My Favorite Tools
| Date | Ongoing |
I’m always interested to see what people are using to get their work done and I appreciate developers & designers sharing their finds and methods. I thought I’d return the favor by listing what’s been helping me. This is not an exhaustive list, and I’ve left out the big ones like Illustrator and Photoshop, but I’ve found these to be indispensable.
LaunchBar
I used Butler for a few years and toyed with Quicksilver off and on (it was powerful but ultimately too buggy) but I finally settled on the highly polished LaunchBar. You will want to spend a little time setting it up in order to get the most out of it, but once you do you’ll have a hard time using a computer without it. The abbreviations, clipboard history, and overall feature set are unparalleled at the moment. The closest I’ve seen is Alfred.
LiveReload
When BBEdit first introduced its Preview option it brought a dramatic change in the way web developers worked. Being able to see a live view of the CSS and HTML edits without the constant “command-r” in the browser speed up development significantly. Now LiveReload liberates this from the code editor to the browser: Chrome, Safari or Firefox. It requires a little configuration but once it’s running you only need to enable the browser (via an extension) and from that point on any change detected to a file in the “watch” directory — Sass, CSS, HTML, anything — will trigger a reload of the code but not a full refresh. This makes is great when you want to maintain your browser’s state yet still want to see your changes applied. Awesome.
Notational Velocity with Simplenote
For years I’ve been on the lookout for a simple way to take basic notes. I didn’t need a way to import photos or links or files (Evernote is great but even it is overkill), it just needed to be minimal and fast. That’s why I was excited when Simplenote appeared, providing a way to quickly create, save and sync notes from my laptop, desktop, and phone. And in my opinion the best app to take advantage of Simplenote’s API has been Notational Velocity. I’ve been using the nvALT Fork because it adds a couple features I like.
Notational Velocity (nvALT Fork) and Simplenote
Sublime Text 2
I’ve used all the major HTML/CSS code editors over the years and they all have their strong points. BBEdit is a powerhouse, tons of features, very stable and has a long development history. Textmate, recently awakened from the deep freeze, brought simplicity, better auto-completion and made front-end coding just a little easier. But BBEdit feels bloated and Textmate, for all it’s features, is a bit buggy and its long-term development is in doubt. So Coda had been my go to editor for a couple years but even that got too sluggish and buggy. I’ve finally settled on Sublime Text 2 and haven’t looked back. Aside from being wicked fast and already fully featured, it’s much more easily customized than Coda. I think it will mostly appeal to Textmate users who have been looking for something a little less stale. But, ask me what I’m using 6 months from now...
Moom
It can be a pain trying to trying to deal with all the windows I usually have open when I’m coding. At the very least I have my code editor and a browser. Combine that with all the other applications I need to be open — Mail, xScope, Cornerstone, Photoshop, etc. — and it’s easy to end up with overlapping windows all over the place. Using key commands assigned to Moom, windows can be repositioned and resized instantly, maximizing the available space. It’s simple and does it what it needs to very well. I used Divvy for while but its interface is a little awkward, lacks a few of Moom’s features, and is about three times as expensive.
Gitbox
For most of my development life SVN was the version control system of choice. It was reliable, easily understood and widely adopted. In the last couple years I've migrated to using Git. Extremely fast and file/folder-renaming-friendly it’s superior to SVN in every way that I can think of — but it took a while to get used to. Git is just conceptually close enough to SVN to cause a good amount of confusion when you’re getting started. Ultimately the command line is the most powerful way to use it but it wasn’t until I started using Gitbox that it all “clicked”. It doesn't carry the feature set the way Cornerstone does for SVN but combined wth Github it does the primary tasks — commit, branch, push, pull — very well.
xScope
This is hands down one of the most used applications I have. It stays out of the way until needed and provides some great tools for quick on-screen measuring and sampling. Aside from the rulers, frames, and guides it provides, the coolest feature is called Dimensions. When enabled it will show the width and height of any item on the screen, in any app, and allow you to take a quick screenshot of the defined area. I use the loupe almost daily to sample hex values, placed on my clipboard instantly.
TotalFinder
From the same folks that created TotalTerminal we now have TotalFinder. You barely know it’s running except that you have available what I consider its two killer features: “command-t” will create a new tab in your finder window and you can now cut and paste files from the Finder. The integration is very clean, unlike Path Finder which added too much clutter, and the features feel intuitive so there’s virtually no learning curve.
Dropbox
Aside from all the obvious advantages to using Dropbox — seamlessly integrated, fast, customizeable — the addition of a small Automator script has made it indispensable. When I want to share a mockup or screenshot I can do a “Quick Send” in LaunchBar and pass the file to a droplet, which performs two tasks for me: moving the image to my Dropbox’s Public folder and adding the shareable URL to my clipboard, which can be pasted into an e-mail or instant message.
