The big addition in the upcoming TopStyle 3.5 is a “preview spy” feature which exposes an HTML tag’s margins, padding and content box as you mouse over it in the preview.
Watch a Flash movie of this feature
Trouble is, I don’t know what to call this feature. “Preview spy” isn’t exactly exciting – it’s bland, whereas I think this feature is pretty cool. CSSEdit for the Mac has a somewhat similar feature called “X-Ray,” but I’m not wild about stealing the name from someone else’s software.
Can anyone recommend a better name?
Update: OK, I’ve settled on the name “Box Spy” for this feature. Many thanks for all the great suggestions!
Trail? Grail? Holy Grail (batman)!
Probably lame, but what about something like “Box Model Magic” or “Magic Box?”
Or “Element Skeleton.”
“Covert Style Spy” Keeps the CSS theme…
how about “StyleView”?
Personally, I call it “Frickin’ Sweet!” :)
Hmm… being serious – “Layout Inspector”?
“Frickin sweet” works for me. That way, when people ask me where to find this feature, I can simply tell them to press the frickin’ sweet button.
@Joseph: hadn’t thought about using the word “skeleton” in the name – that could work well, since it really does expose a document’s skeleton.
“Recon” short for Reconnaissance.
How about BoX-Ray?
This looks great! – How about StyleScope?
[as in “looking at the style through a telescope or a microscope” — better than “monkey see, monkey do” anyway! :-) ]
Can’t wait to see the final upgrade!!!
Firebug calls it “Layout”. The Safari3/Windows inspector calls it Metrics.
Hi Nick,
for the record, we implemented a feature called X-Ray that was not unlike this in Style Master in 2004 – so there’s no drama of stealing it from CSSEdit,
john
Just to clarify, I’m not accusing anyone of “stealing” (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and all that) – just like to set the record straight ;-)
j
This feature is directly related to the official W3 “Box Model”, so it would seem appropriate to incorporate the word “Box” somehow.
How about: “Box View”, “Box Viewer”, “Boxy view” or maybe “Boxinator”?
Unless you don’t want to call it “PantsDown” my vote goes to “StyleScope” mentioned above. Sounds cool.
How about “Clearview”? The view clarifies all.
My vote: BorderSpy
I like StyleSpy.
StyleSync may be a close second
StyleLink.
StyleLock Holmes ;)
StyleDigger
EditorSync
But I like StyleSpy best.
Box Clever
Wow – there are tons of great suggestions here. Thanks, folks!
I like “Style Spy” a lot, but I’m not sure that really describes what it does. “Box Spy” or “Layout Spy” are probably more accurate.
I think including the word “inspector” is a good idea – but then I’m a huge firebug fan ;)
a few variations:
box inspector
document inspector
layout inspector
or reverse them:
inspect boxes
inspect layout
“Inspector” is a great name – but there’s already a “tag/style inspector” in TopStyle, so I don’t think it would work in this feature’s name.
How about Expose or Outline for the name.
Looks nice. A firefox plugin allows something similar and also tells you specifically which CSS elements are affecting the specific place you are highlighting.
How about red eye
or Red-I
Hey, “Red Eye” (or “Red-I”) is a great name – I might use that one, thanks!
Hi Nick, just change the spelling around a little – X-Ray or x-ray , and neither I nor Apple will mind :-). Or compound it: “Tag X-ray”.
“Box” something… Like others pointed out, you’re revealing the boxes for an element, so I’d go with box somewhere in the name.
Box Spy, Box Revealer…
Cute names shouldn’t take precedence over instantly understandable names, IMHO.
How about ‘Cloak’ or ‘CSS Cloak’ ? How soon can we get our hands on the beta :-)
The suggested StyleScope has charms, but here are a few other ideas, in my order of precendece:
1) TagFlag
2) CSSinspector
3) ExCeSS
Sharon
@JohnA: you’re right – Style Master also has an X-Ray feature. Apologies for the oversight!
Box Model Inpector
Box Model Viewer
Box Model Revealer
If you really want to knock people’s socks off, make it a 3D Box Model Viewer.
Maybe give it a “Print 3D Box…” too, that would help kill a lot of time consuming discussion about a design.
BoxCamera – it shows you a picture of the box model.
But CL’s BoxClever is very nice.
The Opera browser has a view called “Show structural elements” that does a similar (but not nearly as integrated) thing.
That said, that name is non-obvious.
Style Spy gets my vote.
–Brad Einarsen
How about “css-p hints”? Doesn’t sound as cool as “x-ray”, but it is pretty short and descriptive.
How about something like ‘Topographic view’, a bit of a mouthful perhaps, but it seems quite meaningful?
Ok folks, I’ve settled on “Box Spy” as the name for this feature. It’s not as cool or catchy as some of the recommendations here, but I think it describes the feature quite well. Many thanks to everyone who commented here!
Hmm,
the list of excellent name I think could be:
Tag Inspector
Tag Spy
Tag Ray
QuickPreview
SexyPreview
PussyView ?