CSSEdit

[jcarter]

I have just finished a wonderful HTML class, and other classes, and am just starting to learn CSS.
My next class is in DreamWeaver CS, but I am not good at that yet at all, I use TextEdit for most everything.

I downloaded a trial version of CSS Edit and found that I could use it fine.

But before I spent the $30 on it, I wanted to ask your advice.
Oh, I noticed its 30 Euros, and about $46 dollars.
Do you use it and do you like it?

I also know that lots of you here use TextWrangler, which is a bit confusing for me now, but I have it.

I sure love learning this web stuff!  Just learned how to make photo album pages that you can mouseover the thumbnails and get the big picture on the other side of the page, fun fun fun!

Thanks in advance,
Jane

[Paddy]

Jane, you can use it in the trial version for a while and then decide - there is no limit on the trial version that I can see. I have the trial version, but find I do most of my CSS editing within DW; a combination of using their tools and just hand-coding. Works for me.

I spend a lot of time looking at other people's style sheets and then incorporating useful bits and pieces into my code - which generally gets done by hand. And of course, there are many, many resources online when you get stuck. So far I've never taken a course or even bought a book on the subject - just way too much available online. The result is that my CSS knowledge acquisition may not be the most methodical on the planet, but I have learned lots and enjoyed doing it!

[jcarter]

Hi Paddy,
Ive got the trial version now, its great, thats why I thought I would buy it.
Learning DW will be a lot of fun, and from what Ive gathered so far, it will do everything possible(except my housework which suffers greatly now that I have discovered all this fun web and Photoshop stuff).

I really like the hand coding, Jim told me to learn it first before I did anything beyond, then I would understand it.
Ive now started to look at other peoples sites and learn from them, thats how I got permission to use the code from this amazing one, which I think somebody here gave us the link,
http://www.lisajuliaphotography.com/gallery3.html
We communicated with the webmaster and the photographer, because we were so impressed with the site and her photos. And she sent us permission and all the css files for it.
My classmates and I have been having fun, this was not part of the lesson, but a sidetrack for 4 of us.
One of the reasons I take the classes is the interaction with the classmates, weve been working together in PSE classes for years. Its sort of like TS here.
And there sure is a lot of great info and tuts online.
My learning is a bit topsy, but its all beginning to come together.
Thanks,
Jane

[Xairbusdriver]

I've downloaded it some time ago but decided not to use it. It is great when you have know idea what to put where and why. It is mainly a group of appropriately available pop up menus to enter the text that is CSS along with a previewer to show what you might and have done. I found it quicker to type the text, even without using more than two fingers!

CSS, like html, is simply plain text. Any text editor can be used. Many find WYSIWYG editors make it easier to build web sites with or without CSS. Many like CSSEdit and it will do the job. It is not designed to help you learn CSS, however. The hardest part about CSS, IMHO, is learning how to get MS browsers to at least 'gracefully degrade' your content since it, more than any other browser fails to support CSS standards. Those kinds of things will be found on many CSS blogs/forums/newsletters and you'll probably have to enter the extra code manually. But just as with html, if you don't know what you are doing, you can often end up with an extremely difficult mess of code to maintain. It all depends on what you want to do: Learn the methods or just build sites. If the former, many 'live' courses may not let you use something like CSSEdit with your course work. I think you found that attitude in your html course concerning BBEdit/TextWrangler. If what you are really interested in is quickly building nice but smaller sites, even iWeb can do that for much less cost than Dreamweaver. Of course, it's your money and your time, spend it as you want!

I'm sure CSSEdit would work fine for you just as BBEdit/TextWrangler will for html. As long as you can disregard what your sites look like on IE, you should have very few problems. Life is too short to spend all your money!

[jcarter]

Great advice! Thank you.
I think I shall not purchase it yet, as the dollar/vs. euro has gone up, $46 is a lot. Ive only used it once and that was today, as I didnt want DW to open it. If I find I use it more, I will buy it.
With TextEdit, we can do everything! But DW and PS CS3 were on special price, so I snagged them both.
I tried iWeb and Rapidweaver, but you cant really make them do what you want.

I can go down to our dentist's office to see what the site will look like with IE, or get my classmates to look, they seem OK so far, at least the new pages.
Jane