Microsoft Expression Web ???

[sloan]

http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/features.aspx?key=web

Is anyone using
Microsoft® Expression® Web ?

and would care to comment on it.

I know I can get the Eval version, but was hoping for some discussion about
it.

Questions that come to mind:

Are you doing IE only ...or... CrossBrowser development?

Do you consider yourself a graphic layout person? Or do you do the whole
shooting match (pres/biz/data) and still use Expression Web?


As a sidenote, I have no interest in "no code data binding". I hoping I can
get graphic people to do the site layout, and other developers skilled in
business logic (layers) doing the other code.

Aka, this is more of a ... can I seperate roles among developers type
question.

If you're going by "what you've heard" over personal-experience, please
label your response as such.



..........

Thanks.

 

[IfThenElse]

Are you doing IE only ...or... CrossBrowser development?
IE only, don't care about the rest or don't have to.

Do you consider yourself a graphic layout person? Or do you do the whole
shooting match (pres/biz/data) and still use Expression Web?
I do it all, I don't use Expression Web. VS.NET is the
best tool for me.
At times I use Photoshop for some complex table creation
and photo stuff

My experience with Graphics Designers is they do a good job in what they do,
but when they touch markup then we got into more work.
They seem not to understand what not to play with or touch. Graphics
Designers are great but you need to be clear about things. specifically IDs
and what can work, what can not work or might make the developer work mutch
harder.

 

[darrel]

As a sidenote, I have no interest in "no code data binding". I hoping I

can get graphic people to do the site layout, and other developers skilled
in business logic (layers) doing the other code.

competant web designers can use any HTML editor for the front end.

Ideally, you'd give them Visual Studio if you want them to modify work in
progress.

If not, then just have them provide the HTML, CSS, and javascript and then
integrate on your end.

-Darrel

 

[Mark Rae [MVP]]

IE only, don't care about the rest or don't have to.

Wow! Guess you never write any Internet apps, then...

 

[IfThenElse]

Mark,

We only love Microsoft.

All my Apps are internet. As long as it works on IE that's all we need.

If you don't have DSL or cable Modem we don't care.

If you can't view us, you can not afford us.

 

[Kevin Spencer]

Hi sloan,

I use Expression Web, and I am a developer, who also does design work from
time to time. I use both Expression Web and Visual Studio. I use Expression
Web for design and Visual Studio for development. Expression is excellent
for cross-browser development, as it is designed to work closely with
international standards including XHTML and CSS. That is its' purpose, and
for a first version, it does a heck of a job with it.

Expression Web is part of Expression Studio, a whole new set of products
designed with UI designers in mind. Over the years, as software development
has evolved, the development of software has been evolving towards more
specialized but interactive, inter-related disciplines, that is, code
development and UI development. UI development is a kind of hybrid of pure
graphic design and technology, including such technical concepts as
usability as well as elegance of style. It does, however, require a certain
understanding of programming technology as well, as there is a relationship
between the UI and the business logic in any application. UI
developers/designers must have some understanding of the technology they
design for, but not nearly as much as business developers. Microsoft has
seen this happening, and is splitting the development software arena into 2
related sets of software. The Expression Studio family of products is
design-intensive, but not strong for coding. The Visual Studio and
development products are code-intensive and not strong for design, thereby
making each an ideal set of tools for the audience it was created for.

This schism of design and development is particularly apparent in web
applications, as they have evolved from pure document/layout to full-fledged
application software that is document-centric, over the past dozen years.

Most developers and designers fall fairly solidly into one category or the
other. Some, like myself, find that their work overlaps more. I am first a
developer, but also do design work both of a necessity, and because I enjoy
it. So, for people like myself, having and using both sets of tools is
appropriate. I use both in tandem, and switch back and forth between them as
appropriate.

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP

DSI PrintManager, Miradyne Component Libraries:
http://www.miradyne.net

 

[Ian Semmel]

Expression web is good for design with a better ui than using vs and it
has a good interface for web publishing.

It also finds all the browsers on your system and you can quickly test
using each of them at different resolutions.

The upgrade price from FrontPage (who hasn't got an old copy of that
lying around) is very reasonable.

 

[Mike Placentra II]

We only love Microsoft.
As long as it works on IE that's all we need.

:-O

-Michael Placentra II