Microsoft Expression Web
Encyclopedia
Microsoft Expression Web, code-named Quartz, is an HTML editor
and general web design
software product by Microsoft
. It is part of the Expression Studio suite.
Expression Web can design and develop web pages using XML
, CSS
2.1, ASP.NET
or ASP.NET AJAX, XHTML
, XSLT
, PHP
and JavaScript
. Expression Web 4 requires .NET Framework
4.0 and Silverlight 4.0 to install and run. Expression Web uses its own standards-based rendering engine which is different from Internet Explorer's Trident
engine.
bots (use of FPSE
features for server-side scripting), parts, functions and non-standard features available in CTP 1.) The Release To Manufacturing version was made available on December 4, 2006 and the first and only service pack in December 2007. Expression Web does not have the form validation controls for HTML fields like FrontPage, but supports validator controls for ASP.NET.
Microsoft Expression Web 2 was released in 2008. Expression Web 2 offers native support for PHP
and Silverlight. No service packs have been released for version 2.
Microsoft Expression Web 3 was released in 2009. Until version 2, Expression Web was the only application in the Expression Studio suite based on Microsoft Office
code and dependencies. With version 3, Expression Web was rewritten in Windows Presentation Foundation
, in line with the rest of the Expression Suite, without Microsoft Office dependencies. A result of this was features like customizable toolbars and menus, standard Windows color scheme, spell check, DLL addins, file menu export feature, drag-and-drop between remote sites, comparing sites by timestamp, automatic language tagging, basic macro support were removed in this version. Other features like Undo do not work reliably. Version 3 introduced Expression Web 3 SuperPreview tool for comparing and rendering webpage in various browsers. Also noted was the lack of support for root relative links, links that start with a "/" to refer to the root of a web server. This feature was added with Expression 3 Service Pack 1. Service Pack 2 for Expression Web 3 was released in April 2010.
Microsoft Expression Web 4 was released on June 7, 2010. It added the option of HTML add-ins, and access to a web-based SuperPreview functionality, for testing pages on browsers that cannot be installed on the user's system (such as Mac OS X
or Linux
browsers). Microsoft Expression Web 4 also provides an SEO Checker which analyzes produced web site against the best practices for getting the highest possible search-engine rankings. Version 4 does not bring back all the features removed in Version 3. Expression Web 4 Service Pack 1 was released in March 2011 and added support for IntelliSense for the HTML5 and CSS3 draft specifications in the Code editor, HTML5 and CSS3 support in the CSS Properties palette, selected CSS3 properties in the Style dialogs, semantic HTML5 tags in Design View and new PHP5.3 functions. Expression Web 4 SP2 was released in July 2011, and fixed a number of issues and introduced new features such as jQuery IntelliSense support, a panel for managing snippets, Interactive Snapshot Panel, comment/uncomment functionality in Code View, and workspace and toolbar customization.
PC Magazine also rated Expression Web 2 with 4 stars out of 5 and labeled it as a more cost-effective option compared to the main competitor, Adobe Dreamweaver. "Even if money is no object, Expression Web 2 might be your better choice," Editor Edward Mendelson wrote. However, PC Magazine criticized a lack of “Secure FTP in its Web-publishing functions” and “the ability to create browser-based (as opposed to server-based) scripting of dynamic pages that works in all browsers, including Safari”. On the other hand, PC Magazine noted that “most designers won't care about their absence”. However, Microsoft Expression 3 later added support for SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)
(otherwise known as Secure FTP) as well as FTP over SSL (FTPS)
.
Third-party resources
HTML editor
An HTML editor is a software application for creating web pages. Although the HTML markup of a web page can be written with any text editor, specialized HTML editors can offer convenience and added functionality. For example, many HTML editors work not only with HTML, but also with related...
and general web design
Web design
Web design is the process of planning and creating a website. Text, images, digital media and interactive elements are used by web designers to produce the page seen on the web browser...
software product by Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
. It is part of the Expression Studio suite.
Expression Web can design and develop web pages using XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
, CSS
Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation semantics of a document written in a markup language...
2.1, ASP.NET
ASP.NET
ASP.NET is a Web application framework developed and marketed by Microsoft to allow programmers to build dynamic Web sites, Web applications and Web services. It was first released in January 2002 with version 1.0 of the .NET Framework, and is the successor to Microsoft's Active Server Pages ...
or ASP.NET AJAX, XHTML
XHTML
XHTML is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely-used Hypertext Markup Language , the language in which web pages are written....
, XSLT
XSLT
XSLT is a declarative, XML-based language used for the transformation of XML documents. The original document is not changed; rather, a new document is created based on the content of an existing one. The new document may be serialized by the processor in standard XML syntax or in another format,...
, PHP
PHP
PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
and JavaScript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
. Expression Web 4 requires .NET Framework
.NET Framework
The .NET Framework is a software framework that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large library and supports several programming languages which allows language interoperability...
4.0 and Silverlight 4.0 to install and run. Expression Web uses its own standards-based rendering engine which is different from Internet Explorer's Trident
Trident (layout engine)
Trident is the name of the layout engine for the Microsoft Windows version of Internet Explorer.It was first introduced with the release of Internet Explorer version 4.0 in October 1997; it has been steadily upgraded and remains in use today...
engine.
Version history
On May 14, 2006, Microsoft released the first Community Technology Preview (CTP) version of Expression Web. On September 5, 2006, Microsoft released Beta 1. (Beta 1 removed most of the old FrontPageMicrosoft FrontPage
Microsoft FrontPage was a WYSIWYG HTML editor and web site administration tool from Microsoft for the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. It was branded as part of the Microsoft Office suite from 1997 to 2003...
bots (use of FPSE
FrontPage Server Extensions
FrontPage Server Extensions are a software technology that allows Microsoft FrontPage clients to communicate with web servers, and provide additional functionality intended for websites. Frequent security problems have marred the history of this Microsoft proprietary technology...
features for server-side scripting), parts, functions and non-standard features available in CTP 1.) The Release To Manufacturing version was made available on December 4, 2006 and the first and only service pack in December 2007. Expression Web does not have the form validation controls for HTML fields like FrontPage, but supports validator controls for ASP.NET.
Microsoft Expression Web 2 was released in 2008. Expression Web 2 offers native support for PHP
PHP
PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
and Silverlight. No service packs have been released for version 2.
Microsoft Expression Web 3 was released in 2009. Until version 2, Expression Web was the only application in the Expression Studio suite based on Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
code and dependencies. With version 3, Expression Web was rewritten in Windows Presentation Foundation
Windows Presentation Foundation
Developed by Microsoft, the Windows Presentation Foundation is a computer-software graphical subsystem for rendering user interfaces in Windows-based applications. WPF, previously known as "Avalon", was initially released as part of .NET Framework 3.0. Rather than relying on the older GDI...
, in line with the rest of the Expression Suite, without Microsoft Office dependencies. A result of this was features like customizable toolbars and menus, standard Windows color scheme, spell check, DLL addins, file menu export feature, drag-and-drop between remote sites, comparing sites by timestamp, automatic language tagging, basic macro support were removed in this version. Other features like Undo do not work reliably. Version 3 introduced Expression Web 3 SuperPreview tool for comparing and rendering webpage in various browsers. Also noted was the lack of support for root relative links, links that start with a "/" to refer to the root of a web server. This feature was added with Expression 3 Service Pack 1. Service Pack 2 for Expression Web 3 was released in April 2010.
Microsoft Expression Web 4 was released on June 7, 2010. It added the option of HTML add-ins, and access to a web-based SuperPreview functionality, for testing pages on browsers that cannot be installed on the user's system (such as Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
or Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
browsers). Microsoft Expression Web 4 also provides an SEO Checker which analyzes produced web site against the best practices for getting the highest possible search-engine rankings. Version 4 does not bring back all the features removed in Version 3. Expression Web 4 Service Pack 1 was released in March 2011 and added support for IntelliSense for the HTML5 and CSS3 draft specifications in the Code editor, HTML5 and CSS3 support in the CSS Properties palette, selected CSS3 properties in the Style dialogs, semantic HTML5 tags in Design View and new PHP5.3 functions. Expression Web 4 SP2 was released in July 2011, and fixed a number of issues and introduced new features such as jQuery IntelliSense support, a panel for managing snippets, Interactive Snapshot Panel, comment/uncomment functionality in Code View, and workspace and toolbar customization.
Reception
Microsoft Expression Web received positive reviews. PC Pro awarded Expression Web 2 five stars out of six. "It largely succeeded by concentrating on providing standards-compliant support for the web's core markup languages, (X)HTML and CSS," Tom Arah concluded.PC Magazine also rated Expression Web 2 with 4 stars out of 5 and labeled it as a more cost-effective option compared to the main competitor, Adobe Dreamweaver. "Even if money is no object, Expression Web 2 might be your better choice," Editor Edward Mendelson wrote. However, PC Magazine criticized a lack of “Secure FTP in its Web-publishing functions” and “the ability to create browser-based (as opposed to server-based) scripting of dynamic pages that works in all browsers, including Safari”. On the other hand, PC Magazine noted that “most designers won't care about their absence”. However, Microsoft Expression 3 later added support for SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)
SSH file transfer protocol
In computing, the SSH File Transfer Protocol is a network protocol that provides file access, file transfer, and file management functionality over any reliable data stream...
(otherwise known as Secure FTP) as well as FTP over SSL (FTPS)
FTPS
FTPS is an extension to the commonly used File Transfer Protocol that adds support for the Transport Layer Security and the Secure Sockets Layer cryptographic protocols....
.
Releases
| Version and Build | Date |
|---|---|
| 4017.1004 CTP 1 | |
| 4518 RTM | |
| 2008.1200.4518.1084 RTM | |
| 3.0.1762.0 | EW 3 English Lanaguage |
| 3.0.1773.0 | EW 3 Non-English languages |
| 3.0.3813.0 | EW 3 with SP 1 installed ( Nov 19, 2009) |
| 4.0.1165.0 RTM | |
| 4.0.1241.0 | EW 4 with SP 1 installed |
| 4.0.1303.0 | EW 4 with SP 2 installed |
See also
- Comparison of HTML editorsComparison of HTML editorsThe following tables compare general and technical information for a number of HTML editors.This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up to date...
- Comparison of office suites
- List of HTML editors
External links
Official websites- Expression Web at Microsoft.com
- Expression Web team blog at MSDN BlogsMSDN BlogsMSDN Blogs is Microsoft's blog site where many of its employees blog to a public audience. It has both individual blogs and product or feature-related blogs...
- Microsoft Expression website
Third-party resources
- Expression Web Blog, a blog by Tina Clarke (MVPMicrosoft Most Valuable ProfessionalThe Microsoft Most Valuable Professional is the highest award given by Microsoft to those it considers "the best and brightest from technology communities around the world" who "actively share their ... technical expertise with the community and with Microsoft"...
) - Expression Web Tips, an educational blog by Pat Geary (MVP)
- Any-Expression.com
- Expression-Web-Tutorials.com
- By-Expression.com