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A Toolbox of Free and Open Source Web Design Apps

Embedded below is a toolbox that I put together on Social Source Commons of tools that I use when working on websites that Aspiration manages (Aspiration, Social Source Commons, SSC Blog & Answr). I wanted to show you how easy it is to create a narrative with a toolbox.

First Sign In, then go to My Toolboxes, and click “Create Toolbox” on the right green sidebar. Name it, add a description for the collection and then add the tools you want inside. After you have your tools all together, you can edit the descriptions of the tools inside the toolbox to explain how they relate to your toolbox theme. For instance, in my Web Design Apps Toolbox below, you can read my descriptions for the tools where I explain why I use each one when doing web design work.

Creating Toolboxes on SSC is super simple and a great way to not only share the tools you use but to explain why you use them.

Give it a whirl. I promise it won’t hurt. 😛




11 Comments to A Toolbox of Free and Open Source Web Design Apps

  1. April 27, 2010 at 4:14 pm | Permalink

    Thanks! Any you’re using that aren’t listed here?

  2. April 27, 2010 at 1:24 pm | Permalink

    Great sharing, always good to find new open-source applications. 🙂

  3. April 27, 2010 at 4:15 pm | Permalink

    Thanks! Any you're using that aren't listed here?

  4. jeremyclarke's Gravatar jeremyclarke
    April 27, 2010 at 10:26 pm | Permalink

    Hey man, just so you know Smultron, which was previously abandoned by its developer, has been picked up by a french guy who renamed it to Fraise (french for strawberry instead of swedish or whatever Peter Borg is).
    http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/maco

  5. April 27, 2010 at 11:04 pm | Permalink

    Jeremy, you totally just made my day! That's awesome news! Exclamation point! I've been checking out Komodo Edit but it's just not the same…

  6. jeremyclarke's Gravatar jeremyclarke
    April 27, 2010 at 11:22 pm | Permalink

    If you feel like getting serious then I can't recommend http://netbeans.org enough! I found it while hunting around for a Smultron replacement but now that I've learned how to use it I could never go back to coding without a full IDE (Komodo and Eclipse would probably offer the same basic effect, though NetBeans has done a better job of trying to make their Java-based program look mac-like). It has changed the way I program and made me a better coder, documenter and version-controller.

    I still use Fraise for small stuff and editing files over FTP but if I'm actually working on PHP I take the time to set up the project in NetBeans cause the investment pays itself back 100 times.

  7. April 28, 2010 at 4:57 pm | Permalink

    I just downloaded Netvibes. Whoa. “…but now that I've learned how to use it…” This might take some time. Definitely like 10 steps up from Smultron. Thanks for the recommendation, though. I'll have to tool around with it and next thing you know, WordPress plugin developer… 😀

  8. jeremyclarke's Gravatar jeremyclarke
    April 28, 2010 at 5:41 pm | Permalink

    You mean NetBEANS right? My advice is that if you are going to use it start by closing down all the windows that you don't immediately want to use (todos, projects etc) and only open things that you actually need. The default window configuration is totally insane and not useful for PHP (maybe its how Java devs would want it?). I found that by closing things I was able to feel comfortable enough (it was close enough to Smultron) that I could just start working and learn new stuff as I went.

    Here is a set of slides that would only take a few minutes to look through from a talk I gave at WordCamp NYC. If you ever want to pick up NetBeans again take at look at it first to get some ideas: http://www.slideshare.net/jeremyclarke/netbeans

  9. April 30, 2010 at 5:38 pm | Permalink

    Yes, Ha, NetBEANS. Thanks for the info and the slides! I added your SlideShare presentation to the NetBeans tool listing in SSC. I've been looking to ramp up my PHP knowledge so an IDE sounds like the future or my editing anyway. It sounds like YOU should be the one creating a web design toolbox. ;*)

  10. marrylucas234's Gravatar marrylucas234
    July 24, 2010 at 7:42 am | Permalink

    Seashore is another open source program image editor like GIMP. It is very, very light weight to your computer in the form of memory and computing power than the GIMP, then I will use it when I need to make the picture simple edits like resizing.

    professional translation

  11. February 10, 2011 at 11:33 am | Permalink

    Thanks for sharing,very informative,i look forward for some more good topics in this blog,..I still use Fraise for small stuff and editing files over FTP but if I’m actually working on PHP I take the time to set up the project in NetBeans cause the investment pays itself back 100 times.ecommerce website developer ecommerce web development

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