Not content with having the best CSS editor around (CSSEdit), Jan Van Boghout of MacRabbit fame set out to destroy Coda and own top spot for the best XHTML, XML, CSS, JS or XSL editor and FTP Client around. Currently in public beta, Espresso is lacking some of the promised features of the GM release (such as “Sugars”, Espresso’s extension interface).

However Espresso is in a position where it can do some damage to it’s biggest competition, Coda. The interface on Espresso is much cleaner and makes entire project management much easier. The left sidebar is split into three sections: Workspace, Project, and Publish. Add a folder where your project is located, or start a new one and Espresso will keep it wrapped in a single file until you are ready to publish. The Workspace is a good idea done well, allowing you to easily switch between files you are working on. 

CSSEdit’s fantastic editing functionality is also here. Coda’s editor is feeble in comparison and offers another win for Espresso. While I couldn’t find the split, or GUI views of CSSEdit in Espresso, I still found coding supremely faster than in Coda. The toggle-able right hand sidebar displayed all of the elements in webpages or stylesheets and I found it to be particularly helpful when working in large files. 

The HTML editor is also akin to that of Coda’s, not better but not any worse. Collapsable elements meant that the coding process was much cleaner, and allowed for the largest of documents to be manageable. Espresso also handily syncs files with a server and relays any changes either performed on the machine or the server side. 

While Espresso is definitely a step in the right direction, I couldn’t help but miss some of my favourite features from Coda, or CSSEdit. Like I said previously CSSEdit’s wonderful and helpful split views are nowhere to be found, and I couldn’t work out how to make groups. Live Preview is there, but hidden in an obscure location under the “New” button.

All in all, Espresso is a great project management tool, but right now I don’t think it is quite ready for day to day use. I shall stick to CSSEdit and TextWrangler for now.

Written by Steven Radford. I'm a 16 year old designer and coder from rainy Bristol, UK. Coding since 2005, and located at http://www.graphicsplant.com. I code XHTML and CSS, and am currently learning JQuery. 

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