It doesn't matter what application you use. A good web designer can make a good website using ANY text editor. To start:
Learn HTML and CSS: There's thousands of places. I recommend
htmldog.com.
Manipulating images: I use Photoshop.
Pixelmator is a great alternative. If you are short on cash try
Gimp.
Animations: Sorry flash developers but Flash sux! I have many reasons but the first it's because it kills battery life (cpu hog). That's why iPhones don't have it. Flash is widely used today because of video. Newer browsers support html5, so I think big websites like Youtube are going to push that transition (like it did with IE6). Websites (the good ones) use javascript for animation. They don't hog the cpu and are very small, specially when used in
jQuery.
Web Development tool? There's many options. The ones I tried:
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CODA: I love it! Great user interface, It's fast, stable and complete.
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Textmate: Probably the best code editor but I still prefer CODA.
- Dreamweaver: Adobe is adding "new features" making it bloated. Editing CSS is a nightmare and it hurt my eyes watching the default letters in code editor.
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Flux: There's a screencast in developer's website showing how easy is to create a website. I noticed when your webpage gets big, the application get a little unresponsive.
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Espresso: Seems nice like CODA but I called it a beta. Check out in a year to see for an improvement.
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Rapidweaver: Good when you want to create a website and you have no idea how to do it. It's not expensive but you have to buy many "add-ons".
For CSS:
CSSedit is the best tool but I can do everything I want without problems in CODA.
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So you have plenty of options. For me CODA and Photoshop get the work done.