Web design and development is a desktop activity, right?
Well, it may have been in the past but in 2013 we all have tablets and we don’t want or need to sit in a stuffy office all day with our boss watching over our shoulder. But on the other hand, we don’t want to stand on a busy train with our mac-book dangling precariously off your finger tips.
If you have a tablet or even a smartphone then you have options people. There are tonnes of apps that can help you develop your websites on the move. The first thing you must appreciate is that tablet apps are not a direct substitute for your desktop computer. They are limited in some ways. For example, you will struggle to find an app that has a visual WYSIWYG…But who really uses them anyway!!
To develop on the move you only really need two things – A way to upload and download from your server and a way to edit the code and images that make up your website. Ok, that is three things but I didn’t list a brain either!
Table of Contents
FTP
The first thing is first, the beloved file transfer protocol. It has been a staple of web design from the start. The FTP protocol is supported on 99.999% of the world’s web hosts so it would be silly not to assume that your host will support it. A great android FTP client is AndFTP. It can store numerous servers and will upload and download to wherever you see fit on your tablet, but best of all it is absolutely free!
Code Editing
Your next hurdle is editing your code on your tablet. Surprisingly there are literally hundreds of options when it comes to editing your website on your tablet but one of my favorites is Droid edit. It supports lots of different languages from C# to HTML, CSS, and PHP but I mostly like it because it creates pretty, colorful code as you type. Droid edit features syntax editing and curly bracket matching as well as a load of other stuff that you probably will never use. You could buy the pro version but I have found the free version to be more than adequate.
Image Editing
Who needs photoshop?
Well, I do but when you are on the move there is no need to panic. Picsart photo studio is more than adequate for resizing, trimming, and making minor alterations to images.
Picsart has effects, brushes, and other image manipulation tools that you might not expect to find on an android app.
I should say that I am in no way affiliated with any of the apps mentioned here I just use them all the time.
Can you develop websites on your tablet?
Of course, you can, you just need to accept that the screen is small, use a little imagination, and have a set of nimble fingers!
