Web development tools I use and recommend
Ok, not being original here, but still... a web developer's blog is never complete without this. Maybe somebody will find at least something useful here. So here goes:
Tasks
- slicing designs into images and cobining it to (X)HTML/CSS
- script writing (PHP / JavaScript)
- debugging
- testing IE compatibility
- quick editing
- database handling
- OS: Microsoft Windows
- others
Slicing
Adobe Photoshop - using it mostly because the designs are in PSD files. I do not actually slice anything here. I just need this to take screenshots of the design to slice it with Paint.NET afterwards.
Paint.NET - a free, but absolutely awesome graphical editor without the tremendous amount of unnecessary functionality. I paste the screenshots from Photoshop here and select-and-crop them for slicing.
Creating (X)HTML/CSS
Adobe Dreamweaver - the most usable markup/style editor I have ever seen so far. Mostly because its autocomplete functions are so well thought-out. It is just a pleasure to use it. It is really worth the money Adobe wants people to pay for it.
Script Writing
Komodo Edit - a free tool, that has all the features I need. This is the only editor I know that has every feature that one might want in a script editor (PHP / JS autocomplete, code folding and project files) and does not have all those features that a regular person would use once a year max. Also, it is a very neat that Komodo has addons, which are implemented the same way as they are in Firefox. Very handy thing to have packed into a very familiar interface. Has the vertical selection feature, which is very important to me (just hold donw Alt+Shift while selecting). Can also be quite handy when need to change something in HTML/CSS and you do not want to bother opening up Dreamweaver.
Debugging
Firefox + Firebug and Web Developer addons - the best HTML/CSS/JS debugging tool. If you are not using those yet - you are now a web developer 
I do not use any PHP debugging stuff. Still doing it the crappy way - echo'es and print_r's. And the messages from the PHP interpreter, of course.
Testing IE compatibility
Of course I test my sites in Firefox, Opera and Safari. But the only problem is Internet Explorer (I test 6, 7 and 8), so...
Multiple IE - adds shortcuts to IE versions (starting at version 3) to your quick-launch. Has PNG fix support. Nothing special, but I like it more than IETest.
Quick Editing
Notepad++ - hands down the most handy editor for some quick edits. Not for real production though, since there is just too much tweaking to be done in order to make it into a half-decent environment to work with. Editing some notes, viewing sources or creating a fast JS - Notepad++ makes it all happen for me.
Database Handling
MySQL GUI Tools - mostly the Query Browser and Administrator. No real alternatives here, so there is not much to argue about. Better than phpMyAdmin anyway
phpMyAdmin - the standart in hostings with MySQL databases, so I am simply forced to use it.
OS: Microsoft Windows
This is quite important to me. Even though I really lack multiple workspaces in Linux (and do not even dare telling me about those crappy emulators for Windows of this feature) I still think that Windows is a better enviroment for web developing. Actually, I think that some people go to do this on Linux just because there are tools on Linux that allow it (e.g. ADs cannot go there since there is no Photoshop there). It is just a trend. Want to be cool? Install Linux.
Well, I personally think that this is not true. Web development is much more comfortable for me in Windows because of the wide selection of tools (notice Notepad++, Dreamweaver and Paint.NET as well as the presence of normal IE). I do not dislike Linux though (I even have my lovely Ubuntu 9.04 installed). It is just that it does not provide me with all the tools to do my job in the most efficient way. Period.
Others
Of course there is a lot of other cool tools I use like Filezilla for FTP, Dia, MySQL Workbench and Visual Paradigm for modelling, Evernote for quick notes and so on. But they are quite small and sometimes completely unrelated to the topic of web development. Maybe someday I can write something about those little things that also help making the development process much more easy and less tiring.