Tag: Tools

SiteAssist Professional

Post author By L. Jeffrey Zeldman
Post date 29 August 2008

Released Wednesday, August 27th, SiteAssist Professional creates entire CSS-based websites in minutes. Since that sounds ridiculous and impossible, I’ll say it again: the product creates websites in minutes, with clean markup, and nicely optimized CSS.

The software package includes 14 designs, each with 12 color schemes. You can customize everything and save your own designs. SiteAssist Professional works with Dreamweaver templates and imports from Eric Meyer’s CSS Sculptor and CSS Menu Writer .

While I wouldn’t use SiteAssist Professional to design sites for my clients, I would definitely use it to quickly mock up good-looking, standards-compliant, interactive walk-throughs. It’s also great for pro bono or friend-and-family work—any time you need to create a viable website without spending a ton of time.

The product lists for $199.99 but is available for just $149.99 during a two-week introductory special.

[tags]css, software, tools, siteassist, webassist[/tags]

Tags CSS, siteassist, software, Tools, WebAssist

Accessibility Adobe Applications architecture client services Code CSS Design development eric meyer Tools Web Design WebAssist work

CSS Menu Writer debuts

Post author By L. Jeffrey Zeldman
Post date 14 May 2008

Launched today, WebAssist Professional’s CSS Menu Writer™ for Dreamweaver takes the pain out of creating standards-compliant horizontal or vertical navigation menus with nested fly-outs.

I got to spend an hour with the program prior to its release, and was impressed with its flexibility and extreme ease of use. For instance, creating primary and secondary menu levels is as simple as pointing to your files and folders. If the client changes the approved site structure after you’ve already created your page templates, no problem: just drag files and folders to their changed locations and CSS Menu Writer will update your navigation.

The program comes with four horizontal and four vertical menus, each in 12 different color schemes—96 menus to start—with unlimited sub-levels. You can easily create Doug-Bowman-style “sliding doors” effects, as well as doing all the obvious stuff you’d expect to be able to do, like changing menu width, height, margin, and padding; swapping backgrounds and images; and saving custom creations as new presets to reedit or share with colleagues. The program also integrates easily with Eric Meyer’s CSS Sculptor.

CSS Menu Writer costs $99.99, but if you buy before May 27, it’s just $74.99.

[tags]webdesign, tools, software, webassist, css[/tags]