Expression Web: n HTML editor for novices and pros, by Marion Périchaud
Introduction:
Producing successful communications means finding that delicate balance between being creative and meeting business demands. Whether we work in a large team or as freelancers, whether our project is for a global organization or for a small business, we all have deadlines, budgets, and guidelines that we have to follow. Expression Web is a new offering from Microsoft to help us bridge this gap between creativity and productivity.
Article:
The first bonus you notice about Expression Web is that you don’t need a background in web design to start building HTML pages and manipulating objects. Because the product is part of the Microsoft family, the interface is immediately familiar. Anyone, from project managers to communication consultants, can pick it up and run with it.
While it can meet a user’s simple needs, this isn’t just another HTML editor for dummies. In one package, we’re presented with professional software that has enough functionality to keep even an experienced designer busy. This gives us an application that can handle a raft of web sites from the most basic to the most complex.
No matter what project we’re working on, and no matter what people we’re dealing with, there’s one common thread in the business world: Microsoft products. Because it’s already part of the family, Expression Web makes it easier for us to “talk” to these software pillars that make up the business day. We no longer have to worry about the best way to import the content because a simple copy and paste does the trick. In one fell swoop, text from a table in Word or Excel can be placed in Expression Web with the correct format, font, alignment, and properties. The color and size of your text aren’t the only properties that can be imported without a hitch. Hyperlinks can also be carried over, and the spelling and grammar functionality makes sure that you don’t misspell in either environment. One of the more important advances in integrating content is the ability to copy a Word document’s use of styles. These are automatically recreated correctly in Expression Web and turned into standard CSS style sheets that you can edit or reuse in other web pages across your site.
To start production on anything—from a bicycle to a nuclear factory—you need a workable framework. The same idea applies when you build HTML pages—and Expression Web provides that framework. With many built-in features, including ready-made templates, layouts, and user interface (UI) elements, the software gives you a jump on your work by eliminating time that you spend on these big-ticket items.
Pushing these functionalities to their limit, a complete web site is just a few clicks away from creation. Across several files and folders, the web site template package can create consistently–laid-out pages with the same appearance and behavior under a standardized architecture. The architecture links all these files, so changes to the styles can be made once but applied everywhere.
The plus here is that you can customize these simple pages to suit your needs and goals. Therefore, a basic user gets a basic site and an advanced user gets a head start. This leaves you with more time to concentrate on the areas that really set good pages apart from mediocre ones: design, technology, and usability.
The creation or editing of HTML layout is supported by different visual aids and design tools. This gives you total control over the positions and dimensions of all the graphic elements on your page. Following W3C recommendations as well as working closely with professionals in the web industry, Microsoft provides a powerful product that enables us to work visually and be compliant at the same time.
All right, so Expression Web lets me create or edit HTML pages. What then? With Web 2.0, the front end users are likely to expect more than just a web site that looks great. E-commerce, e-learning, e marketing, and e-verything else that’s become popular in the last decade has been pushing the boundaries of what can be done. As a result, we are asked to provide more and more functionalities for our online creations. Therefore, as designers, we must understand how Expression Web can help us run this extra mile that separates us from the dynamic world. The good news is that Microsoft is providing more than a mile of functionalities and reusable controls to play with in this package. The integration of XML files, the preview of RSS feeds, the database linkages, the management of ASP.net connections, and the UI controls are some of the enhancements that are laying down the DIY (Do It Yourself) challenge. For those of you currently taking up the DIY challenge in your homes, the options for doing that online here are broad. You could fill hours of your time swapping your screwdriver and hammer for the Expression Web toolkit.
The final step is to test whether your magnificent, professional, and dynamic web site will fly as soon as it’s out there. That’s the leap from production to deployment. Expression Web lets you test across a combination of different browsers and resolutions to make sure that what you see is what you get.
I couldn’t conclude this article without mentioning help and support because when you decide to work with a new product, you must make sure that you’ll be able to get the answers you need, when you need them. This becomes especially important in serious situations, and it’s in these situations where Microsoft has a significant advantage. Microsoft brings an armada of support options to the help-table, which is what you’d expect from a world business leader. The built-in product help and the online support complement the global Microsoft support team and product evangelists. On top of this, you’ve got additional reinforcements from an army of community web sites, newsgroups, and blogs.
Conclusion:
The natural buzz that accompanies every new Microsoft product release has already started with Expression Web. This leaves us with a sense of excitement, creative curiosity, and business enthusiasm that’s echoed on an international scale. All this is very healthy for the industry and is therefore also very healthy for you and me. Whether you decide to be a part of this or not is up to you, but it’s happening now and it’s here to stay.
