LearnExpression Support Forum / LearnExpression Community / The Break Room

Site Update Request

kingy04 — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 10:51:54 GMT

Hi Dustin, i started using your site when it first launched and it really has helped me, i like to think im an advanced expression web user now and its all down to ur vids starting me off. but still theres plently to learn. congrats on your family and im glad to hear the twins are doing well.

i was wondering if you have an update on the site, and whats coming in the future?, and a timescale. im very much looking forward to the new content

many thanks

Antony

Tutorial disc

bluebird — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:49:33 GMT

I have tried to run the tutorial disc that came with the software, but each time I put it in I'm alerted that I need Silverlight 1.0. When I click anywhere on the screen, I'm taking to the download and it says it's already installed. If I go back to previous page, I get the same thing and unable to access the tutorial. I am running Firefox. I thought maybe I'd have to run it in Explorer, but it seems to be an automatic decision and I can't choose Explorer. I'm also running Vista. If anyone can help, I would appreciate.

How are the twins?

guitarmom — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:51:18 GMT

Hi Dustin --

I'm still grateful for all the help your site provided in helping me to learn Expression Web. I literally don't know how I could have built a site without your guidance and education.

I have twin nephews in just about every branch of my extended family, so I understand how crazy life probably is for you right now. But when you have a chance, could you let us know how things are going? How old are the twins now, are they doing well, have they started to roll over or crawl? Do you ever get to sleep?

I think I speak for all of the learnexpression.com community when I say that we wish you all the best.

Toni Collins, web hostess of www.SupermanBobHoliday.com (Thanks to YOU!)

hello all

barksworld — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:31:19 GMT

New to the prog and forum just thought I would say hello. Looks a really good place to be. Am trying to get my head around the program and am in awe of the "first attempts" of some people If only I can get somwhere near them. I keep reading about the videos that seem to be excellent but dont seem to be able to find basic steps first time for dummies like me any help appreciated
anyway best wishes to all out there
regards
barksworld:)

Have plans changed for site?

cparker — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:50:33 GMT

I'm new here. After going through your videos I'm very pleased. I've been using the divs and layers as the demos describe and things are starting to fit together. Of course, there is the art that is missing from my own particular bag of tricks, but I'm interested in learning how to do some lettering and graphics later. What I'm confused about is the status of the site and your plans for it. Quite a few months ago it appeared from posts on the forum that the site would morph into one that would be a paying site and would have much more content, probably with other tutorials encompassing other expression products. Mention was made that it would be a pay for use site, with a good or better deal for the early users. But it seems that since the summer things havent evolved much if at all. I'm puzzled and curious if momentum has kind of faded away or if there are surprises in store. I also was looking at the MS site about silverlight and saw all kinds of whiz bang demos and wonder if this has anything to do with a possible change in plans. But whatever the scenario, I've been very pleased with your site and tutorials as they are. I will go over them several more times and may have some more questions. Thank you!

Expression 2 Betas Released

Dustin — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 23:37:07 GMT

MIX started today and I see MS launched the betas for the entire Expression 2 family. I haven't got to play with them myself yet, but there looks to be a lot of great improvements so far. Check them out and let me know what you think.

[url=http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/download.aspx?key=studio2beta]Expression Studio 2 Beta[/url]

NEW... Just found your site

iperry — Tue, 20 May 2008 02:26:19 GMT

Learning to use Expression Web

I got Expression web about a year ago from Microsoft from being a system builder after getting the full demo package that they provide. :w00t: I just found out about this site today after a friend telling me that he had some possible we clients for me.:D

I have not done any web site for quite a long time mainly because the last software I used was front page, which as all of us know is a real funky software, but at the time it was fine. During that time I had received an NFR copy of Dreamweaver, which I found to be virtually impossible to learn on my own. :hehe: But I was pretty good at working on FrontPage. :) Then when I received a copy of Expression Web, I took one look at it and immediately thought of DreamWeaver.:cool: My first thought was ARGH.:w00t:.. I will never get this one.... so I put it on the shelf and never did anything with it.

Tonight when I found this web site, I carefully watched all the beginner videos... and thought WOW... I can do this.
It now seems like I can create much better sites than I could with MS Front Page....

Thank you for getting the tutorials up and going..

Ivan Perry
GPS Mobile Solutions

Just wanted to say Hello

karier13 — Thu, 22 May 2008 20:35:40 GMT

Hi!

I just wanted to say hi to everyone. :D I have just recently started learning EW 2. I have used FP for many years and have had a website for 10 years. I have gone thru all of the tutorial videos and they are great. I did have trouble with a couple of them as the sound was either bad or way ahead of the video. But I do look forward to seeing others. They are a big help in getting started. Thanks a lot!! :satisfied:

Karie
http://www.karieswebworld.com

Hello

elementalgrace — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:40:40 GMT

Hello

Just stopping by and introducing myself.

I've just started having a look through Expression Blend and I've been really impressed with what I've seen of it so far. I'll be largely working from a design perspective (not big on the C# or VB coding) and doing interface design, whilst my developer colleague will be working on the functionality elements.

I come from a web design background and have been designing using HTML and CSS for a couple of years now - and I can see quite a lot of similarities with that so far.

If there's anyone out there doing similar, it'd be great to compare experiences.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Image Slideshow in your Website

RayAdams23 — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 15:54:50 GMT

Do you know if the Expression Suite of products would allow to create a slideshow of images that can be put into a website?

Thanks,

Ray

Redesign an old Access DB with Expression Web front-end???

Bricorn — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 12:34:02 GMT

Just want to start out by saying that I stumbled across this site, and Dustin, our fearless leader, has really done a phenomenal job in laying out the basics in a neat & clean manner. I'm very impressed, so thank you!

I want to solicit some input from the casual readers here, to even see if I am on the right track... I have designed, from the ground-up, an Access Database (split into a front & back end) that my wife and I use for a home business. The back-end is one single MDB file that's about 100 Megs in size. It contains over twenty different tables that are all related to each other using Primary Keys and cascading fields, etc.

The release of Vista has cause me (don't ask why) to upgrade to Access 2007, and it has absolutely STYMIED performance on a network scale to where I am near to pulling my hair out. A few friends (and one "sage" in particular) recommended I rewrite the DB to SQL Server on the back-end, and use Visual Studio to create an HTML front-end to access the data on the two client computers. Claims are that this would increase performance spectatularly. I tend to agree that this type of a situation would at least bring me into the 21st century, as well, and provide a bit more flexibility and ease of access if I were traveling, etc.

The real question I have is which scenario to go with here:

1. Keep and continue to develop in MS Access only (ugh).

2. As had been suggested, convert the DB to a SQL back-end and develop a new front-end using Visual Studio, or

3. Keep the existing MDB back-end on the server, and create a new front-end in Expression Web to manipulate table data.

As you might imagine, I'm leaning toward Door Number Three, but getting some sage advice would be invaluable. Thank you in advance!

Forms and Frontpage extensions

nadja — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 04:34:05 GMT

Hi,

I'd like to place a form (for E-Mail contact) into my website. Unfortunately my Web host doesn't support Frontpage extensions anymore (He did earlier with the Frontpage-Software).

I heard that somehow there must be a possibility to make this form work without these extensions. Does anybody know how?

Thanks a lot!

Nadja

Hover over an object

mbi — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 23:24:48 GMT

I recently upgraded from FrontPage 2003 to Expression Web. I would like to know how to hover over text or graphic and have a text box appear with more info. Once the mouse moves off the text or graphic the text/info box disappears.

Thank you.

One Year Complete / Status Update for 2008

Dustin — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:31:56 GMT

First, I hope everyone had a good holiday season and got to spend an enjoyable time with friends and family. I also hope 2007 was a good year for you all. At the very least, you tackled Expression Web!

Alright, so its probably about time for another status update about the site and what's been going on for the past several months. I should note that this is no doubt not the first status update on the site that will be talking about largely the same thing and I'm well aware of that. I'm very excited that so many of you have written me lately and have been able to stay excited about the future of the site and new content. That's very encouraging and I thank you for that.

Anyway, let's knock this out;

Things actually changed drastically for me almost immediately after the last status update, which put the exact future of this site into question. Long story short, I am no longer employed full-time with LearnVisualStudio.NET. For those of you who are unaware, this site was an endeavor started because of the natural extension of the LVS site, while I was under employment there. Working for Bob was a great experience and he will no doubt be one of the greatest people I'll ever work with/for, and I'm glad to continue to have a solid relationship with Bob and the LVS crew, which enables me to continue to help make this site grow and expand.

About a month after that move, we found out my wife is pregnant, which is our first, so that is certainly exciting. We were surprised though to find out we would be having twins. Yes indeed. She is currently just over 4 months along now and getting quite the makings of a belly.

So what have I done for the past 4+ months then? Well I've been making a go at being entirely self employed to enable me to accomplish several of the goals I have for myself personally. Needless to say its been an interesting few months trying to get everything balanced out right, and deciding what exactly I needed to do for my soon to double family. There have obviously been countless other hurdles in the past 4 months, but those two are the ones that really had a huge impact on this site's status.

This site is now just barely over a year old, having launched December 22, 2006. While I didn't get all of the goals for the year accomplished in the way we had hoped, the site has still been a great success so far I believe. The traffic has been very good and steady and I have gotten so many great emails from people about the site throughout the year. Also, I just found out the other day that I received a Microsoft MVP award for my work with this site and the Expression community, which is really a great honor that I wasn't expecting, and I'd like to thank Microsoft and rest of the community for noticing the site and for the great feedback.

So where does that leave us now in 2008? Actually in a pretty good spot. I really want to get this site to the promised next stage that has been impending for some time and I've been doing a decent amount of week before the holiday to prepare for that. My next several weeks will be almost entirely dedicated to getting the new site launched and recording more content. I need to get with Bob to try to nail down an exact date that we can implement the next phase that the site will need behind the scenes, and what will most likely happen is that I will put up some more Expression Web content for free by the end of the month, to be followed by the waiting Blend content and the series on Web Design, which will be paid content of some sort. When I have a set deadline for the site launch I will let you all know.

I do plan on using the blog more for these types of updates this year as well. The blog was really barely touched last year and I've had more of a direct response and connection to the users through the forum. I'll try to use both actively this year and see what works better. I also want to explore more ways to keep more free content coming to the site as well as paid content, some of which may take the forum of written tutorials on the blog. I plan on trying that a bit as well and seeing how that works. It obviously won't be the focus, as the focus is still video tutorials and learning by doing.

So that's the "short" of it really. It has been an exciting and challenging year for sure. Thank you all for supporting this site so far, I know it hasn't all gone off without a hitch, but I think everything is finally working itself into place now. It has really been a honor to have been trusted to help you learn and transition to Expression Web. Here's to a great 2008 for all of us and our continued growth.

All the best.

Dustin

Will I be able to manage a site designed from .php on XWeb

Ryan — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 20:11:41 GMT

I am currently having a site designed, he is designing it with PHP. When he is finished I was hoping to load it onto Expression Web, will this have any effect because it isn't .html?

Thanks for your support and look forward to what you have to say.

Sansa E260

MichaelJB — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:43:40 GMT

Will the downloadable Zune file also work in Sansa E260?

Thanks

Hello

Ryan — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 00:50:32 GMT

Hey Everyone,

I am new to web design, I am currently enrolled in many classes from .php, XHTML to photoshop. I would like to one day be able to design fully dynamic web pages using Expression Web. I can make simple pages right now, but I guess we all got to start somewhere.

I am a Realtor in Newport Beach, CA and feel the whole real estate market is on the web now. As a young Realtor I think now is the time to learn and become comfortable with the web so when it becomes time to getting ranked on search engines I will have a competitive edge above everyone else.

Can't wait to read your questions and solutions.

Lost my breadcrumb view

FarmerJohn — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 08:20:07 GMT

How do I reveal my breadcrumbs? I just noticed that they are gone and I reset the view and clicked all of the view options and still no breadcrumb display. What are they called in the help search menu?

Crash course that didn't feel like 'crashing'

bluehandsfibers — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 23:17:30 GMT

I picked up expressions design a little while ago and was using it to design some graphics to incoorporate into my website that I was building on Yahoo sitebuilder. Getting frustrated, I decided to try out Web and see if I could go from knowing nothing (and I mean nothing!!!) to building a website from the ground up. Of course, had to dive right in, didn't know what the hell I was doing, and I found these videos...now I think I know. With that, Thanks Dustin for saving my sanity! :D

Dee @ Blue Hands Fibers

I am interested in hiring someone who knows Expression Web

gringolalo — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 10:26:19 GMT

I want to become proficient at MS Web and I realize I learn best by doing. I now have a web site written by someone else using VB, IIS, JAVA .asp and whatever other tool was needed and used five years ago. Our data is in a Sequel database and our business is virtual with all of our records online. I have used Enterprise Manager to access my data in SQL and would like to convert over th new technology.

It would be best if I could find someone relatively close to where I live ner Seattle but the programmer I have worked with for the past five hears is in Philadelphia so I know that is not required. I am working at learning to do most of my own day to day programming so I need to find someone who does not mind tutoring/teaching/guiding while also doing the hard core programming.

Please email me at lc@ioninc.com so we can communicate.

To whoever emailed me, Part 2

Dustin — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 19:39:17 GMT

Whoever emailed me the following message through the forum;

[quote]Was this question ever answered. It is a very interesting one, & I was looking forward to hearing the resolution of these questions/problems. Were you able to help him?[/quote]

I'm not sure which question you're talking about. If you let me know, I'll do what I can.

Also, for future reference for anyone, emailing me through the forum seems to be anonymous, and I don't have a way to reply to you at all. It would be better to email me directly or send a private message on the forum.

Thanks.

To Whoever Emailed Me Last Night

Dustin — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 07:55:10 GMT

Hi, I'm not really sure who emailed me through the forum last night, but I just wanted to say thank you for your very kind email and I hope the site can continue to be a useful resource for you. All the best.

Dustin

Hello and thank you

gringolalo — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 11:36:22 GMT

I am needing to grow and re-invent myself and it appears Expression Web and the rest of Expression Suite will be my ticket to doing so. I have books and tutorials on disk already but ths forum looks like the mother lode.

Excuse me in advance for the seemingly dumb questions sure to follow. I am going to learn Expression Web just like I learned to fly bush planes in Alaska, one day at a time.

"To know what to do when the enemies sword descends is to die. To act, is to live"

Your Site is The Greatest

guitarmom — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:16:44 GMT

Dustin --

I have to say it again: Your site is the best one on the web. Your two tutorials on menu design and rollover buttons were exactly what I needed. I'd spent time dancing around the web looking for ideas, and what I needed was right here all the time.

Thanks for these incredible tutorials. You really know how to bring us newbies up to speed.

Guitarmom

new here..

LouRocK — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:49:22 GMT

What's up everyone,

I stumbled across this site just running a search through yahoo and I have to say that it is awesome. So far this is the most informative and educational Expression site I have been to.

Anywho, I used to do a lot of programming with Visual Basic and very basic websites using html. I have not done anything in programming in about 10 years so this is perfect for me as I am just trying to build a site for a friends new business. Seeya around ;)

Hello

Marshank — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:26:32 GMT

Hello, I'm Marshank. I found this forum via google when I ran into a problem in Design. I posted my question in the forums and decided to stop by and be hospitable and all... ^.^

How is this done.....

Hankster — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:46:29 GMT

I am new to web dev, Expression Web, and everything. I love it though. I have watched every video I can get my hands on...Thanks Dustin for the best ones. My question is this...go to this website and tell me how they get the nav words to be a rollover and pop up the additional(true nav) words. The website is trinaturk.com. Also, I noticed some of you talking about being able to read the source code on other people's websites...how do you do that? Thanks everyone, you guys are awesome!!

Henry

thanks and a question on browsers

pete — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 15:53:45 GMT

hi, firstly thanks for putting together the videos and this site, nice one!

secondly, i m totally 100% new to web design and am just building a new site for my own start up business. my question is though how do you load/install different browsers on your system; for example internet explorer 6 if you re already using a newer version of it? maybe i m just being thick ?

i use windows vista. i undestand how to load them onto expression web; but if you download a browser surely you have to install it and then that cancels out you re preffered original browser, no?

New to Web Development

Darkryft — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:06:42 GMT

I just wanted to say hello and a many thanks to Dustin for putting this site together. Recently I changed jobs and have found myself knee-deep in a project that requires, above all, database administration and web design/development. Being that the last time I touched that stuff was FrontPage 2000, I was way out of touch and didn't know hardly a thing about coding.

After watching several of the videos provided here I went from not knowing anything to understanding a great deal about how Expression builds a page, and I even was able to successfully create a static ASP page to demonstrate progress to my boss. He was more than thrilled that I had learned that much in a day. We are also doing a project in Sharepoint Designer, and I couldn't be happier to see that what I've learned in Expression will transfer almost seamlessly into that program.

For the first time ever in my short professional career, I am wanting to get into working with web technologies, rather than running from them.

FLASH ELEMENT

SummitMDD — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 11:26:52 GMT

Has anyone ever tried to add a flash element to a site designed with Web Expressions?

MLB switches to Silverlight for video

Dustin — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 10:31:33 GMT

I just noticed this last night, take a look;

[img]http://www.learnexpression.com/nonsiteImages/silverlight-mlb.jpg[/img]

So Major League Baseball has is switching to Silverlight for video on its site's, instead of Flash. Overall this shouldn't have been such a shock because MLB showed a very nice video app they were producing at MIX this year, but all the same, that's a big pickup for MS and Silverlight.

And now you know I'm a Brewers fan too. ;)

Going on vacation and another update

Dustin — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 11:22:09 GMT

Hello everyone. Well we're in August now, so its about time for another update I'm sure.

First thing is I'm taking off today for a week's vacation, so I will not be around until August 13th. I appreciate all the people that pitch in in answering questions and such around here, so anyone who wants to keep that up while I'm gone will be doubly appreciated. ;)

As for the site, I'm behind schedule because of unforeseen projects, but there is still a lot of positive news to report. I have finished recording a Blend 101 series, which will be the first in series of probably 4, for teaching you Blend. This first series is really all about the basics, and understanding the program, rather than building a project, but it still clocks in at over 7 hours of total videos. So when I relaunch the site, between the Blend 101 series and the design series, that will be over 10 hours of new content alone.

Also, I've redesigned the site as well, and I'm going to make another video series with it I believe, showing how to use Expression Web in a way that you don't rely on it to do everything for you, but use it as a very helpful tool, which is where most people will probably want to end up with the program. So that should be a good series too. Also, if you're interested, [url=http://www.learnexpression.com/home3.jpg]click here to see a preview of the new site.[/url] This isn't the actual 100% final, but its very close and gives you a good idea of what the new site will look like.

So anyway, its been a lot of work to get this new phase of the site ready, and once its finished I'll be able to release content much faster, because I won't be working to get these huge groups of content done to launch all at once. We're on the threshold of a big step, so I hope you can stick around just a bit longer.

Thanks for your support everyone and I'll talk to you soon.

Dustin

Recommendations for a newbe to design

lankfordb — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 22:35:10 GMT

This is a question for you graphic artists/designers out there. I've concentrated much of my career (~ 8 years) around software developement in the Microsoft space (Visual Studio, Visual Studio.NET, Visual Studio 2005)... I would like to get more into the graphic design space and have become very interested in the Microsoft Expressions products coming out. I would be a newbe to design and so I'm looking for advice, recommended readings, tutorial videos etc... on getting started. Right now as far a toolsets go I have Macromedia Fireworks 4 and the beta version of Expressions Design. I'm fairly familar with Fireworks and can get around it pretty well however there are many foundational graphic design concepts that I don't understand and find my self lost in the Expression Design tool so far. What advice would you give someone like me to get started? Also when will more the Expression Design tutorials be available?

Thanks!

Great New Oppurtunity!

csturner — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 23:25:52 GMT

I just got a great IT job. These things are very rare and piratically non-existent in my area. But Friday, I completed an interview with a visionary man. I dont want to say to much, but I will say this. This company, that has accepted me, was started by a man who left the IT field to change it. His last job, was working for a company to find offshore programming companies. He hated his job, but knew, there was no changing the situation from there. Off shore programmers' charge $30 an hour compared to American programmers' $120 an hour.

His method may be controversial, but for me, and those in this area, its an awesome opportunity. I will be going thru a 12 week programming boot camp, at the end of which, I will have my MCAD. I will then be working as a developer with this rapidly growing company, which charges half as much as other americacompaniesys. But they are still winning contracts, because Americacompaniesys still prefer to keep the work here.

To me, this is a great chance at something much more productive for myself and family. And maybe, some jobs will stay here in America, instead of going over seas.

Tell me what you think, I want to know.

Howdy from texas! Newbie on this forum. Need some help with publishing website EW

TelevisionWorks — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 04:40:01 GMT

I am new to ExpressionWeb. I did work over 15 websites with Publisher so I have an idea of how the process of a website works.

My first attempt to publish in EW was with mixed results. I was able to publish some text and color background but 3 pictures did not show. I recieve some advice: that my pixes DO NOT HAVE REFERENCE... I am a bit loss with the interface and the new lingo of EW. Love the tutorials on this site and decided that it will be a great place to receive and give help.

My specialty is TV production but I am branching out to the internet. If anyone need help with video matters I may be able to help.

Thanks in advance!

Daniel

Howdy and thanks

ripvanJohn — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 05:30:40 GMT

Being off the frontlines of the IT battleground since NT4 was the HOT new stuff, and looking to reenter is proving somewhat frustrating.

With my shiny new server 2003, Flash server, Expressions Web, Flash, and just about anything else that would allow a trial install, I seem to be making decent progress.

Mainly just looking to create a development environment, where I could sharpen my chops on the administration end, The Video tutorials saved me potentially a great deal of money, as my workstation was about to get flying lessons trying to bludgeon flash content into a page.

Thanks sooo much, looking forward to more.

Expanding divs

csturner — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 23:37:47 GMT

I was wondering about designing a multi page web site, built with in one page. This would simplify some aspects, and create a web page with a unique appearance. I think I have seen this done before, but I am not sure how it was done.

My idea is to set a page up with with the usual outer divs, but to use collapsiblele series of divs which over lap to present to content of the page. Can a div collapsed?

Tell me what you think. Do random crazy ideas (some original, some not) get on everyone's nerves? Or should I keep posting them here? I just want to be fair. I dont want to bug people either.

css core questions "onmouseover"

csturner — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 22:10:29 GMT

Looking at the code for onmouseover ect., I was wondering what all could be attached to it.

Some ideas, I have been playing with are:

envoking animations else where on the page to run during a onmouseover event
envoking css style changes across the page

I have seen other things done, such as the css navigation buttons. But can the rendering of a complete page be
changed? What if a div, had a background change that made it look as if it was raised off the page during a mouseover
event? I have been playing ideas over in my head, with out a lot of experience to do it.

Any IT techs?

csturner — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 21:00:39 GMT

I have excepted a contract job, that I thought was a bit simpler then it is. My main problem is the slang used in the work manifest. If anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated. Here are some phrases I need clarification on.

Tech will Swing the LAN when on site. <<< Running the cat5, right?

Tech will test router and DBU to ensure working properly.

...to extend dmarc into Managers Office.

Is IHW adequate for the requested installation?

If a NID splitter is included in the kit,

...applications and the DBU as listed on the original SOW.

...and just move the IW over to the new Cybera router.

I hope including the phrasing helps with the context, and makes things understandable. I know this is off subject for this forum, but I am still looking for a forum on this subject.

Happy 4th

csturner — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 06:36:41 GMT

I hope everyone who was celebrating a holiday this week, had a good one. I spent my time letting the kids shoot off fireworks, and they had a great time.