Microsoft Expression Web

The interface of Expression Web looks significantly similar to that of Dreamweaver. You can view code or design, or both. Page views, folders, tools and other elements are divided into panes that you can dock and drag and drop nearly anywhere on the screen.

Anyone migrating from Dreamweaver should be able to jump right in and use Expression Web without much effort. If you breathe dynamic web design, then Expression Web offers solid features for managing XHTML, Cascading Style Sheets and XML. Expression Web is even less cluttered than Dreamweaver in this regard. We found it easy to move the same web pages between both programs without causing problems in the code. Plus, Expression Web supports W3C accessibility standards for designing pages for people with disabilities — a must-have for those creating business web sites.

However, those designing a web site for the first time may not know where to start when they open Expression Web. We wonder if Microsoft plans at some point to offer a novice-friendly application that will offer the hand-holding that FrontPage did. For now, however, options seem limited to the various templates offered by Microsoft Office Live, or even the free Windows Live Writer blogging tool.

Expression Web integrates with the other Expression Studio applications, but these aren't all final products yet. Even when the work is done on Expression Studio, Dreamweaver has the advantage over Expression Web of integrating deeply and richly with various components of Adobe Creative Suite 3. Expression Studio includes Design for creating digital images, Blend for making widgets and Media for managing files. However, Microsoft's suite lacks a desktop publishing tool such as Adobe's InDesign, video editing from the equivalents of Premiere and AfterEffects, as well as Adobe CS3's rich mobile support. Still, Expression Web does integrate with Visual Studio, Microsoft's main software development tool, which is a blessing for digital designers and programmers.