Expression Web Tips

Two New Expression Web Site Templates

Patricia Geary — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 20:45:59 +0000

We’re pleased to bring you two new templates for your web design needs. Both of the templates are offered FREE as Web Packages. Each contains the DWT (Dynamic Web Template) and external style sheet as well as images, and a series of pages for a small web site. You are free to rename the pages and/or create additional pages you might need. Both are two equal height columns at a fixed width of 1024x 768 resolution. The templates use a CSS based layout with no tables.

Daffodil Garden Site Template

Dandelion Meadow Site Template

Both the style sheet and the DWT are heavily commented. If you have questions, please feel free to use the Contact Form on the Expression Web Tutorials and Templates site. You can download either or both of the web packages from Expression Web Tutorials and Templates.

ENJOY!

New Fix for Licensing and Activation Issues with Expression Web 4

Patricia Geary — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:18:30 +0000

Microsoft has just released a fix for licensing and activation issues that crop up with Expression Web 4. Some of the symptoms of licensing and/or activation issues may include:

Expression Web 4 reverts to trial mode.
You receive a message that states that the product key is invalid.
The product key is not accepted during the Expression Web 4 installation process.
You receive a message that states that Expression Web 4 was already activated with the product key.

If you are experiencing any problems such as this, the fix Microsoft has released should resolve the issue. For additional details and to download the fix go to:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-US;2635101

To download the fix, click the “View and request hotfix downloads” hyperlink at the beginning of the article. You will first have to accept the Terms & Conditions BEFORE being directed to the download page.

Download link.

This fix is only for Expression Web 4. If you are encounter a licensing or activation issue with another Expression Studio product, you will need to open a support case with Microsoft to get that issue resolved. To open a support ticket with Microsoft see Forum FAQ and Guidelines – Start Here and scroll down to the 3rd bold-faced item which states, in part:

If you are having a problem with Expression Web activation or if the product will not accept your product key, you may have a corrupt license store. That problem often cannot be resolved without the assistance of Microsoft Consumer Technical Support. For these issues, you can open a case with us using the steps outlined above. There will be no charge for these cases. Using any other method to contact Microsoft will not get you to the right group. Please contact us using the method outlined above.

If you download the patch and you receive an error that Web_en.msi could not be located, please download the “FullFile” version of the fix and install it on top of your existing installation. This will upgrade your existing installation of Expression Web 4 to SP2a which includes the fix. See the download link listed above.

Content First Expression Web Site Templates

Patricia Geary — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:51:12 +0000

Pat Geary and Tina Clarke first brought you a series of twelve Expression Web Site Templates that you could add to your Expression Web program and have them available for your design projects. Next, they brought you a series of five Equal Height Site Templates that you could use in the same way. Now the two Expression Web MVP’s add a series of seven Content First Equal Height Site Templates FREE to the Expression Web Community.

Expression Web COntent First Site Templates

Put Your Most Important Content First

When you are building your website, it is important to optimize each page for the search engines. PART of that process is putting the important content first on the page. Each of the templates in this series does just that. The html code presents your main content first, then the side navigation, the footer, with the masthead and top navigation last in the code. By using floats and positioning, you masthead and top navigation display at the top of your page. Take some time to explore the site templates as well as some of the example sites created with them.

Site Template Layouts

The site templates are available as four different layouts:

one column with top navigation, header, and footer
two column with right sidebar, top navigation, header, and footer
two column with left sidebar, top navigation, header, and footer
three column with left and right sidebar, top navigation, header, and footer

With the exception of the three column layout, each of the others is available as a fluid width and a fixed width to 1024px. The three columns layout is available only as a fixed wdth to 1024 px wide. Each of the templates makes use of a background image to achieve the equal column look of the layout.

Each of the site template packages include the main pages for a small site including:

Home Page
About Page
Contact Us Page
Resource Page
Search Page (includes Google search box)
Site Map Page
Privacy Policy Page
Dynamic Web Template
External style sheet and all supporting images needed

You can rename the pages and create new pages using the DWT.

Problems Encountered

Because of some bugs in Expression Web 4, there are some display issues working in Design View with some of the templates. Each of the problems is explained and workarounds are offered. For this reason, the Content First Site Templates are for intermediate to advanced users of Expression Web.

Download the Templates

These Site Template are FREE and a gift to the Expression Web community. They will work with all versions of Expression Web. You may download them as either a web package that can be imported into Expression Web OR zipped files. Visit Content First Expression Web Site Templates to download any or all of the templates offered. You will find also find Instructions for Working with the Content FIrst Site Templates.

If you encounter problems working with the site templates, please let us know.Once you have download one of the Content First layouts and tweaked it with your own colors and graphics, send us the link to your site so we can include it as an example of what can be done with the layouts. ENJOY!

Expression Web Tutorials & Templates – A New Look

Patricia Geary — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 17:48:29 +0000

Tina Clarke and I have been working on a new set of templates to be available soon FREE to the Expression Web Community. As part of the testing process, I decided to use one of the new layouts to redo my main site, Expression Web Tutorials & Templates. I retained the spider web and the black and white color scheme, but made some changes. Can you tell what they are by looking at the source code?

Expression Web Tutorials & Templates new look.

Stop by soon for a visit! You can download a FREE ebook, Expression Web 4 Tutorials – From Install to Publish and More and choose one of the many Dynamic Web Templates to use on one of your sites. There are many tutorials on using Expression Web and lots of links and resources for Newbies to the program.

Watch for news on our latest project from Migrating from FrontPage to Expression Web!

Migrating from FrontPage to Expression Web EBook – REVISED

Patricia Geary — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 18:12:55 +0000

Migrating from FrontPage to Expression Web v4.0.2

Just released Migrating from FrontPage to Expression Web version 4.0.2. at the incredibly low price of $20.00. Regular price ~~$32.00~~.

Now that Service Pack 1 and 2 have been released for Expression Web 4, Tina and I decided the time had come to revise and update our Migrating from FrontPage to Expression Web EBook. We put the old EBook on sale for $20. and advised you to be on the lookout for the new one. And, as always, once you have purchased the EBook, you are entitled to FREE lifetime updates. The time has come, the newly revised EBook is ready! With updated and new content, bundles of Expression Web queries for you to use in the cleanup process and brand new template packages, what better time to take that old FrontPage site and bring it up to today’s web standards code. And if you don’t already own Expression Web, you can download a sixty day free trial from the Microsoft site. Make sure you also download Service Pack 2.

This EBook covers:

Preparation

Installing EW
Backing up

Cleanup Preparations

Making CU Toolbar
Making Queries

Removal Preparations

Redundant graphics
Save Navigation
Remove Themes…
DL Web Package
Preserve Regions
Insert DocType
Remove bots

Pages Preparation

Import Web Package
Use Cleanup Toolbar
- Compatibility
- Clean Tables
- Tables2Clipboard
- Accessible Tables
- Apply XHTML
Replace Bots
Compatibility Reports
Accessibility Reports
CSS Reports
Add Semantic Markup
- Heading Tags
Add Meta Tags
Preview in browser
Validation
Run Queries

Revising Pages

Navigation
- Accessible Navigation
- Make Include Pages
- Insert Include Pages
Forms
Robots File
About DWTs
- Attach DWTs
Use Site Summary
SuperPreview
SuperPreview Online Service
Snapshot

What else do you get apart from the ebook?

The ebook includes all of the lessons in the book PLUS a series of Expression Web Queries bundled together in packages PLUS a total of fourteen web template packages you can choose from for use with your sites. All that for only $20.00 until September 31st.

What better time than now to start migrating your old FrontPage site to a more standards compliant site.

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.

Migrating from FrontPage to Expression Web EBook – SALE

Patricia Geary — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:00:19 +0000

Major Revision Sale - The Migrating from FrontPage to Expression Web EBook is in the process of a major revision with new material and updates to include the changes for the recently released Expression Web 4.0 SP1 and SP2. We are offering the current version for the lowest price ever! This is a not to be missed offer at $20.00 which is a discount of $9.00 from the regular price.

Purchasing the book now entitles you to life-time updates (as it always has) which includes the major revision once it is released. The revised edition will include new tutorials as well as three new templates. A new collection of Expression Web queries will also be included in the revised edition.

If you are ready to move your old outdated website to a new standards based one, now is the time to get started. You can download a 60 day trial version of Expression Web 4.0 and begin to bring your site up to current web standards. If you currently have a retail version of Expression Web 3.0 and you have not yet done so, you are entitled to a FREE upgrade to version 4.0. Only the retail versions qualify for the free upgrade.

BUY Migrating from FrontPage to Expression Web EBook for the lowest price ever $20.

Summer Flowers Site Template for Expression Web

Patricia Geary — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 00:45:52 +0000

The Summer Flowers Template is the latest offering from Expression Web Tutorials & Templates. It is a fixed width (800px) one column template that makes use of a rotating slide show for the masthead. The slide show was created using the latest Expression Web add-in from Ajatix, the Banner/Image Rotator. This template package will work in all versions of Expression Web as well as FrontPage 2003 and Sharepoint Designer 2007.

Screenshot Summer Flower Template

The Summer Flowers template package may be downloaded from Expression Web Tutorials and Templates along with instructions for its use. You must have the Banner/Image Rotator Add-in for Expression Web if you want to make changes to the banner images or you can substitute a single graphic image for the masthead background. Enjoy!

Expression Web 4 Tutorials 2nd Edition – from Install to Publish and More

Patricia Geary — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 18:43:31 +0000

REVISED JULY 27, 2011 to include changes and new features available with the release of Service Pack 1 & 2 for Expression Web 4.0.

My free EBook Expression Web 4 Tutorials 2nd Edition from Install to Publish and More has just been revised and updated with new content.It is available for download as a zipped pdf file. The EBook is a great resource for beginners and newbies to Expression Web 4.0

About the Author – Pat Geary
Expression Web 4.0
- What’s New
- Which Version Should I Get?
- Additional Resources
- Expression Web 4 Books and Videos NEW
- Service Packs for Expression Web NEW
  - Expression Web 4 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
  - Expression Web 4 Service Pack 2 (SP2)
- User Interface – Changes to the User Interface
  - Site management
  - Task Panes now Panels
  - Include Page Option
  - Snapshot Panel
    - To activate Snapshot
    - SlapShot
  - SuperPreview
    - SuperPreview Resources NEW
- Installing Expression Studio 4
  - Licensing
  - Download Links
  - Installation
  - Activating Expression Studio
  - Installation and Activation Help NEW
- Setting Up Expression Web 4.0
  - HTML Declaration
    - To add or change the DocType declaration in an existing page
  - HTML 5 doctype and Intellisense NEW
    - Using the HTML5 Schema Configuration Add-In NEW
  - Tools > Page Editor Options > General Tab
    - Spelling
    - Cut and Paste Options
    - Code View Options
  - Tools > Page Editor Options > Code Formatting Tab
  - Tools > Page Editor Options > CSS Tab
    - Only reuse classes with the prefix style’ option
  - Tools > Page Editor Options > Authoring Tab
    - For New Documents:
    - EW 3.0 and 4.0 .htm bug
    - EW 4.0 .htm bug
    - Doctype and Secondary Schema
    - CSS Schema
  - Tools > Page Editor Options > Intellisense Tab
- Create New Website in Expression Web 4.0
  - Create a One Page Website
- Create a Blank Web Page
  - Create a Blank Web Page
  - Saving the Page
  - Create an External Style Sheet (CSS)
  - Attach the External Style Sheet to the Page
  - Summary
- Create a Webpage Layout in Expression Web
  - What is a
    tag?
  - Create the Layout
    - Style the tag
    - Add the Container
    - Add the masthead and style rules
    - Add the Top Navigation and style rules
    - Add and style the Columns
    - Add and style the Footer
  - Adding Meta Tags
  - Summary
- Adding Horizontal Top Navigation to Webpage Layout
  - Add and style the top menu
    - Create the menu list
    - To create or modify a hyperlink
    - Adding styles to the menu
  - Converting Your Menus to Include Pages
    - Creating the include page NEW
  - Navigation Resources
  - CSS Menu Resources
- Adding Vertical Navigation to Webpage Layout
  - Add and style the left side menu
    - Create the menu list
    - To create or modify a hyperlink
    - Adding styles to the menu
  - Converting Your Menus to Include Pages
  - Navigation Resources
  - CSS Menu Resources
- Validating Your Pages
  - Compatibility Checker on Status Bar
  - Status Bar
    - Compatibility Checker for Incompatible HTML
    - Invalid HTML Code
  - Additional Resources on Validation
- Creating Your Dynamic Web Template
  - What is a Dynamic Web Template?
  - Why it’s a good idea to use a DWT?
  - Creating a Dynamic Web Template – DWT
- What Is Search Engine Optimization – SEO? NEW SECTION
  - How Does Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Work?
  - Basic Search Engine Optimization Techniques
    - Page Titles
    - Meta Tag for description
    - Meta Tag for keywords
    - File Names
    - Heading Tags
    - Alt Attribute
    - Title Attribute
  - Content
  - Summary
- Using the Expression Web SEO Checker and Report NEW SECTION
  - What does the SEO Checker do?
  - What the SEO Checker Does Not Do
  - To generate an SEO report
    - To apply a filter to an SEO report
    - To remove a filter from an SEO report
    - Understanding the SEO Report
    - SEO panel buttons
  - Problems Details and Fixes SEO Reports
    - The anchor text contains values that provide no search benefit
    - The description for the page is missing
    - Hyperlinks that point to a directory should end in a slash (/)
    - The tag contents are too short
    - The tag contents are not unique within the site</li> <li>The or <area> tag does not have an ‘alt’ attribute with text</li> <li>The <noscript> tag is missing</li> <li>This page contains no <h1> tag</li> </ul> </li> <li>Summary</li> <li>Additional SEO Resources</li> </ul> </li> <li>Working with Images in Expression Web <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">NEW SECTION</span></strong> <ul> <li>Importing Your Images</li> <li>Inserting Images into a Web Page <ul> <li>About the Picture Properties Dialog Box</li> </ul> </li> <li>Using Auto thumbnail <ul> <li>Check doctype declaration</li> <li>Set the Default Properties for thumbnails</li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li>Working with Hyperlinks <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">NEW SECTION</span></strong> <ul> <li>Anchor Tags</li> <li>Bookmarks or Named Anchors (HTML anchors) <ul> <li>Add or Remove a Bookmark in Expression Web</li> <li>To create a bookmark</li> <li>To remove a bookmark</li> </ul> </li> <li>HTML Links – the target Attribute</li> <li>Picture hyperlinks</li> <li>To Create or modify a hyperlink</li> <li>Useful Tips</li> <li>Additional Resources</li> <li>Changing the Appearance of Hyperlinks <ul> <li>Hyperlink states</li> <li>CSS Pseudo-classes</li> <li>To change the appearance of hyperlinks</li> <li>Multiple Link Styles</li> </ul> </li> <li>Best Practices in Styling Hyperlinks</li> <li>Additional Resources</li> </ul> </li> <li>Publishing Your Web Site <ul> <li>To mark files that you do not want to publish</li> <li>Publish Current File</li> <li>Migrate Existing File Definitions to Expression Web</li> <li>Publishing Your Website</li> </ul> </li> <li>How to back up your local website on your hard drive <ul> <li>Back up your website using Expression Web 4.0</li> </ul> </li> <li>Create and Style a Data Table <ul> <li>Create the Table</li> <li>Style an Already Created Data Table</li> <li>Points to Remember in Working with Tables</li> </ul> </li> <li>Table2Clipboard and Expression Web <ul> <li>Downloading and Installing Table2Clipboard</li> <li>Setting Table2Clipboard Options <ul> <li>Filter Attributes</li> </ul> </li> <li>Using Table2Clipboard</li> </ul> </li> <li>Expression Web 4.0 Add-ins <ul> <li>What is an Expression Web Add-in?</li> <li>How to install Add-ins?</li> <li>Expression Web Free Add-ins</li> <li>Expression Web Commercial Add-ins</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p>The FREE EBook is available for download as a self-extracting zipped pdf file from the <a href="http://gallery.expression.microsoft.com/ew4TutorialsEbook">Microsoft Gallery</a>.<br /> You can also download <a title="Expression Web 4 Tutorials 2nd Edition." href="http://www.expression-web-tutorials.com/ew4-tutorials-ebook.html">Expression Web 4 Tutorials 2nd Edition</a> – from Install to Publish and More as a zipped pdf file directly from Expression Web Tutorials and Templates.</li> </ul> </article> <article> <h1>New Site Templates by Cheryl Wise for Expression Web</h1> <p>Patricia Geary — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:41:18 +0000</p> <p>Cheryl Wise, owner of by-expression.com and a frequent contributor to the <a title="Expression Web and SuperPreview Forum." href="http://social.expression.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/web/threads">Expression Web and SuperPreview Forum</a>, has added three new site templates for your use with Expression Web. They are:</p> <p><strong>Boy Scouts USA</strong></p> <div id="attachment_1014" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 254px"><a href="http://by-expression.com/samples/boy-scouts/index.html"></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Boy Scouts Site Template</p></div> <p><strong>Camp Escalante</strong></p> <div id="attachment_1015" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 254px"><a href="http://by-expression.com/samples/camp/index.html"></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Camp Esclante Site Template</p></div> <p><strong>Blades of Glory</strong></p> <div id="attachment_1016" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 248px"><a href="http://by-expression.com/samples/blades/index.html"></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Blades of Glory Site Template</p></div> <p>You can read more about each of the template packages and download any or all of the above templates from<a href="http://by-expression.com/post/2011/07/25/New-Site-Templates.aspx"> New Site Templates.</a> You can check out all of Cheryl’s <a href="http://by-expression.com/page/Templates.aspx">Templates</a>. I would also suggest you check out her <a href="http://by-expression.com/post/2009/09/22/Basic-Website-Tutorial.aspx">Basic Website Tutorial</a> which is her most popular tutorial that walks you through creating a website from images and a Word doc through a completed page layout and the creation of DWT for additional pages.</p> <p>The templates will work with all versions of Expression Web as well as FrontPage 2003 and Sharepoint Designer 2007.</p> </article> </main></body></html>