I recently started using Xyle Scope by Cultured Code and I now wonder how I ever managed without it. It is unfortunately only for OSX at this time. For those sporting a mac, this is a must have.

Xyle Scope is a CSS viewer that will save HOURS on your workflow. It features a browser to view your web pages and a css viewer to read your code in-depth. What makes this better than anything else that’s out so far? Once you click the selection mode button you can click anywhere on the web page and it will give you the complete tree and cascading order of everything attached to your selection. The part that is the answer to my prayers is where it will show you the exact selector you need to style the element you choose. The only downside (and it is minor) is that it won’t allow you to click on the selector and copy/paste. For anyone doing CSS designs this will literally save you hours of hunting for the right hooks to style your pages with. You can also change the CSS values to experiment with different looks within the program as well as export code you may find useful.

Xyle Scope has quickly become my 2nd most used piece of web development software, right behind Dreamweaver 8. Be good to yourself… buy it today!