MS Kills FrontPage (Replacement, Dreamweaver watch out!)

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 05 Jan 2007, 18:38

It seems Microsoft has finally realised FrontPage is considered (unfairly IMO) a joke and FrontPage 2003 will be the last version it took 9 years but as of 2006 it's no more:

"While Office 2007 includes many new features, one has been removed entirely: Microsoft FrontPage is no longer being developed; its successor is the Microsoft Expression line of products."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office_2007

It's been renamed with: Microsoft Expression Web. Which on the surface looks to just be FrontPage renamed (it's after all an HTML editor) but in fact it's actually 1 part of the 4 parts that make Microsoft Expression Studio (Studio is the tag name for all four, they're separate products):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Expression

Which looks like a pretty big package. In short Microsoft Office no longer has an HTML Editor.

p.s - On another note here is an interesting article comparing Microsoft Expression Web 2007 with Adobe Dreamweaver 8.0:

"And, let's be clear on this, Expression Web Designer ain't no pretty version of FrontPage; it is a tool that poses a serious threat to Adobe's dominance in the Web market."

http://mediadesigner.digitalmedianet.co ... p?id=43025

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 05 Jan 2007, 18:41

Expressions Web btw is released at the end of January and reading reviews it looks bloody good. The first real attempt MS has done at competing with Dreamweaver.

It also retains a "bit" of the FP feel so if you've used it you'll be right at home. The big downside is it's Windows only, which is big when you consider the Web is universal.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 05 Jan 2007, 19:13

Hmmm.. interesting news. However, will it work OK on XP, or will you be needing VISTA? Because I doubt I'll have Vista within 1 or 2 years, cause I'm still perfectly happy with my current new PC and XP...

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 05 Jan 2007, 19:37

Yep:

Windows XP
Windows 2003 (Server OS)
Windows Vista

No 2000 and prior support, any Mac OS version and no Linux version either.

I doubt the killing off of XP support will happen until later this year at the earliest. Office 2007 is XP compatible.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 06 Jan 2007, 03:02

I saw the Expression studio being demo'ed mid-last year at the Microsoft Student Day conference, it looked mighty impressive.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 06 Jan 2007, 04:16

Cool.

Anything in particular?

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 06 Jan 2007, 04:23

They've created a new mark-up proprietary language (Not really, it sits atop C#), which greatly rips off HTML, but seem very easy to use and very powerful. They should've just expanded HTML FFS.

The Expression studio is designed for really for graphics designers than programmers.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 06 Jan 2007, 17:38

Are you sure I saw no mention of that in any reviews all stating it full support XML and CSS, so even if you are correct you don't need to use it.

In fact it even said instead of using HTML by default it uses CSS. Of course HTML itself is old.

EvaUnit02 wrote:The Expression studio is designed for really for graphics designers than programmers.

True one of the components is a Corel DRAW program but seeing as the Web part (the only one which interests me) is sold separately you can use it to program too.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 07 Jan 2007, 00:16

bradavon wrote:Are you sure I saw no mention of that in any reviews all stating it full support XML and CSS, so even if you are correct you don't need to use it.

It should do. I might be confused, as there were two different teams in MS demoing similar competing web authoring thingimybobs.