Expression Web Tips » Expression Web Tips

Universal comment/uncomment

Patricia Geary — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 16:00:09 +0000

Quite often as you are working on your website, you need a quick way to comment and uncommnent your code as you test various code combinations. Expression Web 4 with SP2 gives you a new feature – Universal comment/uncomment. Highlight the line or lines of code you wish to comment or uncomment and use Ctrl + J to add the correct commenting syntax for the language you are currently working with be it PHP, JS, CSS, HTML. To uncomment the code, use Ctrl + Shift + J.

Expression Web Community Toolbar updated

Patricia Geary — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:46:17 +0000

Do you hate to spend your time searching the web for sites with information, tutorials, and such on Expression Web? Do you find the sites, then forget to bookmark them? Wouldn’t you rather spend your time working on your site than hunting for the tutorials and resources you need to get the job done?

Then our Free Expression Web Community Toolbar is just the tool you need! It’s updated frequently and the new links are added at the top of the various categories. Look for “NEW LINKS – LOOK HERE FIRST” with a date for the newest offerings. The Expression Web Community Toolbar is brought to you by Pat Geary and Tina Clarke of Migrating from FrontPage to Expression Web. Both Pat and Tina are Microsoft MVP’s for Expression Web.

Updated: 6th February, 2011 Expression Web and Web Design Links

The toolbar includes all of the Expression Web versions 1, 2, 3 and 4 as well as the Expression applications.

Expression Design
Expression Blend
Expression Encoder

It also includes links for Contests, Giveaways, and special offers for Expression Web 3.0 and 4.0. Want to know what Expression Web Communities, Webcasts and Live Events might be available? Those are included too.

The toolbar would not be complete without resources for Web Design in general and you can find that information too.

Let Tina and Pat let their “fingers do the walking for you” while you spend your time working on your site, and of course, reading all the good information posted on the toolbar. The toolbar is free so download and install you Free Expression Web Community Toolbar today.

Expression Web Community Toolbar

Click on the thumbnail for a larger image of the current toolbar.

Bookmarks and Hyperlinks

Patricia Geary — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 13:51:28 +0000

“When inserting a bookmark using Expression Web, how can I keep it from looking and acting like a hyperlink?” was a recent question I was asked. When inserting a bookmark using Expression Web, most folks will highlight a word or series of words and insert the bookmark. The resulting code will look like this:

Site Map page

The above code will act like a hyperlinked line of text, taking on the formatting specified in your style sheet. If instead of highlighting the text Site Map, you insert the bookmark BEFORE Site Map, the bookmark will NOT act like a hyperlink but you can still link to it. Your code would then look like this:

Site Map page

Simple solution.

Migrate Existing File Definitions to Expression Web 4

Patricia Geary — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 12:17:22 +0000

Each time I install a new version of Expression Web, I always have to re-enter all of the publishing information for each site. Wouldn’t it be nice if I could just copy them for one version to another. Now you can migrate existing file definitions from version 3 to version 4. You will need to copy the SiteData directory (or just certain folders from that directory)

C:\Users\UserName\APPDATA\Microsoft\Expression\Web 3\SiteData

to the equivalent Web 4 location which for me is

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Expression\Web 4\SiteData

I just copied the folder for one of my Expression Web 3 sites that I had not yet set up in Expression Web 4 and it works perfectly. Quite a time saver!

Setting Language Options for UK Spelling

Patricia Geary — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 12:15:31 +0000

In Expression Web 4.0, if you need to change the options for spelling to cover UK spellings, you will need to make the change in two places:

Tools > Page Editor Options > General tab – Spelling:- Set Spelling language from the drop-down

and

Tools > Spelling Options > Custom Dictionaries > Set this to English (UK) as well from the drop-down.

What are all those _vti folders for?

Patricia Geary — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:23:35 +0000

The question comes up quite often on both the Expression Web and FrontPage lists as to “What are all those _vti folders for? Can I just delete them? ” A fellow MVP, Minal Agarwal, on her Saffron Stroke blog has just posted an article on Add or remove metadata in Expression Web where she answers just that question.

Microsoft Expression Web requires metadata to maintain a whole bunch of cross-page dependencies features like hyperlinks, DWTs and some site reports.

Metadata is stored in hidden folders. This prevents them from any unintentional modification, deletion or any such action on the metadata. There are two types of folders:

a. _vti_cnf folders – stores information about all the files such as the links in the file.
b. _vti_pvt folders – stores configuration information for the site.

Minal answers the questions:

What is metadata and what does it store?
Where is metadata required?
How do I configure Expression Web to use metadata?

Have you ever renamed files or folders from within Expression Web? Have you moved pages and images from one location to another? If so, these operations depend on the metadata associations. So before you go deleting those _vti folders, remember they DO serve a purpose.

So head on over to the Saffron Stroke blog and read Add or remove metadata in Expression Web.

Double CSS Style rules

Patricia Geary — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:14:53 +0000

Normally, I edit my external style sheet working directly within the style sheet and take advantage of Intellisense. Today I was using the Modify Styles Task Panel to make some changes and noticed that the edited styles was not quite as I expected.

Original style -

#leftColumn1 { padding: 10px 10px 10px 10px; background-color: #eaeff5; float: left; border-right: solid 1px #9bb6d2; width: 150px; }

After using the modify Styles Task Panel, I ended up with this:

#leftColumn1 { padding: 10px 10px 10px 10px; background-color: #eaeff5; float: left; border-right: solid 1px #9bb6d2; width: 150px; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: #9bb6d2; border-bottom-color: #9bb6d2;

I now have double styles for the right border – one in shorthand one not – and a bottom border set of rules which is not in shorthand.

Since this is not what I wanted or expected, I went it search of an answer. Chris Leeds led me to this What’s the deal with multiple background properties in a double nested list in the CSS Properties task pane?

Following his instructions, I can use the CSS Properties Task Panel (expanded) to accomplish the style rules written in shorthand OR edit the style sheet itself which for me is easier.

#leftColumn1 { padding: 10px 10px 10px 10px; background-color: #eaeff5; float: left; border-right: solid 1px #9bb6d2; border-bottom: solid 1px #9bb6d2; width: 150px; }

Chris Leeds is the author of the series of books on Expression Web

Expression Web Step by Step (Microsoft Press)
Expression Web 2 Step by Step (Microsoft Press)

He is also the developer of ContentSeed, a content management system.

Close All Pages

Patricia Geary — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 16:37:53 +0000

Many of us work with more than one page open in Expression Web and it can be tedious to close each of those pages one at a time. All versions of Expression Web include ‘Save All‘ under the File Menu, Wouldn’t it be nice if ‘Close All Pages‘ was also located there instead of the default location under the Windows menu?

Never fear, Tina Clarke has come to the rescue with her Close All Pages – Close All Pages Command tip. If you are still using Expression Web version 1 or 2, you can use this tip. If you are using EW 3.o, you can still find ‘Close All Page‘ under your Windows menu.

Website Testing

Patricia Geary — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:40:56 +0000

Whether you author a blog, own a website, are a web designer or are a web developer website testing is a must. This testing goes beyond initial testing when the blog or website is launched, it needs to be an on going maintenance task. ~ Web Page Mistakes with Solutions ~

Static HTML Website Testing

The above holds true for those who design and maintain hobby sites as well. If you have a static website, your site does not have to be on the server for you to test it in various browsers as well as at various resolutions. If you are using Expression Web and working in Design View, make sure you use the Preview in Browser (F12) feature. Don’t just check you site in your default browser. I check in three, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera. If you are using Expression Web 3.0, you have another option – SuperPreview.

Web Space Website Testing

Another way to test your site is to create a test area on your server space. It could be a subdomain you create or a folder/directory on your current site. Rather than password protecting the subdomain or directory, I use the robots.txt file to keep the search engines from indexing the site before I am ready for it to go live. Make sure you change this after the site is live.

Website Testing As the Website/Blog is Built

As you develop your site, there are things that should be tested as you work. They include:

HTML Code Validation
CSS Code Validation
Screen Resolution
Alt Attribute
Correct Color Contrast
Font Size
Uncommon Font(s)
Text Alignment
Heading Hierarchy
Browser Specific Design
Custom Error Pages
Website Navigation
Search Engine Friendly Design

Read the full article Website Testing and make this a regular part of the web design process.

Expression Web Installation Problems

Patricia Geary — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:51:13 +0000

Originally posted on the Microsoft Expression Forum. Posted with Permission.

If you are unable to complete the installation of Expression Web, Microsoft would like to assist. First, please review the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles for help with specific error messages.

“Error -2147024873 during Expression Studio 2 or Expression Web 2 install”
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;967727

“Expression Web 2 install/uninstall fails with error 30054”
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;971612

“Error: Installation of the “Microsoft Expression Web 2″ product has reported the following error: 1923”
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;959574

Also, this helpful blog from the Expression Web Support Team:
“Known causes for Expression Web 2 installation crashes”
http://blogs.msdn.com/xwebsupport/archive/2009/04/21/known-causes-for-expression-web-2-installation-crashes.aspx

If the information above does not resolve your problem, please contact Microsoft’s Expression Web Install Support via email (ewinstal@microsoft.com), and please include the following information:

First and Last Name
Phone Number
Email Address
Expression Web version
Windows version
Error Message and/or brief problem description

Microsoft will contact you via email within one business day from your submission.