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Expression Web 3

As the web continues to play an increasingly central role in terms of enabling people to create and deliver experiences and applications for consumers around the world, it is important to have a tool that is up to date with modern web standards and relevant to the needs of web designers.

Earlier this year at MIX ’09, we released a preview of Expression Web SuperPreview for Internet Explorer. This is a tool that helps web designers diagnose page layout problems across multiple browsers. SuperPreview will be released as a feature of Expression Web 3, and SuperPreview for Internet Explorer will be available as a free download. We are putting the final touches on Expression Web 3 now, and it will be available this summer 2009.

Here is a quick look at some of the new features in Expression Web 3, including SuperPreview.

SuperPreview

SuperPreview is a tool that shows how pages display in multiple browsers and helps diagnose the root cause of any display differences. We recognize that customers have a choice over their preferred browsers – and so do web designers. Unfortunately, all browsers do not render pages exactly the same, so it is important to test pages across multiple browsers to ensure compatibility and design fidelity.

SuperPreview shows what a web page looks like in multiple browsers, including IE6, IE7, IE8 and Firefox 3. You can view the web page side-by-side or as an overlay and use rulers, guides, and pan and zoom tools to precisely identify layout differences. You can even overlay the page on top of a Photoshop image to verify that a page is visually close to the original design. Below, you can see how minor rendering differences between Firefox 3 and IE6 can impact the look of your website.

SuperPreview Mirror 

Since announcing SuperPreview at MIX09, we have added many new features. Now you can view the HTML Document Object Model (DOM) of your page in each browser. As you click on any visual elements in the rendering, they’ll appear selected in the DOM.

SuperPreview DOM

When you select an HTML element, Expression Web also shows a small bubble with additional information, such as size, distance from the left, and distance from the top. When these values differ from what they should be, the differences are highlighted. Below, the differing Left, Top, and Height values are shown in red text.

SuperPreview Bubble

Often, you will want to preview your web page at different resolutions to ensure that your customers are getting a great experience at every screen resolution. You can select a preset browser rendering resolution, or enter any resolution using the Browser Size option.

SuperPreview Resolution

Finally, if you are developing an ASP.NET or PHP web application and you preview an ASPX or PHP file, SuperPreview will launch ASP.NET or PHP to render the page and display the page as it would appear in each browser.

Snapshot Preview

SuperPreview is a useful feature if you want to use a comprehensive set of tools to validate that your web page appears as desired in multiple browsers. While designing a page though, you may want to take a quick look at how a page is progressing in other browsers.

Snapshot Preview shows a browser preview of local HTML, ASPX, or PHP pages and updates live as you edit your markup, saving you the time and effort of loading the page in a browser to verify markup changes.

Snapshot Preview

The Snapshot Preview panel can be dragged and docked anywhere in Expression Web 3 – you can even let it float on a secondary monitor. On the top left of the panel, you can choose the browser for the page rendering in Snapshot Preview. Snapshot Preview renders the page with true fidelity based on the chosen browser. It uses SuperPreview technology so the rendering is fully accurate, using the browser’s actual rendering engine.

Publish with SFTP or FTPS

We recognize that the web is a diverse place, so web designers need a standards-compliant tool that supports as many publishing standards as possible. Expression Web 3 supports publishing sites using WebDAV, FTP, SFTP, or FTPS to multiple destinations with real-time status of publishing progress. Expression Web 3 also supports multiple publishing destinations per site and multi-channel file transfer for fast performance.

Publish

Photoshop PSD

With Expression Web 3, we have significantly improved capabilities and workflow when working with Photoshop files. When you import a PSD file, you can choose just the layers you want to import in to your website. You can save the layers as JPG, PNG, or GIF and scale the image before saving the individual layers in Expression Web 3. If the source file has changed, Expression Web 3 prompts you to update it.

Import Photoshop Image

Silverlight Video

Expression Web 3 allows you to quickly encode and insert Silverlight video into your website with a wide range of encoding and transcoding features using Expression Encoder 3. You can even choose from a set of video player skins that best matches your site graphics. Expression Encoder 3 supports high quality VC-1 and H.264 Silverlight video for streaming.

Silverlight Video

Other improvements in Expression Web 3 include support for Team Foundation Server source code control and Deep Zoom Composer for building arbitrarily large zoomable images.

For more information, please visit the Expression Web Team Blog.

Namaste!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    June 06, 2009
    I hate the black color scheme. It's one reason for me not to use any of the Expression products, Expression Blend is even worse. I just cannot see anything.

  • Anonymous
    June 06, 2009
    Only a stupid can discuss about the color of a software... no way!

  • Anonymous
    June 06, 2009
    Curious about what's coming for Expression Web 3, and our latest progress on SuperPreview? S. Somasegar

  • Anonymous
    June 06, 2009
    I for one prefer the dark color scheme of Expression Web. It does what its supposed to do, which is keep your focus on the code. I think sometimes with apps that require alot of concentration, if the scheme is light then it becomes to bright and can distract you from your work. I'm actually looking forward to whats coming EW3. Especially snapshot preview since it has the ability to take advantage of my secondary monitor. MS regained my confidence in your HTML/PHP/ASP tools since the very first version of Expression Web and just keeps getting better its come along way from the days of Frontpage.

  • Anonymous
    June 06, 2009
    First, I want to thank the various writers for blogging about new enhancements. I have attended MIX for the past 3 years. The software for the Expression Products was not to the point of being for the end users to get the best of some of the best features. I hope Sketchpreview hits the streets in a beta or CTP in Blend 3. I will say, some very good technology is on its way. Silverlight is a very nice Web product, please add printing so I can do real business apps. Jeff B.

  • Anonymous
    June 06, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 06, 2009
    @Jack Ukleja - SuperPreview is a new Expression application, and as such it does utilize the same user interface that you find throughout Expression Studio. You'll also find the user interface of Expression Web 3 matches that of Expression Studio much more closely than it did in Expression Web 2.

  • Anonymous
    June 06, 2009
    Thank you for submitting this cool story - Trackback from DotNetShoutout

  • Anonymous
    June 06, 2009
    But what about a simple thing LIKE RESIZING iFrames to it's content???? This is just another "Oh, where so good" story from Microsoft. EW or ES doesn't even come close to Adobe!

  • Anonymous
    June 06, 2009
    Thank you for submitting this cool story - Trackback from progg.ru

  • Anonymous
    June 07, 2009
    Somasegar posted on his blog today some of the new things in EW v3. He's got more on the version

  • Anonymous
    June 08, 2009
    With respect to the interface of Expression Web and the Expression products--our objective is to unify the Expression applications under a single UI framework. As you can imagine, with a program having a lot of native, Win32 code, it's a challenge to port that code base to a new UI paragidm. Expression Web 3 is our first, significant step in that direction. As folks have noted, SuperPreview (as it was written from scratch), uses the Blend UI framework. The Expression Web 3 UI uses significant parts of this framework to achieve it's look and feel. All the new features (Insert Silverlight, Silverlight Video, Deep Zoom) are built with the Blend framework (you can tell by the dialogs). However, there are still quite a few remaining Win32 dialogs. These will be ported in future versions of the application until Expression Web is fully integrated into the framework.

  • Anonymous
    June 08, 2009
    Dopo le prime anticipazione ufficializzate durante lo scorso MIX di Las Vegas, in cui sono state presentate

  • Anonymous
    June 08, 2009
    SuperPreview è una funzionalità annunciata a MIX 09 di cui tutti (chi sviluppa per il web almeno) abbiamo

  • Anonymous
    June 09, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 09, 2009
    Soma, This is impressive stuff from Microsoft. Any hints on release dates for Silverlight 3 and Expression Studio 3? Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    June 09, 2009
    Tom, Silverlight 3 and Expression Studio 3 will be available this summer.  When they're available, you'll see the news here. Polita Paulus Developer Division Microsoft

  • Anonymous
    June 09, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 09, 2009
    Phuff, I remember reading or hearing the release date for Silverlight 3 to be around December this year. No beta 2 or RC? Looks like the party is early! Great stuff!

  • Anonymous
    June 09, 2009
    I agree.. low contrast dark color schemes are not terribly easy to use for a prolonged period of time. I also find the xaml controls to be "sticky"

  • Anonymous
    June 09, 2009
    Does anyone know if this program is going to be released in Mac format? I use it at TAFE and quite like it,but I can't use it at home!

  • Anonymous
    June 10, 2009
    On the color scheme, if that's important to you:  EW has the option to use your Windows color scheme instead of the EW default.  I presume that will still be true for EW3?

  • Anonymous
    June 10, 2009
    I too dislike the black UI. I've had vision surgeries and find it too difficult to work with for long periods of time. I understand that many like it because it is "neutral" but there are other neutrals that don't make my eyes hurt. I'm not a fan of the Mac style interface in Dreamweaver CS 4 but its mid gray UI is much easier for me to use than a black background. Maybe it makes sense for Blend and those who are used to working with video tools but for many people, especially those with visual impairments it is not a good color scheme. Hopefully KathyW is correct that there are alternatives including the user's Widnows color scheme.

  • Anonymous
    June 10, 2009
    I forgot to add that according to eweek Expression Studio v3 will be launched July 10, 2009 http://www.eweek.com/prestitial.php?type=rest&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eweek.com%2Fc%2Fa%2FWeb-Services-Web-20-and-SOA%2FMicrosoft-Sets-Silverlight-3-Expression-3-Launch-Event-for-July-10-365361%2F&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fby-expression.com%2Fblogs%2Fby-expression%2Farchive%2F2009%2F05%2F30%2Fwhy-the-rush.aspx

  • Anonymous
    June 10, 2009
    [原文发表地址] Expression Web 3 | Expression Web 3 随着网络在为全世界消费群体创造和提供用户体验和应用程序的过程中,发挥着越来越中心的作用, 为网页设计师提供一个符合现代网页标准的工具就显得十分的重要。

  • Anonymous
    June 10, 2009
    Will a full SuperPreview including Firefox support be included in Developer Studio?   Otherwise will the free standalone version of SuperPreview include firefox? Having support for other brewers as well would be great; I will like to see Safari or Chrome so as to have easy testing of the 3 main rendering engines.  (However I have found in the past that if I write for Firefox then test on IE 6, most other browsers just work) Could the pocket pc version of IE be included using the pocket PC emulator? Also it would be great if I could drive one of the browsers with my mouse/keyboard and have the others keep in step for testing web applications.  An API that automated tests could use to drive all the browsers could be the icing on the cake. Ian Ringrose email: firstName@LastName.name <- replace with my name

  • Anonymous
    June 11, 2009
    Bob, there are currently no plans to release Expression Studio on Mac. Polita Paulus Developer Division Microsoft

  • Anonymous
    June 11, 2009
    @Ian Ringrose - SuperPreview in Expression Web (not SuperPreview for Internet Explorer) will support Firefox 3.x. We are actively working on adding more browsers to SuperPreview, but right now we do not have any additional news to announce. Thank you for your suggestions! Expression Web Team

  • Anonymous
    June 11, 2009
    @Jeromey Gaudreau Balderrama - We understand that the root relative link bug is disruptive for some of our customer's workflows. Unfortunately, in Expression Web 3, this is not a bug that we fixed. We are actively considering this issue for future service releases and hope to have better news for you in the not so distant future. Thank you for your feedback - this kind of dialogue is very important to us and does help us align our priorities for future releases. Expression Web Team

  • Anonymous
    June 11, 2009
    @Jeromey Gaudreau Balderrama - Our previous response was not as clear as it could have been. The root relative links issue is actually several smaller issues - which include how we handle previewing pages using the included Expression Development Server, and how these pages are handled in design view and code view of Expression Web. We have resolved half of the bugs we have open relating to root relative links - involving when you preview the page with the Expression Development Server. We understand that this is a very important issue to our customers, and we are actively working towards addressing it in a future service release for Expression Web 3. Thank you for your feedback.

  • Anonymous
    June 12, 2009
    IF EW3 WILL NOT ALLOW ME TO ASSIGN MY OWN SET OF KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS I WILL NOT BUY IT...

  • Anonymous
    June 12, 2009
    @ALLOW CUSTOM KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS - Unfortunately Expression Web 3 does not let you create custom keyboard shortcuts, but this is something that we are receptive towards for future versions. Thank you for your input on features that are must-haves for you. We hope that you'll try our product regardless.

  • Anonymous
    June 12, 2009
    Publicación del inglés original : viernes, 5 de junio de 2009 a las 21:12 PST por Somasegar A medida

  • Anonymous
    June 13, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 14, 2009
    Can we have Subversion/VSS integration or at least basic check in/check out functionality back?

  • Anonymous
    June 15, 2009
    I've seen some comments about add-ins not working in EW3. As an add-in developer, can you shed any more light on this? Is the VBA environment still in EW3?

  • Anonymous
    June 16, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 16, 2009
    Thanks for the excellent editing suggestions. Many of these are on our list--some are not. I particularly like you #2--highlighting the tag as you are editing the content inside it. That would really help in quickly understanding the context of an edit. We actually support #8, today. If you select a tag and its contents (using either ctrl-:, or using the breadcrumbs), and right-click on the breadcrumb for the tag, you'll see the "remove tag" command which will remove the tag, but leave the contents intact. Steve

  • Anonymous
    June 16, 2009
    So when will upgrade prices be posted? I need to budget for the studio upgrade next month but i have no price yet?? cmon msft it's less than 30 days to launch, spill the beans!

  • Anonymous
    June 16, 2009
    @Denny - Pricing information will be available soon. Expect for Expression Studio upgrade prices to be competitive with our current Expression Studio pricing.

  • Anonymous
    June 16, 2009
    @sevenflavor - Expression Web has never supported source code control, although FrontPage did support some similar functionality with FrontPage Server Extensions. Expression Web 3 supports source code control for the first time, with support for Team Foundation Server. We do recognize that support for other source code control platforms would be very useful - thank you for your suggestions.

  • Anonymous
    June 16, 2009
    @Dennis DeRobertis - We have not announced details just yet for our extensibility story in Expression Web 3, but work is well under way and we are very interested in working with any add-in vendors to make sure that the transition from Expression Web 2 to Expression Web 3 is as easy as possible. If you have further questions, feel free to contact the team working on extensibility directly by e-mailing justin [dot] harrison [at] microsoft [dot] com.

  • Anonymous
    June 18, 2009
    Wondering where Mark Gordon is. I am pretty sure foxpro can do all these but just need the confirmation from the authority.

  • Anonymous
    June 18, 2009
    @Steve Guttman - Thank you for response. "Many of these are on our list--some are not." Now can you please tell me what features are not on the list ?

  • Anonymous
    June 19, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 19, 2009
    Oops, one more unbelievable inconvenience I just ran into again...

  • Will EW3 fix the inability to view an image thumbnail preview when the file resides within the website folder structure?
  • Anonymous
    June 19, 2009
    Kirt, See Anna Ulrich's reply in this thread http://social.expression.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/web/thread/46f0a6b9-8412-41ba-bbe4-12efd4f71e73/ re the text select bug and v3. As for the others and whether or not you will be able to change the black interface we'll have to wait for v3 or more from MS to find out.

  • Anonymous
    June 19, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 19, 2009
    Kirk, We aren't talking about the gray color scheme of v2 but the black color scheme of v3. At this point there is no guarantee that you can change the color scheme in v3 and the indications are from what little we've seen at MIX 09 and in blog posts like this one and ones made by the Expression Web team is that the whole UI and underlying code has been changed. However, in three weeks we will know the answer one way or another IF MS doesn't clarify first. The implication in the Expression Team response that the UI will "match more closely" that of the other Studio programs" (presumably Blend, Encoder and Design) is that you will not have the option to use your Windows colors because you don't have that option in those programs.

  • Anonymous
    June 19, 2009
    Internet Explorer doesn't follow standards when rendering a page, it requires special programming to bring IE into compliance with the the rest of the browsers. Microsoft needs to fix the problems with IE not code software tools so we can preview how bad our pages look under IE. This is now the norm for Microsoft, don't fix anything but focus on workarounds or develop new technologies. It is ridiculous.

  • Anonymous
    June 21, 2009
    Would the Expression Web Team please clarify if it will possible to modify UI colors in EW 3? By the way, isn't complying with an OS theme a rule that MS promotes?

  • Anonymous
    June 22, 2009
    @Roman - Expression Web 3 follows the same look and feel found throughout Expression Studio. This consistent, uniform interface is new for Expression Web 3 and does not let you change the colors in the interface. You may find that it offers slightly less customizability than previous versions of Expression Web, at the expense of some new functionality that we have added, like a new Panel and Panel docking system. We understand that customizability is very important to our customers, and we certainly hear loud and clear that this is something that we should invest in for future releases of Expression Web. To all that have participated in the comments for this blog post, thank you for your feedback! We are very excited about this release. Feedback from customers definitely helps us shape future releases of Expression Web.

  • Anonymous
    June 24, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 26, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 26, 2009
    I don't understand what makes Expression Web 3 and previous versions something to NOT get excited about. I look at Dreamweaver CS4 and cringe! Guess Microsoft Expression Web 3 is more for me than others who look at color and say that it isn't for them. Come on now...if color was an issue, even Dreamweaver loses! I will try Expression Web 2 before moving up to Expression Web 3, but I like what I've seen in the newest web design application, much to Dreamweaver's dismay!

  • Anonymous
    June 30, 2009
    Actually, nothing anywhere from microsoft about the most critical thing, namely standards compliance upgrades. Version 2 is turning into a applcation with a useless toolbar. Commands are just not compatible with the emerging XHTML 1.1 as HTML 5 and CSS move ahead. And Version 3 is coming out just before the next new acceptances of HTML and CSS version advances, meaning just after it releases it will not be compatible. Unless, and this is not mentioned anywhere ... unless microsoft Update decides to update standards compliance in its blatently untimely Expression Web 3.0 release.

  • Anonymous
    July 01, 2009
    @Mark Stewart: FYI - Expression Web is compatible with and generates compatibility reports for XTHML 1.1, and has since version 1.0. HTML5 and CSS3 are expected to reach "recommended status" with the W3C in 2012 with final ratification expected in 2022 (according to the WHATWG). While the team expects that these emaerging standards will be in use before final ratification, we expect to be supporting them at or before the time they come into mainstream use.

  • Anonymous
    July 01, 2009
    Gerry, I think it is important to realize and keep in mind that not all people perceive things the same way. For example, some people are greatly affected by colors. The EW has just realized this, it seems. (Better late than never.)

  • Anonymous
    July 01, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 01, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 06, 2009
    Will there be an opportunity to download a trial version prior to buying? Is July 10 still the release date?

  • Anonymous
    July 06, 2009
    @Kirt Blattenberger - Yes Kirt, there will be a trial version available at (or before) retail availability. We haven't specified a release date, although there is a Silverlight/Expression themed event on the 10th.

  • Anonymous
    July 17, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 19, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 23, 2009
    Hey People, I started off using EW, then quickly upgraded to EW2 just recently, before getting in too deep in a design, I'd rather keep with the latest version and latest features. Just wondering what is the official date of release? or has it been release yet? The MS website says "Preorder is available from July 10, 2009 until August 13, 2009" http://store.microsoft.com/microsoft/Expression-Web-3-Upgrade/product/A2097139?WT.mc_id=expressionsite_expweb3upgrade Cheers Paullyie

  • Anonymous
    July 23, 2009
    Expression Studio 3 was officially released at the launch on July 10 but won't actually ship until Aug 13, 2009. You can download 60 trail versions from the Expression site http://expression.microsoft.com/en-us/cc136523.aspx  

  • Anonymous
    July 23, 2009
    If you download the trial, you can then convert it to the full version with the key you receive when you purchase it (no uninstall/install necessary). Steve

  • Anonymous
    July 23, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 26, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 27, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 28, 2009
    Has the bug where millions of '&nbsp;' characters get added to a document, over and over been fixed? Google '&nbsp; expression web' and you'll see it's a huge problem.

  • Anonymous
    July 29, 2009
    I'm very disappointed that I can't disable the interface's cleartype font rendering. For me, it's a negative point forcing me to stick with EW2. I'm one of those people sensible to subpixel rendering.

  • Anonymous
    August 12, 2009
    I've recently had the opportunity to evaluate EW3 and I will say that the recent changes and features are very welcome.  However, I am like many other customers who have a hard time recommending this tool in my organization without the support of root-relative references in design view.  I've been able to work around it on a page by page basis using the <base> element, but this really is something that is fundamental to site resource management and needs to be addressed. I see that you are working on a solution and I look forward to the service release that will address this issue.

  • Anonymous
    August 16, 2009
    So what exactly are the current plans in terms of features and release date for this service pack? thanks.

  • Anonymous
    August 17, 2009
    Marc, The &nbsp; issue appears to happen only when using third party asp.net controls. Why it happens with some controls and not others I haven't found anyone who knows. It happens to me with Community Server but that's the only time I see it. Its so bad there that I can't even work on a stylesheet for community Server using Expression Web.

  • Anonymous
    August 17, 2009
    @Glen, @Chris - We haven't officially announced any info on an Expression Web service pack. However, we are working on one. In particular, we wanted to address a number of long-standing issues like root-relative path support, some squirrely undo behavior, and to address changes in our extensibility model (among other issues). We will also fix bugs uncovered post-ship. Unofficially, I would expect the SP to be available before year end. The actual date of availability will depend on the final scope of work, the level of difficulty associated with the issues, etc. More info should be forthcoming in the fall, as these items become clearer. Hope that helps. Steve

  • Anonymous
    August 18, 2009
    I think Expression Web 3 is pretty good, however there is no way in heaven or earth, I would make a switch till they add customization feature. One of the primary reason I have never made a switch to Dreamweaver was Frontpage/Expression Web's(2.x) workspace customization feature. Please add this feature back in Expression Web.

  • Anonymous
    August 24, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 26, 2009
    I'm not sure where the problem lies, but EW3 is totally unusable for me on either Vista or Windows 7.  The cursor dissapears, the program constantly freezes and no where esle in my system includling EW2, do I have such trouble.  I wouldn't even know where to start troubleshooting this.  Very dissapointed.

  • Anonymous
    September 01, 2009
    @xgman I'm a lead Tester on the Expression Web team and would like to work with you directly to troubleshoot the problems you encountered with the program.  We thoroughly and successfully tested the program on many XP, Vista, and Windows 7 systems, and also had a private beta release which enabled many users to put the program to use in real world production environments.   Please contact me at luisdlp @ microsoft . com (without the spaces) and we’ll get to the bottom of this.

  • Anonymous
    September 08, 2009
    Any update on the root-relative link issue? This issue is a show stopper for adopting EW as a development tool. Most of our developers use use VS 2008, but we would like to have some (whom are not proficient in VS) to use EW.

  • Anonymous
    September 08, 2009
    @George - the root relative path issue will be addressed in a coming service pack. This hasn't been officially announced, but is expected to be available before the end of the year. How many copies can I sign you up for? ;-)

  • Anonymous
    September 09, 2009
    If anyone is interested I have written my take on the new Web 3 UI on my blog: http://jack.ukleja.com/microsoft-expression-web-3-ui-built-with-wpf-expression-studio-moves-forward/ Not a detailed critique of the UI as such, more a comment on the use of WPF.

  • Anonymous
    October 19, 2009
    It crashes on load every time for me.  I cannot run the program, AT ALL.  SuperPreview runs fine but i downloaded this trial and wanted to try EW3 and it's just not working.  Anyone else experience this?  I uninstalled, redownloaded and reinstalled as well.. no luck there either. sigh

  • Anonymous
    October 20, 2009
    Hello Jason, The Microsoft Expression Web Support Team would like to assist you with this issue. Please send your contact information to this email address: ewinstal@microsoft.com We will get back with you right away!

  • Anonymous
    October 23, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    October 29, 2009
    Something new! I work on MS technologies and a fan of your blog. Keep it up.

  • Anonymous
    November 05, 2009
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  • Anonymous
    November 06, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 07, 2009
    > new UI, as we've gotten pretty positive feedback on it I see nothing but the opposite.

  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2009
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  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2009
    @Rich Expression Web SP1, now available on the MS download center http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=265e1fb5-ba97-4510-b607-2789ffdfd093&displaylang=en , supports the Windows color scheme as an alternate UI (as well as addressing a number of other issues including root-relative link support). You'll see the option to use Windows colors under Tool->Application Options Steve

  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2009
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  • Anonymous
    December 19, 2009
    The Color theme is more important then some people think, that's the reason i did NOT and could not use Adobe, now MS does the same thing. calling somebody stupid that hates the black color and saying it is less disruptive makes no scents. if you have 50% that hate the color and don't want the program because of it, all your other work in creating it was in vane since they will not use it because of the dark feeling. we are talking  DUNGEN or BEACH DAY FIX IT!!!!

  • Anonymous
    December 19, 2009
    What you don't like your Windows color scheme? That's what the checkbox gives you if you install Service Pack 1 (even being pushed through Windows Update). So why are you still screaming "fix it"?

  • Anonymous
    January 16, 2010
    To expression web development team from a customer, I own and use microsft expresion web 3 I would like to see, as someone mentioned in the comments: Corresponding tag highlighting like is seen in the program notepad++ it is annoying to open notepad++ when I just want to see what the corresponding closing tag is to an opening tag or vice versa I would like to have an option to enlarge the size of the code view so I can see everything enlarged, much like ctrl + or - on a keboard a webrowser does Need php auto complete and auto suggest capabilities and PHP code snippet insertion Need jquery autocomplete and auto suggest also highlighting of corresponding opening and closing brackets in PHP and jquery or javascript upon mouse click Maybe even some instantly pre made php object oriented stuff. Instantly made secure php to databse snippets that can be included in pages along with editing a corresponding sql page. Thankyou and keep up the good work

  • Anonymous
    January 16, 2010
    Also automatic CSS shorthand would be great and being able to edit CSS shorthand I have put in without expression web ignoring my shorthand and putting say an extra color all by itself in when I want the color changed in my CSS shorthand, I want my CSS as lighweight as possilbe, their should be an option on Expression web to always make css shorthand thankyou

  • Anonymous
    January 20, 2010
    Often we forget the little guy, the SMB, in our discussions of the comings and goings of the Internet marketing industry. Sure there are times like this when a report surfaces talking about their issues and concerns but, for the most part, we like to talk about big brands and how they do the Internet marketing thing well or not so well. www.onlineuniversalwork.com

  • Anonymous
    February 03, 2010
    Greetings: For nearly 10 years I have been using the FP Extensions for publishing my website (even with EW2 & 3). I am finally switching over to FTP because my ISP doesnot want to support FPE anymore. Here is my problem. With both EW2 & 3, it will not transfer file names longer than 127 (maybe 128) characters, including the entire path; e.g. ftp://rfcafe.com/<folder1>/<folder2>/<folder3>/.../<filename>.extension BTW, RF Cafe is an engineering website, not a real eatery type cafe. The server is capable of 255 characters, so I assume this is an EW limitation. It is causing a real headache because of having some files many folders deep - again, never a problem using FP Extensions. Can anyone confirm the 127(8) character limitation for EW2(3) FTP publishing. If so, does anyone know if Dreamweaver has the same "feature?" I can easily rename files & folders, but then it breaks the links for search engines. Nearly all of my 4,000+ pages are registered in Google, etc., and I hate to lose the rankning in search results. Finally, and very importantly, if there is a too-long file path+name, it prevents the entire website from publishing. Same goes for trying just the folder the offending file is in. So, either all files are within the 127(8) character limit, or nothing on the website publishes at all. Thanks very much for any responses.

  • Anonymous
    February 04, 2010
    Hi Kirt- I know you've been corresponding with a member of my team (via the forums at expression.microsoft.com) to help find the root cause of this issue. As far as we know, Expression Web doesn't have the limitation you mentioned.  For local sites, we have the Windows MAX_PATH limitation (256 chars).  For remote sites, we only have server limitations.  We have tested this locally with files that are nested 10 directories deep where each directory is 20 characters long. I'm sure your problem is a real problem--and may have something to do with the server config. In any case, please feel free to contact me (sguttman at microsoft), and we'll see what we can do to help track down the issue/solution. Steve

  • Anonymous
    February 04, 2010
    Greetings Steve: Thanks for your confirmation of 256 characters. In fact, my web host was telling me that EW was the problem, but I finally talked them into trying to FTP a 150-character file that I provided to them, and they discovered the 127-character limit was with their software! Suggested soultion from them: Shorten all my offending file names and loose the external links to the pages (including search engines). That is not an acceptable solution in 2010. So, Express Web is NOT at fault. I went back to using FPEs for now, and will soon be switching over to a new web service provider. Take care.

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2010
    February 16, 2010 Greetings: Here is a data point for Expression Web users regarding the inability of the display to keep up with typing. Keep in mind that in order to type this message I had to look at the keyboard. I just bought a new HP notebook computer to replace my 1.5 year old Dell notebook. The primary motivation was to finally get rid of the frustrating delay between typing and the display rendering the characters. This is a well-documented issue. Here are the critical specs:               Dell                       HP Proc:  Intel Duo, 2.0 GHz      Intel i7.820M, 1.8 GHz RAM:           4 GB                      6 GB OS:        Win7, 32-Bit              Win7, 64-Bit HDD:    250GB, 5,200 rpm        320 GB, 7,200 rpm Video: ATI built-in, 128 kB           nVidia 1 GB So, on a page with a list of items in a table, the screen update is still so slow that I have to type in the Code view window. It is as if there is a timer function built into the software that forces a minimum amount of time between screen updates. I have downloaded EW3 and have the same issue, although maybe not quite as slow. The thing is, pasting the same HTML into Word and doing the editing results in no perceptible delay. Any comments on that? Thanks for your attention to this. BTW, here is an example of a page that has the really slow screen update: http://rfcafe.com/miscellany/headlines/2010/headlines-10-Jan.htm Sincerely, Kirt Blattenberger

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    February 16, 2010
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  • Anonymous
    March 01, 2010
    Kirt- I'm sorry to hear about the problems you've been having with Expression Web. We do take quality issues very seriously--especially crashing bugs. You would help us out a great deal in tracking these down if you could log them--with steps to reproduce--on the connect web site (connect.microsoft.com). It's often difficult to discover how to create a bug from the SQM data from the customer feedback program (it only shows the crash--not the steps to reproduce). The connect bugs are reviewed weekly, and imported into our bug/work database. I'd also like you encourage you and others to post comments on the Expression Web team blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/xWeb/ . This is the most direct route to get feedback to the Expression Web team. And, you can always email me directly at sguttman at microsoft com. Thanks, Steve

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2010
    The white-on-black color scheme is a real problem for some people to use. It's more than just whining about aesthetics. Please offer at least one other choice, perhaps something similar to the MS Office color scheme. Considering the many thousands I have spent on MS products over the years, I think you owe me at least this one request. Thanks ---Dennis P.

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2010
    Denis- If you are running Expression Web SP1 or SP2 you can set the program to use Windows colors via the Application Options dialog (Tools menu). If you don't have the SPs, please download and install them from expression.microsoft.com. Hopefully, this will address your issue. I'd also like you encourage you and others to post comments on the Expression Web team blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/xWeb/ . This is the most direct route to get feedback to the Expression Web team. And, you can always email me directly at sguttman at microsoft com. Thanks, Steve