Microsoft Expression

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Microsoft Expression
Basic data

developer Microsoft
operating system Windows
category Graphics software , web publishing
License Proprietary
German speaking Yes
Others Development stoppedTemplate: Infobox software / maintenance / other
Microsoft support page

Microsoft Expression is a software family from Microsoft for developing and designing images, videos, HTML and ASPX pages and user interfaces for Windows and cross-platform web applications. It consists of four components:

Version 3 of Expression Studio was released on October 1, 2009. The English version of Expression Studio 4 was released on June 7, 2010, the German version has been available since August 17, 2010. In December 2012, Microsoft stopped developing the software. Parts of the program package (including Expression Web and Design) have been available for free download since then.

motivation

With Expression , Microsoft is trying to penetrate into market areas that the software house Adobe Inc. dominated through the acquisition of the former Macromedia company . Macromedia developed and sold, among other things, the software Dreamweaver and Flash, which are now part of the Adobe range . With "Expression Blend" a design tool was created which creates user interfaces that make use of the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).

Microsoft Expression Web

In Expression Web is a web development environment , which in particular also to the development of web projects with Microsoft's ASP.NET suitable technique for dynamic Web content. "Expression Web" is thus the successor to Microsoft FrontPage , but is based on a new code base . A graphic WYSIWYG editor and a source code editor exist side by side on an equal footing. Changes in the graphical editor are made in parallel in the source code editor and vice versa.

With Expression Web, Microsoft has decided not to bind the created pages to Internet Explorer and the Internet Information Server IIS. The previous product Frontpage contained numerous functions and web modules that made it easier to create a personal, structured page with a guest book, a full text search, an access counter, ready-made photo albums, top 10 lists, etc. In most cases, however, these web modules were neither standard-compliant nor capable of running for other servers apart from Microsoft IIS. Therefore, it was decided to use a tool that is more based on programs like Adobe Dreamweaver .

During the development, special attention was paid to supporting current W3C standards. Expression Web is able, among other things, to generate valid XHTML 1.0 Strict / 1.1 and CSS . Functions such as the Accessibility Checker should also help the designer to create barrier-free websites.

With "SuperPreview" Microsoft provides a function to display web pages simultaneously in different browsers during development and to display the results on top of one another in order to identify any rendering differences that may exist.

Microsoft Expression Blend

Expression Blend is a design tool for interactive user interfaces that use the Windows Presentation Foundation for execution. It functions as a WYSIWYG editor for XAML , a language formulated in XML for describing and creating such interfaces. Vector graphics , raster graphics , 3D objects from some of the leading 3D programs, videos, sound and text can be used and animated and brought into action with the help of a timeline.

From version 2 with Service Pack 1, the program supports the platform-independent browser plug-in Silverlight and the cooperation with Visual Studio 2008 .

From version 4 the program supports the development for Silverlight 4 and .NET 4 as well as the cooperation with Visual Studio 2010.

Microsoft Expression Design

Expression Design is the image editing program in the Expression family. It is based on the vector program "Expression" from the software manufacturer Creature House, which was taken over by Microsoft in 2003. The program enables both vector and raster-based graphics to be edited . In contrast to other programs, Expression Design differentiates between vector and pixel layers, whereby the working environment and the tool palette are adapted depending on the type of layer.

The graphics can not only be exported to Adobe's own formats for Photoshop (.PSD), Illustrator (.AI) and Acrobat (.PDF), but also to XAML , which is used in Expression Blend or directly in WPF-based applications finds.

Microsoft Expression Encoder

Expression Encoder is used for encoding of audio and video media in the video codecs H.264 and VC-1 , which as Microsoft IIS Smooth Streaming files for the online - and live streaming with Microsoft Silverlight - Client can be issued. Screen recordings can be made using the Microsoft Expression Encoder Screen Capture additional program supplied .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ heise.de: Microsoft discontinues Expression brand, two components are now available free of charge , viewed on December 28, 2012.

Web links