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CSS Builder - A Powerful Tool for New/Experienced Coders

metatitan.com — You've seen it in programs like Adobe Dreamweaver, but now there's a similar tool on the web. Fill out a human readable form and generate proper code for your desired selector. Copy and paste it into your stylesheet and you're done, no need to remember valid syntax or property names.

Who dugg this? Made popular Oct 19, 2007

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  • nubela, on 10/25/2007, -1/+161to be honest, experience coders will find it much more efficient to type out the custom styles they want, at least I would find it much much faster.
    Having to fill our forms is a slowdown to our work.

    Besides, the incompatibilities of ie6.0 and newer browsers will mean you probably have to trial&error on the slow ass form.
  • BTMPL, on 10/21/2007, -9/+64How is opening a website and filling all those forms faster than typing it by yourself faster is beyond me...
    Buried as lame.
  • hifiDesign, on 10/19/2007, -0/+27Well said. Additionally, there is NO SUBSTITUTE for actually learning how to code HTML and CSS. They are not that difficult in comparison to actual programming languages like PHP, ASP, or C++. Hot damn, people, buy a book.
  • sirdaz, on 10/20/2007, -1/+25Now all it needs is a live preview
  • nendoke, on 10/19/2007, -2/+24Experienced = I prefer my own Fingers
  • ogryn, on 10/19/2007, -0/+15Eclipse + PHP Development Environment + Web Tool Platform + Subclipse + JSEclipse = All you need in one place

    You can outgrow Dreamweaver after a year or so of coding.
  • fLUx1337, on 10/19/2007, -6/+20Yuk. Why? If I want a design, I will do it on my own. I use Dreamweaver, for 2 reasons - I like the PHP (and any language really) syntax colors, and I like how it auto fills in 90% of the css values.
  • Zipp425, on 10/20/2007, -1/+14Don't buy a book... Learn how to use google.
  • quakenul, on 10/19/2007, -0/+11That's joke right? They surely don't expect anyone to "work" with this?
  • xike, on 10/20/2007, -1/+12Good point, because Dreamweaver is free like this site. Wait, what?
  • thefrenzy, on 10/20/2007, -1/+12Ugh...this spits out bad CSS I'm afraid. Anyone who knows anything about CSS knows that you should almost *never* *ever* use pixel units for font-size. It stops internet explorer 6 and below from changing the text size when people with poor vision select "text size, larger" in the browser.

    Score -1 for accessibility.
  • Lochie, on 10/20/2007, -4/+13I'll stick with Dreamweaver's CSS editor thank you.
  • samelevel, on 10/19/2007, -0/+9.CSSBuilderTool {
    position: absolute;
    z-index: -1000
    }

    Officially buried.
  • dhurricane, on 10/19/2007, -1/+9Any tool that offers the option to define blinking text immediately loses credibility.
  • insomniak29, on 10/20/2007, -2/+10That's what she said!
  • objectcode, on 10/19/2007, -2/+10its called being n00b
  • bitspace, on 10/20/2007, -1/+9Spam, and for an incredibly bad "product" to boot. Buried.
  • ventralnet, on 10/19/2007, -1/+9It also depends on the coders CSS knowledge. Get your head out of your ass.
  • bobbywang, on 10/19/2007, -0/+6my notepad is faster. buried.
  • foobr, on 10/19/2007, -0/+6Horrible, it doesn't use CSS shorthand, it has no input validation and it is much slower to use than just writing the CSS yourself.
  • PRlME, on 10/19/2007, -0/+6It would be much better to learn the code...At first i just got me a cheat sheet
    www.ilovejackdaniels.com/cheat-sheets/css-cheat-sheet/
  • xfTwitch, on 10/19/2007, -0/+5this is NOT for experienced coders.
  • aussieNickuss, on 10/19/2007, -0/+5I also use Dreamweaver because it has the best syntax highlighting. I have tried to emulate DW's highlighting in other tools, but it's never the same.

    Dreamweaver also speeds up coding with its very thorough auto-complete.
  • jcisio, on 10/19/2007, -0/+5Not very useful for experienced coder
  • DarkPrince11, on 10/19/2007, -0/+5I prefer to use Dreamweaver because of its built-in site functionality. I can make a quick-edit, and just press 2 Keys and bam, my file gets instantly uploaded. I can also quickly edit the structure of my site and make global changes with just a click. Then there is the syntax highlighting, the auto-completion, and the compatibility checker which is very useful if a person knows how to use it.
  • witebuddha, on 10/19/2007, -0/+5agreed... on top of taking more time dealing with those forms, i keep my own templates and such..

    this is more like "CSS Builder - A Powerful Tool for New Coders"
  • phaseblue, on 10/19/2007, -0/+4"no need to remember valid syntax or property names." Except that people who have these things memorized and well practiced are actually able to fine tune the styles they're looking for. Throw cross-browser compatibility into the mix and that's a pretty big deal.
  • qeek, on 10/19/2007, -0/+4So, "div" still isn't a common tag?
  • redivider, on 10/19/2007, -0/+4I don't think many experienced developers would say that they don't think experienced developers use Dreamweaver.
  • armbar, on 10/19/2007, -1/+5"and with VS's auto complete features style sheets almost write themselves."

    Yeah, but they turn out like utter crap thanks to VS's ridiculous formatting and inability to recognize multi-class selectors, etc.
  • poutch, on 10/19/2007, -0/+4good coding job, but it's totally useless for useless for experienced coders, even for beginners
  • mUdd06, on 10/19/2007, -0/+4i agree nubela... using that form is a massive time suck...
  • manicleek, on 10/19/2007, -0/+4I do, but only the text editor
  • MtheoryX, on 10/21/2007, -0/+4Depends on how complex your CSS is. And how many stylesheets you use.
    Personally, I would rather use CSSEdit (in text-only mode) or Textmate with auto-complete turned on. Way faster.
  • svivian, on 10/19/2007, -0/+4Yeah this is lame. CSS rules aren't that hard to learn, and when you don't remember the exact syntax for something, it's actually quicker to go to the w3 spec (which I have on localhost anyway), where it says exactly how the things should work.
  • KurtHectic, on 10/21/2007, -0/+3CSSEdit FTW.
  • resplence, on 10/26/2007, -0/+3Agreed. Also, I use TopStyle with nearly a hundred of auto-replace macros. For example, when I want to write "text-decoration: underline" all I have to do is type 'tdu;'. There's one of that for nearly everything I could possibly need, and the triggers also make sense, so it won't be too much effort to even remember exactly what I want. Sure beats looking for the right field in the right form for something to fill.
  • slamtv7, on 10/23/2007, -0/+3I prefer books because I prefer reading for long periods of time and not having to look at a screen.
  • XBSHX, on 10/19/2007, -0/+3You SHOULD know proper syntax and property names.
  • inactive, on 10/19/2007, -1/+4... or you could just learn the CSS, it isn't that hard. Making it work on all buggy browser is another thing. Buried as lame.
  • bkemper, on 10/19/2007, -0/+3Dugg down for the pixels comment. Pixels are a completely valid measurement unit. The only reason not to use them is because the lamest browser still in existence does not know how to scale them like the other browsers can (or even as a second style sheet with percentages can). That doesn't mean there are never times to use pixels to set the measure of font sizes.
  • wicketr, on 10/21/2007, -0/+3This couldn't be helpful to anyone that i know. Maybe some complete noob that doesn't understand CSS. Personally I use TopStyle Lite. It's free and doesn't expire, and it give you a preview of your stylesheet to boot.
  • amadeusdemarzi, on 10/19/2007, -0/+3Take out the word Powerful, and you are good!
  • inactive, on 10/19/2007, -5/+8Lame, now there's going to be thousands of ugly ass overlays on Myspace. That site's already ugly enough.
  • wicketr, on 10/19/2007, -0/+3They may not NEED them, but many tools are USEFUL for them in completing mundane tasks to speed up work. However, this tool is not one of them.
  • kingkool68, on 10/21/2007, -0/+3The Firebug extension for Firefox will educate any CSS newbie into a pro through trial and error and being able to see the results directly on the screen. Go try and change the Google homepage background to pink -> http://www.google.com

    Using this form as a crutch will do more damage in the long run.
  • aussieNickuss, on 10/19/2007, -0/+2Could probably be used as a learning tool though.
  • rayblasdel, on 10/19/2007, -0/+2.... and why would anyone use is? It's not part of the editor, and if your having trouble remembering some long dead ass tag its quicker to look it up then use a painful web interface. And I agree with previous posts its out put is crap.
  • Charlotte_Web, on 10/19/2007, -0/+2Welcome to Internet Marketing 101.

    Get some cool content, put it on your web site, submit to Digg and Slashdot.

    Why do we still have people submitting blogs containing YouTube videos when Digg plays YouTube videos that are directly linked?
  • stuffok, on 10/19/2007, -0/+2Aptana is a good addition to that list. Supports all sorts of features plus previews for IE and Firefox..
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