CSS coders out there! What is your fav editor?

Question

Hi all,

what editor are you using to edit your stylesheets?

I for one prefer vim.

It's a kind of poll: by the number of votes I will be able to tell which one is the most popular.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Zend Studio

Answer 2

I prefer Coda

Answer 3

My favourite is Notepad++.

Answer 4

Visual Studio 2008 - Sorry you don't need a IDE for CSS. As long as your editor can syntax highlight .. you're fine.

Answer 5

On my mac, I prefer CSSEdit.

It's very nice with a lot of features, such as: Live Preview, Syntax Highlighting, Auto complete, Validation built-in, and even something similar to version control (milestones).

Answer 6

I use gvim for all my editing, except java and c#, for which it is usually more efficient to use eclipse, VS, or monoDevelop.

Answer 7

I use Emacs for all my dev work.

Answer 8

TEXT_EDITOR_OF_CHOICE

Answer 9

I used to use TopStyle but the functionality I used in that was incorporated into VS2008.

Answer 10

I also use Vim. It's a shame that exuberant ctags has no support for CSS though because I could really use a browser for all the selectors I use in large files. Does anybody know a good alternative to ctags here?

Answer 11

TopStyle would get my vote. Both HTML and CSS aware. Full colour coding of CSS, HTML, and javascript.

Previewing of styles on an html of your choice, or the currently edited HTML file.

Written by Nick Bradbury who originally wrote HomeSite.

It's not free, but if you're doing a lot of site development, it's worth it.

A trial version is also available.

Answer 12

Aptana is a really nice IDE. It detects errors in your CSS as you type, and also gives hints as to which rules are supported in which browsers.

Answer 13

Along with any other kind of code, I edit my CSS in Textmate.

Answer 14

Vim with this plugin.

Answer 15

I don't feel like a CSS editor is too important. I think I could be just as effective with Notepad if I had Firebug.

Answer 16

Vim and Firefox's Web Developer Toolbar.

Answer 17

I use e-texteditor when I'm prototyping. I'm usually in Visual Studio though, so often I use that for quick edits.

Visual Studio 2008 has some great CSS features, but I actually prefer to do CSS tweaking an debugging directly in Firefox with Firebug.

Answer 18

Jedit, sometimes vim/gvim, firebug and web developers toolbar...

Answer 19

I've had the most success using any text editor with syntax highlighting (usually this ends up being Visual Studio 200x), and then rapidly tweaking the design using Firebug (http://getfirebug.com/). After the design looks good in FireFox, I try to make it work in IE. There are some tools that are supposed to work like Firebug in IE, but they aren't great.

Answer 20

Notepad2 for coding, Firebug for tweaking.

Answer 21

Rapid PHP

Rapid PHP is what I use for CSS, PHP, (x)HTML, and Javascript. It has tools for validating, cleaning and formatting CSS, and has auto-complete features for each language.

By "formatting CSS" I mean, for example, turning multiple margin-left, margin-right, etc statements into margin: 5px 3px 2px 1px or whatever you need, or turning multi-line declarations into single line, etc. There are lots of options for how it does this.

Other features I like:

• You can define a "project" as a folder and it will default to opening files in that home directory, do search and replace across all those files, and keep track of where to upload those files if you want to send them to FTP.
• You can save and upload all open files to FTP with one click, and if it knows that project, each file goes to the appropriate directory.
• It highlights to show you the scope you're working in. For example, in HTML, the opening and closing tags of an element will be highlighted while your cursor is inside that element; in JavaScript, the curly braces or parentheses you're in will be highlighted. If an opening tag or parentheses or curly brace doesn't have a matching closing item, the opening one will be highlighted a different color. This helps me a lot with understanding and fixing nested syntax issues.
• It will run off a thumb drive. Pretty handy when you need to work from a different computer.

Answer 22

I simply use VS as the project is already open and having another editor open just for CSS feels like a waste to me. It's autocomplete does just fine. Although I do also have Firebug open constantly. I use it more than VS as my CSS development tool. Using Firebugs live manipulation I can edit and work with my CSS and then just copy the changes to the project.

Answer 23

Textpad, Firebug, or VS200x

I not really worried about an IDE other than syntax highlighting, and even that is quite optional. I've seen vim mentioned a lot here, I'll have to check that out sometime.

Answer 24

Don't laugh: Visual Studio 2008.

My favorite debugger, however, is Firebug.

Answer 25

Zeus IDE. It does things like CSS syntax highlighting, code folding etc etc.

Answer 26

Microsoft Notepad

Answer 27

On Mac OSX, CSSEdit - on Windows -Nick Bradbury's Top Style

TopStyle

CSSEdit

Answer 28

IntelliJ IDEA has excellent CSS support.

For example: syntax highlighting, on-the-fly validation & error highlighting, "find usage" functionality, ctrl-space completion of every imaginable thing (CSS keywords, properties, classes, even colour names). I also like many small touches like showing a preview of any colours (both codes (#ffee11) and names (cadetblue)). Here's a more complete list of IDEA's CSS features.

Still, if you don't do any Java development along with the HTML and CSS, investing in IntelliJ IDEA probably is not worthwhile.

Answer 29

I use Notepadd++ as I do most of my web development via a simple text editor. Notepad++ allows the syntax highlighting and it is becoming the editor of choice as html is not the only files I edit. Most common file edited are c files.

I have also used Kompozer but found it too much of a non programmers editor. It did however show me the layout in real time when I made changes to the css how it affected the html pages. Unlike notepad++ which is only a text editor not a layout manager or html preview etc. Although there may be plugins available I have never checked.

Answer 30

I've been using Komodo Edit recently - it has really nice autocompletion/syntax highlighting, and its macros/scripts are great for working with version control systems such as Git. Its extension system seems good as well, though I have yet to try creating an extension.

I also use Firebug for debugging and small tweaks to the CSS.

Answer 31

Nothing beats Vim for me, even despite the fact that it has a lot less prettier gui on windows compared to any other editor i've seen. I would love to see the GTK gui for Vim on Windows.

Answer 32

editplus,debug with firebug.

Answer 33

Firebug. It rocks as I see the changes immediately

Answer 34

I personaly use Eclipse because it has a lot of modules and above all is open source.

Answer 35

StyleMaster for WIndows. CssEdit for Mac.