Neatly Sliced

I have discovered an ideal CSS Editor, and it is available only for Mac OS X: CSSEdit 2.

I’m currently enthralled with the simplest of features: code highlighting, the “intelligent CodeSense” (intellisense) of my dreams, and a little IDE sidebar so I can select that property that I rarely use, or order my background properties properly without googling. In addition, it will combine multiple properties into one (for example, combine background-color and background-image to the background shorthand equivalent). This cuts down on the size of your CSS file, and saves your fingers from typing excessively.

I just completed my July CSS Off! competition entry (article to follow) and I kid you not, I easily wrote three times faster thanks to CSSEdit. I started tonight with the shareware 2500 character limited edition, but once my file grew over 2500 characters, I could not stand to lose the productivity in switching to Smultron (my other free editor of choice, sadly lacking codesense). I thus shelled out the $30 to support this fabulous application.

CSSEdit offers a milestones feature which allows you to “bookmark” a section of your stylesheet. I think we’ve all been in that place where, in trying to solve one problem, we have mangled our stylesheet beyond recognition. Nevermore! Milestones are your solution. CSSEdit also offers selector organization, preview, and validation.

Most importantly, CSSEdit adds a layer of WebKit/Safari debugging that I have long sought after in the “X-ray” feature. X-ray equates to a DOM inspector/”View Style Information” from the Firefox dev bar. This is fantastic as Safari lacks any decent debugging tool as of this writing.

I rarely purchase shareware unless it proves itself indispensable. CSSEdit has proven itself an invaluable asset in my web dev arsenal.

Behold! The time is nearly upon us! On Saturday the 14th, beginning at 12midnight CST (the midnight between Friday and Saturday), the second CSS Off! competition begins!

Let this be a reminder of the competition, so participate like me and we will learn new and exciting things about CSS and design. Last time was fun, and this time will be better.

Update: View my article on my July entry.

The very first widget of the week at NeatlySliced.com will be ::drum roll please::

The Lost Counter by skia.net.

At 104 minutes (1 hour and 44 minutes), a familiar alarm will sound, you will have 4 minutes (bringing the total cycle to the familiar 108 minutes) to enter the code “4 8 15 16 23 42″ (The Numbers!) and hit “Execute” (a.k.a. “return” on your Apple keyboard), else face the end of the world (or, hieroglyphics where the numbers displayed).

Not only is this immensely fun, but you can use it as a sitting-timer for the workplace. Every 108 minutes, you will have a fun reminder to get up and take a walk to avoid unsightly computer-posture and deathly blood clots.

Currently, the timer still counts down even if the user is logged out or the computer is asleep. This can be quite annoying; once the timer has expired without entering the code, the only way to reset it is to delete that instance of the widget and plop a fresh one in its place. This is fine if going for the Lost experience, but makes it cumbersome to use it as a desk tool.

Proposed modifications:

1. Make the timer pause when the user is logged off or the computer is asleep
2. If not the above, if the timer expires, allow a force reset in the info view of the widget

The widget is freeware, but if you wish to support skia you may buy his wares at cafepress.

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(via Josh)