14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft yesterday announced the first preview version for Microsoft Expression Web Designer, previously known as Quartz.
The Expression family of products was announced at the Professional Developers Conference 2005 in Los Angeles last September and it's the result of the acquisition of the Expression 3 graphic design and illustration package in 2003 from developer Creature House.
Microsoft sees in the Expression suite the perfect competitor for the Adobe products: Photoshop, Illustrator, GoLive and Macromedia Flash, but considering the consolidated position of the company whose CEO is Bruce Chizen, the analysts are doubtful that the Redmond company will succeed.
eWeek quoted Wayne Smith, Microsoft's product manager for Expression Web Designer, as saying that the purpose of this CTP (Community Technology Preview) is to prove the compliance with web standards, such as XHTML, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and XML.
Additionally, Smith told eWeek that the Expression Web Designer is Microsoft's first visual design tool to support ASP .Net.
Unfortunately, the address where this application is available is not working at the moment.