[roam]

Look, noahc is absolutely right. If you think Notepad++ is holding you back when coding HTML and CSS, you're wrong. You need practice. So practice.

Have a look at PatternTap (http://patterntap.com/) to find inspiration for specific bits of the UI. Find out how you would create your own in Photoshop/Gimp/Illustrator/Pixelmator/Paint. Maybe add a texture, find a better color scheme or change around the font.

Then build it with HTML/CSS/JS. Use Frontpage, Dreamweaver, Eclipse, Vim, Notepad++ or, hell, even regular Notepad. It does not matter.

Great designers use the tools they are comfortable with. Most use a tool such as Photoshop to build something tangible (a PNG, PSD or, if you're management-material, PPT). That let's them define the way the website should look under ideal circumstances without getting to hung up on the correct HTML and CSS. Then they cut that up and code it in HTML and CSS to create something useful.

That's what you need to practice. And if you're worried your designs look too "Web 1.0", you need to focus on the first part of that process: defining what it should look like, before opening up your editor of choice.

[brador]

It's not holding me back in terms of skill, it was a speed issue. I was looking for drag and drop/tick box shadow drop style design rather than hand typing #menu everytime etc.

However, thanks for the details! I've now got what I needed (some software options to try out) so thanks for that.