The Mac Space Blog

I run/manage/program/design roughly 30 web sites.  I have to know a little HTML, PHP, Javascript, AJAX, CSS and various other web languages to manage my own and my client’s web sites.  I don’t have time to master all of those languages, so I need tools which can take care of the raw code for me.  My CSS tool of choice is hands down CSSEdit by my friends at MacRabbit.

What is CSS?

CSS is short for “cascading style sheets.”  Style sheets can drive the appearance and even the layout of websites.   The cool thing about using CSS to control a site’s appearance, is that it’s easy to make quick changes to the look of the site or document, without having to change the actual content.

With CSS, a single document or set of code can be used to “style” multiple pages (even multiple sites) with the same look, saving on tons of raw coding.  Site-wide changes can be achieved by changing one CSS document, rather than editing each individual markup (html/php etc) document.  The advantages are less code, faster loading, quicker editing and more attractive documents.

CSSEdit Features

Live Preview is a great feature of CSSEdit.  It is incredibly easy to load documents or web pages, make changes to to the CSS and see the changes happen instantly.  In the “old” days of editing CSS, you had to make the changes to the code, update the code on the server, then refresh the page.  That took a ton of time, and often times 2-3 different applications to complete the process.   CSSEdit replaces 2-3 applications and saves you a ton of time with this feature alone.

You can even load the CSS of pages other than your own to see what they’re doing to make their sites look good so that you can steal learn from their ideas.  Conversely, you can see what makes some pages look so bad in order to make sure you don’t make the same mistakes.

One of the very confusing parts of editing and working with CSS, is trying to figure out which damn lines of code control what you’re trying to work with.  In the “pre-CSSEdit days” I’d spend hours guessing which lines of CSS to modify.  It was a very frustrating process, changing the code then refreshing the page to see if it did anything.  Sometimes I’d change styles, see nothing and forget to change them back.  Later on, I’d discover that the code I changed caused problems on other pages or documents.  The X-Ray Inspector contained in CSSEdit allows you to highlight any part of a document and see exactly what lines of CSS code are controlling it.  All it takes is activating the X-Ray Inspector and clicking the part of the document you want to analyze.  Super easy.

Whether you are a GUI (graphical user interface) type of user, or a raw code demon, CSSEdit has you covered.  I’m a combination of both.  When I’m being a code demon I’ll use  Source Editing mode to tweak my CSS.  When I’m not sure what code to use, or I’m in more of a GUI mood I’ll use Visual Editing instead.  CSSEdit allows you to view one or both modes, which is very nice.

Source Editing	Visual Editing

I’ve used CSSEdit for quite a while.  I date back to version 1.x.  That being said I’m still not completely proficient with all the features.  The Selector Builder is a feature I need to use more.  Selectors in CSS define the HTML element or tag which you are styling.  Selectors can get confusing because they can be grouped, they can have multiple iterations and some can even be nameless (global).

Bad or useless code eats up bandwidth and can cause problems.  That’s why CSSEdit’s Debugging feature is so useful.  I had a problem with a blog just yesterday.  Despite looking at the CSS about five times I never figured out what the problem was.  I hit the debug button and voila, question answered.  Problem solved.

The Milestones feature is a nice touch in CSSEdit.  With Milestones you can log breakthroughs or important events, and refer back to them later.

All about FLOW

As I mentioned earlier, editing CSS (and other web scripts) used to be a total pain.  You’d use one application to edit and another to preview.  CSSEdit combines those two applications into one.  Less switching between apps and quicker previewing means more productivity and more free time.

Suggestion Box

I’d like to see the following features in upcoming versions of CSSEdit.

Live browser interpretations.  I’d like to click a button or selector on a page I’m viewing/editing and be able to switch between browser renditions.   Anyone who has done any CSS at all knows that not all browsers are the same.  Get it looking good in Firefox and it may look totally different in Internet Explorer.  I’d like to be able to preview the page live as interpreted by specific browsers.  I know you can extract pages and “pretend to be” certain browsers when extracting CSS with CSSEdit, but unless I’m mistaken this isn’t quite what I’m saying.  Live previewing between browser renditions of a document you are working on would be great.

The next obvious step and my 2nd suggestion is flow related.  CSSEdit can edit and preview pages but can’t save to the server.  With an integrated FTP capability in CSSEdit, I could get my flow down to one application for the three steps of the process: edit, preview, save to server.

Conclusion

CSSEdit is now a crucial tool for me, and part of my daily web administration.  I’m so much more productive with CSS editing, designing, tweaking and debugging my pages now.  The application is well designed, bug free and fast.  CSSEdit is a must have tool for web geeks who use the Macintosh platform.

Update: In previewing this post, it dawned on me that the text in my blog was not justified.  I like a fully justified look.  In a matter of a few seconds I set the CSS to full justification.  I first loaded the page.  Then I turned on the X-Ray Inspector to find the code to edit.  Then I hit the full justify icon in the text tab of the visual editor.  Done!

Address Book

• Improves reliability of Address Book syncing with iPhone and other devices and applications.

• Improves the reliability of AirPort connections, including improvements when roaming in large wireless networks with an Intel-based Mac.

• Improves reliability of synchronizing files on a portable home directory.
• Fixes an issue in Mac OS X 10.5.4 and 10.5.5 in which managed users may not see printers that use the Generic PPD.
• Client computers that use UUID-based ByHost preferences now respect managed Screen Saver settings.

• Addresses an issue that could cause an encryption alert to appear in the chat window.
• Setting your iChat status to “invisible” via AppleScript no longer logs you out of iChat.
• Resolves an issue in which pasting text from a Microsoft Office document could insert an image rather than text.

• Includes general improvements to gaming performance.
  
• Includes graphics improvements for iChat, Cover Flow, Aperture, and iTunes.
• Includes fixes for possible graphics distortion issues with certain ATI graphics cards.
  

• Includes overall performance and reliability fixes.
• Improves Connection Doctor accuracy.
• Fixes an issue that could cause messages identified as junk to remain in the inbox.
• Fixes an issue that could cause Mail to append a character to the file extension of an attachment.
• Addresses an issue that could prevent Mail from quitting.
• Improves reliability when printing PDF attachments.

• Contacts, calendars, and bookmarks on a Mac automatically sync within a minute of the change being made on the computer, another device, or the web at me.com.

• Improves Apple File Service performance, especially when using a home directory hosted on an AFP server. Important: If you are using Mac OS X 10.5.6 (client) to connect to a Mac OS X Server 10.4-based server, it is strongly recommended that you update the server to Mac OS X Server version 10.4.11.
• Improves the performance and reliability of TCP connections.
• Improves reliability and performance for AT&T 3G cards.
• Updates the ssh Terminal command for compatibility with more ssh servers.

• Improves printing for the Adobe CS3 application suite.
• Improves printing for USB-based Brother and Canon printers.

• Addresses an issue in which a parentally-controlled account could be unable to access the iTunes Store.
• Includes general fixes for time limits.
• Resolves an issue that prevented adding allowed websites from Safari via drag and drop.

• Fixes issues that could cause Time Machine to state the backup volume could not be found.
• Improves Time Machine reliability with Time Capsule.

• Improves compatibility with web proxy servers.
  
  

• Includes Mac OS X security improvements. See this website for more information.
• Addresses inaccuracies with Calculator when the Mac OS X language is set to German or Swiss German.
• Improves the performance and reliability of Chess.
• Improves DVD Player performance and reliability.
• Performance improvements for iCal are included.
• Fixes an issue when running the New iCal Events Automator action as an applet.
• Adds a Trackpad System Preference pane for portable Macs.
• Improves compatibility with smart cards such as the U.S. Department of Defense Common Access Card.
• Updates time zone data and Daylight Saving Time rules for several countries.

From the Apple web site:

The iPhone 2.1 software update contains many bug fixes and improvements. To get it, connect your iPhone to your computer using iTunes 8 and click Check for Update.

Update includes:

• Decrease in call set-up failures and dropped calls
• Significantly better battery life for most users
• Dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
• Improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
• Faster installation of 3rd party applications
• Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users with lots of third party applications

• Improved performance in text messaging
• Faster loading and searching of contacts
• Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
• Repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
• Option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
• Genius playlist creation