What CSS Tools do you use for Windows?#

I've been spoiled silly by CSSEdit by MacRabbit. Even though no longer available for Apple, I still use it to corral ALL instances of whatever styles I need.

See my screenshots. This is extremely useful when sorting through other people's unorganized CSS files. Somebody wants to add custom code, change the size of the h1 tag, wants the "strong" to be italicized - I know, I really freaking know - and wants the em to be styled just so on this page, but not for that page.

When you have myriad styles nested in various selectors, nested in various hierarchies and competing with inline styles - yes, someone created a TV so one could inject style overrides, anytime, anyplace, anywhere - I find CSSEdit indespensible.

(So much so that I've actually made a living troubleshooting other people's live websites on the fly and seeing effects real-time before I send the code. Unfortunately MacRabbit's Espresso offers none of CSSEdits functionality).

I have very little experience with Windows apps and how to have similar functionality. Hence my posts this week.

So have at it my fellow MODXsters - what do you use?

I use Notepad++ for editing CSS files and Firefox with Firebug plugin to change it on-the-fly.

I use Notepad++ for just about everything, and then Firefox with Firebug for testing as I go. Oh, and Notepad++ website is MODX powered

UltraSEF? what the heck are you talking about?

ESPRESSO 2 does ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING CSS EDIT DOES.. in fact.. I UPGRADED from CSS EDIT 3 to ESPRESSO 2 at a lower cost... have you even used espresso 2 its built right in... go download espresso 2 from macrabbit and you can figure it out.

view live web preview. extract css.. edit your brains out...

Sorry Zuriel, my screenshots didn't load. Do you know if Espresso has this CSSEdit feature somewhere? In Espresso it's called Quick Filter and it operates on files, but not styles.

My screenshots aren't uploading. :-(

In CSSEdit there's a Quick Filter. Type in whatever you wanted and it would display all instances of it in the css file. I don't see that functionality in Espresso. Do you?

ok left is css edit, right is espresso 2. all the main functionality is there. there is no quick filter, instead its been replaced with a find and replace filter. that searches the whole CSS document. to me, this is a better feature. you just search and hit return until your style pops up?? plus you have groups and etc anyway.. and if you absolutely have to see your styles and figure it out on a site you also have safari web inspector "inspect element" built into all webkit browsers... but i mean, espresso is actually the new css edit... straight from the developers mouths.

Hi Zuriel,

Thanks for taking the time to post that. CSSEdit has Find &Replace already and Espresso works fine for my stylesheets.

But what I'm really after is the Quick Filter because I often troubleshoot other people's stylesheets, like at least once a week if not more. They are disorganized, partly because the designers "know" their styles, and that's just the problem: they know them, but I don't.

So the Quick Filter let's me see all those styles and they also stayed grouped as I go through each style to see where the issue lies. I think you get my drift.


I've emailed Jan of MacRabbit. I hope to persuade him to add QuickFilter back into Espresso because I love using it, even if Tabs really aren't tabs like they are in Textmate. CSSEdit + Espresso 1 were my perfect tools.

I found the Editor of my dreams, and it's available for Apple, Windows AND Linux.

Sublime Text 2: http://www.sublimetext.com/

Way too freaking cool. This is what Text Editors are supposed to be, do, and allow for extremely lightweight customizations that drip with intelligence.

My first thought after installing Package Control from wbond.net was Sublime could make TinyMCE and CodeMirror obsolete and compliment the Manager like nothing else.

Hi all.
Newbie here, just downloaded MODX tonight, going the docs and forum - learning all I can.

I just wanted to participate here and mention that I also like to use Notepad++ for my CSS.
For finer control I bought Stylizer. A little pricey, but very cool.

I hope to learn a great deal here with you all, and to share what I learn with others.

I'm happy with phpDesigner for php, javascript, html, css .........

http://www.mpsoftware.dk/phpdesigner.php