emmajane.net

During my DrupalCon presentation I asked themers to blog their toolkit so that we can learn from one another and work towards a "best practices" toolkit. There were lots of fantastic ideas during the session and I'm hoping that people will blog their toolkits.

Here's a summary of some of the tools that I use (and that I talked about during my session):

1. Browser plugins--make your browser a Web development environment instead of just a Web browsing window. Firebug allows you to edit your CSS files on the fly and to easily locate any element in the HTML source for your page. Victor Kane also recommends the Web developer's toolbar.
2. Testing services--stop asking your friends to take screen shots for you and start using one of these two testing services. The free service BrowserShots.org is perfectly suited to most people. It gives free screenshots from a variety of different configurations. The paid service, BrowserCam.com, is perfect for those who need to test interactive features as well. I have a BrowserCam account that I use to test fly-out menus on the sites I build.
3. The Drupal Devel module--a helper module for Drupal developers and themers. This module comes with an amazing Themer Info tool that allows you to "see" the contents of node and page variables.
4. Personal design library--Web sites change. Your favourite site today might be completely different tomorrow. Find a tool which allows you to save your favourites into a reference library. My favourite of tool is the browser plugin, Zotero. It was originally created for researchers, but it works well for designers too.
5. CSS Grid Systems--these CSS frameworks allow you to quickly create new Web sites that work in "all" browsers. One of the best documented grid systems is 960.gs. There is also a Drupal base theme that uses the 960 grid and a comparison chart that summarizes which of the base themes use what grid system (if one is used at all).
6. Version control--I don't care which system you use, as long as you use something. I personally enjoy the distributed version control system, Bazaar. A short tutorial of how I use it to upload my theme files to a Web server is available on the Bazaar Web site. 

What's in your toolkit? 

PS The Themer's Toolkit is available online as a video and as slides. The information presented here is also available in more detail in Chapters 2 and 3 in the brand new book Front End Drupal (pre-order today from Amazon.com and give a little love back to the Drupal Association while you do it).