Expression Web Blog

Expression Web Birthday Giveaways

November 30th, 2009

Want to know what’s in the bag of Expression Web goodies?

1st prize is:

A fully working copy of Expression Web 3.0 courtesy of:
Steve Guttman – Product Unit Manager, Expression Web

There will be ONE lucky winner!

2nd Prize is:

Migrating from FrontPage to Expression Web Ebook v2.0 (fully updated for EW 3.0) Courtesy of:
Pat Geary- Microsoft MVP – Expression Web and Tina Clarke – Microsoft MVP – Expression Web

There will be TWO lucky winners

3rd Prize is:

Expression Web Tips Ebooks Vol l & ll (fully updated for EW 3.0) courtesy of:
Tina Clarke – Microsoft MVP – Expression Web

There will be THREE lucky winners

The Expression Web Giveaway Winners have now been announced

Now if you are unlucky not to get your hands on all these Expression Web goodies, never fear, we will be holding xmas draw with the same goodies, and perhaps something extra just because its Christmas!

Watch this space:)

Tags: Expression Web 3.0, giveaway
Posted in Expression Web | No Comments »

Expression Web 3.0 Service Pack 1.0 improvements and resolutions

November 21st, 2009

Expression Web 3.0 service pack 1.0 is ready and waiting

How do I know if the service pack has installed?

On the Help menu click the ‘About’ selection:

If Expression Web 3 SP1 is not installed, the following version number appears:

(English Langauge) Microsoft Expression Web 3 Version 3.0.1762.0
(Non-English Languages) Microsoft Expression Web 3 Version 3.0.1773.0

If Expression Web 3 SP1 is already installed, the following version number appears:

Microsoft Expression Web 3 Version 3.0.3813.0

What improvements are provided by this service pack?

Extensibility

Add-ins are BACK – lets hope the developers get busy!

Root-relative links

Support for root-relative hyperlinks has been fixed, this is great if you are making a WordPress theme and using Expression Web to do it, now you don’t have to hardcode absolute links anymore!

PHP files that do not use the *.php file name extension

Adds support for Drupal and CakePHP template files. Expression Web 3 SP1 now recognizes .module, .install, .inc, and .ctp as valid PHP extensions.

Application color scheme

The black/gray skin has been improved – though the background on the folder list needs to be lighter. Plus you can select Windows colour scheme instead of the default, however the results might not be what you expect. Your Windows colour scheme might work on the rest of Windows, but it won’t always fully reflect what you expect within Expression Web, on balance I prefer my Windows colour scheme on Windows, and not the white out I get in Expression Web, so its back to the default black/gray for me. If you want to do some experimenting then go to Tools – Application Options – and tick ‘Use your current Windows colour scheme’.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 META tag and Web Slice support

New Code snippets include:

Meta tags specific to IE8
Web Slice code sample

To access them either press Ctrl+Enter in Code view or go to the Tools menu – Page Editor Options – Code Snippets

What issues are resolved in this service pack?

When you use the Undo feature and multiple tasks were undone.
After draging an image from the Folder List panel into the Code view of a page a invalid link is generated.
Enables you to select text in the Design view of a page more easily and more accurately.
Nonstandard or corrupted fonts that are installed on your computer caused a crashing issue.
Tags that begin with <?php are renamed after you rename a file.
Japanese characters are altered.
The source file is deleted after you copy a file from one instance of Expression Web 3.0 and then paste the file into another instance of Expression Web 3.0.
Restores the ability to drag files into a selected folder in the Folder List panel.
Enables connections to each destination without restarting the application when multiple publishing destinations are specified on the same FTP server and when only the user credentials are different for those destinations.
Workflow between Expression Web and Team Foundation Server has had several problems fixed.
Shows the correct file status in Publishing view after you publish a site.
Updates the file status and publishing log when you use the Publish Selected Files command to publish one or more files. Plus, the publishing progress is displayed in the Publishing Status panel.
Several fixes that make sure that pages accurately display in SuperPreview.

Find and Replace Bug
This was a bug inExpression Web 2.0 and 1.0 and in 3.0 before the service pack however this is now fixed.

In the Find and Replace Dialog box in the HTML Tags Tab, when using any tag such as for example Font in the Find Tag: drop down box, and using Remove Tag for the Replace Action: drop down box and replacing said font tags, instead of the font tags being removed, when the font tags are around a hyperlink, the hyperlink is removed, if you then apply the Replace action the font tag is removed but at the expense of the hyperlink.

What issues are not resolved in this service pack?

Doctypes and Thumbnails
This is a bug that has not yet been addressed if this happens to you, then please add your comments.

Supported Operating Systems:

Windows 7
Windows Vista
Windows XP Service Pack 3

Other language Expression Web 3.0 service pack 1.0 downloads (direct downloads)

Tags: Expression Web 3.0, service pack 1.0
Posted in Microsoft Expression Web | 4 Comments »

Expression Web Tips Ebooks – New additions for EW 3.0

November 13th, 2009

The two Expression Web Tips Ebooks Volumes have been updated to reflect usage of Expression Web 3.0

Each ebook is priced at $7 however if you buy both together you can save $1 and get them for $13

Each ebook has 26 Expression Web Tips – one for each day of the week – There are guest authors on both ebooks however the majority of the tips are written by myself.

With the second volume you get a bonus of a Expression Web Query of “Find and Replace any border size” with Tip 49

You can read more about Expression Queries and pick up a few free ones as well.

Posted in Expression Web Ebooks | No Comments »

Expression Web SuperPreview Indepth

November 4th, 2009

Expression Web SuperPreview is a brand new feature within Expression Web 3.0 Included also is Snapshot which is a sort of mini preview alongside your Design and Code Views. The Expression Web SuperPreview Tutorial along with its companion Expression Web SuperPreview Starter Kit go indepth and touch on almost every aspect of the application and the methods you can employ to find coding errors and how to fix them. With SuperPreview you not only have to understand what you are seeing but you have to understand what the problem is and then how to go about finding a fix for it.

If you don’t have FireFox as one of your testing browsers you should, not only for testing but for the excellent FireFox addons that help with web design

Download your starter kit and follow along with the tutorial for a better insight into the problems facing designers today.

Posted in Expression Web Tutorials | 4 Comments »

Migrating from FrontPage to Expression Ebook sale ends

October 31st, 2009

On Monday 2nd November we will closing our Summer sale of our Migrating from FrontPage to Expression Web Ebook from $22 back to the standard price of $29.

If you want to beat the credit crunch grab your copy at the sale price now.

You will be eligible to obtain free upgrade to the ebook by joining a group used only for informing you of new upgrades to the ebook.

On Monday we will also be upgrading the ebook to include more information about how do things with Expression Web 3.0. Included will be a new template made by Pat Geary called Misty Morn which includes three separate layouts and a bonus of a working form that you can customize with your own information.

If you want to treat your friends and family for xmas why not stockpile now at the lower price?

Posted in Expression Web Ebooks | No Comments »

Win Expression Web Giveaways on Twitter

October 2nd, 2009

Expression Web Giveaways

Expression Web 3.0
Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Expression Web 3 in 24 Hours (signed)
A limited edition custom ‘Design Is Philosophy’ t-shirt

Morten Rand-Hendriksen a Microsoft MVP – Expression Web has announced the above prizes as giveaways. For 2nd and 3rd prizes you get a signed copy of his newly published Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Expression Web 3 in 24 Hours (also signed).

What do you have to do to be in with a chance?

Follow @mor10 on Twitter
Tweet the following message:

Win an Expression Web 3 package incl software, Teach Yourself xWeb 3 book + Tshirt from @mor10. Details here: http://bit.ly/VEG6R

If you have not joined Twitter yet it is simple to pick up an account just go to http://twitter.com/ and start an account

How and when will the winners be selected?

The draw will take place on Wednesday October 7th. After Morten has informed you of your win you then have two days to give him your contact information.

- PS Morten is not the only one giving away Expression Web Goodies. Watch this space for future Expression Web giveaways

Posted in Expression Web, Expression Web 3.0 | 5 Comments »

WebSite Spark Launched

September 24th, 2009

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:

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

In addition:

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.
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:

For design, development, testing and demonstration of new websites – for a total of up to three users per Web design and development company:
Visual Studio Professional
Expression Studio 2 or 3 (1 user) and Expression Web 2 or 3 (up to 2 users)
Windows Web Server 2008 or R2 (when available)
SQL Server 2008 Web Edition
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:
Windows Web Server 2008 R2 (when available)
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

Posted in Microsoft Expression Web | 11 Comments »