Expression Web Blog

Limited time offer from Microsoft Online Store – USA only

THE OFFER HAS BEEN EXTENDED AGAIN FROM THE 8th TO 31st

30% discount is a limited time offer valid through Jan 8th, 2009 11:59 p.m.
Expression Studio 3.0 Full – $599.95 – $419.96
Expression Studio 3.0 Upgrade – $349.95 – $244.96

Includes Expression Web, Expression Blend, Expression Designer, and Expression Encoder

Expression Web 3.0 full version – $149.00 – $104.30
Expression Web 3.0 Upgrade - $79.00 – $55.30
Note: Prior to installing Expression Web 3, you will need to uninstall any trial versions and pre-release software

• No promo code required
• Discount applies before applicable tax and shipping charges
• Limit 5 per customer
• Not valid on previous orders or at Microsoft Store retail locations
• Cannot be combined with any other offer or promotion.

Microsoft today (Sept 24th) launched another spark program called WebSite Spark . This program targets Web Developers, Designers and small companies building sites and includes Expression Web 2.0 or 3.0 in the line of available software.

Eligibility Requirements:

At the time of joining the company must have the following criteria:

1. Be a professional service firm whose primary business is providing Web development and design services for its clients, with
2. no more than 10 members (including owners and employees).

In addition:

1. To be eligible to continue to participate in the Program, the company must deploy a new public and Internet-accessible website developed using Program software within 6 months from Program enrollment, and report it and other new websites through the WebsiteSpark Portal.
2. Companies do not have to be members of the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) prior to joining the Program, but enrollment in MPN is a feature of Program participation. Companies who are not already MPN members will be prompted to join during the WebsiteSpark enrollment process.

As part of the enrollment process you can pick either a network referral partner, or enter a referral code that you have received at an event or from a Microsoft employee. If you send mail to webspark@microsoft.com you can get a referral code quickly and use it to enroll. Whereupon you can use the download use the software immediately, as well as begin to participate in the network/partner opportunities.

If you have any problems enrolling, you can also send mail to (scottgu@microsoft.com) and he can connect you with someone who can help, he is also on twitter http://www.twitter.com/scottgu  (@scottgu is his twitter name)

What you get:

1. For design, development, testing and demonstration of new websites – for a total of up to three users per Web design and development company:
2.  Visual Studio Professional
3.  Expression Studio 2 or 3 (1 user) and Expression Web 2 or 3 (up to 2 users)
4.  Windows Web Server 2008 or R2 (when available)
5.  SQL Server 2008 Web Edition
6.  For production use – that is, to deploy and host new websites developed using Program software – using a total of up to four processors per Web design and development company, of the following (physical or virtual) dedicated servers:
7.  Windows Web Server 2008 R2 (when available)
8.  SQL Server 2008 Web Edition
   Deployments may be on 4 servers or VMs of 1processor each, on 2 servers or VMs of 2 processors each, or on 1 server or VM of 4-processors.

How long for:

Eligible Web development and design companies can participate in WebsiteSpark for up to 3 years. On the first and second anniversary of initial enrollment, they must update their enrollment (e.g., confirm they haven’t gone public and their ownership hasn’t changed). You do pay a $100 program fee at the end of the three years

At the end of the three years, you can optionally choose to purchase all of the software in the program via a $999/year package. This includes 3 copies of VS Professional, 1 copy of Expression Studio (including Blend and Sketchflow), 2 copies of Expression Web, and 4 processor licenses of Windows Web Server 2008 and 4 processor licenses of SQL Server Web edition that can be used for production deployment.

Or, if you want to purchase only the production server licenses, you can take advantage of a $199/year offering that includes both 1 Windows Web Server processor license and 1 SQL Server Web edition processor license. You can buy the quantity you need of this package at $199/year each.

Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0 and Web Apps Gallery Launched

Just to encourage Web Developers Microsoft have also launched today their Web Platform Installer 2.0 which includes the framework, web server, database and tools you’ll need to build and run Web sites and applications on Windows and the Windows Web Apps Gallery

You can learn more about the other spark programs Dreamspark which is for full time students and Bizspark which is for startup companies building software products

Microsoft are having a sale of Expression Web 2.0 for the second time this year. Not only the full version but the upgrade and ALL the Expression stock keeping products TOO.

• At the USA store the sale is running at 50% OFF – USA Expression Sale
• At the UK store the sale is running at 40% OFF – UK Expression Sale

Which ever country you are in, take advantage as soon as you can as this is a limited time sale.

It pays to see if you are eligible to upgrade to Expression Web 2.0 you will be surprised at what comprises eligibility

Purchasing a copy of Expression 2.0 NOW will enable you to get Expression 3.0 (Due out July 10th) at upgrade pricing. There will not be a free upgrade/grace period option.

This is a quote from Renee Yong who is the product manager for Microsoft Expression in the US. I’ve asked for clarification about this. I’m not sure if that means you have to have Expression Web 2.0 ONLY for eligibility to upgrade to Expression Web 3.0

Webassist have extended their ongoing summer sale – but hurry!

Meanwhile, it seems you can make a savings all around. Webassist have extended their summer sale to the 5th of July so grab Eric Meyer’s CSS Sculptor for expression web addon while you can. Will you be able to use it in Expression Web 3.0? – well see my earlier posts on Expression Web Insights the answer is a probable no based on quotes from Microsoft personal. However that does not mean you cannot use tools as tools. You can still use this product in Expression Web 2.0 and lets face it, basic website templates written by Eric Meyer are a gift not to be sneezed at. You don’t even have to learn the program, just make a choice and tweak the css in CSS properties in Expression Web and your templates, like these free expression web templates by Pat Geary Microsoft MVP – Expression Web will be astounding too.

Migrating from frontPage to Expression Web Ebook on sale for the summer

So you have just saved some monies, want to save more in your quest for the perfect website? You have a great web editor and a great CSS template layout tool, but your old site needs cleaning before you can use the content, however your not sure just how to start? Fear not, our Migrating from FrontPage to Expression Web Ebook will explain and guide you through the process in the easiest and fastest way possible. To celebrate summer we are ALSO having a summer sale and you can now obtain the ebook for $22 instead of the standard price of $29

A great time to save money and learn at the same time

Yesterday Microsoft launched Expression Web 2 Beta available for free download

To submit suggestions and bugs, go to:
 http://connect.microsoft.com/expression

It requires .Net Framework 3.5 to be installed before it will install

If you have the private preview Expression 2 previews installed you should uninstall these before installing the Expression Web 2 Beta. However it can be installed alongside Expression 1 with no problems.

What is new in Expression Web 2 Beta?

PHP

• Preview PHP pages
• target different versions of PHP
• Insert PHP snippets
• customizable color coding in Code View
• PHP IntelliSense (auto complete)
• PHP includes – rendered in Design view.

Byte order mark options

Enables control over Bom insertion

Silverlight 1.0

Expression Web 2 Beta allows you to insert or Edit a HTML file generated by Silverlight

Flash and Windows Media

Insert Flash SWF and Windows Media files, edit and preview flash files in Design View or run any other type of ActiveX control.

Photoshop Import

Expression Web 2 enables you to generate a .png, .gif, or .jpeg file from a Photoshop .psd file and select the Photoshop layers you want to include or exclude from the image.

ASP.NET AJAX

ASP.NET AJAX server controls that let you create web pages that include a familiar user interface (UI) elements.
ASP.NET AJAX server controls supported by Expression Web 2 include the UpdatePanel, Timer, UpdateProgress, ScriptManager, and ScriptManagerProxy controls.

Note:
To work with these controls in Expression Web 2, you must install ASP.NET AJAX or the .NET Framework 3.5. See Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 or ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 in the Microsoft Download Center online.

Custom ASP.NET controls

Custom ASP.NET controls that you have placed in the BIN folder of your website. Preview custom controls and access the Common Tasks smart tag menu in Design view, edit properties, and use IntelliSense and syntax checking in Code view.
Third party custom ASP.NET controls can be used

ASP.NET data

DataPager and ListView ASP.NET controls.

Note:
To work with these controls in Expression Web 2, you must install the .NET Framework 3.5. See Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 in the Microsoft Download Center online.

FTP publishing

Set Passive FTP or normal FTP, and save your FTP user name and password.

CSS

The Design view in Expression Web 2 now renders the CSS overflow property.
As well as internal CSS files the Compatibility Reports now check external CSS files, for compatibility with the CSS schema you specify.

HTML file extension

Expression Web 2 lets you set your preference for the default HTML file extension.

Alphabetized HTML attributes

A new setting in the Code Formatting options in the Page Editor Options dialog box enables you to control whether HTML attributes are alphabetized or not in the code of your web pages. By default, tag attributes are now written in alphabetical order when Expression Web 2 adds HTML tags to your page. Existing tags in a page are affected by the new setting only if you apply the Reformat HTML command to the page. For more information,