Web Design & Development Tools

Free Text Editors

The following text editors are free (or provide a free version).

Paid Text Editors

The free text editors listed above are more than sufficient for your class work. However, the following may have features you find useful if you want to spend the money on them.

Web-hosted Text Editors

Many of the text editors listed above must be downloaded. All you need for the editors below is to run them in your browser by visiting the provided URL.

FTP Clients

Many of the text editors listed above have built in FTP clients. However, you may want a dedicated client.

Web Fonts (Free)

These are websites that host, or allow you download, free web fonts.

Image optimisation

To speed up the downloading of your websites you can optimise the size of your images.

Code Quality & Validation

These services will check any code you submit to them to see if the code is valid. They can also be useful for recommending improvements to your code.

HTML

CSS

JavaScript

Online Backup

You need to have a rigorous backup policy for your assignment files (accidental loss of data is not considered a valid excuse for not submitting an assessment). Along with a regular physical backup (ideally to at least both an internal and external disk) you can also setup your work to be automatically copied to a cloud service. These are paid services but Dropbox also has a free basic account.

CSS Preprocessors GUIs

These GUIs can simplify the use of preprocessors such as SASS or LESS.

Git GUIs

These GUIs can simplify the use of command line version control systems such as Git

Browsers

You should test your websites on as many browsers as is reasonable. The list below (restricted to desktop browsers - you should also test on mobiles) would be sufficient for our purposes.