I have my spiffy new Mac Book 13 inch which is running XP in parallels and can run Linux if I need/want to (I probably will). One of the things I want to do with this is develop and improve a number of my labs web pages. Im asking those of you who might have a lot of experience with web page development about strategies and software to do this.

For instance, do you recommend setting up an Apache server on the notebook and doing a mock up of the sites and editing from that? Or is just getting the pages and viewing them with a browser or editor?

Is there a HTML editing package that people recommend?

Also, I will want to work on this offline. Is there a way (preferably a program that does this) to automatically or with minimal effort download a web site or pages and then work with them locally and upload them back to the site?

Generally, Im looking for strategies and tips for doing development offline. Thanks for any suggestions.

I generally install all the things I need on my laptop. Currently the setup is:

Apache, PHP, MySQL, Postgres, Topstyle (for CSS), Zend IDE (for PHP and HTML). I also typically throw manuals for all of them onto the HD as well as a few references I use regularly.

Ditto what meiji said. In the past, when doing ASP on the MS platform I had IIS and SQL on the laptop as my own traveling development sandbox. Now, I have the same laptop running Fedora, and some dev packages. In the future (probably after Leopard hits), I'll get a MBP and trick it out.

I just got a Mac Mini (to get a taste of OSX) and I love it. I'm just playing with the dev stuff on it to see if it's feasible, but PHP and MySQL were a breeze.

Mac OS X comes with Apache, and I installed PHP and MySQL locally so I can work without an Internet connection - most of the website stuff I do uses PHP and so I must use a web server. But even if you don't use PHP, you may as well use Apache since you get it "for free" with OS X.

My text editor of choice is TextMate, whether for PHP/HTML, C++, TeX, or whatever. When I do have an Internet connection, I use Cyberduck (a secure FTP client) in conjunction with TextMate to edit pages as if they existed on my local disk. As for copying an entire website for offline editing, you can certainly use Cyberduck or any other file transfer program (i.e. scp with the -r flag) to copy the files to your local disk and back again when you're done.

Ditto with all above re: Apache, PHP, MySQL, etc - I also run postfix / squirrelmail and openvpn on my server. Re: the HTML editor I'm currently running Dreamweaver with great results, but I still have a soft spot for using the free Mozilla browser (not Firefox) as an editing tool. They have an edit page tool which is very powerful and free too! Easy to start from scratch or use an existing webpage as a template.

You want MAMP for your on-the-road web-developing.....and, for that matter, for your in-the-office web development too.

APache, PHP, MySQL is all on my laptop.

You will very likely find out that your macbook comes pre-installed with apache and php. You may only need mysql.

Check this link for what is needed.

As for editing software - dreamweaver. It has built in ftp so when you're done editing your site on your laptop, just upload the whole thing and go have a coffee or a drink in the lobby bar while DW is doing what it should do.

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I work on a .Net site all the time with Visual Studio in Parallels and Skedit for the HTML, CSS and Fireworks for the graphics on the Mac side.

I use a Macbook Pro primarily, but have used a Macbook to do everything when the pro was in the shop. The larger screen on the Pro really helps.

Yeah, forgot to mention Fireworks. It rocks!

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If you are just developing HTML, it seems like everything that people have listed here is serious overkill. Just use emacs or VI or your favorite text editor.