Software Review: Microsoft Expression Studio 2 – Expression Blend 2 & Expression Design 2

This is the second of a series of three reviews that will cover what is contained in the Microsoft Expression Studio 2 Collection. Expression Studio is the latest version of Microsoft's development design set. In Studio 2 there are five programs that are geared to Web and application developers and designers. The products include Expression Web, Expression Blend, Expression Design, Expression Media, and Expression Encoder. The goal is define what each product does and provide information of what it can do for you. Here I will look at Microsoft Expression Blend 2 & Microsoft Expression Design 2.

What do you need to run Expression Studio 2? On Windows you need an 1GHz or faster processor, Windows XP SP2 or Vista; on Mac, PowerPC® or multicore Intel processor, Mac OS X v10.4.11 – 10.5.4 (Leopard), 1GB RAM, 1024x768 display (1280x800 recommended) with a 24-bit video card, 2GB hard drive space, and DVD-ROM Drive.

Expression Blend 2

Expression Blend is a user interface design tool that is used for creating graphical user interfaces for Web and desktop applications. You have the option to target Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) or Silverlight 1. Each has a slightly different interface to work with. The interface itself was created using WPF.

Expression Blend contains a WYSIWYG design surface that allows you to lay all of your artwork, controls, and containers directly on the surface and get real-time feedback as you work. Expression Blend contains a timeline that lets you animate individual properties of objects using onscreen motion for better control.

Along with the ability to visually style and customize your controls, you also have access to import geometry from leading 3D authoring tools, or create them yourself in Expression Blend. You can data-bind your interface elements from Web Services and .NET objects in such a way that your application is active before you write code (desktop only). You can work with your XAML code in full edit, or in split view to see the controls on the page, and all of this is integrated with Visual Studio.

So what is new with Expression Blend 2?

• Silverlight – enabled Web sites are now able to be worked on directly from within Expression Blend without the need for a Visual Studio project or solution file. You can now design for Microsoft's Web platform in the same tool that you use for building WPF applications in .NET. You can even create simple interactivity in Blend's built-in JavaScript editor without the need to switch programs

Article Author: T. Michael Testi

T. Michael Testi is software developer, a writer, and a photographer. He also blogs at PhotographyTodayNet and at All This and Everything Else.

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