Developer

Five Apps: Inexpensive web development tools

By // July 2, 2013, 3:36 AM PST

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  • Funduc Search and Replace 1

    This gallery is also available as a post in the TechRepublic Five Apps blog.

    Although big budget Web development tools such as Microsoft’s Visual Studio tend to be favored by professional developers, there are a number of other tools available. Many of these tools are free or inexpensive, and simple to use. Rather than trying to provide a comprehensive development environment, such tools might focus on a single aspect of the Web development process. In this blog post, I want to share with you some of the tools that I have found to be the most useful.

    Credit: Images by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

  • Funduc Search and Replace 2

    Five Apps

    1. Funduc Search and Replace

    Funduc Search and Replace is one of many tools that are designed to search for text within files and make replacements. What makes this tool unique, however, is that it can perform searches and replacements across multiple files. For example, suppose that you need to change the path of the Image directory for every file in your entire site. This utility would allow you to easily accomplish this otherwise tedious chore with ease. The utility even offers a preview of the found text so that you can see what is about to be changed before you actually change it.

    Funduc Search and Replace sells for $25, but a shareware version is available to download for free.

    Credit: Images by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

  • Notepad +++

    2. Notepad++

    Notepad++ is a free utility for editing HTML files as well as files containing other programming languages. The utility allows you to specify the programming language that you want to work with and then provides language specific syntax highlighting. The interface also provides other helpful visual clues such as line numbering and conditional formatting.

    On top of everything else, Notepad++ is loaded with extras such as search and replace functionality, case conversion, and options to run your code in specific browsers.

    Credit: Images by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

  • Notepad +++ 2

    Credit: Images by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

  • Notepad +++ 3

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  • Notepad +++ 4

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  • HTML-Kit 1

    3. HTML-Kit

    HTML-Kit is a free utility that is designed to help you to create and edit HTML files. Like Notepad++, HTML-Kit provides line numbering and syntax highlighting for HTML documents.

    One of the most useful functions is the Preview mode which provides WYSIWYG editing of the Web page. For example, you can change text size, color, etc. and HTML-KIT will write the code to match your changes. In addition, HTML-Kit includes a number of useful tools such as a calculator, a file name insertion tool, and a Date / Time tool.

    Credit: Images by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

  • HTML-Kit 2

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  • HTML-Kit 3

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  • HTML-Kit 4

    Credit: Images by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

  • Offline Explorer 1

    4. Offline Explorer

    Offline Explorer costs a little bit more than the other applications discussed in this blog post, but I wanted to include it anyway because it is so useful.

    Offline Explorer is a tool for downloading Web sites for offline viewing and editing. Although it is intended as a developer’s tool, you can actually download just about any Web site for offline viewing. This tool can be especially useful for those who want to take advantage of down time and work on Web projects when no connectivity is available, such as while on a long flight.

    Offline Explorer sells for $59.95, but a free 30-day trial is available for download.

    Credit: Images by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

  • Offline Explorer 2

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  • Offline Explorer 3

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  • Offline Explorer 4

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  • Offline Explorer 5

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  • Offline Explorer 6

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  • Offline Explorer 7

    Credit: Images by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

  • HTML Converter 1

    5. HTML Converter

    HTML Converter is a free Web app that can convert basic HTML code into PHO, JavaScript, or ASP code. This utility can be helpful for those situations in which you want to modernize a Web site that is made up of static HTML pages and do not want to have to completely start from scratch. To use this utility, simply copy your HTML code to the text box and then click the appropriate conversion button.

    Credit: Images by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

  • HTML Converter 2

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  • HTML Converter 3

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  • HTML Converter 4

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    Credit: Images by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

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Funduc Search and Replace 1

This gallery is also available as a post in the TechRepublic Five Apps blog.

Although big budget Web development tools such as Microsoft’s Visual Studio tend to be favored by professional developers, there are a number of other tools available. Many of these tools are free or inexpensive, and simple to use. Rather than trying to provide a comprehensive development environment, such tools might focus on a single aspect of the Web development process. In this blog post, I want to share with you some of the tools that I have found to be the most useful.

Credit: Images by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

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