it is hard to come up with criticism for it. Nonetheless, TextMate is really “programmy” and perhaps a little complicated for the average web designer (this can be expected, though, given that TextMate was designed for programmers and advanced coders). But, this is nothing that a browse through the TextMate Manual couldn’t solve. In addition, TextMate lacks the FTP integration that many other text editors have.

Price: $56

This, too, seems like a lot money for one application. And, given that TextMate is not as feature-packed as Coda, I will have to decide if I really need the advanced text editing features of TextMate. In the end, I don’t know that I’ll be willing to shell out $56 for a text editor, regardless of how good it is.

CSSEdit from MacRabbit

What I Like

CSSEdit is a beautiful application for viewing, editing and applying style sheets. With CSSEdit, you can view online URLs or offline files and then override or edit their stylesheets locally with @override. These stylesheets can then be exported and applied to files on your computer. Using the X-Ray and Inspector tools you can analyze the different parts on the page and the styles that pertain to those parts. The preview window is live so their is no need to constantly refresh. In terms of the actual editor, there are plenty of features that make CSS editing easy, fun and fast. The Editor window is normally divided into three parts - a sidebar with a list of all the styles in the stylesheet, the actual editor, and the visual editing panel - but the layout can easily be changed using buttons in the toolbar. When you are writing CSS, CSSEdit does a very good job at automatically indenting, has gorgeous syntax highlighting and has superb auto-complete functionality. Some of the coolest features of CSSEdit’s editor are Milestones, Validate and the Selector Builder. Milestones provide a way of going back to different versions of a stylesheet even after closing and reopening it. Validate provides a built-in solution for validating CSS files and jumping to the invalid points in the document. Finally, the Selector Builder makes it easy to create complex selectors, presenting the process in plain English. When it comes to the visual editor, CSSEdit does a good job at shorthand unlike the CSS editor for Coda. All in all, a superb application.

What I Don’t Like

As with TextMate, I feel that the only feature that this application is missing is FTP integration, which I have heard will be coming with version 3.

Price: about $37

Although this seems like a lot, I think that CSSEdit is definitely worth it, given its ease of use, intuitive interface and preview/edit functionality.

xScope from Iconfactory

What I Like

xScope is the application that I have always wanted, and I am absolutely thrilled with it. It is basically seven tools for measuring, aligning and inspecting your screen. These seven tools are all accessible from the menu bar and keyboard shortcuts, and when activated float above all other windows. My favorite tools are Dimensions, Rulers and the Loupe. Dimensions is a tool that measures the width and height of objects and elements on the page. It is really quite cool and it works (I think) by detecting changes in color. You can then copy the dimensions to your clipboard and take a screenshot of the area being measured. Rulers, as the name indicates, are transparent rulers for measuring things on the screen. The rulers can be resized and rotated, and position indicators tell where the cursor is in relation to the point of origin. Lastly, the Loupe (my favorite tool of them all) is a magnifying class for your screen. The magnification amount can be changed and there is a preference to have the Loupe window avoid the mouse, so it doesn’t get your way. The Loupe window has loads of useful information about the current cursor position - hexadecimal color value, RGB color value, HSB color value and XY cursor position. The color value can be copied, the display can be freezed, the image can be locked, among other things. All very cool.

What I Don’t Like

Although xScope allows for lots of customization, I wish the opacity for the Rulers and the Screens could be changed. Besides that, this is perhaps the coolest application I’ve ever tried out.

Price: $26.95

This is a ridiculously good price for such a host of tools. I am definitely adding xScope to my workflow and to my Applications folder.

MarsEdit from Red Sweater

What I Like

Because the Wordpres Admin interface, in my opinion, is lacking (maybe it will improve with the 2.7 release) and because of the limitations of the web browser, I much prefer to use desktop blogging software. MarsEdit is one of the more popular solutions for the Mac. MarsEdit has support for a whole bunch of blogging systems (this doesn’t really affect me, given that I only use Wordpress) and it is really easy to set up your blog. MarsEdit automatically detects the type of blog from the URL you enter and downloads your recent posts. From there you can edit your posts with the MarsEdit editor or seamlessly edit with another editor (options include TextMate and BBEdit). There is a live preview window, eliminating the need for refreshing, and the preview template can be edited so that it resembles your blog. Drafts can be saved locally and published to your blog with one click. Marsedit also has good Flickr and media intergration. One feature that I just discovered is Macros. Macros, similar to those in TextMate, are common snippets that can be inserted with keyboard shortcuts or from a dropdown menu. Lastly, as can be expected, MarsEdit has category and tag support.

What I Don’t Like

Unlike the other apps I’ve reviewed so far, the MarsEdit interface is lacking the visual appeal common to Mac software. In addition, I don’t like the fact the preview displays as a generic theme. Although the template can be edited, I wish instead that the preview was automatically generated from your blog. Also, MarsEdit doesn’t have support for Wordpress custom fields. But, to be fair, no desktop blogging application has support for them.

Price: $29.95

I think MarsEdit’s price is too expensive for what it is. When it comes down to it, all it does is extend the functionality of your blogging software to your desktop. Ecto is a cheaper ($17.95) alternative to MarsEdit.

Yojimbo from Bare Bones Software

What I Like

Yojimbo stores and organizes common information like passwords, bookmarks and images that don’t belong in iPhoto. A keyboard shortcut triggers the Quick Input Panel, which uses your clipboard to create a new item. Yojimbo detects whether it is a bookmark (a url), a note (plain text), etc. and stores it in the appropriate category. Things can also be stored using the Drop Dock at the side of the screen. I don’t really use the Drop Dock because it interferes with my applications at full-width. When viewing a pdf, or any printable item, you can choose ‘Print to Yojimbo’ from the Print dialogue to send it to Yojimbo as an archive. Yojimbo has tagging functionality and items can be be grouped into collections and tag collections.

What I Don’t Like

My main problem with Yojimbo is that I can’t really see it as being that useful. I can use my web browser for bookmarks, Keychain and my web browser for storing passwords, etc. Of course Yojimbo has added functionality and I can see it being useful for some people have lots of information to store and organize, but still I don’t see it changing my life as Bare Bones claims it will.

Price: $39

Like I said, I don’t find Yojimbo to be that useful, and I definitely don’t see it being worth $39.

CoverSutra from Sophiestication

What I Like

I like to keep my iTunes window out of the way and I’ve always found it inconvenient to control it this way. I guess what I needed was a good iTunes controller, and CoverSutra is the king of all iTunes controllers. CoverSutra displays the artwork and info of the current song on the Desktop and the Dock icon is the artwork of the current song. CoverSutra also provides keyboard shortcuts for player controls such as play/pause, shuffle on/off, and song rating. In addition, CoverSutra has Last.fm integration. All of this wrapped up in a clean, sleek interface.

What I Don’t Like

This is a bit picky, but I wish there was an option to open CoverSutra when iTunes opens. I mean, there’s an option to open iTunes when CoverSutra opens but not vise versa. Kinda weird . . .

Price: about $20

Pretty decent price for a featured-packed application. There are some free alternatives out there (such as GimmeSomeTune), but CoverSutra is by far the most polished iTunes controller out there.