Microsoft Expression Studio 3

Expression Web is aimed at traditional page-based web authoring, but Microsoft's main interest in the web arena lies in the production of Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). In other words it isn't Dreamweaver that Microsoft has in its sights with the release of Expression Studio 3 but Flash.

So, while the Expression Studio 3 includes the latest versions of Expression Web, Design and Encoder, its core is Expression Blend, which is used to design full-blown WPF-based applications for the Windows desktop, and lightweight Silverlight-based applications for the web.

Solid, creative power is essential to this mission and Blend's existing drawing tools have been enhanced with better gradient and selection handling, as well as automatic artboard scrolling. In addition, Expression Blend 3 introduces a new system for handling bitmap effects. Only two options - drop shadows and blurs - are provided by default, but the system is extensible and others are available for download.

If Blend doesn't provide the creative power that you require, you can always cut and paste XAML graphics from Expression Design. Alternatively, you can now import work from PowerPoint, Illustrator and Photoshop (with varying degrees of support and success). And you can cut and paste bitmap images directly from the Clipboard, which does make life very easy.

The look of your application is important, but ultimate success depends on what it can actually do. With Blend, the various components that make up your user interface are handled as controls, and in this new version they're accessed through the supremely efficient new Assets panel.

If you're creating a Silverlight 3 web application, you now have around 80 controls to choose from; for full-blown WPF desktop application development there are around 120, including powerful options for handling adaptive layouts and 3D.

In a finished application, some of these controls are likely to be connected to live, XML-based data feeds, binding which can be complex to set up, and which may not be available during the design stage. To sidestep both of these problems, Expression Blend 3 lets you quickly generate and deploy sample data.
And to manage the appearance of text, the new Font Manager makes it simple to choose typefaces and character subsets to embed in the application.

Consistent and reliable handling of UI controls is crucial, but life would be dull if every Expression application looked and behaved in exactly the same way.

To give your application its own unique stamp, you can quickly change the formatting of controls in the Properties panel, or create completely custom designs. For Silverlight projects there's a new Parts panel where you can allocate graphical elements to act as components of your control.

You can also customise applications and controls by creating different visual states for them in the new States panel. Once you've added a state and selected it, any changes you make to the current window are automatically recorded.

You can also preview transitions between states live on the artboard and set up fluid layout changes, such as those between a three-column and two-column grid layout. Finer control can be applied to how elements are animated via the Objects and Timeline panel.

And, if you're producing a Silverlight project, you can now animate significantly more properties and apply predefined easing functions to create smoother, more natural animations.

Better interactivity
Controlling how users interact with all of the various elements is another area that has changed for the better. In previous versions, the only way you could do this was to write the necessary code largely from scratch. Expression Blend 3 is much more helpful, providing a range of preset behaviours in the Assets panel. Built-in core options include actions to manage properties, states and storyboards, and to load URLs, all of which can be customised in the Properties panel. The system is extensible, with additional behaviours downloadable from Microsoft's Expression Gallery site.

To move beyond presentation, though, someone is going to have to bite the bullet and write some code, and this at last has become a realistic option for the standalone user. Expression Blend 3 finally provides a code editor, where you can add your own Visual C# or Visual Basic.NET code, and it comes complete with syntax completion, automatic formatting, brace matching and event handler creation.
If you have Visual Studio 2008, your code-behind file can be set to open into this more powerful IDE. Better still, if you're part of a workgroup, you can concentrate on the XAML-based application design and leave the logic to a full-time programmer. Here, Expression Blend 3's support for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server means that it can work efficiently together with check-in, check-out and versioning tools.

We're still not completely happy with Expression's output options, as you still can't produce a standalone WPF-based EXE directly from Blend - for this you need the deployment tools found in Visual Studio 2008. You can, however, produce a Silverlight 3 XAP file directly and either add it to a web page using Expression Web 3, or now directly output a hosting HTML page. Expression Blend 3 also makes setting up Silverlight applications that run outside the browser in their own window a straightforward affair.

SketchFlow
With fundamental improvements across the board, Expression Blend 3 is an impressive, if somewhat predictable, release. But with its completely original SketchFlow technology, Microsoft has sprung a major surprise, and it's an important surprise too.

SketchFlow completely reinvents that crucial first stage of application design when you're exploring and roughing out ideas. To help in this prototyping process, the tool lets you quickly map out applications by adding screens and connecting them together.

In this way, you can get an idea of how the end user will move through your application. You can then quickly build up screens using a range of fully functioning controls that share a deliberately sketch-like style: both creative and attractive, but deliberately unfinished.

This is a great way to try out ideas yourself, but it's just as important to try them out on others - especially the client. SketchFlow's animation capability lets you prepare a prototype for presentation without having to add any code, complete with simple storyboard animations that walk through typical scenarios.

And Expression Blend 3 automatically outputs its sketches in a browser-hosted SmartFlow Player application. This comes complete with a navigation panel giving direct access to all screens and animations, and a Feedback panel through which comments can be left and annotations added onscreen.

Conclusion
The SketchFlow Player is itself a brilliant demonstration of what Expression Studio and Silverlight can achieve. It's also a brilliant demonstration of Microsoft's focus on workflow and the way in which Expression Studio can boost both productivity and quality.

There's just one fly in the ointment. Ultimately, it isn't the designer, developer or client who determines the success of a project, it's the end user. Expression Studio 3 might blow Flash Professional and Flash Builder out of the water as the best environment for designing RIAs, but that doesn't mean it's the best choice.

Adobe keeps its hands on the RIA crown thanks to the slight technological superiority of its Flash player and the overwhelming superiority of its take-up, with near-universal cross-platform desktop penetration. Microsoft's Silverlight, in comparison, can boast an install base of fewer than one in three.

Thanks to new power all round and a significant price cut of around a third, Expression Studio 3 provides a modern, creative and efficient RIA authoring platform, and certainly the most attractive yet. Now all Microsoft has to do is win over the consumer.

Price when reviewed: £389 (£447 inc VAT)