Microsoft Expression Studio 2 Released

Microsoft released Expression Studio 2 today, which is a combination of

• Expression Web 2
• Expression Blend 2
• Expression Design 2
• Expression Media 2
• Expression Encoder 2

Some of the features as mentioned on the features page, include:

• "Design for Windows and the Web - Use a full range of new professional design tools to bring your creativity to the world of the .NET framework and Silverlight. Design the next generation of user interfaces for Windows and the Web.
  Designer Developer workflow Combine Expression Studio for designers with Visual Studio for developers for a powerfully integrated solution for designing and coding innovative applications.
• Design for Silverlight 1.0 - Expression Studio 2 is the essential design resource for Microsoft's newest web technology Silverlight 1.0 - use a combination of Expression Blend 2 and Design 2 to create your Silverlight application and Expression Web 2 to integrate it into your website.
• Standards Based design with Expression Web 2 - Design for today's web standards with Expression Web 2, built to translate your visual layouts into fully compliant pages using your choice of versions of XHTML, CSS, XML and XSLT.
• Harness the power of ASP.NET and PHP with Expression Web 2 - Expression Web 2 is the first web design tool to offer deep support for both ASP.NET 3.5 and PHP which allows designers to collaborate with developers on web projects to make compelling sites.
• Design UX with Expression Blend 2 - Collaborate with developers to produce applications with great user experience that both look great and function well. Design application skins with interactivity and animation without needing to type a line of code.
• Design for XAML - Design graphic elements for Blend and Silverlight and export them in XAML format to retain absolute fidelity through the life of the project. Have confidence that your design lives on.
• Create Artwork with Expression Design 2 - Create artwork for your desktop and web applications using an exciting drawing tool then either export as XAML or slice your images for the Web.
• Manage your design assets with Expression Media 2 - Keep track of your graphic and video files using Expression Media, a team asset management tool that lets you sort, keyword and find them with unsurpassed ease.
• Encode Video for Silverlight with Expression Encoder 2 - Prepare your files for delivery with Silverlight using the Expression Encoder to crop and add markers enabling your websites to interact with your video content."

I am going to install this latest version over the weekend and see if Expression Design and Expression Web are a little bit better than the previous versions. Personally, I think Dreamweaver and Fireworks are better, but I need to do a little bit more investigation on these new versions before I make up my mind.

You can learn more here.

 

posted @ 11:09 PM

SQL Server 2008 Management Studio Gets T-SQL Intellisense

SQL Prompt from Red Gate has been absolutely indispensible in my day-to-day database development for its intellisense features when it comes to creating queries, stored procedures, etc. Having SQL Prompt and other Red Gate Tools, like SQL Refactor, is critical for doing real database work. I can't imagine not having code completion / intellisense as well as code formatting that I get from SQL Prompt. For those of you not getting the benefit of intellisense in SQL Server 2005 Management Studio, you will be happy to know that SQL Server 2008 Management Studio will have intellisense!!

Just like Visual Studio, as you are entering T-SQL into SQL Server Management Studio it will provide intelligent code completion - automatically filling out proper syntax and keywords, database objects, and variables. I am sure this will excite quite a few developers. Heck, I am excited for everyone and I have been enjoying intellisense for quite some time with Red Gate's SQL Prompt :)

posted @ 10:45 PM