Customer Reviews

Microsoft Expression Web [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Expression Web (and the whole expression studio) shows promise in one day being the best web design toolset available. But this 1st version is bound to frustrate two types--Front page fans and Vista users.

In regards to the Front page fans--the days of being able to visually design a fully functional professional looking web page appear to be over. CoffeeCup and Sitespinner come as close as anything, but both are very limited. Control of the technologies employed across the web (html,css, flash, ajax, php, dot.net, sql, with plenty more to come) appears beyond the reach of any one product or company. I don't particularly like it. Monopolies have their upside. I would pay dearly for a decent visual web design/development program that was truly WYSIWYG, but having searched for well over two years, I've concluded none exist or are on the horizon. Web developers simply have to accept using multiple programs and text editing for certain tasks.


That said, as a hybrid visual/text web production tool (along the lines of Dreamweaver) Expression web offers a lot. I found its drag-and-drop functionality, its preview capabilities, its css/php integration, its handling of imported objects, superior to that of Dreamweaver. As the expression studio evolves, I can easily see it rivaling/surpassing Adobe design suite in terms of workflow and inter-operability--particularly as it promises better compatibility with the rest of Office.

BUT... the *&^!!! thing is still basically in its beta phase. (Pay $200 to be beta tester!?!). It is seriously buggy and it does not like Vista with Office installed. The help files don't work. It will constantly reinstall and reconfigure itself upon startup. It will crash a lot. I have seen ZERO improvement in these problems over the past 8 months and have tried numerous improvised fixes suggested on web forums without any luck. Microsoft appears to be gearing everything toward a 2nd release of the expression studio that integrates it with its new rival to flash (silverlight), rather than fixing the buggy as heck 1st version. This has been supremely annoying, and likely has soured many of the studio's potential adopters.

I've been using Dreamweaver for many years and have never used any Microsoft products for website development. After using the trial version of Expression Web for a week, I am now doing all new websites and converting the old ones to Expression Web.
Expression Web interface is clean, clear and more esthetically pleasing than Dreamweaver's. The best thing is the software discover so many coding errors in my existing websites that Dreamweaver just ignored. And it is just so easy to correct these errors because Expression Web tells me exactly where it is and what to do about it. If you care about conforming to the stricter standards of XML and XHTML, there is no better tools for website development than Expression Web.

I have been using Microsoft Expression Web for a while now (using the Beta) and even in beta, the Expression Web software blows Frontpage 2003 out of the water. Web standards are the way to go and this application does the job. It isn't hard to learn, especially if you are already using web standards in your current website. Using the CSS in Expression is a breeze. Don't let the other review dissuade you - it is an excellent application for developing very fast, web standard, full CSS websites!!

I've used a beta version of Expression Web.

As a person who does web development for a living, I found it a pleasure. It's cheaper and easier than dreamweaver, and its code is very very good.

This is not Frontpage, its not for the same market and it doesn't produce the same dubious output.

I steered away from its ASP features (As a PHP / Ruby on Rails person), but as a WYSIWYG web editor, buy it. (or at least download the free trial).

This is not for the average comsumer. This product is designed for the professional web designer. Not for the end consumer as advertised. Many areas required knowledge of codes. I am going back to Frontpage 2003 til support stops. Expressions is much to difficult for my needs.

For the most part, there isn't much difference between Front Page 2003 and Expression Web. I created two websites in the last 6 months and I found Expression Web far easier to use.

If you really want to make full use of this program, you'll use style sheets and some of the other advanced features that are not completely intuitive. FP 2003 had those same features, but I found ExWeb not only easier to use, but it rendered previews more accurately than FP2003.

It's not a bad program. If you're serious about web design and standards, this might be the product for you. If you're just learning, you may want to find something cheaper or something downloadable for free. (caution, free downloads often contain spyware or other malicious code within the program).

I bought this software to help me design several web sites including an e commerce site. Overall, this software is very user friendly. Having never used any major web design software, I found it easy to navigate and figure out although I must admit that I had to refer to a help book to decifer a few things - especially with the e commerce site. Once you understand the basics though, it is very straight forward. The tutorials are good. The help links are also good. No regrets in buying it!

This is the first WYSIWYG editior i have used. Other reviwers say this program is not for beginners and does not have any help for them. I dissagre because if you use the online help you can find the subject you are looking for. I am a beginner to web design but I found this program easy to use and very good. I use the basic features but as I get more advanced I will probaly use them. I do not know CSS but i know how it works. On of my favorite feutures is that you can type in things on the design view and the program will generate all the code needed. The program itself looks sort of like Visual studo. Overall I recommend it. Great program! It lacks php and secure ftp though.

Hey, I test ran all the products, free and otherwise by downloading the full trial versions. Keep in mind, I have been limping along using Microsoft Publisher 2000 to create and maintain my website, seriously, this should tell you what a complete novice I am!! After attempting to use Adobe's Dreamweaver, and then using this product, I have to admit, this product is pretty much idiot proof. I still know nothing about html, or any other thing on this product as of yet (I have not even watched the tutorial video that came with it yet), and I have created a new website design from scratch for my site. This is definately worth the money. I have spent 7 years using Publisher 2000, so I figure for the money I spent on this, if I get that kind of longevity out of this product, it is money well spent.

Although I am not an IT person by trade, I consider to be myself relatively computer savvy. I bought Expression Web as I have a large website that I had created in FrontPage and wanted software that was compatible with FrontPage since FrontPage is being discontinued.

Expression Web comes with a training video. I was able to view some of the sessions. But other key sessions "got stuck" and would not play. I went to the website and followed the troubleshooting instructions to no avail. I have a computer that is less than 6 months old and meets the hardware requirements and have the current version of the media software. So, bottom line, the training video didn't really help.

The software itself has no tutorial and is not intuitive. I was able to load my website in from FrontPage but many of the elements appeared to be static and I could not move them and I could only delete them.

For what this software costs, I would expect that it would have a robust help and tutorial section to help people get started. This software seems to be at a level for advanced web developers, not FrontPage users as recommended on the Microsoft website.