Microsoft Expression Web Vs. Dreamweaver
Adobe's Dreamweaver has been the most popular professional web design software tool for years. Microsoft Expression Web is a relatively new web design program that has replaced Microsoft's old FrontPage in a bid to compete with Dreamweaver on the professional circuit. Which program comes out on top?
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Ease of Use
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FrontPage, Expression Web's predecessor, was known for being good for amateurs but too limited for professionals. Expression Web has successfully managed to be both suitable for professional work and easier to use than Dreamweaver; the learning curve is not as steep, and it has a slightly better WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) design interface.
On the other hand, Expression Web comes with a very limited amount of pre-built templates, whereas Dreamweaver comes with quite a few. Dreamweaver also offers templates with built-in dynamic scripting, such as for blogs and forums, whereas Expression Web does not.
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Compatibility
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In this area, Dreamweaver wins. Dreamweaver runs identically on PCs and Macs whereas Expression Web can only run on a computer with Windows. And while Expression Web does have support for a number of server-side scripting languages, such as PHP, it works best with ASP.NET, Microsoft's own scripting language. Dreamweaver provides better PHP support. However, Expression Web does work nicely with similar web design programs. For example, Expression Web can edit a page made by Dreamweaver without much trouble, while the reverse is not true.
Web Standards
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As Expression Web is a much newer program than Dreamweaver, it supports up-to-date CSS and XHTML, while Dreamweaver supports a number of legacy languages: HTML 2.0, HTML 3.2, old versions of JavaScript and more. While this at first might seem to be a boon, the old versions of the languages are not in wide use anymore, are not recommended for use, and are thus mostly cluttering up Dreamweaver as a whole. Expression Web's CSS support is slightly more expansive and intuitive than Dreamweaver's, which gives it a leg up for design purposes.
Price
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Since it was first released, Expression Web has been significantly less expensive than Dreamweaver. Currently (as of late 2009), Expression Web retails for $149 and offers $79 upgrades, whereas Dreamweaver retails for $399 and offers $199 upgrades.
Conclusions
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Dreamweaver was first released in 1997 and over the years has become the standard for professional web design. It still is, with PC and Mac support and better support for scripting languages. However, Expression Web has proved to be a solid professional-level product as well. It is somewhat easier to use, offers great CSS support and is less expensive. For the most flexibility or for professional programmers who extensively use scripting languages, Dreamweaver is probably best. For exclusive ASP.NET programmers, folks on a stricter budget or more casual designers, Expression Web could be the better bet. Just remember that both programs are constantly being updated and improved.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit "Nitobi Dreamweaver Extensions - Grid" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: Andre Charland (Andre Charland) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
