Completing development on SA Rally and a couple of client projects I have discovered a number of tools I can't believe I ever lived without. If you haven't tried them, I highly recommend all of them, as they will save you heaps of time.

Firebug - www.getfirebug.com
This Firefox plugin enables you to examine HTML and CSS and make changes on the fly, as well as examine visually the CSS box model and various properties. Ever wondered how your favourite site achieves certain results? Firebug can tell you how. An absolutely brilliant tool.

Notepad++ - notepad-plus.sourceforge.net
Notepad++ is a brilliant tool for those that like to write their own code the 'old fashioned way'. Once you save a file, it automatically picks up the language you are using and highlights tags, and makes your HTML, CSS, PHP, etc much easier to understand. If you're still using the default Notepad that comes with Windows, one try of this and you'll be hooked.

XAMPP - www.apachefriends.org
The computer I do most of my work on is a Windows laptop, and it can be a pain to constantly upload to an Apache server, especially if you only want to test a bit of quick PHP. XAMPP is a fully featured Apache server complete with PHP5, MySQL 5, FileZilla FTP Server and even Mercury Mail Server. Anyone can install it and it requires little configuration - install and play! I'm too busy to worry about configuring Apache etc manually, and XAMPP really helps out in this regard.

FileZilla - www.filezilla-project.org
Simply the best FTP client I have used, it saves the details for all of the FTP servers I need to access, and makes uploading files and configuration of projects a breeze. It is also under extremely active development which ensures it remains of the highest possible standard.

Drupal - www.drupal.org
These days, most of my projects are developed in Drupal. This is an extremely easy to use PHP/MySQL based content management system (CMS) which is highly configurable and flexible. It can be used for a simple blog site (such as this) right through to more complex, user focused sites (such as SA Rally). Even Sony BMG use it for their artists web sites. Almost any functionality not included in the core is available via modules downloadable on the Drupal web site, along with themes and a very helpful bunch of people that are eager to help those that try to help themselves. Far more dynamic, flexible and powerful than WordPress, I highly recommend Drupal for any site you may be working on.

Do you use these tools? Let me know!