Firstly, BBEdit 7.1 is out and has a rather nifty addition. If you have Safari installed, you can preview your pages live within BBEdit, all thanks to Apple making the WebKit Framework available. I’ve just tried this out, and it works like a dream! As edits are made to the code, the preview gets updated. You don’t have to save or hit ‘refresh’ as in Dreamweaver. BBEdit 7.1 is a free upgrade for users of 7.0.
Then there’s a relative newbie, xScope from Artis & Iconfactory, a veritable swiss army knife of 6 useful tools for measuring and visualising screen measurements, positions and colours. Artis have been pushing these tools for a while, but now they’re revamped with an iconfactory-designed interface, and is all the better for it. In particular, I like the fact that you can access tools by a discreet menu bar icon, as well as hot keys or the dock. Tools can also be hidden in the same way. I’m such a sucker for Iconfactory applications - they know how to create software with eye candy.
The collection is excellent, and I found the crosshair tool a quicker way to take measurements than the ruler. What’s pleasing is that all the tools are transparent, without being illegible. You can also play a little game with the ‘loupe’ tool if you switch on ‘avoid mouse’ and then try and click the floating window. I really don’t get out enough…