Mac Os is usually known for its simplicity and high level of performance but still at certain point of time, you will realize that you need some external tools for facilitating some repetitive tasks. Since website design is a highly creative and complex task, you need to have a complete collection of website design tools so that you can lead an uncomplicated life. Here in this section, we are going to list some cool Mac Apps that you can find truly useful:

Hit list: - This is a refined Mac application that can help you uncomplicate your design career to a great extent. It is a simple and sophisticated application that lets you manage the daily chaos of modern life. With it, you can plan or forget things. Managing this tool is as simple as writing something on a piece of paper.

Time out: - As you are into a creative field, you need to take breaks from your desk time to time to keep your creative juice flowing. There is no point in spending hours on desk if you fail to produce anything creative. “Time Out” is a useful tool that will remind you to take break on regular basis so that you would not have to struggle with stiff neck, backache etc. It comes with two kinds of breaks – Normal break and Micro break.

Geekbench: – With this Mac Application, you will be able to measure memory performance and speed of the processor accurately and quickly. It is easy to operate and it is mainly developed to make benchmarks easy to run.

Secretbox: - If you are running short of places to keep your secrets intact, you should not miss this amazing Mac Application. It comes equipped with a simple interface where you can store SSN numbers, Passwords, Credit Card details etc without caring a fig for anything else on earth. You will have complete control over data, which is certainly an added advantage of this tool.

Crossover: - CrossOver Mac is easy to install and with it, you can install different games on your Mac. It comes with single click interface and that means, you are less likely to face any trouble while installing this powerful Mac Application.

Textexpander: - If you are tired of typing the same thing over and over again, TextExpander is the best tool that you should not ignore. It comes with customized abbreviations for frequently-used text strings. Whenever you type an abbreviation, this tool will expand it automatically.

CSS is the most powerful and arguably the most vital component of modern website design. It adds flexibility to a website, improves content accessibility, reduces unwanted repetitions and complexities and thus helps the website to load faster. But in spite of so many advantages, writing CSS codes from the scratch is really a tiresome and time-consuming task that can freak out a CSS coder. Now, here we are going to share some useful CSS tools that can help you to save your time and effort to a great extent.

CSS Frame Generator: – Based on the provided HTML elements, CSS Frame Generator generates an empty CSS frame. You just have to copy and paste the XHTML content that will create CSS frame. You can add style to it later-on.

CSS Grid Builder: – A CSS-based web layout can easily be created with this powerful CSS tool – CSS Grid Builder. This tool uses YUI Grids CSS framework that offers support to almost 1000 different types of layouts.

CSS Typeset: – With this impressive tool, you will be able to test different font-style. Just select the font type that you would like to feature on your website and then copy and paste that code into your style sheet quickly.

CSS Optimizer: – If you are obsessed with the loading time of your website, you should not miss out this powerful CSS tool. With it, you can successfully reduce file size by eliminating white space characters out of the CSS file.

CSS Redundancy Checker: – This CSS tool is good at finding out redundant CSS styles, which you should remove for making your website load faster. Size of the CSS file can be reduced significantly if you can manage to eliminate redundant CSS styles.

TypeTester: – Though features of this tool are more or less similar to that of the CSS Typeset, it gives you an opportunity to compare and contrast three different font-styles simultaneously.

YAML Builder: – This is another popular and powerful layout generation tool that works on YAML framework to create grid layouts.

Spiffy Corners: – This is a nice little CSS tool that lets you create rounded corner box without any images. Just a few clicks and you will be able to add nice looking rounded corner box to your web page.

W3C CSS Validator: – If you want to stick to the standards of web development, you should not ignore this important CSS tool. It is good at locating errors within your style sheet.

Google has always tried to empower and encourage website designers and developers so that they can build engaging website that can add value to user experience. Over the years, Google has launched different tools and almost all of them are highly effective for building, improving and maintaining website. However, the most interesting thing about them is that they do not come at a price. You need to have a Google account and nothing else if you wish to try these website design and development tools. Here in this article, we have enlisted a list of some of the best Google products that may prove instrumental in designing and developing a website:

Webmaster Tools (google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en)
Of all the Google products, Google Webmaster Tools is the most versatile. It comes with loads of interesting features that can help you analyze website in myriads of ways. You can check whether or not your website has been attacked by virus or malware and you can also pinpoint spider crawl errors. It also offers HTML suggestions and some information on how to speed up the loading time of your website.

Google Chrome Developer Tools (blog.chromium.org/2009/06/developer-tools-for-google-chrome.html)
Testing and debugging your website in a web browser is the most convenient and easiest way of ensuring the stability and performance of a website. Being aware of this vital issue, Google Chrome has come up with an all new suite of effective tools that help you inspect different elements of your website meticulously before making it live. Some website developers even argue that this tool works even better than the popular Firebug.

Page Speed (code.google.com/speed/page-speed/)
As Google is passing more importance to loading time of a website, website owners are getting cagey about it since the ranking of a website is invariably associated with it. Page Speed is one such tool that lets you speed up your website by trimming redundant things as far as possible. You just need to install this amazing tool in your web browser and it will analyze your website automatically and then will show you the results.

Google Code Search (google.com/codesearch)
You are writing a mail function but it is not working somehow. Now, do not bang your head against the table rather do some searches in Google Code Search to find out what is wrong with your written codes. Google Code Search finds out results from different publicly available sample codes and it comes with an advance and intuitive search interface that will let you specify your search queries specifically.

Google Website Optimizer (google.com/websiteoptimizer/b/index.html)
Usability of website usually tops the list of concerns of most of the website designers and developers. Now if you are unable to make decide between two different designs, you can get some valuable feedbacks from the users by using Google Website Optimizer. With this powerful tool, you will be able to experiment with your website look and feel by launching A/B testing.

Browser Size (browsersize.googlelabs.com/)
You need to check out how your website gets loaded in different web browsers. Browser Size is one such powerful tool that will give you an excellent opportunity to explore how your website renders in different web browsers.

Google Analytics (google.com/analytics/)
This is an excellent and the most powerful tool of all Google products that will give you useful statistics about how your website is performing in terms of traffic. Various options are available to analyze traffic source of your website.

Google Chrome is the fastest growing web browser that comes with a growing number of extensions that can make working on it a breeze. Chrome is fast, user-friendly and as obvious it is a Google product and that means you will  experience something unique while browsing in it. Google Chrome, though beneficial for all users, is particularly useful for the budding website designers and developers who want to learn some interesting stuffs about website design and development while browsing. Here we have enlisted some of the best Google Chrome extensions that can prove extremely useful if you are on the learning curve:

StayFocusd
This is particularly useful for those who are attacked by sudden bout of distraction while learning something serious. As virtual world is crammed with such distractions, you need to be a little cautious while browsing websites and here this particular Chrome extension can give you fresh lease of life. StayFocusd restricts the amount of time that you spend on web and even more you can use it easily locking some websites for specific blocks of time.

Awesome Screenshot
Are you tired of pressing the Print Screen button for capturing the best image while browsing a website? This Chrome extension can give some relief as it comes with a wide range of screen grabbing options that includes selected area capturing, whole-page screen capture and more.

Web Developer
This particular Chrome extension comes with a vast suite of tools and functions for analyzing a website closely and minutely. You can inspect HTML elements, alt tags of images, see the CSS styles, enable or disable images and more. In short, you can get all that you want to examine a website closely.

Apture Highlights
If you have an inquisitive set of mind, you would much in the habit of googling things if you got struck somewhere in the middle. Apture Highlights, which happens to be an indigenous Chrome extension is going to allow the users to get instant access to Wikipedia, Flickr, YouTube, Google and other websites. Interestingly enough, you would not require leaving the page. Dictionary definitions are also available while making search.

DayHiker
This is basically a straight forward calendar app for Chrome that is integrated with Google Calendar. If you happen to be a student, chances are that you are finding it hard to juggle between sports, academics and part time social activities. DayHiker will help you to keep a track on different actives.

Window Resizer
If you need to have a quick look of how your website appears in different screen size, you should not give this Chrome extension – Window Resizer a miss. You can check your website in different browsers and screen resolutions before making your website live over the Internet.

Diigo Web Highlighter and Bookmark
With this amazing Chrome extension, you will be able to tag, highlight and bookmark web pages easily and effortlessly. Moreover, if you wish, you can leave some sticky notes in it.

Designing a website needs a great deal of patience since you have to muddle through a long list of works that can freak you out sometime. However, the good news is that there are some cool tools available online for free that can ease up your pain a little bit and make your design project look less clutter and complicated and you are well aware of that. But since we cannot have them under one roof, we forsake the very idea of using them. Here in this post, we have included some of the best and powerful website design and development tools that can help you to improve your productivity and increase efficiency in your workplace.

Check My Colors (checkmycolours.com): – This is a cool color-testing tool that thoroughly checks the background and foreground of color combination of all DOM elements and gives an insightful analysis of your website. You just need to type the URL of your website and then hit the enter button and within a few seconds, you will be able to know whether or not you website has the desired level of contrast. This tool runs on the algorithms described by the W3C.

COPASO: (de-de.colourlovers.com/copaso/ColorPaletteSoftware) It is a powerful and highly sophisticated color palette tool that lets users create cool color palettes. Try this one out and we hope it will be a big time saver.

Code Burner: (tools.sitepoint.com/codeburner/) It is a reference tools for both experienced and novice website developers. It is dame good at providing useful reference materials for CSS and HTML and what’s more, it comes equipped with a vast range of popular development environments.

Readability: – (lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/) It is an experimental tool that is mainly developed to make reading on the web a clutter free and enjoyable experience. It gives you the liberty to determine the style, size and margin and the installation is fairly simple, just draw and drop the button on your browser’s bookmark toolbar and you are done.

Resize My Browser: – (resizemybrowser.com/) This website gives you a chance to adjust your web browser automatically and it offers a wide range of options for that. However, to make this tool work, you need make sure that JavaScript is enabled in your web browser.

Fillerati – (fillerati.com) Why muddling with the dead Latin language while designing a website. Here is something that you can try out instead of the old and boring “Lorem ipsum”.

A/B Split Testing Calculator: – (performable.com/calculator/) With this tool, you will be able to make an analytical comparison of different versions of a particular website. However, in order to figure it out which version is the most effective, you need to enter only those numbers that are statistically significant.

House of Buttons: – (houseofbuttons.tumblr.com) A roomful of buttons that are all delightfully and unpretentiously useful. Try some of them out and you will definitely fall in love for it.

Tryst with JavaScript has got a whole new dimension as rumor is doing the round that Google is doing something to overcome the intricacies of JavaScript. However, till now most of the designers loathe JavaScript intensely as it makes the embedded section of a website virtually invisible to majority of search engines. However, JavaScript is immensely powerful that can give dramatic twist to a website as far as website design is concerned. Now, there is a solution. You can make your website SEO friendly even if it is developed in JavaScript. What you have to do is to create a separate external JS file and put all the script there. By employing this trick, you will be able to make your visible as well as impressive. Now, if you are confident about using JavaScript in your website, you need to try out these below mentioned jQuery Tools and Resources that will help you spice up your website a little bit:

jPhotoGrid: – It is by no means an ordinary jQuery Tool. By using this jQuery Tool, you will be able to convert simple list of images successfully into a grid of photos that can be zoomed in and out. The styling effects are mainly done in the CSS file. The trick is mainly done by converting images to absolute position and this is what allows users to zoom in and out images by using their mouse.

Reel: – This is a great jQuery plugin that enables viewers to get a 360° view of something. If you can master the art of utilizing the advantages of this jQuery plugin, you will be able to a create a live projection. It is a viable alternative of Flash that is still being employed for the same purpose. Here are some of unique aspects of Reel: -

• It works finely with an existing CSS
• No need to use any browser extensions.
• Offers support for stitched images.

Coin Slider: – Coin Slider is a highly popular image slider plugin that can create beautiful transition effects. This plugin is compatible with most of the browsers and that means you would not have to face any trouble regarding compatibility issue any longer. Here are some other aspects of Coin Slider: -

• It comes with navigation box.
• You can customize it by making changes in CSS file.
• It is extremely light in weight and that means, it would not have major impacts on the site speed.
• Auto Slide option is there.
• Valid markup

Nivo Slider: – It is another powerful jQuery image slider that comes with 9 amazing transition effects. It is extremely light weight and easy to use. It comes with both control and directional navigation and it can perform seamlessly in different web browsers that include Safari v4, Google Chrome v4, Firefox v3+, Internet Explorer v7 etc. Some other features of Nivo Slider are:

• Keyboard Navigation
• It is absolutely free
• It offers support for linking images
• It comes with valid and clean markup
• 9 jaw-dropping transition effects

Presentation Cycle: – Though Presentation Cycle closely resembles Cycle, there are some differences as far as its functionality is concerned. Presentation Cycle generates a progress bar whereas Cycle only generates a list of clickable numbers. What is all the more interesting about Presentation Cycle is that it automatically generates a progress bar instead of adding HTML manually. Some other features of Presentation Cycle are enumerated thus:

• It is compatible with all modern web browsers.
• Generate progress bar almost automatically.
• Animation times can be adjusted.