Microsoft Expression Web 2

Microsoft Expression Web is an HTML editor and general-purpose web design program. It replaces Microsoft FrontPage and is a part of the Expression Studio suite. Version 1 was released in December, 2006. Version 2 was released in May, 2008. Version 2 includes native support for PHP and Silverlight.

In March of 2009, I thought it was about time to revise my site. This has been my home site for a long time but I've never done much with it. Basically it was just a resume and a place where I could store files and source code for my few clients. It was designed (I use the term loosely) with Microsoft FrontPage.

I admit I was not a FrontPage guru. I can't remember ever spending more than a few minutes with the documentation. I guess being a high priest of the church of Visual Studio caused me to be puffed up with pride. Well, okay, I was not a priest, just an usher. Would you believe a member?

When I first fired up my shiny new Expression Web 2 tool, I got that déjà vu feeling all over again. It reminded me of Visual Studio. The more I looked around, the more I liked it and the more I realized I needed to invest some quality time actually learning what this baby could do. Being in-between assignments (unemployed) meant I had plenty of that quality time to invest.

The first thing I needed was training. I went to the Virtual Training Company site (http://www.vtc.com/) where I get most of my online training. Sure enough, there was a course titled Microsoft Expression Web 2 by Melanie Hedgepeth, 8 hours, 122 short video tutorials. These tutorials are generally 2-5 minutes in length. Excellent training course. No, I am not related to Melanie and I do not get a commission.

If you are reading this on my site, you know I like to keep things simple. This site is not a showcase of what Expression Web can do. Though Melanie taught me a lot, the most important thing she gave me was a feeling of confidence. I now have a thorough understanding of the product. I am in command. I rule the universe with Expression Web. Hmmm. That being said, here are a few comments about my experience.

• The task panes are great but personally I like to close them all except for the Folder List in the upper left corner. Your preference will depend on how you use the product of course. Right-click in the heading of the task panes to move, dock, float the panes. To reset the workspace with all the task panes in their original position, click the Task Panes menu option and select Reset Workspace Layout.
• Expression Web 2 is very mindful of web standards. For instance, click the menu option Tools, then Page Editor Options, then go to the Authoring tab. That is where you can choose the doctype declaration to be inserted into new pages. As noted there, a matching document schema will be used to drive incompatibility notifications and IntelliSense for HTML and script. Notice there is a secondary schema and a CSS schema. Very nice. The product also makes it easy to comply with accessibility standards. Standards makes it easier for people with special needs to use the Web. It makes it easier to browse the web with different devices. Complying with web standards may make search engines do a better job of indexing your site. Web standards are cool. Besides, RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.
• Expression Web 2 supports creation of Master Pages and other pages with the aspx extension. Be aware that if you are planning on publishing the site on the web, the site host must support the .NET platform. My current web host does not support .NET, so to get that consistent "look and feel", I am limited to Dynamic Web Templates. Companies charge a premium for hosting .NET sites and they like to charge you the most for the latest version of .NET. Just because they can, I guess.
• If you use Dynamic Web Templates and make a change to the template, Expression Web will warn you, then automatically update all the web pages that were derived from that template. Keep in mind, though, that if you are working locally and publishing to the web, you will have to re-copy all the web pages derived from that template to the web. Each one has changed.
• One common practice is to use HTML tables to format the layout of HTML pages. This is being discouraged these days. Try to get used to using the <div> tag and CSS to organize your HTML pages and use tables for data. Using CSS may take a little effort but Expression Web 2 helps you, and the advantages are (1) smaller page size, quicker to load (2) future flexibility (3) easier to read the source (4) search-engine friendly (5) better accessibility for the blind, etc. To learn more about CSS, I suggest visiting: http://www.w3schools.com/Css/.