RickNunn.

This week I got an email asking me what software and process I use for putting websites together. I thought this is a valid enough question, why not blog it.

1. Pen to Paper - Now I have been known for being pretty bad for not spending enough time on this in the past, but it really is one of the most important steps. So these days I try & make a conscious effort to start this way on every project, I do find that it speeds up the initial process & it keeps my thoughts more organised.

2. Paper to Fireworks - Once I’ve got maybe four or five decent concepts on paper I take that into fireworks. From here I can develop the concepts & very quickly test them (visually) in a browser. I really find that Fireworks suits the way I work & It allows me to slice and export images in a fantastic way!

3. Fireworks to Coda - Right so I have whittled the five or six concepts down to one, and it’s time for the HTML & CSS (& ASP or PHP if its called for), I have a template HTML file and Template CSS file that I find lend them self to most websites that I put together. Coda has some fantastic tools for digging into the HTML and seeing what CSS attributes are affecting what HTML elements. While I’m developing the site, I of course periodically check the site in Firefox 2, and Internet Explorer 6 & 7 also if the site calls for it I will be checking the HTML to make sure its W3C compliant.

4. Coda to Safari - So by now I would have a pretty complete website, but I still give it the final checks in all the major browsers, have a clean up of the HTML & CSS, remove any unnecessary comments and put it live.

Obviously this can change from project to project but thats the general path I take for putting together a lot of my sites.