Microsoft Expression for web designers

Microsoft Expression is a suite of tools for web designers that will compete with Dreamweaver and Adobe's line. Hmmm...I wonder if this is why Adobe asked Microsoft to remove the "Save as PDF" functionality from Microsoft Office 2007? Strange, since Adobe encouraged OpenOffice, StarOffice and others to include the PDF functionality. But, that is a subject for another time. Back to Expression.

There are three tools in the Expression family. The CTP (Community Technology Preview) is available for download and free trial at the links below.

• Expression Graphic Designer is a professional illustration, painting, and graphic designer for creating WYSIWYG Web graphics.
• Expression Interactive Designer is a professional tool for creating rich user interfaces for Web and Client applications. It seamlessly integrates with the Graphic Designer and Visual Studio.
• Expression Web Designer is a professional tool for creating sophisticated standards-based Web sites, using advanced CSS tools that create fully compliant XHTML code.

The neat thing about all these tools is how they work together in a work-flow pattern, and share the same object structures so that objects can be copied to other tools like Visual Studio, Word, PowerPoint, etc.

Microsoft is getting real serious about web based applications and hosted services. These tools will help developers build robust applications with professional graphics...all in one tool suite. Check out the free trials at the links above.

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Comments

[russ stalters]

Thanks for the heads up. I will comment back after I get a chance to try them out. I am interested in how they support buiilding ECM applications in Office 2007.