Every once in a while you come across a tool that you can't believe you managed to work without. I was lucky enough to come across two such tools this past week.

xScope is a wonderful little tool, only available for the Mac, which probably explains why I didn't discover it before now. xScope allows you add some essential design tools to your screen: rulers; screens; magnification; guides; frames and cross hairs.

The screen shots on the website will make their function clear, but xScope is a god send for anyone working in web design. At $17 it might sound expensive for a little web tool like this, but it's not really for a one off purchase (heck going to a movie theatre one night will probably cost you more).

Split Browser is a Firefox extension that allows you to split the content area of a browser as you like. This is great for comparing web pages, or when you're copying and pasting from one web app to another, no tabbing between browsers anymore! You can split the content area as often as you'd like, or as many times as your machine can handle. Best of all its free!