Introducing Expression Web

Microsoft .NET Framework, ASP.NET, Visual C# (CSharp, C Sharp, C-Sharp) Developer Training, Visual Studio

This article—Introducing Expression Web—is from Beginning Expression Web, by Zak Ruvalcaba. Copyright © 2007 Wiley Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission. This article has been edited especially for C# Online.NET.  Read the book review!

Introducing Microsoft Expression Web

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when a designer aiming to create Web pages needed only a basic knowledge of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and a robust, reliable, and feature-rich text editor such as Notepad. Okay, so the latter is an exaggeration, but let’s face it. Web pages were simple then, containing limited tags used purely for formatting fonts, setting paragraph and line breaks, adding lists, placing images, and occasionally including tabular data.

The relative simplicity of creating Web pages, then, led to the increased visibility and use of the Web. Gone are the days of adding a few tags to a blank document in Notepad, saving the file with an .html extension, and then opening that page within a browser to see the finished product. With increased usage came new ways of formatting and structuring content in a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS). Scripting languages such as JavaScript were introduced in an effort to improve the usability of Web pages, validate forms, detect browsers, create cookies, and more. As the Web became the perfect medium for sharing and disseminating information, users became much more finicky, demanding support for audio, video, and even animation.

Beyond these simplicities however, Web pages grew to unbelievable proportions. The Web is no longer a simple medium used merely for informational purposes. Rather, users can now expect to do their banking, buy cars, shop for food, collaborate, and much more, online. We now work with Web pages that are responsible for extracting content from databases, Extensible Markup Language (XML) files, and more.

Developing for the Web no longer involves a simple understanding of HTML, a handy text editor, and a browser. Instead, developers are increasingly required to learn other complex technologies such as CSS, JavaScript, ASP.NET, VB.NET, C#, SQL, XML, and much more. But, with the introduction of so many Web technologies just over the last decade alone, how has the Web, and, more specifically, how has developing for the Web increased beyond a level that so few could have ever predicted during the Web’s infancy? The answer lies in visual editors such as Microsoft Expression Web.

Microsoft Expression Web facilitates the development of Web pages visually. Even better, it fosters visual development of Web applications. While knowledge of the aforementioned Web technologies is encouraged, it’s not required with Expression Web. Expression Web allows the developer to structure and format content, and even connect to and interact with database/XML data visually using a series of task panes, wizards, toolbars, and toolboxes. With Expression Web, years of learning and mastering complex authoring and programming languages are now cut down to a matter of days and 16 convenient chapters.

Your journey through Expression Web begins here with an introduction to the product. Specifically, you will do the following:

• Become familiar with the Expression Web interface

• Learn about the many options available within the menu bar

• Understand the role of Task Panes

• Use and customize toolbars

• Learn to recognize and use the Development window, the tag selector, the development area, the tabbed file chooser, and the Design, Split, and Code views

Throughout the book, certain Expression Web Task Panes, toolbars, windows, and more will be referenced by name. By the end of the chapter, you will have a solid understanding of where these components are located. You’ll know which component accomplishes which task and when to use each. This will serve as a foundation for other, more complex processes throughout the book. Let’s get started!