Trying to decide what software you need to run a succcessful web business can be challenging. Personally, I believe that the minimum you need is a good web page editor (text, WYSIWYG, or no-code, whichever you like best) and a bitmap graphics editor. Everything else can be done with tools on your operating system. But I am a software junkie. I've got at least six different writing programs (not just web editors, but programs for writing like Pages or Microsoft Word). I have two or three different tools to help me record podcasts and videos as well as vector graphic tools for writing SVG and Flash. I could do my work without most of these, but it would be hard. What software can you not live without?
Poll: What software can you not live without for doing web design work?
By Jennifer Kyrnin, About.com GuideAugust 30, 2012
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A good text editor that you know how to use efficiently is the single most important bit of kit that you need; I don’t really rate graphical web design software, as it has a negative effect on people’s ability to write and understand code. There will be times when you need to look at a piece of code and work out what’s going wrong.. and DreamWeaver probably won’t be of much help.
Copies of all the major browsers is a must; as a Linux user this is somewhat problematic for me when it comes to testing for Internet Explorer…
@David: thanks for the comment. Have you tried out Dreamweaver lately? You have as much control over the HTML code in the current versions of Dreamweaver as you do in a good text editor. You are 100% correct about the browsers. I’m sorry I forgot that. Thanks!
I love dreamweaver for web design projects. I’ve found that having the ability to use GUI to fine tune layouts is wonderful. However, I generally do the majority of my work strictly within the source code but having the ability to use the graphical enviroment to fine tune is great.
it is not possible without any software you cant make any thing. you must need it for developing.
Thank you for sharing knowledge.
I can’t do it without Notepad++. I know it sounds strange, even if you could call it blind designing, but I always make it.
My only disadvantage with this is, I think, I make more edits actually than I would do with a WYSIWYG editor, like Dreamweaver.
An SSH client (like PuTTY) and an installation of each target browser (or a reliable enough emulator for mobile stuff) on my terminal, and Vim on the server, is all I need. Having grep on the server is always a nice addition, but ultimately I can survive without it.
@Eduard P: good point! I use an SSH client all the time too. I should have remembered that.