Expression Web FAQs

Expression Web Frequently Asked Questions

Can I chose where to install Expression Web?

Yes, as long as you use the custom install option.

How do I upgrade from the trial without reinsalling?

Control Panel->Add Remove programs
Highlight EW and choose Change
There is an option there to convert or add the new product key.

After installing the trial I can't open my websites or create a new one.

This is a frequently repoted issue the cure is to activate Expression Web then close Expression When you reopen you should be able to work on or create websites. In some cases you may need to reboot.

Will installing Expression Web break FrontPage2003 or earlier? Dreamweaver?

No, Expression Web can co-exist with all known web editors including FrontPage and Dreamweaver. Note: if you have Dreamweaver installed the association for files with the “dwt” extension may be associated with the program you prefer since both programs use the same extension for the templates. Expression Web templates can be used in Dreamweaver with no changes required. Dreameweaver MX and later templates will not work in Expression Web.

Why did installing Expression Web add Office 2007 tools?

Expression Web Designer uses some of the same tools as Office 2007 such as the picture manager, clipart manager, documents and images (scanner & digital camera support) and a few other items. These will not affect any Office 2003 applications you have installed.

My Expression Web install fails

Some people have reported being unable to install Beta 1 pointing to despite having not install of Office 2007 Beta 2 on their system.

PhotoDraw no longer works properly since installing Expression Web

There is a known conflict between PhotoDraw and Expression Web. Depending on your configuration and which version of PhotoDraw you have installed you may not be able to install Expression Web at all. In other cases, you can install Expression Web but will no longer be able to save images created in PhotoDraw as jpg or gif files.

Outlook no longer filters my junk mail.

Make sure Outlook is closed then go to Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs and make sure the “Show updates” box at the top of the currently installed window is checked. Remove the last Outlook 2003 junk mail update and restart Outlook. Then reapply the last Outlook update. That should restore your junk mail filter to a working state.

Can I convert my trial version of Expression Web without reinstalling?

Yes, you can change the product key from the trial to the full version once you have your retail copy by using:

Control Panel | Add Remove software
Scroll down to Expression Web and click on Change
Uuse Convert then type in the new key

You receive an error message re: uninstalling Office 2007 Beta.

This occurs when you had one of the following betas:

Expression Web
Office 2007
Office 2007 XPP and/or PDF add-ins

You can usually fix this problem by running the Office Clean-Up Utility from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

FTP userid/password is not remembered

This is still not currently supported but I believe it should be, please file a bug or post in the public newsgroup to add this feature.

Crashing when uploading files via FTP

In most cases this is caused by having a mismatch between the mode your web server requires what what Expression is using to send. Expression Web uses Internet Explorer for its FTP client. IE sets this key to use passive connections as default so Expression Web will establish passive connections by default. Your server might be configured with a firewall that only accepts active connections so user needs to change this setting. See switching from passive to active FTP for instructions on how to change it.

If you are experiencing problems try running Steve Easton's cleaner and check the FTP transfer mode. By default the FTP type is the same as Internet Explorer's default setting to change (Expression Web reads the same registry key IE when specifying the connection type to use when accessing an FTP site (active or passive). When Expression Web attempts to upload using the wrong method the program may crash or the file transfer will not complete. In some cases it will appear to be transferring then time or or throw an error message.

Switching the FTP Mode

To change from the default passive FTP to active FTP (or the other way around):

1. Start Internet Explorer.
2. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options, click the Advanced tab, and then select or clear the Use Passive FTP (for firewall and DSL modem compatibility checkbox to desired setting.

Using Multiple Monitors

To view your Web page across two monitors in Split view

1. On your primary monitor, open a Web page in Split view
2. Make sure you do not have Expression Web maximized
3. Drag the edge of the program window until it extends to the second monitor.
4. The code half of Split view displays on the primary monitor, and the
design half of Split view displays on the secondary monitor.

Arranging Task Panes

Right click in the title bar of the Task pane you want to move and drag it to the new location. You can leave the Task Pane floating or drag it to a new location to dock.

Double clicking in the title bar of the Task Pane will cause the panel to float.

Is “auto hide” available for the Task Pane side panels like Visual Studio?

No, but this is a popular request and it may be added in later versions In the meantime there is a third party add-in Panemanager if you want your task panes to collapse.

Collapsing Task Panes

You can take advantage of the ability of Task Panes to “jump” between floating and docked to make emulate a collapsing side panel for your Task Panes.

Make your panels narrow but leave them wide enough you can tell where each Task Pane is located in the side panel. Double click on the title bar of the one you want to expand to the default width.

Close All

Can be added by customizing the menu see Tina Clarke's blog for instructions .

Preview Tab

There is no preview tab. To see what your page looks like in a browser it is best to use a real browser. F12 will launch your web page your default browser. Additional browser can and should be installed for checking in a variety of web browsers.
The page will need to be saved before it can be viewed but using control + z will undo any changes until after page is closed.

Design view does not display CSS centering correctly

Still doesn't.

My gif appears distorted in design view

This May CTP bug has been resolved.

What are the _vti folders?

The _vti folders hold the meta data that allows Expression Web to update references to files when their location changes. That way when you move a file from one folder to another the links will be updated with on all pages that link to that file whether it is an image, a swf file or an html file. Otherwise you would need to either use find and replace to update the links or manually change them. Note that you will never see the _vti folders when you are working in Expression Web. You will see them when you look at your website via the file system since these are hidden by Expression Web (and by your production server if you are using the FrontPage Server Extensions to publish.)

Are the _vti folders absolutely necessary?

While you can turn off the creation of the _vti folders it will slow down updating pages within your site and may cause Dynamic Web Templates not to update properly as well as breaking links when you move file locations within your web.

How do I stop Expression Web from creating _vti folders?

While it is not recommenced from Site | Site Settings you can uncheck “Manage the Web site using hidden metadata” option on the General tab. Be aware that doing so may cause DWT updates and link references not to function properly.

Are the _vti folders published to my web server?

Only if you are using the FrontPage Server Extensions to publish your website. The _vti folders are used to keep track of what changes were changed and to work “live” on the web server. Note that with some web servers you can work work live using FTP but that feature is one that is still buggy.

Why do I get funny characters on my page when I veiw online?

This is the BOM or Byte Order Mark for the default UTF-8 characterset. Some server side scripting languages such as PHP and some browser do not properly support the BOM see UTF-8 Characterset tutorial.

My website was originally created in FrontPage, what do I do about the FrontPage webbots?

Expression Web will not break any of your FrontPage webbots but depending on which bots you use you may or may not be able to add or update your webbots. Navigation bots for example can not have new pages added in Expression. For that you would need to keep a copy of FrontPage and edit your bots there.

For other bots such as Includes you double click and add or change the included file. You can restore the ability to add includes usingeither the code snipped on this site or one of the free add-ons currently available. Microsoft has indicated that there will be an official add-on to restore includes mostl likely in January 2007.

FAQs

Expression Web

Expression Web Frequently Asked Questions

Installing Expression Web

FTP

Interface

Design View

_vti folders

Misc