Expression - Part Four: Web

Posted By: Rory | Dec 4th, 2006 @ 3:39 PM | 23,047 Views | 12 Comments
In the final part of today's four part series on Expression, we look at Expression Web.

Expression Web can most easily be thought of as the replacement for FrontPage. But, although FrontPage wasn't terribly popular with developers back in the day, it was really a tool for the casual or business user - devs had other tools to play with.

While Web can be thought of as the next iteration of FrontPage, it really is a very different product. A business user could still put together a site very easily using Expression Web, but this application is significantly more advanced than what you might expect.

Web has support for many industry standards, outputs XHTML, has some fantastic CSS editing capabilities, and generally just rocks.

It's also back-end agnostic. While it plays very nicely with ASP.NET sites, it can be used to edit markup for other types of dynamically rendered pages.

Overall, I was very impressed by the product. As soon as I was done shooting the video, I actually went and grabbed a copy for myself. As someone who has done plenty of work with ASP.NET, FrontPage, and other web editing tools, I can tell you that this one is very much worth looking at. I've been experimenting with it over the past few days on my blog, and it makes editing CSS-styled sites a very pleasant activity (where it used to drive me absolutely nuts).

Enjoy.
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#Dec 4th, 2006 @ 6:14 PM
BillP
BillP

Well this seems a bit more exciting than FrontPage.  To be honest, none of the business users I've ever dealt with used FrontPage...they always used Word to edit web pages.  As for developers....well, we know what they think of FrontPage.

 

 

#Dec 4th, 2006 @ 7:30 PM
DuNuNuBatman
DuNuNuBatman

Yea, I'd rip the whole frontpage bit out of the description... it is like an insult almost Wink

Seriously, I've tried expression and it doesn't mangle anything if I decide to do stuff with the designer after I've done work in the code editor.

#Dec 4th, 2006 @ 7:40 PM
raymond
raymond
I sure hope you have the best of breed CSS editor.

How good is your JavaScript debugger?

Can you debug the code in Expression web or do you have to go to Visual Studio.

How good is you tool for menus such as those you can now do in Adobe Macromedia Fireworks?

Compare Expression Web with Adobe or Macromedia Dreamweaver and Fireworks.

What does Expression Web have that Dreamweaver and Fireworks do not?

Please more demos of Expression Web creating content.

The day FrontPage messed with my code was the last day I used it by accident, many years ago.

Cool
#Dec 5th, 2006 @ 7:18 AM
shuff1203
shuff1203
Can someone explain to me why Expression Web which is a replacement to FP 2003 is not being made available to MSDN subscribers?

And don't tell me it's because it's a designer tool and not a development tool - that is crazy - the line between the two is very thin - and it's as much as a development tool as Office is.

Please have the powers to be reconsider this decision.
#Dec 6th, 2006 @ 8:12 AM
odujosh
odujosh
Need Microsoft SUX now!
Looking at pricing for the Web SKU. They  want another grand. I see the code base as synergistic with expression. I would expect Orcas will use WYSIWYG code base from expression web and the WPF tooling from Blend. I am not sure why they would fork code base that should behave the same. For example why wouldn't Visual Studio use the same rich CSS support. Maybe Orcas will leap frog the capability of Expression Web? If so why not  allow people who pay about a grand a year for your tools also have the right to download the stepping stone Expression could represent?

This has been a silent issue for example channel 9 interviewers have avoided these issues in videos. Whether it was intentional is still to be shown as they now have heard it from at least one watcher who is a little peeved.

I agree saying it is a disigner tool renigs on past offerings in subscribers downloads like: Office, Frontpage, Acrylic (the alpha verson of Design)

I think MSDN subscribers deserve an explanation in a very public way. Maybe you could interview the marketing genius that decided this sudden depature from past offerings? I remember grinding my teeth a little when Rory said he would have to try it soon for his website. If Developers are suppose to work with designers. And the Developer pays for a perpetual liscense to yout prime dev tools why not let them try what their counter parts are going to be using just for familiarity sake?
#Dec 6th, 2006 @ 8:17 AM
odujosh
odujosh
Need Microsoft SUX now!
In response to Raymond:
Macromedia and Adobe products are no where near as standards compliant as Expression. I have had to work with both in the past.

Examples:
Go live still uses Font tags.

Macromedia has a glorified text editor for CSS.

So they offer quite a bit more. If sanity is important to you:)
#Dec 6th, 2006 @ 8:40 PM
Kevin Daly
Kevin Daly
Of course it *looks* like my nick is just my name, but actually, well, it's just my name.
BillP wrote:


Well this seems a bit more exciting than FrontPage.  To be honest, none of the business users I've ever dealt with used FrontPage...they always used Word to edit web pages.  As for developers....well, we know what they think of FrontPage.



To be honest, if you'd asked me one thing that would be worse to use for creating web pages than FrontPage, I would've said "Word".

<Shudder>
#Dec 7th, 2006 @ 12:41 PM
OffBeatMammal
OffBeatMammal
As a light-weight script debugger check out the MS Script debugger and IE developers toolbar - while not targetted to Expression specifically they're great resources for testing/fixing issues in IE

(though I guess for regular vistors here this is very old news)
#Dec 11th, 2006 @ 11:24 PM
mYYzo
mYYzo
Nerdish

Interesting product!! By all means!

But my question is: Where would dreamweaver go now?

Anyone got a quick comparison in mind?

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