When designing a website, there are a lot of free and paid tools that many professionals use to make their life easier. While most of us don’t want to open up Notepad and start coding, many prefer to use tools that help make the project go a lot smoother. Whether you’re new to the field or you’re a seasoned vet, here are a few tools that one may want to consider using.

1 Firebug: Firebug is free and it’s an open source piece of software that help web developers with HTML and CSS editing. On top of that, it’s a great program to help use when looking to debug HTML as well as debug other related programming languages such as JavaScript.Is this new to you? Catch up here Firebug also has a nifty extension that one can install directly to the browser.

2 Panic Coda: For those that use a Mac, Panic Coda is an interface based software platform that enables a web developer to edit text, help transfer files to a FTP server, as well as work with CSS live. On top of that, what most developers like is that there are web books that are enabled into the software that help developers with common issues and problems.

3 Dreamweaver: This popular paid software package is widely used by both novice and professionals throughout the industry. Created for both Windows and Mac, Dreamweaver is a suite of tools that feature code hints, a built-in FTP client, workflow options and also enables a developer to preview the source code before the website goes live.

When working with any type of website on the web, it’s essential that one considers software packages to help assist. Not only are these programs going to make your life easier, two out of three above are free to download. Dreamweaver also has a free trial. Give it a shot and see if it’s something that helps your production skyrocket.