Even though we have closed our forums pending the migration to the new platform I wanted to remind people that we have a companion mail list over on Google at http://groups.google.com/group/by-expression-web-designer/ if you want to join the discussions there.

Instead of re-opening our forums we’ll be joining with other Expression Web MVPs and Expression Web experts in posting at and supporting those who post over at http://expressionwebforum.com

Lately on many of the groups I belong to for both Dreamweaver & Expression Web I’ve been seeing a lot of posts by people who don’t seem to understand the very basics of HTML. Web pages use HTML- HyperText Mark-up Language to structure their web pages. The most basic of HTML elements are headings, paragraphs, lists, tables images & forms. Other html elements that are, or should be in fairly common  use include address and code.

Every browser has a default presentation for each of these (and other elements not in the above list) so that if you are the web page creator has not provided any presentation there will still be an obvious structure.

To demonstrate this I’ve put together a couple of pages (I recommend right clicking on the following links to open them in a new window for viewing).

• A page with the html elements listed above minus form elements, images and table
• The same page with borders around each of the html elements

If you open the page with borders in multiple browsers you will be able to see some of the differences between browser defaults pretty clearly. For example if you view the borders page in IE 8 you will see:

Notice that the background color on the html element was set to a spring green which you see because the body element (pale yellow) uses margin to add space between it and the sides of the browser.  This is the most common way of adding space but the amount of margin and padding can vary from one browser to another which may not be noticeable when viewed even side by side.

For example using SuperPreview I overlay IE 8 on Win 7 and Safari on the Mac

Next in SuperPreview I overlay IE 8 on Win 7 and Safari on the Mac you can see differences  when you look at the browser side by side with borders.

On a page as simple as the ones used in this article the variations between browsers is not likely to be significant but when you start really designing a site with many graphical elements unless you understand the browser defaults and how to change them so that the display is consistent across all the major browsers your page could break quite badly. Image what a page with dropdown and a more complex layout design would look like if the elements were not in the same relative positions between one browser and another. In the following SuperPreview capture you will see a page that uses CSS to give a consistent cross browser display that is as close to pixel perfect between IE 8 & Safari 4 on the Mac as you are likely to see without any of the display differences shown in the overlay above that uses browser defaults.

You can test out the above page yourself at http://wise-clips.com/camping/index.html which will eventually be available in a more advanced tutorial on this site.

Testing Tools

While I used SuperPreview for Expression Web 4 in creating this blog post there are other alternatives available for you to test cross browser.  To compare IE 6 with later versions of IE you can use the free SuperPreview for Internet Explorer but that will not get you the capability of comparing with any non-IE browser. If you have Dreamweaver CS 5 you can launch BrowserLab directly in your program as I did using Expression Web 4’s SuperPreview. If you are using an older version of Dreamweaver or some other editor you can sign up for the online version of BrowserLab

Here are a few things you might want to do when you migrate from Expression Web 3 to Expression Web 4.

1. Expression Web 4 Add-in Friendly In this month’s just released Newsletter has an article by Mike Lissick, Senior Software Development Engineer on the Expression Web team on the new JavaScript add-in model for Expression Web 4.
2. How to Install Add-ins Go to Tools > Add-ins then click the install button and browse to the folder where you have the .xadd file. 
3. Migrate existing file definitions To fully migrate your sites from version 3 to version 4 you would need to copy just the:%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Expression\Web 3\SiteDatadirectory to the equivalent Web 4 location. From Paul Bartholomew
4. Expression Web fails to load - Kapersky Internet Security 2010 Expression Web apparently has hooks into Internet Explorer, possibly to allow for Preview in Browser & SuperPreview to function. Unchecking “block dangerious scripts in Microsoft Internet Explorer” seems to resolve the issue according to this thread in the EW Forum UPDATE: Apparently this is a variation of a known Kapersky issue that has surfaced with other programs as well. There are a couple of other workarounds in the thread that have worked for others without completely disabling some of the protection.
5. SuperPreviewIf you find an inaccurate rendering or encounter any other problem with SuperPreview rendering send a bug report including the url & browser where the rendering problem is occuring to superbug@microsoft.com

I know that I’m running a little late with this post since the launch was hours ago but I have been on the road the last couple of days with limited internet connections outside of my iPhone. Typing a review on my iPhone just isn’t going to happen and I didn’t get a chance to write one up before leaving my office so hopefully this will be worth the wait.

What’s new?

In the order of what makes me happiest about this new release:

1. A new extensibility model, you no longer have to use Visual Studio to create add-ins for Expression Web. You can now make add-ins with html, css, javascript and a manifest file (xml). This is going to really expand the ability for more people to make add-ins for Expression Web. Since this is a model similar to those used by Dreamweaver extension makers hopefully this will cause more of the to make add-ins for Expression Web. WebAssist has already announced their re-entry into the Expression Web add-ins market place with the return of PayPal and Eric Meyer’s Site Sculpture add-ins (coming later this summer), and new PHP add-ins not available before. They are offering significant discounts of up to 50% off their new extensions. Anna Ulrick has an article on how to create add-ins for Expression Web 4 at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/xweb/archive/2010/06/07/easily-create-an-add-in-for-expression-web-4-with-the-add-in-builder.aspx
2. SuperPreview Remote, you will now be able to view what your site looks like on a Mac running Safari without having to purchase a Mac. DOM syntax highlighting was added.
3. Limited toolbar customization, you won’t be able to customize the existing toolbars but you will be able to create your own “Favorites” toolbar. (Add in to create it coming soon per Paul Bartholomew who provided this screenshot in this Expression Web Forum thread.
4. SEO Reports, I tend to be a believer in organic search engine optimization (SEO) and rely on content and incoming links but there are new tools in Expression Web to help you with search engine optimization. Choose SEO options, display an SEO report, filter the results in the SEO report, and step forward and back through the list of results in the SEO report to see more detail for individual list items.
5. Changes to publishing, check Paul’s response in this thread on publishing issues which discusses the new changes including the addition of new menu items/keyboard shortcuts for publishing on the Site menu for current file, changed files & all files.

Bug fixes, I wish there were more but overall I’ve found Expression Web v4 to be a little faster and fewer bugs. There are still some issues with slow updating on pages with lots of hyperlinks & tables but they haven’t affected me so I can’t say whether every instance of those bugs have been fixed or not. It would appear not from the thread I referenced in item 3 above.

Should You Upgrade?

If you have Expression Web 3 upgrading is a no-brainer since the upgrade is free. If you have an older version, I’d upgrade as well. If you have add-ins that work only in a specific older version of Expression Web keep it installed side by side so you can still use your existing add-ins.

Any Reason Not to Upgrade?

There is a change to the licensing terms of Expression Web 4 and the rest of the Expression Studio. In the previous versions you could install the application on as many computers as you personally used since it was licensed per user. The license terms have changed and it is now licensed like most other Microsoft applications. You can install on on one computer and maybe a second portable computer but I’m not 100% certain about that. I’m trying to get some clarification on how you would deactivate on a computer you have already activated your copy on so that you can transfer it to say a new computer. I’m particularly interested in this information since I am hoping to get a new computer in the next month or so.

I rarely join social media groups and until today had only joined linked in groups. Today I made an exception and joined the faceable group in this post's title http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=113492765344092.

Today's announcement on how apps must be developed flabbergasted me. could you image the reaction if Microsoft did the same thing?

Ironic isn't of that so many of the Mac/Apple fanatics stated using Apple computers because of Adobe Photoshop and other Creative Suite applications?

While I've never been a big Apple fan I have and still do own Macs. Some of their devices like iPods and iPhones I have been very happy with but that is about to change and doubt I will be buying any new Apple device in the future.

I was not happy with the inclusion and heavy promotion of iAds in yesterday's iPhone OS announcement. After all I pay AT&T for bandwidth and purchase apps. Getting an ad every 3 minutes wastes my time & bandwidth. Neither Apple nor the app makers are paying my mouthy charges nor have they offered to pay for over bandwidth charges.

Seems the folks who have been saying Apple wants to destroy the open web may well have been right. http://www.chausse.org/2010/01/how-apple-will-destroy-the-web/

Fortunately, when I was at the Microsoft MVP Summit last month I had a dance to play with the new Windows 7 phones and was very impressed. Audible books now play properly which along with mobile Safari is what motivated my switch  to an iPhone. The new mobile browser supports Flash & Silverlight and is light years ahead of the last Windows Mobile phone I had plus it is sexy, thinner than my iPhone and brilliant screen graphics. Oh and it isn't tied to AT&T. Once my kids find out by can play their xBox games on it I can hear the begging begin. ;-)