I think Microsoft misses the subtle UI things that make a web designer or web developer's day easier. I am re-evaluating the products in Microsoft Expression Studio 2 this weekend:
- Expression Web 2
- Expression Blend 2
- Expression Design 2
- Expression Media 2
- Expression Encoder 2
I just mentioned the fact that Microsoft Expression Design 2 is missing some ever important bitmap tools and is not a replacement for Adobe Fireworks let alone Adobe Photoshop.
And, although this is probably more of a nit-pick, who on Earth designed the FTP interface you find in Expression Web 2?
Why isn't the FTP Explorer a TreeView with collapsible folders so that I can see the entire directory structure at a glance without having to navigate in and out of folders? Am I missing a setting somewhere? I know this is the same ugly FTP Interface that is in Visual Studio 2005, but I dare not want to look to see if it still exists in Visual Studio 2008. Quite frankly, I don't deploy and publish websites like this anyway. I use a proper build process, etc. However, somebody is probably using this FTP interface to publish their sites and this is way behind the times.
Again, I am using an old copy of Adobe Dreamweaver from the Macromedia days, and it's interface for publishing files is a sweet looking treeview that makes the experience wonderful. Coda, which is a Mac web development tool I mentioned earlier for $79, uses a TreeView to view and publish web pages:
Expression Web 2 is the only web development tool that I know of that uses this old-style navigation of your web site such that you cannot see all the pages you want via a TreeView. I realize this is a bit of a nit-pick, but it drives me crazy. Thankfully I don't need to use it, but you might want to fix this in Expression Web 3.
I mentioned the release of Expression Studio 2, Microsoft Expression Studio 2 Released, which is a release of several products by Microsoft:
- Expression Web 2
- Expression Blend 2
- Expression Design 2
- Expression Media 2
- Expression Encoder 2
This weekend I put Expression Design 2 through my Adobe Fireworks tests to see if I can move away from my older version of Adobe Fireworks and move to the newer Expression Design 2.
The first time I played with Expression Design when it came out in version 1.0 I didn't like it that much. Although I do a decent amount of vector graphics, I also do a heck of a lot of bitmap graphics, too. There are some tools that are traditionally thought of as bitmap tools that are indepensible for day-to-day graphic work: Crop, Lasso, Magic Wand, and Marquee to name a few. Most of the time I need one of those tools and need it bad.
Sadly, this is where Expression Design 2 still misses the mark, because it doesn't have those bitmap graphic tools mentioned above. I realize that Expression Design is focusing on vector graphics, but you have to have the stock set of bitmap tools in Expression Design for when you need them. I'll be dang if I want to keep a few tools around, one for vector graphics and one for bitmap graphics.
I personally feel that Microsoft has mis-read the needs of the web design and development community. You can't just ignore the bitmap graphics needs. Expression Design is in version 2.0 now and you would expect the Crop, Lasso, Marquee, and Magic Wand tools to be in the toolbox now, but they aren't. Sigh. My old version of Adobe Fireworks still kicks Expression Design 2's butt, and I am talking about the older Fireworks that was a part of Macromedia in 2004 :)
That being said, Expression Design 2 is really nice for vector graphics. Thankfully version 2.0 provides slicing, because seriously, I cannot imagine having a graphics package that cannot do slicing. It has the expected really nice non-destructive visual effects and all the things you would expect in a decent graphics package if you didn't have the needs for Adobe Photoshop ( but so does Adobe Fireworks ).
If you had absolutely no need for bitmap tools, Expression Design 2 is sweet. However, if you find yourself working with both vector and bitmap graphics equally, Expression Design 2 might drive you nuts :)
Hope this helps.
Dave