I just got Expression Web and Cheryl's Foundations (FMEW) book on Thursday, did a quick readthrough of Chapters 1 through 7, then sat down to do the exercises. After several hours of tinkering and troubleshooting--including uninstalling and reinstalling EW--I'm still not through the exercises in Chapter 3. Some problems may be atttributed to EW bugs while others are definately related to errors in FMEW.
Problem #1: Page 65
With Page properties on the body tag set to 'CSS inline style', after setting background color to white and text color to black , only the background-color code appears in the <body> tag. When I return to Page Properties, text color is still on Automatic. When I try again (and again...), to set text to black and click OK, color is sill not added to the code and the page does not indicate it has been changed (no * at the end of the file name). However, if I change text color to some color other than black, then text color code is added and the file indicates that it has changed.
Problem #2a: Page 66 [FMEW error]
On page 66 FMEW refers to "Hyperlink state colors" which doesn't exist on the Format tab.
Problem #2b: Page 66 [EW & FMEW errors]
Consequently, I applied actual colors (the same, though, as the automic colors) for the pseudo-class hperlinks, but after clicking OK, no code was set for the hyperlinks. Incidently, here too, when the link colors are set to colors other than those that are the automatic colors, the text code is added and the file indicates that it has changed.
It seems that problems #1 and #2b prevent one from overriding automatic colors when the applied colors are the same as the default colors.
Problem #3: Page 66 [FMEW error]
The Note at the bottom of page 66 referes to the 'Quick Link bar.' This is an error, I presume. Shouldn't it read, "Quick Tag bar?'
Problem #4: Page 66
In step 6 when the borders are applied, among other problems, the <div> tags for the Menu Section and Content disappear!
Problem #5: Page 67
Now, with Page properties on the body tag set to 'CSS rules', when I apply the border property, again, the the <div> tags for the Menu Section and Content have disappeared.
In sum, FMEW (so far, specifically, pages 65-68) does not represent, accurately, EW or what happens when instructions are followed using the ch3exercise1.txt file.
I hope someone can confirm and will discuss these problems, as problems like these shake one's confidence in EW and FMEW and, not to say the lease, in one's self.