Responsive Layout Maker is great if you're the kind of designer who likes to get under the hood and work with code. RLM solves one of the biggest challenges in responsive design, having a flexible core which can adapt based on the viewer’s screen size. In a nutshell, Responsive Layout Maker creates a responsive prototype website (called a layout). You build the structure of your website in Responsive Layout Maker and then export to any code editor to add your final content.
Responsive Site Designer has all this and more but allows you to add the visual layer visually without having to dive into the code. It can not only import your RLM project, but it can also build the structure of your website as well. This means you do not have to export your Responsive Site Designer project into a code editor to add your final styles. The big additions that RSD offers are the design layer (background images, gradients, shadow, radius, etc) and state functionality (hover, active, visited). There's more cool stuff like a web inspector tool, adding meta data and footer code, integrating and customizing font icons (1600+ icons come with the app) and more.
You see, when starting a responsive project, you should first use Layout Maker. This app helps you ease into responsive design techniques without being distracted by design details such as rounded corners, etc. That task is reserved for Site Designer. RLM makes it easy to organize the material with site elements like headings, paragraphs, buttons, and images. Then arrange, rearrange, and explore new ways of presenting the content, then adjust its appearance for all screen sizes.
Once your Layout project is completed, then you can take your RLM project and open it within Site Designer to add your styles.
If you have not done so yet, we also have a bunch of articles on RLM to help you get more familiar with how the software works. Our
Quick Start Guide is very helpful when getting started with Responsive Layout Maker and Responsive Site Designer as both use the same layout/structure. We recommend taking a look at it as it explains many different parts of RLM and RSD.