- Standards-based design including XHTML and CSS.
- Similar to FrontPage so FP users won't be overwhelmed.
- Great CSS implementation.
- Does the basics well, easy for beginners to learn, but powerful for advanced users.
- Slightly less expensive than Dreamweaver, and the upgrade price (from FrontPage) is really good.
- Steep learning curve to do any of the less basic tasks, and the documentation was sketchy.
- Many of the wizards you got used to in FrontPage are gone - including the photo gallery maker!
- You can't edit images inside, you must do all that in another program.
- Reports of some crashes on Windows Vista - I couldn't confirm.
- HTML validator (but no CSS validator) to validate your HTML right in the editor. Plus a full link checker.
- WYSIWYG editor for designers and text editor with color coding and tag completion for developers.
- The site manager includes a global search and replace as well as file transfer capability.
- While you can't edit images, it does have connections to graphics software to make it easy to edit them outside.
- Wizards for many of the functions you do all the time, but not the familiar ones from FrontPage.
- Database connectivity as well as support for ASP, PHP, and JavaScript.
- Standards-based Web pages, written in XHTML by default.
- Lots of pre-built scripts and templates to use.
Most reviews of Expression Web start out by saying that this is a great improvement over FrontPage. I think this is a mis-leading statement. Yes, it is an improvement over FrontPage, but that doesn't cover all the ways that Expression Web is an exciting change coming out of Microsoft. Expression Web is a full-featured professional Web development software package. It can compete directly with Dreamweaver, and in many ways comes out ahead.
Expression Web is very easy for the beginner to pick up and start using. This is an improvement over FrontPage, but it's also an advantage over Dreamweaver. While many of the wizards and bots that FrontPage users are used to are gone from Expression Web, there are others to take the place.
Where Expression Web falls down is in the more advanced features. It has them, you can connect to databases, build complicated Ajax applications, and so on, but it's not easy for the beginner to figure out. This can be frustrating. And I found that the documentation on how to do the more complex tasks to be limited or non-existent. That was frustrating too.
If you're a professional Web designer or developer Expression Web might be a great upgrade. It is slightly cheaper than Dreamweaver and offers most of the same features. And for FrontPage users, this is a must-have upgrade. It handles all your FrontPage Webs without needing to import them, and will help you create standards-based Web pages. Dreamweaver is still the top of the pack - mostly because of the integration with Photoshop and Flash, but Expression Web is right behind.
Score: 326
Reviewed: 15 October 2007
