What's Brewing at CoffeeCup

S-Drive is getting a boost!

We're upgrading our S-Drive infrastructure! Our community is growing so fast that it's time for the behind-the-scenes server stuff to get a power boost.

When the upgrade is done, your Sites, Shops, Forms, and everything else you use S-Drive for will be faster than ever.

To make this happen, we'll need to have a little bit of downtime today while we get everything straightened out. You may experience somewhere between 15 to 20 minutes where S-Drive is offline. It's likely to be less though, and we sincerely doubt it'll take longer than that.

We hope this brief pause doesn't interrupt anything important. Trust us — on the other side, S-Drive is going to be way better!

Announcing the Winner of the Luke Egg!

Announcing the Winner of the 2012 Egg Hunt Grand Prize!

Friday the 27th was an exciting day here in the CoffeeCup office. Yep, we finally got to pull a name out of the BIG COFFEE CUP on our charming gatekeeper's desk!

The 75 lucky individuals who found a Platinum Luke Eggwalker during our annual Egg Hunt were entered into a drawing to win a once-in-a-lifetime vacation. Every time an egg was claimed, we threw a name into the cup in front of him.

Every name went on an identically shaped and sized piece of paper for an equal chance to be drawn. We didn't touch it for a week or so, for fear that 'bones' would bite our hands off. Then the big day came (today!)

The winner of the drawing is headed to Oleum Mare on the northeast coast of Spain for up to 10 days of bliss in a 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom house that overlooks the Bay of Roses. What a trip! We tried putting our own names in the cup, but 'bones' just wouldn't allow it…

We gathered around and Suzanne stirred up the names. The excitement was building. One of us passed out. Then she pulled out a naaaaaame…

Congratulations to:

JUANITA MCCANTS!

You're on your way to Spain, Juanita! Congratulations to all our other diligent hunters who found Luke hiding in the swamps of the CoffeeCup website. For everyone who didn't win the grand prize, we've got a gift for you, too:

An official CoffeeCup USB Flash Drive — loaded with all the software you've bought from us. (If you haven't bought anything yet, we'll load you up with the free versions of our software.)

We had a Second Chance winner, as well: Anthony Musillami. You're receiving a full year of web hosting on our Total Pro plan!

Thanks for playing, everyone! See you in next year's hunt.

(By the way—that spiffy photo gallery up there? An embedded gallery made with S-Drive Albums. Everyone with a paid plan will get access to this brand new gem over the weekend. If you don't have a paid account, you can get a free month of the Webbie plan right now.)

The OS X Web Editor is breaking new ground.

Being on two platforms is exciting! Following the booming release of the HTML Editor 12.6 for windows, it was our Web Editor for OS X's turn to wander the web world with a big bag of new features and improvements.

We're really pleased to see that the Web Editor is also gaining more traction and devoted fans every day. (Remember when it was voted Best Mac Code Editor just last month?)

For everybody that already owns it, we have a fine free update ready to go. Everybody else can still get it at the beta price and save at least $20. (We still call it beta, but only technically; the “beta” label and the low price tag will disappear with the next update).

Don't pass up the new version! It's totally worth your time:

Get the Web Editor (if you don’t have it yet and do a cannonball into your code.)
Get the free update (if you're already one of the many happy Web Editor owners.)

If you're looking to build or edit websites on your Mac, there's no better tool than the Web Editor. It's got the most coder-friendly and versatile layout you've ever seen.

There is no other editor that offers the snazzy HTML-CSS-Preview round trip. If you like browser tools like Firebug, you’re gonna love what the Web Editor offers you right within your coding environment. If you’ve never heard about this, get ready for your mind to be blown!

Having HTML (content), CSS (style), and a live Preview all on-screen at once means everything you need to edit is right in front of you. It's like your master console for the web, and you can configure it in practically any position possible.

Collapse a pane if you don't need it. Pop out the preview and put it anywhere—including another monitor. Don't like side-by-side? You can lay panes on top of each other, too. We went out of our way to create a coding environment that can be as unique as you are.

The Amazing All-New Features

From the very first release, the Web Editor has been warmly embraced by the coding community, but we know we can make it even better. We still have a long list of tools, helpers, and wizards we want to add, but these are the unique and ingenious features that made it into this release:

- Multiple Cursor Positioning: Write the same text in many places simultaneously
- Simultaneous Editing: Automatically edit opening and closing tags at the same time
- Tag Matching: Select a tag and its matching tag is highlighted
- Block Editing: Move and edit big chunks of code all at once
- Drag n’ Drop Coding: Drag images into the editor and its code is written automatically
- Save as Template: Create your own templates for a snappy start
- Create Project from Server: Start a new project with files already on your web server
- Uploading from the UI: Upload to S-Drive (our unique web hosting) or your own server
- Experimental Coding: A sample project that walks you through the many features
- Improved Auto-Complete: Updated to include more HTML5 and CSS3 elements
- Personalized Editor Fonts: Choose a custom font and size for each editor window
- Custom Tab Widths: Set the number of spaces inserted when tabbing
- Search-Based Editing: An improved and incredible search interface (detailed below)
- Selection Wrapping: Add quotes to both sides of your selection with one key
- CSS Auto-Suggest: Your project’s CSS Selectors are available in auto-complete
- Smart Code Suggestions: Your HTML Elements are available in CSS auto-complete
- Comprehensive Product Manual: An essential guide that is with you all the way

There’s stuff here you’ve never, ever seen in an OS X code editor before. They’re going to change the way you code—for the far better—forever.

Heaps of Keyboard Shortcuts, too!

If you’re like us, your hands don’t really leave the keyboard when you’re coding. That’s why we’ve built in a whole book’s worth of keyboard shortcuts. Do everything you need, faster, with a few keystrokes.

This is the story of a mundane task transformed into keyboard glee:

Rupert needed to make edits to a whole list of files in his project, but only those that had the keyword “bananas” in them. He pressed Shift+Cmd+F to search multiple documents and find everywhere “bananas” appeared.

He moved up and down the search results with the Arrow keys and pressed the Space Bar to preview documents. The Enter key brought the selected one into the editor pane.

He made his edits, and needed to go back to the search results. Cmd+` brought the results up from the background so he could go to a different file. He completed his task — and his hands never left the keyboard. Writing code can be fun (again)!

The new Web Editor is waiting for all of you, and you're going to love it.

The New HTML Editor is Nailing It!

Yep, 12.6 is the coolest release of the HTML Editor ever. Inspection Mode is clearly nailing it, and so are all the other new features. We really spent a lot of time thinking about how we could possibly make the new version better, and we're extremely confident that we succeeded!

We think you should see this amazing new version for yourself. If you're the happy owner of a previous version, you can download the free update. Otherwise, you can save an immediate $20 when you use the coupon code 'INSPECT' today.

Go here to get 30% off the most refined and best known HTML Editor around
Go here if you want to learn more or get a free trial before you buy

Inspection Mode is a unique feature that combines a live updating preview and code selection. If you like browser plug-ins like Firebug and Web Developer, then you'll love the way that both CoffeeCup editors (Windows and OS X) offer this unique workflow right there in your coding environment.

Instead of searching through the HTML code, you can now simply click a webpage element in the preview to see the corresponding HTML highlighted in the editor:

The editor and preview screens work in perfect harmony, so you can also click the HTML element and watch the element it defines light up in the preview:

When you make changes to any HTML elements or CSS rules, the preview automatically updates to show you the results in real time.

We worked in more great stuff, too:

• Toolbar themes
• Smarter spell check
• Code commenting options
• 20+ more improvements and tune-ups for a better, faster coding experience.

If you've ever wanted to learn to code websites, improve your HTML skills, or are simply in for a big time saver, this is your chance:

Get $20 off the amazing new HTML Editor with coupon code 'INSPECT'

You can find Inspection Mode in our OS X Web Editor, too!

Yep, our brand new Web Editor for OS X was just voted Best Macintosh Code Editor. Its HTML-CSS-Preview round trip puts everything you need on-screen, all at once. You can click elements in the preview to highlight its matching code in the editor, or click that code to highlight its matching preview element. In fact, it goes one step further than the Windows version, fetching the related CSS code at the same time!

We'll have a new and amazing release for this smashing code editor in the next few days. Stay tuned.

Happy coding!

You Save Money & Paper, We Donate. Cool?

Here’s an Earth-saving idea that everybody we talked to just loves:

Cast your vote for CoffeeCup!

Thanks for being a friend of CoffeeCup! We have a favor to ask of you.

It's time for the About.com Readers' Choice Awards again. We think CoffeeCup is the best (and we're pretty sure you do, too).

Our HTML Editor has been nominated for Best Windows Web Editor. We're incredibly excited because we worked so hard on it this year and we truly believe it deserves to win. Please go cast your vote so the whole world knows it, too!

Cast your vote for The HTML Editor

We're also humbled that our brand new OS X Web Editor has been nominated for Best Macintosh Web Editor. If you could cast your vote for it as well, we'd be really grateful.

Cast your vote for the Web Editor

Thanks for your support!

Ding... (Last OS X Beta Round Begins!)

We removed the access restrictions to our OS X beta program. Yep, that means that our three exceptional apps are just about ready for official release—hooray!

It also means that the current beta prices won't last much longer. If you like low prices you should pick 'em up now. Especially since these weren't half-baked betas to start with either—we launched with fully functional apps and they only got better:

"I've been using the beta apps for a while now… top notch apps!!"
—Joe Bento

Here's an overview of these three snappy mac apps:

Web Form Builder ($34 now—$69 next week): This web form app just won't stop get better. Thousands already own it and constantly tell us how much they love its versatility, from order forms to mailing lists and everything in-between. Its features list is chock full o' amazing tools—some of which you never knew you needed—and we're still adding more.

A few things you can expect in the next update include a contact list option for routing form results to the appropriate address, additional Captcha theme options, an extremely sweet new magical field for validating anything you can dream up, and much, much more.

We beefed up our form hosting a notch or 6 as well. It's fast, free(mium), and feature-rich. Uploading and updating your forms happens right within the app. Stats and results are displayed without having to configure a thing — it just works. And hey, we like hosting your forms on S-Drive so much that we now even offer a free Lite version.

Prefer to have your forms on your own server? You can do that, too. Just export the form, edit the files if you need to, and upload it directly. These forms will work anywhere, so you can switch from our servers to your own at any point.

Web Editor ($39 right—soon to be $69–$89): This full throttle code editor is all about workflow. With its HTML-CSS-Preview round trip, you can see both your code and its live preview on-screen at the same time. Together they provide you with the snazziest feature and biggest time saver of all:

Click an element in preview to see its code highlighted in the editor and vice versa.
Take that, other editors!

The new version that will go live soon includes a lot of snazzy stuff. We just added FTP uploading and S-Drive syncing right from the Project Explorer, so your entire website project can go on the web in seconds. And there's some ingenious features too: Think matching tag highlighting, simultaneously opening and closing tag editing, multiple cursor positioning, and more!

Web Image Studio ($29 now—soon to be $39): Our famous image editor is still the only one built specifically for web graphics. Enjoy easy customizations to every graphic or theme we make. Think it should be integrated with Form Builder so you can edit theme backgrounds, images, and buttons? We think so too! And hey, there is no better way of casting your vote than to get it now (and save some $$s, too!)

In the upcoming release, we beefed up the text tool. This will give you a lot more freedom to place words in your graphics (think custom submit buttons). Use any font installed on your system for text that can be stretched, squeezed, and rotated in any direction (even backwards!) Web Image Studio gives you all these tools without any of the headache that those giganto-programs provide.

Bonus: John came out of his cave to create a 4th OS X app, and we're in the middle of planning a sweet giveaway. We'll notify you when it starts if you sign up below:

When should I jump in?

Right now! We're going to boost these prices any day now, but we don't know exactly when. It depends on any last-minute stuff our kick-butt developers put in the programs. That said, we've got some advice for you:

Get these apps while the prices are still low!

We don't want you to be kicking yourself later. :)

Please help our software win awards!

All of us here at CoffeeCup hope you're looking forward to a spectacular leap year. What will you do with your extra day? I'll probably be in the office making more cool stuff for all of you.

I'm writing because we need your help. About.com just opened nominations for the People's Choice Awards and of course, we want to win both of these categories:

• Best Windows Web Design Editor
• Best Macintosh Web Design Editor

It sure would mean a lot to us if you go nominate our editors!

How to Nominate Our Editors

It's easy! Just go to the Readers' Choice Awards 2012 page first.

To nominate our HTML Editor for the Windows category, click the Nominate: Best Windows Web Page Editor link, go to the nomination form, and enter this information:

• CoffeeCup HTML Editor in the "Editor Name" field
• http://www.coffeecup.com/html-editor/ in the "URL" field

To nominate our Web Editor for the Mac category, click the Nominate: Best Macintosh Web Page Editor link, go to the nomination form, and enter this information:

• CoffeeCup Web Editor in the "Editor Name" field
• http://www.coffeecup.com/osx/web-editor/ in the "URL" field

(You may need to sign in with your Facebook account or register for an account on About.com to vote)

Important! You must vote before February 15, 2012. Please, go do it now. :)

Thanks so much for your help. We really appreciate it.

J. Cornelius
(and the rest of the team)

S-Drive Albums has arrived!

Hey everybody, S-Drive Albums has arrived!

You should go take it for a test drive right now. It'll appear under the "Album" tab in the S-Drive Dashboard.

Albums is the newest S-Drive service, bringing you a snazzy way to store and share your photos in a space that's all yours. You own and control all the content posted to your Albums, and you decide how it's presented.

Sounds great! How do I get started?

Just go to the Album tab in the S-Drive Dashboard and click Create an Album Now. Give it a name and a caption and you're ready to start adding photos! You can do this two ways:

• Click Upload Photos Now to choose files from your computer
• Click Add Photos from your Collection to choose files you've already uploaded to S-Drive

Once photos are uploaded, you can title them, add captions, rearrange them, and pick a cover photo for your album.

How do I share my neat new album?

Click the View Album button in the upper-right corner to view your album on the web in a slick and modern colorbox. You can share this URL with anyone in the world.

It only takes a few minutes to put an entire album on the web. You'll be amazed by the speed and convenience of S-Drive Albums. Go try it out!

And if you don't have an S-Drive account yet, you can sign up for free.

Easy graphics editing —> endless design choices

You already know this: Your website can have great content, and perfect code, but it's the graphics and images that make the first impression. The CoffeeCup HTML Editor gives you full control over all the content, code, and style formatting of your website—even where those graphics and images are positioned. But what about the graphics and images themselves?

Used to be, you had to invest loads of money and time in a generic image editor (like Photoshop) that is completely overqualified for the job. Not anymore! The web world needed an image editor built with web graphics in mind and Web Image Studio is its name. It has everything you need for intuitive web graphics editing and nothing you don't. (And it doesn't take 5 minutes to start up either.)

And with both vector and raster editors wrapped up into one, you can pull off quick-but-stunning image edits like this one in a snap:

Pretty amazing right? With the ability to tweak photos into anything you want, you can make them pop in your site. Or have them blend in you design. Or just give them a little of your personal touch. Instead of going with a stock image, you can have the exact effect you want:

And we didn't stop once Web Image Studio was born. We set our designers to work and figured out a way of making amazing web graphics that are easy to customize. Sounds intriguing? It's cool! Backgrounds, icons, buttons, and more, all built with customization in mind. And then we used that approach to build our themes, too.

Every theme retooled to be 100% editable in Web Image Studio, so you can get the most out of everything we make. Now it's only 4 steps from beginning to end when you're customizing your theme graphics:

1. Open a theme file with Web Image Studio. In this case, we've opened the background image of the "Surfing Wave" theme—a cool argyle pattern. But we don't want shades of blue, we want shades of brown!
2. Select and change as many colors or design elements as you want. Each component—the dark blue diamonds, the light blue diamonds, the lines—can be selected individually or in groups. Or, use the unique Color Palette function: select the color you want to change, pick something you like better and your graphic is changed maintaining tints, accents, structures and everything else that made it feel right! We for example just swapped out the blue in our color palette with a brown we liked. The pattern is nicely maintained—zzzzwwweeettt! 

3. Export your brand new customized graphic. When you're satisfied with the way it looks, you're all ready to go. Save the image as a PNG or JPEG into a folder you'll remember (so you can reference it in the next step). Putting it in your website project's folder or saving it directly over the old image are probably the best options.
4. Put it in your HTML! Open the HTML Editor, find where the image is referenced in the code, and replace the old file name with the new one. (You can use the Find tool to help you find the original file name.) Watch the instant preview immediately display your new image! If you can continue to tweak the image, export it to the same location and immediately see the effect your changes have on your design.

Don't stop there! Feel free to move, stretch, or rotate objects. Make enough tweaks and you've just created your own brand new site.

When you are happy you can save and sync/upload your website project for your new design to be visible on the web. Well seriously now, you can do just about anything with Web Image Studio and these smart themes. Recolor, resize, rotate, stretch, redraw any graphic we sell, and every graphic within every theme. Use the image editor to apply quick, cool effects to your photos. Yep, it gives you the power to perform any graphic editing your website needs. 

Wanna know what we used for all the graphics in this blog post?

The illustrious Web Image Studio: It does everything you just read about—and much, much more.

The HTML Editor: The greatest code editor on planet Earth. Spit-screen preview shows you the results of your code in real-time so you don't have to wonder what it'll look like on the web.

Sweet new themes for The HTML Editor: Just like the ones seen above, they come professional and ready to use. But don't stop there—use Web Image Studio to turn them into anything you want.

Good luck, and have fun with your new web design!