Design tools and apps I've used today…

For some reason today I’ve been skipping through lots of different apps, sites and tools to get whatever task I’m working on completed. Thought it would be worth sharing these, while I’ve got 5 minutes and describing what I used them for.

One thing to note – I am currently in work using a desktop P.C running Windows XP. I’ll do a home version of this at some point too for my mac. Okay, from the top…

Outlook -

First thing I pop open when I get to work, check my tasks for the day, emails and calendar.

Tweetdeck -

I’m not 100% happy with Tweetdeck as I find it temperamental but its definitely the most capable desktop Twitter client.

Google Chrome -

I’ve had Chrome installed for ages and ages but never really used it until last week. I’m a Firefox advocate for reasons stated below but I really like chrome for general web browsing – it’s simple, fast and even looks nice.

Mozilla Firefox -

The best browser, not just for designers and developers but for everyone. Loads for add-ons for it, very stable and super quick (compared to the dreaded ie).

Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 -

I prefer Coda by miles but as I’m using a PC in work Dreamweaver does the job. I have used it today to carry out some minor amends on the IB public website navigation menu.

Gmail -

I use this as a pop mailbox for my info@boxadesign.co.uk account – for clouded local use. Has anyone noticed lots of problems with this lately? I don’t think its down enough for me to use something else but I will be keeping an eye on it.

Adobe Photoshop CS4 -

I’ve got all sorts of image editing software on my PC – Illustrator, Fireworks, Paintshop Pro, Paint etc but Photoshop is all I need. I use it for all my graphic based work from simple image cropping, resizing right up to full website mock ups. Today I have used it for simple image editing on photos for the IB website.

Firebug -

Somedays I really think I’d be lost without it – literally. When you inherit a site that’s complex in its construction and has loads of queries and includes etc, Firebug saves hours or even days searching for where in the file structure lines of code live. Great, use it everyday to quickly locate code.

Google Wave -

Upon opening Outlook today I was greeted with my invitation to preview Google Wave…wow! Its seems pretty cool, didn’t blow my mind. I like the way people can join in discussions and the ease of sharing files. MSN version 2 I think. I do need to explore it more to give a decent overview of it.

Campaign Monitor -

We use this in work to send out all of our e-newsletters. Its brilliant, easy to use and very well designed. It also has an API so you tap into a database and manage client segmented list through the dashboard interface.

Macromedia Contribute -

The IB public website is not managed the a CMS. It’s a mash of XHTML and cold fusion templates and content mangers create/amend pages through Contribute. I use it for quick page editing as we have two servers (test and live) and files can only be put live through Contribute.

Wordpress -

This is my favourite app for many reasons. I’ll be writing a post soon on Wordpress and how I used it to build this site so I won’t get too heavy right now. We are currently migrating our blogs over from an old php4 server to a new php5 one on Rackspace. I’m importing and exporting all the content and setting up the authentication plugins and overseeing the whole process. The new server will allow to use better plugins and security on our private internal content.

Delicious -

I’ve only just started using this. For some reason I had the old habit of emailing myself  links sites that had interesting articles/tutorials etc, my inbox soon became chaotic so I’ve started bookmarking everything on my Delicious account, easier to do and easier to share. I really like it.

iphone -

Everything I use on my imac and my PC (in terms of connecting with people/services) I have on my iphone. I think I’ll write a post on all the apps I use on my iphone and hopefully it’ll be useful.

IE Tester -

The dreaded cross browser testing…it’s an unfortunate crime that we have Internet Explorer but I guess there can’t be pleasure without pain. IE tester is great though and provides real, live version of your website in all IE versions right down to 5.5. I also run it on my mac through VMware.

Well the time is precisely 2.55pm and it amazes me how many different tools and apps there are out there and how many we need just to get things done. Some are exciting to use while others are more of a chore. What’s more is that the list above doesn’t include all of the website resources that I use also…hmmmm