Rodent Regatta

Web designers intrigue me with their loyalty to specific tools. I wish there was a place that listed the preferred tools of the best designers.

Why? One of the things that has helped me learn HTML, its variants and the related technologies in the weblogging world is the specific mention of a given designer’s software selections.

As much as I admire Dawn’s website, I also learn a great deal when she lists the tools she prefers for photographic work.

This isn’t a ”be like Mike” kind of thing. It’s a way to sort and filter the myriad selections, choices and tools in order to move along the learning curve more rapidly. Were we to put a colophon on every designer’s weblog, we’d begin to capture some sense of how they approach a project. Topics could include their preferred:

• HTML editor
• CSS editor (is there such a thing? is that what TopStyle is?)
• RSS version (0.91, 1.0, 2.0)
• Photo editor (are there others besides Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro?)
• Validation tools
• FTP product
• Sources of new knowledge (sites, books, references, etc.)
• How and why you got into web design work?
• First public site ever created?
• ...what are the other ”can’t live without” tools in the toolbox?