Expression Web 4.0
Expression Studio 4.0 was launched at Internet
Week in NYC on June 7th. If you have already purchased Expression
Studio 3.0 or Expression Web 3.0 you are entitled to a FREE upgrade.
How does the free upgrade work? If you have a retail version 3 installed, you can download and install the trial of the version 4 product and it will be fully activated and functional. This will only activate a purchased version of Expression Studio 3.0 OR Expression Web 3.0 NOT a trial version and not one from MSDN or DreamSpark.
The automatic upgrade requires that the version 3 product is (or was) installed on the machine you are installing version 4 on. You cannot use a version 3 product key on a version 4 product. Please keep your version 3 product, as you will need to install and license it if you upgrade to a new computer or have to reinstall the program.
Expression Web 4 can be licensed and activated on, at most, two systems, e.g., a laptop and a desktop. If you need to reinstall on one of those systems, e.g., because you reinstalled Windows, you should be able to reinstall Expression Web 4 and reactivate at that time.
What's New
Some areas of work and improvement include, -
- SuperPreview online service is a beta service that extends the capability of SuperPreview to include support for additional browsers and operating systems. You will be able to see how your site displays on a Mac running Safari without owning a Mac. SuperPreview now includes Internet Explorer 7 as a rendering option. You will need to register to use this service.
- A new extensibility model that allows you to create
add-ins much more easily using html, css, javascript and a
manifest file (xml). WebAssist has
already released its first one
Payment Buttons for PayPal. And watch for Eric Meyer’s Site Sculptor add-in
which is due to arrive later this Fall. WebAssist will also be offering PHP add-ins. You can
read more
WebAssist is Back!
Anna Ulrich has an article on how to create add-ins for Expression Web 4 at Easily create an Add-in for Expression Web 4 with the Add-in Builder. - A new Search Engine Optimization reporting tool that scans
your site and warns you about any SEO-related issues (See Help
for the SEO rules). You can choose SEO options, display an SEO
report, filter the results in the SEO report, and step forward
and back through the list of results in the SEO report to see
more detail for individual list items. You can choose to do this
for one page or the entire site.
Fig 1: SEO Panel - Click for larger image - Improvements to Publishing UI
(Publish All, Publish Changed, and
Publish Current File on on the
Site menu) and fixes for "Publish Selected Files."
Fig 2: Publishing Options - click for larger image - Limited customization of toolbars. While you will NOT be able to customize any of the current toolbars, you can create your own "Favorites" toolbar by using an Expression Web add-in. Paul Bartholomew provided this screenshot and mentions it in this Expression Web Forum thread.
- Many bugs reported by customers via Microsoft Connect have been fixed.
Which Version Should I Get?
- Expression Studio 4 Web Professional -
This is what is currently released as standalone Expression Web
and includes the following:
- Expression Web + SuperPreview - is an application to build standards based websites.
- Expression Encoder - is an application for video encoding.
- Expression Design - is an application to build standards based websites.
- Expression Studio 4 Ultimate - This is what
is currently released as Expression Studio and includes the
following:
- Expression Web + SuperPreview
- Expression Blend is an application to create rich interaction design.
- SketchFlow
- Expression Encoder Pro
- Expression Design is an application to build standards based websites.
You can read more details on any of these programs at http://www.microsoft.com/expression/
Pricing
Expression Studio 4 Ultimate
- Estimated Retail Price $599 USD
- Estimated Upgrade Price $349 USD
Expression Studio 4 Web Professional
- Estimated Retail Price $149 USD
- Estimated Upgrade Price $79 USD
Additional Resources
- Release Notes
- Expression Web 4 System Requirements
- Expression Web 4 FAQ
- Download Expression Studio 4 Web Professional
- Morten Rand-Hendricksen's First Impressions
- Paul Laberge’s post
- Expression Web 4 Add-in Friendly
- Expression Web 4 Upgrade Process
- Expression Web 4.0 Add-ins
- Installing Expression Web 4
- Expression Web 4 Add-ins
- Easy HTML & CSS with Expression Web 4
Expression Web 4.0 Tutorials
Free Expression Web 4 Tutorials EBook by Pat Geary Microsoft MVP Expression Web
The EBook is in format and zipped for easier download. You will need the free Adobe Reader to view the EBook.
The title says it all Expression Web 4 Tutorials from Install to Publish and More. I'll take you through installing Expression Studio Web Professional (the official name) and setting up the program, to creating your first site and page right through to publishing. At the end I throw in some extras.
- Installing Expression Studio 4 or Expression Web 4
- Setting Up Expression Web 4.0
- Create Website in Expression Web 3.0 and 4.0
- Create a Blank Web Page
- Create a Webpage Layout in Expression Web
- Adding Horizontal Top Navigation to Webpage Layout
- Adding Vertical Navigation to Webpage Layout
- Validating your webpages in Expression Web
- Creating an Expression Web Dynamic Web Template - DWT
- Publishing Your Web Site with Expression Web 4
Next Step:
Installing Expression Web 4.0 