Automate Your Design Process with These 13 Tools and Tips

These tools and tips will show you how to quicken your workflow when designing or editing a website.

Quicker Text Editing

Use search and replace so you don’t have to manually open up all those files anymore! Let these programs do that for you.

• TurboSR Search And Replace
  This free utility allows you to search through text, .html and xml files and replace text. It works on multiple files too, no need to open each one.
• ReplaceEm
  ReplaceEm is a search and replace utility that supports multiple files. The best part about this one is that it can use regular expressions.
• Search And Replace
  Another lightweight and fast text replacement utility. This one allows you to search through and entire folder and choose only certain extensions (html, dll, etc). Requires the .net framework.
• TexRep 2.0
  TexRep is another text replacement tool, but this one allows you to make copies of the original while replacing text. Handy for when you want to change something but change you mind back.

Put Your Photoshop To Work

Over are the days of opening an image, resizing that image and finally saving. Set Photoshop to run a batch for you and sit back and relax.

• Using The Photoshop Batch Command
  If you are unfamiliar with the batch command in Photoshop, this is a good place to start. It breaks down what each option in the batch dialogue means.
• How To Batch Rename Files In Photoshop
  Using Photoshop’s File Browser (called Bridge in CS3) you can batch rename all your files. Ideal for organizing your images for uploading.
• Advanced Batch Processing - Video Tutorial
  This video tutorial shows you how to resize an image and add a border with only one action. Any image size is dynamically adjusted to not exceed a certain width (while retaining its aspect ration) and a 3px border is added.
• Batch Watermark Images With Different Dimensions/Orientations
  Create a watermark and apply it to the same spot on all your iamges, regardless of dimensions and orientation!
• SampsonVideos - Image Resizing
  This screencast by SampsonVideos shows you how to batch resize a folder of images and export them to another folder, thus preserving your original files.

Appreciate The Little Things In Dreamweaver

Even though I never use the WYSIWYG portion of Dreamweaver, I still find it to be a huge time saver. Find out the ways you too can save time.

• Templates In Dreamweaver
  Dreamweaver allows you to create templates. That is, if you start a new document it will retain your site’s structure so all you have to do is decide what content you would like to add. This is a great time-saver.
• Dreamweaver’s Search & Replace
  This video tutorial will quickly get you up to speed on how to use the powerful search and replace dialogue in Dreamweaver.
• Dreamweaver’s Assets Panel
  Another video tutorial showing you how you can save time in Dreamweaver using the assets panel.
• Setting Up Dreamweaver’s FTP Connection
  Adobe’s instructions for connecting to your site’s FTP through Dreamweaver. This is a huge time-save because you can edit and upload within Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver retains your site’s structure so you don’t have to specify and upload folder, you just click “put” and you’re done.

Source : http://www.designvitality.com/blog/2007/10/automate-your-design-process-with-these-13-tools-and-tips/