Customer Reviews

Microsoft Expression Web 3.0 [Old Version]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

For the cost of this package, you get Expression Web 3, Expression Design 3 and Expression Encoder. You simply can't get this kind of value anywhere else. This is especially true if you want to create asp(.)net pages because you can also download the free Visual Web Developer Express program that will make it easier for you to code your back end code.

Expression web 3 has a great design preview compared to Dreamweaver CS3 (the version I currently use). In Dreamweaver CS3, css layouts look horrible, whereas in EW3, you get a pretty accurate representation of what your page will look like. When you want to take a good look at the way your page will appear, you can use EW3's Super Preview, which will show you what your site will look like in different browsers (inluding IE6).

Admittedly, I still prefer Dreamweaver's property box and CSS editing tools over EW3, but this is what I have been using for years. Now I have to use Expression Web 3 because I am transitioning from classic ASP to asp(.)net which Dreamweaver CS3 doesn't really support and CS4 doesn't support at all. The advantage to my switching is that the design view in EW3 is superior and it supports master pages which is so absolutely superior to dreamweaver templates it is not even funny. Finally, I can make a change to the template (i.e. master page) and the changes will automatically appear on ever page without me having to update and upload all child pages. I know that doesn't make a lot of sense if you've never used master pages or dreamweaver templates, but the difference is with asp(.)net master pages you can change a template and upload 1 new file. With Dreamweaver templates, you have to upload ever page that was tied to that template every time you make a change. If you have 100 pages tied to a template, you can see the hassle.

In this package you also get Expression Design which is a program for graphic editing and supports vector and raster editing. I suppose it is similar to Adobe Fireworks (which I really like). If you don't already have Fireworks, then I am sure Design is great. I like Fireworks and already own it so I am not bothering too much with EW Design.

For full disclosure I think Adobe's web products are great, but they are expensive and dreamweaver doesn't support the advanced features of asp(.)net so Expression Web is where it is at if you do asp(.)net (EW3 also supports php).

For the price, you can't get a better web development package. Make sure you download Visual Web Developer Express edition along with all the cool tools that go with it and it makes an excellent compliment to everything in EW3.

Having been a "simple" web site builder for years, I have used over a dozen different website creation packages. My favorite to date is still MS Front Page which won't run on my new 64bit hot rod.

Most of the new features in MS Expression web are an improvement on the old Front Page except one. WYSIWYG is gone. The new flexible framing system makes it rather difficult to use any existing site or template in order to build in changes. New buttons can't just be placed where you want them, and the wrong mouse clock will inexplicably change the entire page appearance on the screen.

While most of Microsoft's products are getting easier to use, this one increased the technical requirements enough to say, "Keep looking unless you want to become a master website builder." Instead of being simple and easy to use like Front Page, Expression Web is a clear shot at being a budget version of Adobe's Dream Weaver.

Once you figure it out, the new tools do offer some great features, and some of the simple tasks like tagging photos and text are much faster. My suggestion is to also buy a guide book since the help files aren't that great.Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Expression Web 3 in 24 HoursMicrosoft Expression Web For Dummies

Happy web mastering.

A excellent software for those who used FrontPage previously. Importing your files from FrontPage was easy. Must have a manual, such as MS Expression Web 3 in 24 hours would be very helpful

This pruduct is easy to use and the price is fair compared to the $400 adobe dreamweaver. This product is quick to ship with normal shipping and there are many training manuals to accomadate this great web building program. I highly recommend this product for anyone looking to create and maintain their own website.

I am satisfaied with this purchase. I can select code view, design view or split the two 50/50 and make edits simple. Your seperate CSS file code is easily accessable and properties of the page will show the css elements. Comes with seperate graphics editor ( dont use it, I have the free gnu gimp which I am learning to use is as good as the the famous and expensive adobe product) and screen record, capture program good for video presentations. I think it is a great alternative to the Adobe Dreamweaver. I've used some other Microsolft development products and I caught on to the user interface fairly quickly.

The only problem I had was the font was a bit too small ( I'm at 1440 on the laptop and I have IE at 125% so my eyes have got used to the larger fonts and regular size looks small. Maybe there is a setting i havent found yet that I can adjust it. There was a dark/light setting for the colors of the design space which I changed from the default dark to light which was easier to see.

I have never before used a professional grade html editing product so I cant really compare it to anything else, but I am nevertheless satisfied with what I got. I have updated my website with a template CSS style page that i purchased online for under $70 updated my website to professional looking pages, and it looks fantastic. There are plenty of good CSS tutorials on YouTube, and this program made it easy to understand how the css ties into the html. I am very happy. I would recommend this product.

I am a professional web designer / programmer. I do not personally use this product for my clients! BUT if my clients want to edit their site on their own... they can use this. Its easy!

I hand code my websites ([...]) but ANY website I do can be used with this product. That means - you can edit your own website and still have it look good!

Make sure if you are doing this to tell your web master that you will be using this product because it changes a few things we do to make it easier for you to edit! One of them is called "breaking the design" which is the CON of this product... Because you can edit your own website you can also cause errors. So when a professional takes care of you they can SAFE GUARD that a little extra for you!

I hope you enjoy editing your website yourself!!! Enjoy. KF

Expression has all the bells and whistle that you need to make very good and functional websites. I can't compare it to any other comparable tools, as before I was just using Publisher. CSS is a challenge and I recommend a tutorial based book to go along with it. I'm using Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Expression Web 3 in 24 Hours that I purchased here. Sam's has good points and a companion website to download the lesson templates (although the lessons are extremely boring). If you can find someone to ask questions, you'll be ahead. After one week, I built a pretty nice website to compliment my Java back end. Thumbs up!

Having no experience designing/maintaining web pages, bought this on recommendation of a friend. I was taking over maintaining the church's web page. This was easy enough to do without a manual! Although I know if I needed to get into more detail or actually design the page, I would probably need a manual, which is another review. But I was very impressed with this product and would recommend it to all. It works like windows so was easy to pick up. Marsha Smith

What was Microsoft thinking? They took a great, user friendly program like Frontpage, discontinued it, and replaced it with this? I opened a free trial of Expression Web 3 and nearly began to cry. I opened a web page I previously designed in Frontpage and attempted to view it in Expression Web, and the work area is too small to view it. Discontinuing Front page and replacing it with this is akin to Hitler's burning of the books, and not letting slaves learn to read. It is designed to eliminate an ordinary person's abilty to easily create their own web page, and limit web page building to the "experts" ie. the few elites that are allowed to control the internet. What a crock of bull. To take a great, easy program like Frontpage, and replace it with something so inferior. (Apparently all Microsoft is about is making money, and makinjg us all put in hundreds of hours to learn their next software package, no matter how worthless it is.)

My web hosting company says they will no longer reload Frontpage extensions if they break down, they won't support Frontpage, and so we are stuck with this technological piece of crap called Expression Web 3. I have maintained my parents insurance company website with Frontpage for 12 years, but now due to the lack of support for Frontpage, I am going to have to spend a hundred hours learning how to use this inferior piece of junk!

After using Front Page for over 10 years (beginning with the Beta Version) I relunctantly (kicking and screaming really) moved to Web Expressions 3. Turns out that I found I could simply pull in all my websites, use the same pages and change them and use save as, to create new pages so I don't even have to get into Divs and all that other stuff. It's rather like using Front Page. I don't use Cascading Style Sheets either....

I plan on eventually learning all that stuff, but for now, with lack of time, I can still keep my 6 webpages updated on a regular basis with little problems. A couple of days and some setting worked out with my host and I was ready for updating and changes that were needed.

I did buy a book on Web Expressions and when I've got time, I will sit down and try to work out how Web Expressions really works. The upgrade is out for Web Expression 4 (called Studio Expressions) but the feedback says it's really buggy, so I'm sticking with 3. Works for me, and will work for you if you are a die hard Front Page user...just use you current webpages as templates until you work it all out! AND BUY A BOOK...oh, and You Tube has some great video tutorials. I just used one to learn to embed a You Tube Video into one of my webpages. Only I used a table with borders rather then a DIV..what the heck is a DIV anyway? LOL!

Go ahead and bite the bullet. You're going to have to eventually. Time to stop worrying about it and just do it.