Microsoft Expression Web Designer CTP | Tech Off

joshnuss
Joshua Nussbaum

Just saw at connect.microsoft.com

Looks like there will be a CTP in April for 5000 participants and a public CTP in June.

I hope they use the Ribbon Bar from Office 2007.. that would be neat.

W3bbo
The Master of Baiters

joshnuss wrote:
I hope they use the Ribbon Bar from Office 2007.. that would be neat.

I doubt it; the Ribbon bar looks to be used exclusivly by the Office teams[1], the screenshots of the other Pre-Beta "Expression" products show it using a more Adobe/Macromedia-like user-interface with floating/dockable pallets.

[1]...but since Visual Studio uses the user-interface from the version of Office that preceeded it, I'm going to hate it if Visual Studio 2008 uses Ribbons

ben2004uk

I applied but i can't find a download link? Did I miss it or isn't it released yet??

andokai

W3bbo wrote:
[1]...but since Visual Studio uses the user-interface from the version of Office that preceeded it, I'm going to hate it if Visual Studio 2008 uses Ribbons

Well considering not all of Office is even going to use it, I doubt you've anything to fear.

Harlequin
http://twitter.com/TrueHarlequin

I've seen most of the big Office 2007 applications with the Ribbon, all except OneNote 2007, which I hope gets a rebuild of sorts. It's already a sweet product, it would be nice to see what they can/could add to it...

kettch

W3bbo wrote:

[1]...but since Visual Studio uses the user-interface from the version of Office that preceeded it, I'm going to hate it if Visual Studio 2008 uses Ribbons

Given that so many of the toolbars in VS are context sensitive, I would like to see at least some degree of ribbon type control in a future version of VS.

The way it works now is not always very smooth and doesn't intelligently dock or anchor things very well. When you move from, say, a code window to a designer the whole thing kind of jumps a bit and the toolbars don't always flow right if you change something.

jamie

the connect page has been blank for ever - til now - this is there:

"Apologies for the silence. We were hammering out details and ironing out schedule kinks.

The private CTP will be released to a few people under NDA by April 28th (with a buffer of one week). We will roll it out in a phased manner after that, with a public CTP in June.

We are really eager to ship this product but we also want it to be a product that is world class and meets your needs. Thanks for your patience and interest in the product.

Devindra S. Chainani

Group Program Manager - Expression Web Designer

devindra.s@microsoft.com

W3bbo
The Master of Baiters

kettch wrote:
Given that so many of the toolbars in VS are context sensitive, I would like to see at least some degree of ribbon type control in a future version of VS.

The way it works now is not always very smooth and doesn't intelligently dock or anchor things very well. When you move from, say, a code window to a designer the whole thing kind of jumps a bit and the toolbars don't always flow right if you change something.

Well yeah, maybe Ribbons for IDEs would be a good idea.

Of course, I hope they don't make VS2003 all "tooty-fruity" like they made Office. Whatever happened to professionalism?