Microsoft Expression Web is an HTML editor and general web design software product by Microsoft. It is available free of charge from Microsoft and is a component of the discontinued Expression Studio. Web Expression can design and develop web pages using HTML5, CSS 3, ASP.NET, PHP, JavaScript, XML + XSLT and XHTML. Expression Web 4 requires the .NET Framework 4.0 and Silverlight 4.0 to install and run. Expression Web uses its own standard-based rendering engine which is different from the Internet Explorer’s Trident engine.
On May 14, 2006, Microsoft released the first Community Technology Preview (CTP) version of Expression Web, code-named Quartz. On September 5, 2006, Microsoft released Beta 1. Beta 1 removed most of the FrontPage-proprietary (non-standard) features such as bots, shares, functions, themes, automatic generation of navigation buttons, FrontPage forms, navigation pane to build a web site’s hierarchy, and other non-standard features available in CTP 1. The Release To Manufacturing version was made available on December 4, 2006. The first and only service pack was published December 2007. FrontPage, but supports validator controls for ASP.NET. Microsoft Expression Web 2 was released in 2008. Expression Web 2 offers native support for PHP and Silverlight. Microsoft Expression Web 3 was released in 2009. Until version 2, Expression Web was the only application in the Expression Studio suite based on the Microsoft Office code and dependencies. With version 3, Expression Web was rewritten in Windows Presentation Foundation, in line with the rest of the Expression Suite, without Microsoft Office dependencies. A result of this tool, the standard Windows color scheme, the spell check, the DLL addins, the file menu export feature, the drag-and-drop between remote sites, the comparison of sites by timestamp, the automatic language tagging, the basic macro support. removed in this version. Other features like Undo do not work reliably. Version 3 Introduced Expression Web 3 SuperPreview tool for comparing and rendering webpage in various browsers. Also noted was the lack of support for the relative links, links that start with a “/” to refer to the root of a web server. This feature was added with Expression 3 Service Pack 1. Expression Web 3 was released in April 2010. Microsoft Expression Web 4 was released on June 7, 2010. It added the option of HTML add-ins, and access to a web-based SuperPreview functionality, for testing pages on browsers that can not be installed on the user’s system (such as Mac OS X or Linux browsers). Microsoft Expression Web 4 also provides an SEO Checker which makes web site submission against the best practices for getting the highest possible search-engine rankings. Version 3. Expression Web 4 Service Pack 1 was released in March 2011 and added support for IntelliSense for the HTML5 and CSS3 draft specifications in the Code editor, HTML5 and CSS3 support in the CSS Properties palette, selected CSS3 properties in the Style dialogs, HTML tags in Design View and new PHP5.3 functions. Expression Web 4 SP2 was released in July 2011, and fixed a number of issues and new features such as jQuery IntelliSense support, a panel for managing snippets, the Interactive Snapshot Panel, how / uncomment functionality in Code View, and workspace and toolbar customization. HTML5 and CSS3 support in the CSS Properties palette, selected CSS3 properties in the Style dialogs, semantic HTML5 tags in Design View and new PHP5.3 functions. Expression Web 4 SP2 was released in July 2011, and fixed a number of issues and new features such as jQuery IntelliSense support, a panel for managing snippets, the Interactive Snapshot Panel, how / uncomment functionality in Code View, and workspace and toolbar customization. HTML5 and CSS3 support in the CSS Properties palette, selected CSS3 properties in the Style dialogs, semantic HTML5 tags in Design View and new PHP5.3 functions. Expression Web 4 SP2 was released in July 2011, and fixed a number of issues and new features such as jQuery IntelliSense support, a panel for managing snippets, the Interactive Snapshot Panel, how / uncomment functionality in Code View, and workspace and toolbar customization.
As of December, 2012, Microsoft has announced that Expression Studio will no longer be a stand-alone product. Expression Blend is being integrated into Visual Studio, while Expression Web and Expression Design will be available. Technical support is available for customers who have purchased Expression Web or Expression Design. No new versions of Expression Web or Design are planned.
Microsoft Expression Web received positive reviews. PC Pro awarded Web Expression 2 five stars out of six. “It concentrates by concentrating on providing standard-compliant support for the web’s core markup languages, (X) HTML and CSS,” Tom Arah concluded. PC Magazine also rated Expression Web 2 with 4 stars out of 5 and labeled it as a cost-effective option compared to the main competitor, Adobe Dreamweaver. “Even if money is no object, Expression Web 2 might be your better choice,” editor Edward Mendelson wrote. However, PC Magazine has criticized the lack of “Secure FTP in its Web-publishing functions” and “the ability to create browser-based scripting of all pages, including Safari”. PC Magazine noted that “