Scintilla is an open-source freeware code editor that I use a lot when editing CSS and HTML files. In fact, I use it in conjunction with Firefox’s ViewSourceWith extension to view the source of pages. Why is Scintilla so useful? Well, for one, it makes the source of a page much more readable than Firefox’s built-in source viewer or applications like Windows Notepad. In addition, it has a bunch of advanced features like:

As well as features found in standard text editing components, Scintilla includes features especially useful when editing and debugging source code. These include support for syntax styling, error indicators, code completion and call tips. The selection margin can contain markers like those used in debuggers to indicate breakpoints and the current line. Styling choices are more open than with many editors, allowing the use of proportional fonts, bold and italics, multiple foreground and background colours and multiple fonts.

Here’s a screen shot that shows how readable Scintilla’s rendering of a page is:

If you do any kind of simple code editing like CSS or HTML or PHP, Scintilla is a great, lightweight application that will greatly increase your productivity.

ViewSourceWith is a Firefox extension that lets you use an external application to view the source of a page instead of the built-in source viewer in Firefox (e.g., in a new tab or window). Not much to say about this extension, since it’s pretty simple in concept. However, I find it very handy and have added it to my “must have” list of Firefox extensions.

I found out about this extensions from Rawlinson’s Useful Firefox Plugins post.

I’ve been posting a few screen shots lately from Del.icio.us and other services on the web. I generated these screen shots using an awesome program called SnagIt which is written by the folks at TechSmith. I’ve been using SnagIt for years now, and it keeps getting better and better with each release.

SnagIt can capture images, text, web pages, video and printer output (although I just use it for image capture). In addition, it has a basic image editor and browser and can do batch conversions. Heck, they even have a Firefox extension for SnagIt.

Overall, it’s very easy to use — even its more advanced features (like edge effects) are super simple to use. If you’re looking for a great screen capture utility, I highly recommend TechSmith’s SnagIt.