Microsoft Expression Web 2

Frequently Asked Questions

 

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General and Sales

Q.
What is Microsoft Expression Web 2?
A.

Microsoft Expression Web 2 is a professional design tool to create modern, standards-based sites and Web applications that use ASP.NET or PHP.

 
Q.
How can I purchase Expression Web 2?
A.

Expression Web 2 is available either separately or as part of the full Expression Studio 2. It can be purchased from a range of resellers and online resellers or can be purchased for immediate download from Microsoft’s online store. For a comprehensive list of purchasing options, see the How To Buy page.

 
Q.
What is the price for Expression Web 2?
A.

Expression Web 2 has an estimated retail price of US $299.

 
Q.
What are the upgrade options and prices?
A.

Qualifying customers, including FrontPage and owners of several Adobe products, can upgrade to Expression Web 2 for US $99. Click here to purchase and digitally download this upgrade.

 
Q.
In what languages is Expression Web 2 available?
A.

Each of the Microsoft Expression products is available in the following languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, and Korean.

 
Q.
Is there a trial version of Expression Web 2?
A.

Yes. The fully featured 30 day free trial for Expression Web 2 is currently available for download here.

 
Q.
What resources come with Expression Web 2?
A.

Expression Web 2 in English language versions will include several resources to help users get started with the application, including: a two hour "getting started" training video from Total Training, a printed Getting Started and online help and tutorials.

 
Q.
Where can I find resources to help me use my Expression products?
A.

There is an Expression Community Website that contains a frequently updated wealth of materials on all the Expression products and the Microsoft technologies that they are designed to work with.

Product Specific

Q.
Who is the target audience for Expression Web 2?
A.

Expression Web 2 is targeted at the professional designers who are building standards-based XHTML Web sites and applications. It is specifically appropriate for designers of ASP.NET applications.

 
Q.
Does Expression Web 2 create content for all browsers?
A.

Yes. Expression Web 2 supports XHTML and CSS standards and will enable Web designers to easily build browser-agnostic sites. Expression Web 2 also incorporates rich accessibility support to help build the most accessible, standards-conformant websites possible.

 
Q.
How does Expression Web 2 compare to Microsoft Office FrontPageR 2003 and Visual Studio as a Web design/development tool?
A.

Expression Web 2 is a design product for professional Web designers that combines the best of both FrontPage and Visual Studio technologies in a new user interface for creating XHTML, CSS, XML, XSLT, and ASP.NET 2.0. Where appropriate, the user interface and features of Expression Web 2 and Visual Studio are identical (such as for ASP.NET control properties).

 
Q.
How does Expression Web 2 provide an enhanced user experience on the Web?
A.

Expression Web 2 provides Web professionals with everything they need to build attractive, high-quality websites using HTML, DHTML, CSS, and XHTML. With Expression Web 2, professional designers can easily take advantage of the best of dynamic website design, enabling users to quickly and efficiently design, develop, and maintain standards-based Web applications with seamless integration with ASP.NET 3.5, ASP.NET AJAX and Visual Studio 2008.

 
Q.
How does Expression Web 2 reduce development and design complexity?
A.

Expression Web 2 provides seamless integration with Visual Studio 2008 and ASP.NET 3.5 (and 2.0), enabling designers and developers to interact using products that they are most comfortable with. Designers can easily lay out XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, and basic dynamic functionality using Expression Web 2 and take advantage of many ASP.NET specific features like Master Pages for templating, and drag and drop controls. The project can then be handed over to developers using Visual Studio, enabling them to extend the functionality through advanced server-side code and business logic.

 
Q.
Why has Microsoft added PHP to Expression Web 2?
A.

The customer feedback from the initial release of Expression Web was extremely positive especially with regard to the support for Web standards. However a sizable number of those who evaluated the trial version were prevented from using it because their work involved PHP websites. As a direct response to this, we decided to add PHP support to Expression Web at the earliest opportunity.

Support

Q.
How do I get technical support for my purchased Expression product?
 
Q.
Is customer support offered with Expression Trial versions?
A.

Formal support is not offered for this Expression Trials. Instead, we have a community web site and forums for all the Expression products where you can solicit feedback and help get your questions answered by the both the Expression community and the moderators from the different Expression teams.