There are many useful tools available for web designers and web developers that help them quickly and efficiently complete websites on schedule. Some tools are free, while others can be rather expensive – choosing the right tools will be determined by quality of work expected, price of software and functionality.
Tip #1: Develop and Design Using Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox has plenty of free tools that make web design extremely simple for designers and developers. Firstly, the Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox allows developers to quickly and easily view source code, css stylesheets and disable various functions of any site for fast debugging and development.
Also available for Firefox is an add-on called Firebug, which allows for inspection of the various elements on any site so that designers and developers can check the CSS and HTML of their site on the fly. Edits can even be made within the browser so designers can speedily test other options before implementing them in their final site. Another cool tool is called ColorZilla, it allows designers to extract colors from their website so that they know exactly which colors to use to ensure the consistency of their site.
Tip #2: Hack CSS for Internet Explorer
As most designers probably already know, designing for Internet Explorer can be a pain as it is not standards compliant. One good thing it does allow, however, is for separate stylesheets that are browser specific to target Internet Explorer browsers. Using the following code:
<!--[if IE]>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles/ie.css" />