Microsoft has completed the set of features that will be included into Expression Blend 3. With this “detail” out of the way, the Redmond company is now focusing on the introduction of the next development milestone for its design solution tailored to the Windows Presentation Foundation and to Silverlight. Essentially, Expression Blend 3 will move from Preview, the stage where it is now, to the Beta phase. Microsoft has so far failed to indicate a specific delivery deadline for the availability of Expression 3 Beta, but just the fact that the solution is now feature complete means the software giant is on the right track.

“The last few weeks (or months) have been really hectic! We finally finished all the features that we wanted to add to Blend 3, and are now actively fixing all the feedback (read bugs and crashes :)) that you have been reporting to us, as well as making performance tweaks to the product to make things work really well end-to-end. Please keep the feedback coming - we really appreciate it,” revealed Unni Ravindranathan, program manager for Expression Blend.

For the time being developers looking to test drive the next iteration of Microsoft's development tools for WPF and Silverlight under the Expression brand umbrella can turn to the Preview Build of Blend 3. The bits were initially delivered on the opening day of MIX09, March 18. At its annual web-centric conference in Las Vegas Microsoft released Expression Blend 3 Preview concomitantly with the availability kickoff for Silverlight 3 Beta 3.

Ravindranathan managed to enumerate some of the new features that Blend 3 Beta will bring to the table: “a completely re-designed Asset Library: This is by far the biggest addition to Blend. The sample data system now allows you to specify custom objects. Project pane search - you can easily find the files in your project, similar to what you would do for properties. Find in Files - this allows you to search for information across files.”

At the same time, developers using Blend 3 Beta will be able to paste images into their projects directly from the clipboard. The Beta bits introduce marquee selection of keyframes, streamlining the selection of multiple keyframes. Blend 3 Behaviors have been expanded with additional functionality. Transitions will be available for preview right on the design surface with state switching actions.

“FluidLayout is a new feature that we are adding that allows you to design animated, dynamic layout experiences. Support for out-of-browser Silverlight applications. A much improved, highly performant, XAML editing experience that is robust to the typing experience (i.e. a design surface does not throw exceptions or blanks out as you type in the XAML, and one that allows you to work with an element even when an exception is thrown so you could correct your errors in the UI),” Ravindranathan added.

Expression Blend 3 Preview is available for download here.

Silverlight 3 Beta 3 is available for download here.