WinFX: WPF – Microsoft Expression Web – Web Designer Tool

WinFX: WPF – Microsoft Expression Web – Web Designer Tool

If I want to change any quick small changes in HTML docs / web pages in my community sites, I will prefer FrontPage. Now I started using Microsoft Expression Web. Even though I didn’t use End to End, I tried few features and on a quick look it looks cool.

Here is the list that I see which is useful:

• Standards-compliant XHTML and CSS in Expression Web. One can verify whether the code is conforming to accessibility standards.
  First if you ask me what special about XHTML - XHTML is a current format which extends

HTML4. XHTML family document types are XML based, and ultimately are designed to work in conjunction with XML-based user agents. As it is XML based, it is easy for designers and document developers to represent their new elements / attributes. Refer here, if you want to know more about XHTML.

CSS rendering engine is good. You can trust this preview. ;)

The site and page templates that are part of the tool are Okay. You can straight away use few templates which are part of the tool for creation of your site.The support of using XML Data, XSLT rendering tools and other data manipulations are nice.

Last but not least the feature that I like very much and which are missing in the FrontPage: ASP.NET 2.0 Support - Through the controls toolbox, properties grid, and on-control “action menus” we can quickly insert and configure ASP.NET controls. IntelliSense and tag completion will make your coding easy.

Few Suggestions:

1. The Preview mode in the left end corner - Designer is missing (Only Design, Split and code exists).... It is very valuable on to see how the content is looking.

2. Auto Hide option is missing for all the Windows like Toolbar etc..