DreamWeaver / Expression Web

[jfrizelle]

Just wondering if anyone has any experience of Expression Web, and how it compares to DreamWeaver?

[kgun]

You mean http://www.microsoft.com/expression/..._Overview.aspx ?

I think I stick to Dreamweaver.

[jfrizelle]

I'm sticking to DW myself, but I'm also delivering web development training courses to beginners. I delivered the first one in DW and it went down well, but I'm wondering what opinions are on EW. I'm finding it hard to find many reviews of it - except from MS of course, and they're not exactly objective!

[kgun]

Do you think it is better than FrontPage?

[jfrizelle]

I only used FP briefly, many years ago. I've been using DW for years, so I was hoping to get other opinions on EW before downloading anything...

[wige]

I just started evaluating Expression, currently I use Dreamweaver for my web editing. I generally use it as a text editor, and for easier uploading of files than using a seperate FTP program.

As far as file management is concerned, I think Dreamweaver is better. That opinion may change though as I continue working with Expression. So far, Expression seems to be geared more for simply uploading, but is not as easy to download a file for editing and re-uploading.

The real difference though, to me, is in some of the tools. For example, the Preview system is absolutely amazing. You specify two browsers and a URL, and it renders the page using the appropriate parsers to get a fairly accurate picture of the differences between, for example, Firefox 3.5 and IE 6, and it allows you to explore each element of the page to locate exactly why the page is being rendered differently (click an element that displays incorrectly, and a little box pops up highlighting the differences). Honestly, I'd love to see this utility as a seperate tool.

There is a vast difference between FrontPage and Expression. Most, if not all, of the proprietary code is gone. Probably due to the various lawsuits, and the fact that FrontPage tanked as interoperability and cross platform support became development priorities, Expression seems to be aimed at building sites that are not dependent on Microsoft technology, including the ability to install a test server on the local machine that includes PHP and ASP support.

[kgun]

Originally Posted by wige

I
The real difference though, to me, is in some of the tools. For example, the Preview system is absolutely amazing. You specify two browsers and a URL, and it renders the page using the appropriate parsers to get a fairly accurate picture of the differences between, for example, Firefox 3.5 and IE 6, and it allows you to explore each element of the page to locate exactly why the page is being rendered differently (click an element that displays incorrectly, and a little box pops up highlighting the differences). Honestly, I'd love to see this utility as a seperate tool.

May be you know that you can choose different browsers to test your pages in with DreamWeaver? If not,

Look up:

testing browser

in help or more precisely:

Checking for browser compatibility

If you only use DreamWeaver as an editor and a Ftp program, you probably misuse or underuse it

What about inbuilt validators?

DreamWeaver is a full IDE.

Are the programs even comparable?

[fizi]

when i use dreamweaver i never feel it to compare with others. i sure it is perfect tool for me.

[wige]

Originally Posted by kgun

May be you know that you can choose different browsers to test your pages in with DreamWeaver? If not,

Look up:

testing browser

in help or more precisely:

Checking for browser compatibility

I have used the testing capabilities, where I can launch the page I am testing in more than one browser. However, Expression puts both browser images into a single pane and shows direct comparisons between a selected element. For example, if an element is positioned incorrectly in one browser, I can click that element and get a direct comparison with the other browser to see what style rule is being handled differently right in a tooltip.

If you only use DreamWeaver as an editor and a Ftp program, you probably misuse or underuse it

What about inbuilt validators?

DreamWeaver is a full IDE.

Oh, yes, I definitely underuse the application. For setting up simple sites, I do use more of the design view and the advanced features, but for most of the work I do (being more of a programmer than a designer) I end up having to work most in code view, so that is the area I am most familiar with.

With Frontpage, you couldn't even use design view unless you were uploading your site to a Microsoft server that had special software installed (Front Page Extensions) which turned a lot of developers off on the software. Even without that, WYSIWYG tends to add a degree of code bloat as automatically generated code is often less efficient, less well-described and harder to maintain than the human-coded equivalent. When I do use design view, I very frequently find myself going back over the code to streamline it anyway.

That being said, while the interface and implementation of Expression is different from Frontpage, I see it as being very close in functionality. Some of the tools are better, some are not quite as good (templates for example - not sure yet if they are even supported - and word wrap)

Are the programs even comparable?

The more I play with Expression, the more comparisons I see between them.

[Bell0]

I do not use anyone of them since CMS has covered in almost all my website development needs.