Best non-WYSIWYG CSS Editor?

Question

I'm looking for a powerful CSS text editor. I have no need for WYSIWYG capabilities. Right now I'm using Vim, Aptana, and Visual Studio 2008 depending on the project, but I'm wondering if there are better solutions. Free is better.

I want all the obvious features:

• auto-completion
• syntax highlighting
• tab/space options

A few less common:

• auto-formatting
• auto block-commenting
• different text-sizes for comments and code

And, if possible, one that I haven't seen anywhere. I usually write CSS rules on one line, so I can see a lot of rules at once:

div#big-box {color:#000; font-family:Georgia, serif; line-height:2em;}
div#big-box a {color:#06a; text-decoration:none; }
div#big-box a:hover {background-color:black; color:white;}

This is great for browsing CSS rules, but the horizontal scrolling can be a pain, so I'm wondering if any editor can automatically expand the CSS rule I'm currently editing to a block format, one line per declaration:

div#big-box {
    color:#000; 
    font-family:Georgia, serif; 
    /* Editing here, so this ruleset is expanded */
    line-height:2em;
}
div#big-box a {color:#06a; text-decoration:none; }
div#big-box a:hover {background-color:black; color:white;}

SO Note: this is NOT an dupe of another question asking about CSS editors, as that one specifically asks for WYSIWYG editors.

Answer 1

Stylizer

It has a lot of WYSIWYG features that you don't need, but you don't have to use them. The author of the app has been on the JoelOnSoftware forums some.

Answer 2

TurboCSS from SourceForge is quite nice still in Beta however.

If that is not your flavour then Scite also works great.

Answer 3

As much as I hate to say it, Dreamweaver might be a forefront option for you. There are numerous editors out there that have the basic stuff, like syntax highlighting and color-coding, etc. But the full-package seems to be available rarely (at least in my experience). Dreamweaver was one of the few editors I have used in the past that gave me just about everything.

Answer 4

Notepad++ does a great job.

Answer 5

Komodo Edit maybe?

Answer 6

The Eclipse Web Tools CSS editor does pretty much all of that (except for the formatting while editing and different font size for comments, but you can make them bold etc.).

Answer 7

Firebug does a very good job in my opinion. The downside is that it is FF-centric

Answer 8

I'm using jEdit because it has a pretty complete set of completions for CSS and it's very simple to extend it.

Answer 9

Not free, but WestCiv's StyleMaster I think would fit the bill for most things you're after.

Answer 10

Geany is a very nice editor, open source and multi platform. I've been flipping between that and Notepad++. Notepadd++ works smoother on my Windows box at work, but on a Linux machine geany wins out.

Answer 11

Since you're using Visual Studio, I have to guess you're on Windows. But since an OS was not specified... CSSEdit (Mac only) is the best I've used (I'm a full time CSS dev). It's even good enough to make me leave my beloved TextMate just for editing CSS.

On Windows, I get by with Notepad++

Answer 12

When I was using Windows I was an avid TopStyle Pro user (which kind of ages the amount of time I've been doing CSS), on Mac I'm all about CSSEdit.

Answer 13

With a bit of tweaking it should be possible to configure Zeus for Windows to do most of what you want.

And, if possible, one that I haven't seen anywhere. I usually write CSS rules on one line, so I can see a lot of rules at once:

One feature that Zeus has that might help in this case is code folding. This means your code:

 div#big-box {    
    color:#000;     
    font-family:Georgia, serif;     
    /* Editing here, so this ruleset is expanded */    
    line-height:2em;
 }

can be folded down to this:

   div#big-box 
[+]{ ... }

Answer 14

Can I suggest ArduoCss? ArduoCss is lite,fast and freeware. For me the best Css Editor!

Answer 15

I suggest free PHP, HTML and CSS editor - Codelobster PHP Edition.

Answer 16

Visual Studio 2008 Express can do that. Even if you don't use it for .NET development, it's got pretty powerful CSS and HTML editors.