Zen Coding — a new way of writing HTML and CSS code

Follow us on Twitter @zen_coding

New version 0.7 is available (March 13, 2011), read release notes for more info.

Zen Coding is an editor plugin for high-speed HTML, XML, XSL (or any other structured code format) coding and editing. The core of this plugin is a powerful abbreviation engine which allows you to expand expressions—similar to CSS selectors—into HTML code. For example:

div#page>div.logo+ul#navigation>li*5>a

...can be expanded into:

<div id="page">
	<div class="logo"></div>
	<ul id="navigation">
		<li><a href=""></a></li>
		<li><a href=""></a></li>
		<li><a href=""></a></li>
		<li><a href=""></a></li>
		<li><a href=""></a></li>
	</ul>
</div>

Read more about current Zen Coding syntax

Abbreviation engine has a modular structure which allows you to expand abbreviations into different languages. Zen Coding currently supports CSS, HTML, XML/XSL and HAML languages via filters.

Current features of abbreviation engine

• ID and CLASS attributes: div#page.section.main.
• Custom attributes: div[title], a[title="Hello world" rel], td[colspan=2].
• Element multiplication: li*5 will output <li> tag five times.
• Item numbering with $ character: li.item$*3 will output <li> tag three times, replacing $ character with item number.
• Multiple '$' characters in a row are used as zero padding, i.e.: li.item$$$ → li.item001
• Abbreviation groups with unlimited nesting: div#page>(div#header>ul#nav>li*4>a)+(div#page>(h1>span)+p*2)+div#footer. You can literally write a full document markup with just a single line.
• Filters support
• div tag name can be omitted when writing element starting from ID or CLASS: #content>.section is the same as div#content>div.section.
• (v0.7) Text support: p>{Click }+a{here}+{ to continue}.

To better understand how Zen Coding works, watch demo video and read Smashing Magazine tutorial.

Zen Coding isn’t only a decent abbreviation engine, it also provides some very useful actions for HTML-coder’s every day needs, like: Wrap with Abbreviation, Tag Balancing, Toggle Comment, Remove Tag etc. Read more about available actions.

Officially supported editors

These plugins are developed by Zen Coding team and guarantee to have full support of all Zen Coding latest features.

• Aptana/Zend Studio/Eclipse (crossplatform) https://github.com/sergeche/eclipse-zencoding
• TextMate (Mac). Available in two flavors: basic snippets (Zen HTML and Zen CSS) and full-featured plugin (ZenCoding for TextMate). _{Bundles > Zen Coding menu item}
• Coda (Mac) — external download, via TEA for Coda. _{Plug-ins > TEA for Coda > Zen Coding menu item}
• Espresso (Mac) — external download, via TEA for Espresso. Zen Coding is bundled with Espresso by default, but you should upgrade ZC to latest version. _{Actions > HTML menu item}
• Komodo Edit/IDE (crossplatform) — external download. _{Tools > Zen Coding menu item}
• Notepad++ (Windows). _{Zen Coding menu item} Also a Python version of NPP plugin is available: http://sourceforge.net/projects/npppythonscript/files/
• PSPad (Windows). _{Scripts > Zen Coding menu item}
• <textarea> (browser-based). See online demo.
• editArea (browser-based). See online demo.
• CodeMirror (browser-based). See online demo.

Third-party supported editors

These plugins are using official Zen Coding engine and developed by third-party developers. Thus, no guarantee that they support all latest ZC features.

• Dreamweaver (Windows, Mac)
• Sublime Text (Windows)
• Sublime Text 2 (crossplatform) — external download
• UltraEdit (Windows)
• TopStyle (Windows)
• GEdit (crossplatform) — Franck Marcia's plugin, Mike Crittenden's plugin
• BBEdit/TextWrangler (Mac) — external download
• Visual Studio (Windows) — at Visual Studio Gallery
• EmEditor (Windows) — external download
• Sakura Editor (Windows) — external download
• NetBeans (crossplatform) — download
• Chrome Extension — external download
• Userscript for Greasemonkey — external download
• Geany — external download
• RJ TextEd — built in since v7.50
• AkelPad — external download
• WIODE web-based IDE
• BlueFish — built-in in v2.2.1

Unofficial implementations

These plugins are developed by third-party and has their own ZC engine implementation, which leads to different feature set and abbreviation syntax. Zen Coding team has no relation to this projects.

• IntelliJ IDEA/WebStorm/PHPStorm (crossplatform) — built-in in latest versions
• Emacs (crossplatform) — external download
• Vim (crossplatform) — Sparkup, Zen Coding for Vim
• ReSharper plugin for Visual Studio

Development

Zen Coding is currently developed at GitHub. There’s also available developer previews of upcoming features and a Plugin HOWTO about adding Zen Coding support for your favorite editor. New Zen Coding releases are announces on our Twitter account.