Beyond the Basic Tools
You can certainly make a good start using the tools mentioned above. However, once you're dealing with a handful of web pages and other resources, you may want to go beyond these basic tools. We'll show you how to use some slightly more advanced applications later in the book.
Countless other text editors and web browsers are available for download, and many of them are free. Obviously, we don't have time to describe each and every one of them, so I've settled on a few options that have worked for me in the past, and which you might like to download and have at your disposal.
Windows Tools
NoteTab
NoteTab's tabbed interface lets you have many different files open simultaneously without cluttering up your screen, as Figure 1.6. Files that you've opened are remembered even after you close the program and open it again later (very useful when you're working on a batch of files over many days, for instance). You can download the free NoteTab, or its Light version, from http://www.notetab.com/ [7].
Figure 1.6. NoteTab Light's tabbed interface
Firefox
Firefox is a popular alternative to Internet Explorer, and, as we proceed through this book, it will be our browser of choice for a number of reasons. As with NoteTab, Firefox offers a nice tabbed interface that keeps your computer free from window clutter. You can download Firefox from http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/; the browser is depicted in Figure 1.7.
Figure 1.7. Firefox -- this critter is worth hunting down
Mac OS X Tools
It is true that there are fewer free programs available for the Mac operating system than there are for Windows. However, there are a few programs that you might like to consider as you move beyond the basics.
TextWrangler
TextWrangler is a free, simple text editor made by BareBones Software. As with NoteTab for Windows, TextWrangler can tidy up your workspace by allowing several text files to be open for editing at the same time (the documents are listed in a pull-out 'drawer' to one side of the interface, rather than in tabs). You can download TextWrangler, which is shown in Figure 1.8 from the BareBones Software web site.
Figure 1.8. TextWrangler, a free text editor from BareBones Software
Firefox
Firefox is gaining popularity not just among Windows users, but among Mac users too! A web page viewed in Firefox should display the same regardless of whether the browser is installed on a PC running Windows XP, on a Mac running OS X, or on Linux [10] (an operating system favored by people who really, really hate Microsoft products with a vengeance). The predictability of Firefox is a welcome change from the bad old days of endless browser competition, and is one very good reason why we will primarily use Firefox in the examples included in this book.
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