22 January 2007
Microsoft Expression Web Final Release
Having reviewed Microsoft Expression Web back in June 2006, giving it rating of 3 out of 5, I was glad of the opportunity to have a look over the final release version of the product, to see how well it supports designers in creating sites using CSS. Opening the boxed version I liked the enclosed guide to CSS selectors and the fact that the product actively markets itself on support for standards. Page 3 of the Quick Start Guide opens with the words,
“Standards-based websites
Expression Web solves a problem facing all web designers today: how to build websites that fully adhere to published standards, including support for XHTML.”
The product
Expression Web will only install on machines running Windows XP Service Pack 2 and newer versions of Windows. Once installed, the product looks slicker than the technology preview I reviewed in June, and it seems quite light on its feet. The rendering engine at the time of my last review was based on Internet Explorer 6, in this release the product claims to be using a non-browser based rendering engine and it certainly seems very accurate with the fairly complex designs that I tested in it.
The rendering engine picks up, from your DOCTYPE, whether you are aiming to render pages in ‘Quirks Mode’ – rendering as in Internet Explorer 5, or in ‘Standards Mode’. On removing the DOCTYPE from my XHTML page and then returning to Code View, the rendering engine switches from ‘Standard’ to ‘Quirks’ alerting me to the fact that my layout will now be rendered using an outdated rendering engine.
As a hand-coder I really like the real-time “as you type” validation of mark-up. Forgetting to close an element in XHTML for example will immediately cause the problem to be highlighted in the mark-up. Expression Web will also highlight non-standard elements according to the DOCTYPE you are using.
There are a whole host of CSS tools included with Expression Web and in this product designing using CSS is just how it is done, which is great to see. My personal favourite tool is the CSS Report. Running a CSS report on a page will locate all of the CSS rules you have used on that page – whether they are inline, in the head of the document or in an attached stylesheet – and list them in the Reports Window. Clicking on the Definition Location for that style jumps you to the actual location of the CSS. This is such a useful little tool – I wish I had something similar in the editors I use day to day, especially when working with other people’s CSS!
A puzzling issue
Things are going very well thus far, but in addition to looking at the product as an experienced developer I wanted to see how it might function to someone who has just purchased a copy because they want to build a website, without any prior experience. What better place to start than with the Quick Start Guide tutorial? The tutorial takes the user through setting up a site and then creating a new page using one of the CSS Layouts included, selecting a layout with Header, nav, 3 columns and a footer. This can be quite a tricky layout to achieve using CSS and so I was interested to see how it was implemented here.
In the next stage of the tutorial I used the Apply Styles Task Pane to add background colors to the sections of the layout, and to this point everything was going along swimmingly. Then I tried to add some content to the design, and things didn’t look so great with the sidebars laying over the footer. I had a pretty good idea what was going on before I looked at the CSS – the columns were absolutely positioned and so there was no way that this layout could work!
It is a strange enough fact that broken layouts were included with the product, what is even more puzzling is the fact that one of these broken layouts was selected for use in the Quick Start Guide. The screenshot in the guide even shows the sidebars overlaying the footer.
While these layouts being broken is not going to be an issue to the experienced developer who will already have their own favored methods of achieving them, it is a shame that what may be someone’s first introduction to using CSS layouts is going to be a problematic one.
Conclusion
Expression Web is an enjoyable product to use and for designers working on Windows XP it is certainly worth evaluating the trial download. For those working in a team with developers using Visual Studio the integration between the two products and the ease by which you can create and preview standards-based designs within Expression is going to be a real benefit.
For experienced developers who are happiest working in the code, Expression Web doesn’t get in the way. Unlike its predecessor Frontpage it doesn’t try to change your code to suit itself and the excellent rendering engine seems capable of rendering most layouts. As with any visual environment, working out how to create CSS visually takes a little effort, but if you are someone who enjoys working visually it would be worth the time spent as the rendering engine is very faithful to the view in a modern browser.
There are many features of this product that I do really like, and I think will be of real benefit to many designers. However it’s a shame that oversights such as the inclusion of non-working CSS layouts take the edge off the great work that has been done on this product.
- Software Name: Microsoft® Expression® Web
- Maker: Microsoft
- URL: http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/
- Price: $299 USD (save $50 at Amazon)
- Rating out of 5:
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Richard Conyard
# January 22, 2007 - 6:35 pm
Could be that I am missing a setting somewhere however it’s probably worth noting for those developing larger sites that there doesn’t appear to be any support for server side includes.
onehero / Sundries 20070123
# January 22, 2007 - 8:39 pm
[...] Rachel Andrew has a review of Expression Web up on Vitamin. I gave Expression Web a quick try a couple of weeks ago. It looks promising, but the preview rendering seems to be lousy. I tested it with a standards compliant design I had just done up that worked flawlessly in Firefox and IE6, and it screwed it up. (I think it got tricked up on the floated divs). If it had decent rendering I would consider using it. [...]
Georges Winters
# January 23, 2007 - 2:00 pm
hi,
I wonder, does Expression Web also have the possibility to handle remote server files like dreamweaver (see left or rightpane folder view)
For now, that’s one of the bigger issues I have with this program.
In Dreamweaver you can directly click on a file in the, for me, leftpane and you’ll see it poping up in the editing area.
I can’t help thinking that they decoded Dreamweaver and worked on that code to create this program. or I’m I mistaking ?
I also noticed that, for example, when you take out a and try to auto complete it again, like dreamweaver would do, it does not give as an option to close the tag. I did not try it with other tags, but i wonder…
Georges Winters
# January 23, 2007 - 2:02 pm
Some stuff is missing in this last block of text, so here’s another try :
I also noticed that, for example, when you take out a and try to auto complete it again, like dreamweaver would do, it does not give as an option to close the tag. I did not try it with other tags, but i wonder…
Georges Winters
# January 23, 2007 - 2:03 pm
ok.. a last try without smaller / bigger than.. signs..
I also noticed that, for example, when you take out a /TR and try to auto complete it again, like dreamweaver would do, it does not give /TR as an option to close the tag. I did not try it with other tags, but i wonder…
David Garcia
# January 25, 2007 - 9:49 pm
Since this product only got 3/5, is there a software package that would be highly recommended to quickly and visually implement standard-compliant code?
Rachel
# January 27, 2007 - 4:06 pm
So I guess my real question is, how does it stack up to Dreamweaver? I agree with George, from only seeing the screen shots in this article, there’s definitely some deja vu there…. perhaps they didn’t reverse engineer DW but they really seemed to have copied it closely.
Also this article focused mostly on the rendering and producing standards-compliant CSS, which is all dandy, but I think there are other features that separate the good IDE from the bad. Like file management, server interaction (as someone else pointed out), find/replace and other code utilities, and support for various languages (how well does it work with ColdFusion or PHP?).
It’s about time MS came out with something better than FrontPage and this certainly seems to be better, but still a long shot from DW.
All in a days work…
# January 29, 2007 - 1:14 am
[...] Microsoft Expression Web Final Release There are many features of this product that I do really like, and I think will be of real benefit to many designers. It’s a shame that oversights such as the inclusion of non-working CSS layouts take the edge off the great work that has been done on th (tags: Expression) [...]
ReTox
# February 21, 2007 - 8:15 pm
I tried the demo:
What I do like is to edit the css (margin etc) in page design view, and to see the changes in the css class of the element I changed. But it didn’t happened – Expression just added a new style on the page (?!?!?!)
Does anyone have ANY idea how to turn-off this ‘feature’ or how to make it use already made rule from css file?
Fernando Camacho
# April 15, 2007 - 6:57 am
I liked Frontpage because it kept things simple and efficient. It had great features like Navigation Bars, Navigation View and Shared Borders.
Everything has dissapeared on Expressions and it seem I have to learn from scratch. I feel lost and dissapointed, simple thinking and common sense on the evolution to Expression were lost somewhere.
Bob Morgan
# May 26, 2007 - 7:43 pm
What does Expression Web have to offer someone who develops only for Linux/Apache servers, and has zero Front Page experience. I’ve been hand coding HTML for about 15 years, and I think my designs are looking stale, despite being able to do some nice things with CSS. Will it support Server Side Includes? What will I miss by not being having an ASP-executing host?
Mark
# July 4, 2007 - 11:58 am
Hi
I am not a developer or technical and looked at DW and Expression – DW looks v expensive in comparison to Expression?!
Does anyone know where I can get ‘low cost’ pay as I go training to learn Expression and also if I am just using it to learn how to
build and manage websites can I just get an education version?
fivel
# July 15, 2007 - 8:31 pm
another clone?
if it’s like dreamweaver why not use the true dreamweaver other than a copy cat?!
no wonder, it’s Microsoft!
Robert
# August 4, 2007 - 7:11 pm
Does MS Expression Web offer better compatibility with Unix based servers? I am a novice but understand that trying to use FTP to upload changes to your website developed using Front Page is a very bad idea. Will this change by switching to Expression Web?
Salsa Dancer
# August 28, 2007 - 2:16 am
Ditto to what Mark just wrote. I, too, am not a developer or professional; I just want to do a few web sites. Does anyone know if an inexpensive version is available to learn on?
kunter ilalan
# September 8, 2007 - 3:32 pm
If you don’t have the faintest idea what these tools are doing ( coding ) behind the scenes, then how can you describe yourselves as developers or designers? At this point one can have the following two options:
i. you can learn HTML, then learn your WYSWYG editor, so you could can start budilding a web page (or group of pages);
ii. you can learn HTML and start building a web page (or group of pages)
I haven’t studied in economics dept. at university, but I’m trying to treat myself faily, instead.
Dupree
# September 23, 2007 - 6:54 pm
I’m a ASP.net 2.0 developer and been doing backend coding for some time now. However, would really to work a DW/EW as either will take care of the time spent working on the initial Design of te page. But which one? I’ve never used DW but would work with it as it’s been there and done that, whilst EW is new will it be another FP but DW will not support ASP.net 2.0
Can any one solve my dilemma
Barrie Davies
# October 30, 2007 - 10:31 am
Hi – I have written and manage 8 sites written in Front Page, All are simple and to the point. I am a silver surfer who has taught himself to use Front Page but find the complexities of Dreamweaver and Expression far too advanced for my needs. Why on earth have microsoft abandoned Front Page for expression. Surely two levels are needed her – one for the likes of me and one for those who want to make a living out of it. Yes develop expression but also keep Front page alive and kicking
Barrie davies
Blair Rorani
# November 1, 2007 - 10:44 pm
I installed the trail version just now. I can see my index.htm in the Folder List, but I can’t open a file. File > Open does nothing when I select a file and click OK.
I love DW with all my heart, so this isn’t really the greatest first impression. Has anyone else encountered this problem?
Bill
# November 5, 2007 - 3:42 pm
I agree —- Frontpage had wonderful features like convenient Navigation Bars and Navigation Views.
As a part-time web person, I miss those features and will stay with my old trusty Frontpage.
MS – JUST AD A SIMPLE NAVIGATION BAR — and I will buy it!
Expression web vs Frontpage | webdesignability.com
# December 9, 2007 - 10:50 pm
[...] If you want to read an independent review, which is always a good idea, take a look at the PC magazine review. The reviewer, Edward Mendelson, likes it and gives it a 4 out of 5 rating. However, Rachel Andrew is no so keen. Read her views in Think Vitamin online magazine and see what you think. And of course, you can read amazon buyers reviews and opinions, which are always very useful. [...]
bill
# January 8, 2008 - 6:58 pm
I agree, without the Navigation Bars, Navigation View and Shared Borders – I will stay with my old trusty FrontPage. MS needs to get the message……add these features and I will buy it. MS has lots of nurds, but none with common sense.
Blair Rorani
# January 20, 2008 - 7:39 pm
Has anyone had success opening and using .dwt files created in Dreamweaver in Expression? Would appreciate any help with this issue. My trial version doesn’t seem to allow me to attach .dwt created in EWD or DW so I can’t test this before I buy. Ta.
Chat
# January 21, 2008 - 11:50 pm
Ä°t Ä°s Very Nice Ä°nformation…
Şarkı Sözleri
# January 22, 2008 - 4:27 am
I think,Ä°t is Very nice information…
Webmaster
# January 23, 2008 - 10:04 pm
I think you did a great job of pointing out the major strengths and weaknesses of the book.
Costa del Sol Forums
# February 12, 2008 - 12:17 pm
I’ve used Dreamweaver for many years and nothing else on the market has ever come close.
I was interested in Expression after reading a few reviews.
It does look promising but is still way behind Dreamweaver in features and usability.
It is going to have to leap ahead of Dreamweaver in ease of use/ features offered /server side includes / templates etc before many serious designers will migrate from Dreamweaver
+ how many of the million Dreamweaver designers want to relearn a new product that does the same job?
Pete
# February 17, 2008 - 9:27 pm
I have experienced a problem with opening frontpage files in Expression Web after downloading a trial version of Expression Web, I can see my index page but cannot open it or for that matter any other files that are listed in my directory.
I have had some problems with frontpage extensions in one of my pages that is an order form using Bizland. I have been told the Expression Web is far more reliable in this manner but I can’t open any frontpage files in order to evaluate this new program. Has anyone else experienced this problem and know how to fix it? I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong or if there is a problem with my downloaded trial version of Expression Web.
Steve F
# February 22, 2008 - 11:50 pm
I just upgraded to Expressions Web from FrontPage. Seems FP Extensions on servers is dissappearing so I have to switch to FTP. Seems EW is a bit difficult to use with FTP when one has a single ftp login that covers several web sites (1and1 sites). It appears EW wants to put everything at the root even if I manually switch over to the proper site in the remote window. I really need some expert tips on switching from FP Ext over to http://FTP... no prob loging in etc…it is just the publishing part. Seems EW does not want to update all the changed pages very well… HELP…Really would appreciate your kind and speedy reply.. SteveF
Oyun
# August 8, 2008 - 4:57 am
thanks
Proxy
# August 8, 2008 - 4:57 am
Thank you
Müzik Dinle
# August 8, 2008 - 4:58 am
thankyou
Mark
# August 18, 2008 - 7:52 pm
Rachel – thanks for your great website and the info you have on this page(s)…
I just bought EW for 99$ – since I had front page before it looked like a way for me to transition to Expressions. But now, seeing the other price above, on this intro page when you first reveiwed EW ($299) I wonder, did I buy a complete version, or a partial build?
Any advice appreciated. I wonder if the 99$ version is the same as the 299 version (dumb question, I know!)…
thanks – Mark
Simon
# September 16, 2008 - 3:47 pm
Hi Mark, as far as I understand it, you have the full version – you just get special pricing because you already have FrontPage.
David
# October 22, 2008 - 3:03 am
I have built my webpage on MS Front Page by trial and error. I want to move up to the next level where I will eventually have an interface to webcart programs where people can buy my products.
Is Microsoft Web Expressions a good tool for me to buy? Will it work with “cart” programs to buy and sell?
I hope this is the right place to ask this question. Thanks David
oyun oyna
# January 17, 2009 - 5:23 pm
John, very interesting piece. I'm actually trying to get in touch regarding Philly-based green news. If you can contact me back I appreciate it.
Fernando Camacho
# April 6, 2009 - 12:52 pm
Hi David
Maybe my response is old by now. But I can recommend that if you want to take the next step you can look at http://www.netstores.com or create Buy Now buttons at Paypal which is much simpler.
Good Luck
Fernando
fcamacho@engrafito.com
sohbet
# June 10, 2009 - 10:52 am
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chat
# July 27, 2009 - 7:29 pm
tenkyuu
kameralı sohbet
# August 7, 2009 - 8:06 pm
John, very interesting piece. I’m actually trying to get in touch regarding Philly-based green news. If you can contact me back I appreciate it.
bedava sohbet
# September 26, 2009 - 1:32 pm
tesekkurler
Sohbet
# November 26, 2009 - 2:04 pm
John, very interesting piece. I’m actually trying to get in touch regarding Philly-based green news. If you can contact me back I appreciate it.