Expression Web Tips » Expression Web Addons

ProjectSeven and Expression Web

Patricia Geary — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:33:15 +0000

ProjectSeven has been a longtime provider of Dreamweaver Menus, CSS Templates, Widgets, Slide Shows, Tooltips, and More. None of these will work with Expression Web! Last night I was chatting with two friends, only one of whom uses DreamWeaver so she can take advantage of these helpful applications, and we decided to send an email to the folks at ProjectSeven to see if they would consider developing some or all of these for Expression Web. With the new extensibility model available with Expression Web 4, we hope they might be willing to consider this.

As a long time user of Eric Meyer’s CSS Sculptor for Expression Web which is no longer available and only works with the early versions of EW, I was particularly interested in CSS Page Builder Magic.

Enjoy equal height columns, round corners, shadows, the ability to customize the color of any element—without editing a single image!

The more I read about the program, the more I knew I WANTED it for Expression Web. The one program they do offer that does not require DreamWeaver is CSS Express Drop-Down Menus. This is one I have used quite often and recommend for those who may need a single level dropdown menu.

Visit the ProjectSeven site and take a look at all of the products they offer. Would you like to see them available for use with Expression Web? If after you have spent some time looking around and wishing as I did, take the time to write to the folks and see if they would be willing to develop some of those same extensions for Expression Web as they have for DreamWeaver. The email is support@projectseven.com.

Revised Add-Ins for SP2

Patricia Geary — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 18:45:52 +0000

The add-in model in Expression Web SP2 has changed slightly and Ian Haynes has released revisions for three of his Free add-ins for Expression Web 4. They may be downloaded from the Expression Gallery. If you have been using these add-ins and have installed Service Pack 2, you will need to remove them and install the newest version.

AddFeed allows you to easily add a Twitter or RSS feed on your site.
HTML5 Placeholder
WordPaste allows you to paste clean HTML from Microsoft Word™ documents.

Ian has also uploaded two collections of snippets for SP2

He has also updated his tutorial on using SP2 snippets. Check out all of Ian’s add-ins offered in the Expression Gallery.

WinPop add-in for Expression Web V4

Patricia Geary — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:54:11 +0000

Ian Haynes, the creator of a number of Expression Add-ins that have been mentioned here previously has just published a new one, WinPop add-in for Expression Web V4. WinPop creates ‘accessible pop-up windows’. Accessible means that they can be read by screen readers and continue to work if a user has JavaScript turned off. It has all the usual browser options for the pop-up windows and can create the pop-up link from text, existing links or images.

Once you have installed the add-in following these instructions How to Install Add-ins, you will see a new entry on the Insert menu which launches the add-in and there are brief help notes in the main Help menu.

Screnshot Insert Popup Window Menu Item.

How to use the WinPop add-in

From the Insert menu > select PopUp Window
Screenshot WinPop Dialog Screen
Fill in the Main Parameters which are mandatory:
Select the Options you wish to include with the popup window.
Click Insert.

You can then preview your page in your favorite browser, click the hyperlink and you will see the pop-up window you just created. The code you entered will contain the following target="xPopUp" which will NOT validate if you are using a Strict doctype statement but the pop-up window works perfectly. You can view a working example of the WinPop add-in in action on my genealogy site. Click on family history in the first paragraph, and a pop-up window will open to a Wikipedia article.

You can download WinPop from the Expression Web Gallery or directly from Ian’s site, EW Resources. Thanks Ian for another great ad-in for Expression Web 4.

You can download all of Ian’s Expression Web Add-ins from the Expression Web Gallery.

HTML 5 and Expression Web

Patricia Geary — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 01:22:05 +0000

*** IMPORTANT UPDATE ***

This Add-in is now superseded by Expression Web 4 SP1! Service Pack 1 adds many more features than just HTML 5 intellisense, including support for the CSS3 draft specification! If you’ve downloaded this HTML 5 Add-In the past, it’s no longer needed and can be be removed.

*************

If you wish to use the HTML 5 doctype in Expression Web AND have the Intellisense help for HTML 5 available, you will need to install the HTML5 Schema Configuration Add-In for Expression Web available for download in the Microsoft Expression Gallery. The HTML5 Schema Configuration Add-In for Expression Web enables the new HTML5 schema to check your markup for errors and provide IntelliSense for HTML5 tags, attributes and values in code view.

Download HTML5 Schema Configuration Add-In for Expression Web from the Gallery. Remember where you saved the file on your computer. Follow these instructions for Installing Expression Web 4 Add-ins.

If the add-in is correctly installed, it will appear in the Manage Add-In dialog, and the Standard toolbar will display a new “HTML5” button.

Manage Add-ins Dialog Box.

Standard Toobar with HTML5 button.

Using the HTML5 Schema Configuration Add-In

Before you can use the HTML5 Schema, you will need to configure it.

To do this you will need to restart Expression Web 4 with administrative privileges (Right-Click the EW4 program icon and select“Run as Administrator”).
Click the HTML5 button on the standard toolbar (pictured above). The Configure HTML 5 Schema dialog box allows you to enable or disable the new HTML5 schema.
Enable HTML5 Schema.
Click the Enable HTML 5 button to update the Expression Web HTML 5 schemas. Close the dialog box.
Restart Expression Web 4. Click the HTML5 button on the standard toolbar and you will see the schemas are now enabled.
HTML5 schema has been configured.
To change your page editor options choose Tools > Page Editor Options. On the Authoring tab, set both the Document Type Declaration option and Secondary Schema options to HTML5.
Page Editor Options for HTML5 schemas.

Once you have changed the Page Editor options Authoring tab to reflect the HTML5 schemas, whenever you create a new web page in Expression Web, the new page contains the HTML5 doctype which is:

Now, when you edit an HTML5 document in code view, Expression Web 4 now provides IntelliSense for HTML 5 elements, attributes and their values.

There are some known issues with the add-in which you can read about on the MSDN Blog post Add HTML5 support to Expression Web 4! and scroll down to “Known Issues.”

Custom Toolbar Add-in for Expression Web 4

Patricia Geary — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 13:31:31 +0000

Created by Anna Ullrich and posted to the Expression Web Gallery, the Custom Toolbar Add-in for Expression Web 4, allows you to create one or more toolbars that contain only the buttons you specify. This is NOT the same feature for customizing toolbars as was available in Expression Web 2.0. The only items you can add to the toolbar are those listed on the left hand side of the dialog box for creating the toolbar.

Perhaps you use only some of the buttons available on the eleven toolbars that come with Expression Web 4. Numerous open toolbars take up valuable space. Now you can pick and choose from the various buttons and commands available on the toolbars and create your own with just those buttons you use regularly.

Install the Custom Toolbars add-in for Expression Web 4

Before you start, close ALL instances of Expression Web 4 that are currently running.
Download the Custom Toolbars add-in from the Expression Gallery.
Double-click the CustomToolbars.msi file, and follow the onscreen instructions to install the add-in.
Screenshot Expression Web Custom Toolbar Add-in Install
Once the installation process has completed, restart Expression Web.
The Favorite Toolbar which is labeled Customize Toolbars will show below any of the default toolbars you have open in your work area. Because I had two commercial add-ins installed that had already created custom toolbars, mine displays beside one of them.
Screenshot Customize Toolbars.
Select View > Toolbars > Favorites to close this toolbar. NOTE: This ‘Favorites‘ toolbar that appears is known to be buggy if you try to customize it so Microsoft recommend closing it and creating a new custom toolbar from scratch.

Create a custom toolbar

Within Expression Web, click ‘Customize Toolbars‘ from the ‘Tools‘ menu
Screenshot Create Custom Toolbar dialog.
Click New > Enter a name for your new toolbar > Click OK.
Screenshot Create Custom Toolbar dialog box . Enter Name.
In the Customize dialog box, select the items you want to add to your toolbar from the column on the left, and click Add.
To change the order of items in your toolbar, select an item you want to move from the column on the right, and then click the up or down arrows.
When you are done editing your toolbar, click OK.

Screenshot Custom Toolbar Items.

Your custom toolbar now appears below any other toolbars you have open in Expression Web 4, with all of your favorite buttons ready to use. To show or hide your toolbar, select the toolbar’s name from the View > Toolbars menu.
Screenshot Custom Toolbar Created

NOTE: Something that may help make the process easier is once you have installed the add-in, close Expression Web and reboot your computer then create your toolbar. I had a number of problems trying to create my first toolbar on my laptop. Working with a fresh install of EW 4 on my desktop, I encountered no problems.

WordPaste Add-In for Expression Web V4

Patricia Geary — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 14:50:31 +0000

Ian Haynes has developed another Expression Web Add-in for version 4. His WordPaste Add-In for Expression Web V4 can be downloaded from the Microsoft Gallery. Once you install the add-in you will see three new icons on your standard toolbar.

WordPaste Add-in icons on Standard Toolbar.

Open your MS Word document and copy the content you want to paste into Expression Web. Place your cursor on the page where you want the new content to appear. Click the Paste from MS Word icon (middle one shown above).In the dialog box shown below, Paste your copied content.

Paste from Word dialog box.

Click the Insert button. NOTE: The large empty space in the above image shows where the graphic was in the Word document. The blank space is not there in the pasted content.

This add-in pastes the text and the basic HTML structure into your Word document. It will NOT paste any images that may have been part of the content.

Using the WordPaste add-in will give you a far better result than pasting via NotePad and and makes the job much easier.

The add-in has been tested with MS Word™ 2003, 2007 and 2010. For some notes and hints on using it, visit Ian’s site, EW Resource for information on the other Expression Web Add-ins Ian Haynes has developed.

Thanks Ian for this much needed add-in and for making Expression Web even better.

Download WordPaste Add-In for Expression Web V4
and give it a try, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Insert A Twitter Feed Add-in

Patricia Geary — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:24:47 +0000

Add a Twitterfeed

Do you want to display your own or someone else’s Twitter Feed on your site? The latest add-in from Ian Haynes, a MS MVP for Expression Web, will let you do just that. Download and install the add-in either from the Expression Gallery. Need help in Installing Expression Add-ins.

Once you have installed the add-in, a new menu item will appear on the Insert menu.

Insert A Twitter Feed dialog box

To insert a Twitter Feed into your page:

Open your page and place your cursor where you want the Twitter Feed to appear.
From the Insert menu, select Twitter Feed.
Type the Feed name.
Type the Feed width on page. This can be in pixels, ems’s or percentages.
Select if you want Tweet time to show. Tweet name? Tweet icon? The default for each of these is Yes.
Select the number of Tweets you want to show. The default is 12.
Select the Preview button and you will see the Preview of your Tweets.
Click Add to Page and the necessary code in added to your page. Save the Page and the embedded files.
You can then Preview your page in your favorite browser and see your Twitter Feed where you requested it be placed. No complicated code to write and your page should validate if the rest of the code is valid.
Publish your page and your Tweets will now be part of that page.

Twitter Feed on Web Page.

Thank you Ian. Great new tool and easy to use. Download Insert A Twitter Feed Add-in.

Visit Ian’s site Expression Web Resource.

Expression Web 4 Add-ins from Ajatix

Patricia Geary — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 13:30:43 +0000

Ajatix has updated three of their add-ins so they now work with Expression Web 4.0. The include:

These are commercial add-ins. I have personally used all of them and you can read more about them from Expression Web Add-ins.

You can see a sample of the CSS Menu on my free Ocean Template.

Review and Examples of Lightbox for Expression Web

Review and Example of Ajatix Expression Web CSS Menu Add-ins

All three Ajatix Add-ins for Expression Web are ON SALE thru August 20th.

FP Cleaner for Expression Web 4

Patricia Geary — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:28:46 +0000

Steve Easton has just posted his FP Cleaner Tool which has been updated to work with Expression Web 4.0. This tool has been a staple in my arsenal for a number of years now and is one I always recommend to others for helping to clear up problems that may occur while using the program.

FP Cleaner for Expression Web 4

FP Cleaner for Expression Web 4.
Expression Web 4 Cleanup Utility

FP Cleaner does not require installation and will run from the desktop. According to Steve, the program will run on any of the current Windows system. I am running it on a Windows Vista laptop and a Windows 7 desktop with no problems.

You can download FPCleaner from http://www.95isalive.com/fixes/ew4.htm

What Do the Buttons Do?

The top button ‘Restore Default Menus and Toolbars‘ is not available as the ability to customize the toolbars is not available in EW 4.
Change the ‘Last Web Open Setting‘ allows you to change that setting to ensure the program is not trying to open a web when it starts. This can be useful if you have EW is set to open the last web edited and that web has a problem.
‘Clear the Hidden Temporary Files‘ checks for the location of the hidden Temporary directory for the logged on User, if the directory exists, pressing this button clears it and moves the files to the Recycle Bin. Files left behind in these directories by an improper computer or program shut down will cause problems when trying to open, save, and/or edit pages on your web site.
‘Clear the Hidden Web Cache files (*.web)’ - There is a .web file for each of your webs and if these files become corrupted, you may encounter problems opening or closing your web. Clicking this button deletes these files and forces creation of new clean files when each web is opened or published.
‘Clear the Find/Replace MRU List‘ clears the Most Recently Used ( MRU ) list of Find/Replace entries
Clicking ‘Start‘ will Launch Expression Web 4.
Clicking ‘Close‘ closes FP Cleaner for Expression Web 4 without starting the program.
Clicking ‘Properties‘ opens the Windows file properties dialog for EWFPCleaner.exe.
Clicking ‘Info‘ displays the basic information text.

The Fp Cleaner for Expression Web 4 is, as it always has been FREE, and can be downloaded from http://www.95isalive.com/fixes/ew4.htm.

Thank you Steve.

FPCleaner for Expression Web 3.0

Patricia Geary — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:36:16 +0000

With the release of Service pak 1 for Expression Web 3.0, the ability to use addons is now back. All we need is for the developers to get them ready for us to use. One staple of my tools for FrontPage and Expression Web has been Steve Easton’s FP Cleaner. Steve has just released an updated version that works with EW 3.0 as a stand-along program.

FP Cleaner for Expression Web 3.
Expression Web 3 Cleanup Utility

FP Cleaner does not require installation and will run from the desktop. The program will run on any computer that runs Windows 95 and newer and with any operating system including Windows Vista and Windows 7. In other words, if your computer can run Expression Web, then it can run FPCleaner for EW.

You can download FPCleaner from http://www.95isalive.com/fixes/ew3.htm

What Do the Buttons Do?

The top button ‘Restore Default Menus and Toolbars‘ is not available as the ability to customize the toolbars is not available in EW 3.
Change the ‘Last Web Open Setting‘ allows you to change that setting to ensure the program is not trying to open a web when it starts. This can be useful if you have EW is set to open the last web edited and that web has a problem.
‘Clear the Hidden Temporary Files‘ checks for the location of the hidden Temporary directory for the logged on User, if the directory exists, pressing this button clears it and moves the files to the Recycle Bin. Files left behind in these directories by an improper computer or program shut down will cause problems when trying to open, save, and/or edit pages on your web site.
‘Clear the Hidden Web Cache files (*.web)’ - There is a .web file for each of your webs and if these files become corrupted, you may encounter problems opening or closing your web. Clicking this button deletes these files and forces creation of new clean files when each web is opened or published.
‘Clear the Find/Replace MRU List‘ clears the Most Recently Used ( MRU ) list of Find/Replace entries
Clicking ‘Start‘ will Launch Expression Web 3.
Clicking ‘Close‘ closes FP Cleaner for Expression Web 3 without starting the program.

This is one tool I could not be without. Thank you Steve for making it available. Did I mention it is F REE? Download it from http://www.95isalive.com/fixes/ew3.htm