Just a quick heads up to the bloggers here— My company is giving away free copies of StyleSpread, our CSS editor to bloggers who mention that we just sent out version 2.1. If you haven't seen our software yet, you can take a look here: http://www.stylespread.com And here is the blog post that explains the details of the promotion: http://blog.stylespread.com/news/how-to-get-your-mits-on-a-99-css-editor-without-spending-a-dime/ Anyways, we're ending this promo on June 15th, as version 2.1 will be old news by then. I know there are quite a few bloggers here, so if you're one of them and you'd like a copy of StyleSpread, hurry up and blog about it before the end of next week. StyleSpread is a high end CSS editor used by larger development companies. It's not cheap software, so this is a good chance for people to get their hands on a copy without shelling out the $ for it.
You need a blog (a REAL blog), and you've got to mention that we sent out version 2.1 somewhere. That blog link I posted should explain all the details (sorry, you'll have to copy and paste it into your address bar, I'm still a forum newbie, so I can't post URLs yet). The free offer is only open to bloggers because we're trying to get the word out about StyleSpread around the blogosphere.
So all I have to do is make a post about this program and write a review of it? what render engine does it use? explorer's?
Yeah, do a review and we'll throw you a copy. Yes, the integrated browser uses the installed version of Explorer on your computer. I'll add that we're aware of the demand for Gecko integration.
Not a bad idea, but IMO you need to give the user a little more freedom. For example, say I have the property zoom and a value of 1, then I want to change my property (first) to display instead of zoom (without deleting), it will give me an error prompt that says the value is not valid. If you hold alt and then press F (slow, not fast), the dropdown for File won't expand. If you do alt fx (most people do alt f4) or try to close the program with an unsaved stylesheet, it will ask whether you want to save it or not, if you say No it will not let you leave. For some reason I just saved a css stylesheet and it just gave me a bunch of errors in a prompt when I opened it. When I'm typing a property name, I can't CTRL A and retype it, this annoys me. -moz-inline-box is not a known css property. I don't think you should put element names in uppercase, since I'm used to lowercase (or have preferences for that) Can you not open multiple stylesheets at the same time and shift through the tabs with ctrl tab + ctrl shift tab // ctrl page up + ctrl page down ? When you're typing a property name, say I'm typing "azimuth" and since there's only one property if I type the first 3-4 letters, could you not auto select that? Or allow the option to tab to it? (i hate using the down arrow, its slow) It's not 100% stable either, in the 15 minutes I've been testing it its either given me weird errors or crashed 3-4 times. Well, that's my jumbled up review
The point of the program is that everything is valid 100% of the time. If you want to add a display property, press insert and add it, then delete zoom. Changing display to zoom is just bad, even in a text editor. Hmm, none of that seems to happen on our test computers. What errors? You can press escape—that's less keystrokes anyways. Besides, Ctrl + A would select the entire document in a normal text editor. Correct, there is no property called -moz-inline-box. There is a property value called that though, and it looks like we missed it in our definitions file. I'll get that added. In the mean time, try and wean yourself off of browser-specific, non-standard CSS values Element names should be in upper case because it gives visual separation between what is user defined and what isn't (ie. class and id names vs HTML element names). It makes your code much easier to read esp when you are editing someone elses stylesheet, and are unfamiliar with the names they have chosen. The biggest reason why people don't use them is because it's a pain to capitalize all that in a text editor. The program uses a single document interface for now. If you want to edit multiple style sheets you can always open another instance of the application. Yes, the program does need that but it was cut off to meet deadlines. Expect to see that in a not-too-distant update. That's funny—the program is about as stable as Photoshop or VS.NET for us. And about the "weird" errors—are you sure you're not just entering "weird" CSS?
How can one make a program that advocates "error-proof" *CASCADING STYLE SHEETS* when their own homepage is POORLY coded and uses proprietary (invalid: marquee, iframe) elements ?. 18 years of web design experience? Well I have around 2-3 years and from what I can tell based on the homepage markup that you or whoever did that doesnt fully understand the point of seperating content and presentation. What's the point of using XHTML Strict if you're using deprecated/illegal elements? Why is your nav not a list of links? Without styles the iframe is blank, using deprecated name attribute on non-form elements, I could go on. Using StyleSpread saved you time on coding the site so you had extra time to add inline styles, right? "It was created by web experts for web experts." , "experts dont write css by hand" makes me cringe. Whoever coded StyleSpread, "the" program to code CSS, is by NO means a CSS expert, so why should I use his program for CSS?
The promotion has now been closed. soulscratch: Your arguments are inaccurate and insulting. This program isn't for you. You're clearly not the high-profile design customer we're looking for. It was a mistake notifying this forum about our promotion, as the maturity level and overall professionalism is severely lacking. I will be leaving this forum—and future promotions will be posted elsewhere.