Genealogy Computer Tips & Tutorials » Expression Web Tutorials

Expression Web DWT Ebook – REVISED

Patricia Geary — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:25:18 +0000

Tina Clarke, a fellow MVP – FrontPage has just revised and made available for F REE download, her Expression Web DWT Ebook. The EBook includes instructions on how to make DWTs and prepare your site for their use. Some of the topics included are:

Organizing your web in preparation
Removing Formatting
Shared Borders

Read a more detailed description and download Expression Web DWT Ebook Ver. 2.0

This would also be a good time to download her Setting up Expression Web Ebooks available for both versions 1.0 and 2.0.

Clean Messy HTML using Expression Web

Patricia Geary — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:10:10 +0000

Are you tying to clean up your old FrontPage site and move to Expression Web? Maybe you have been using Search and Replace to try and make this job easier. Have you tried EW queries? One of the newest members of the Expression Web team, Pad Gallagher, has posted on the Xweb blog, about cleaning messy code with Expression Web Queries.

If you are interested in learning more about Cleaning Messy Code and getting your site standards compliant, Tina Clarke and I will be teaching this in Migrating from FrontPage to Expression Web Class and Ebook which begins on August 30th.

Designing a WordPress Blog Theme Using Expression Web

Patricia Geary — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 17:46:16 +0000

This particular site use WordPress and is a Blog. I am not very knowledgeable where php is concerned so modifying the code to set up a blog is not easy for me. But I keep at it and hopefully get it done so the blog will continue to work and the code will validate. While browsing the Expression Web forum this morning, I noticed an interesting post Designing a WordPress Blog Theme Using Expression Web. Since Expression Web is my HTML editor I went to read this with a great deal of interest.

I’ve been working with Expression Web for about 6 months now and I’ve found that above all other things, what sets this program apart from the competition is it’s handling of CSS. More specifically how easy it is to not only write CSS from scratch but also to modify existing code for fantastic results. Case in point: The new look of this blog. If you’ve visited before you’ll notice that I recently upgraded it from the dull look of a standard WordPress blog to something altogether different. And what will (hopefully) surprise you is that once the design was conceived (which took some time) the actual coding only took a couple of hours! All this thanks to Expression Web and how it handles CSS code.

People often ask me how to make their WordPress blog look great. In the past I’ve always told them that it’s a lengthy process and you really need to know a lot of code to get to where you want to be. That’s just not the case any more. I am willing to go as far as saying that with some basic training and a rudimentary understanding of html, anyone can make significant and functional changes to their blog using Expression Web without ever knowing what CSS is and how it works (this technique will work on any blog or other website that uses CSS btw.)Rather than just blabbering on and on about how great this program is for designing and re-designing blogs (and no, I’m not on the Microsoft payroll even though I’d like to be – hint hint people!) I’m going to show you just how easy it is to make changes to your blog by tweaking the CSS code with Expression Web.

Interested in learning more? Visit the above link to read the complete post along with step-by-step instructions and screenshots. Now to go and try it out. Happy Blogging!

Creating a “content” snippet

Patricia Geary — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 21:28:53 +0000

This tutorial comes under the heading of “Why didn’t I think of that?” I design FREE CSS layout templates for use by the genealogy community or anyone for that matter. When I post them, I usually use filler content so you can see what the page would look like with content instead of just blank. Once the template is finished, I head on over to http://www.lipsum.com/ enter the number of paragraphs I want or the list items, press the Generate Lorem Ipsum button, copy the text in the browser window, and then paste it into my page in Expression Web template that I am using as the example. Time consuming but it works.

Then I came across Creating a “content” snippet, a tutorial by Anna Ullrich which gives step by step directions for creating a code snippet for inserting the dummy text in Expression Web. What a time-saver. Can you think of other things to use it for? Thank you Anna!

Interactive buttons – a better way using CSS

Patricia Geary — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 02:03:39 +0000

The Interactive Buttons feature in Expression Web generates simple button images and JavaScript for you, and lets you select the font properties, size, color, and interactive behavior for your buttons. Instead of fooling with images and all that script, you can get the same results with HTML and CSS? Read Interactive buttons – a better way using CSS. This is a step-by-step tutorial with screenshots.

Web Album Generator

Patricia Geary — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 23:25:15 +0000

Web Album Generator F*ree Software

Someone on the FreePages Mailing List recommended Web Album Generator as free software to make web albums and photo galleries from your digital photographs. Curious, I decided to check it out as genealogists use lots of image files in working on their website. It is probably the first program I have tried that actually created code that validated on the first try. Kudos, to Mark McIntyre the programs creator.

According to the website, Web Album Generator or WAG for short, the features include:

Automatic thumbnail creation
Photograph resizing / resampling
Photograph rotation NEW!
Type titles and captions in any language NEW!
Customizable photo album presentation
Drag and drop image support
Add captions and titles for each photo
No knowledge of HTML required
XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS 2.0 compliant
Super-Amazingly easy to use

I have to agree it is a super easy program to use and the code is clean and validates. The program even generates an external style sheet. You can view a sample album created with WAG.

For the full tutorial and how to integrate your album into an existing site created with Expression Web visit the Web Album Generator section of Genealogy Web Creations.

Accessible Forms

Patricia Geary — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:17:33 +0000

Many websites use forms – contact forms, search box forms, and guestbook forms. The list goes on. Internet shoppers use forms to select, pay and arrange for the delivery of their purchases. Forms are not the easiest thing to navigate for people with disabilities. We can make it easier by adding some elements to our forms. Learn how to make your forms accessible and how to create those forms in Expression Web.

Written by Patricia Geary - Visit Website

New Quick Bits Tutorial Series

Patricia Geary — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 03:20:28 +0000

Cheryl Wise has written the first of a new series of tutorials for Expression Web users. The first in her New Quick Bits Tutorial Series is how to use stong or em on selected text. The tutorial is also available in Ipod format and as an MP3 podcast.

She has plans to include additional tutorials on using semantic mark-up in Expression Web

blockquote vs. class for indenting text
unordered lists for navigation
page structure using headings

If you have suggestions for tutorials topics approximately ten minutes in length, please visit the by-expression forum and the topic on Tutorials.

Cheryl a Microsoft MVP – FrontPage also teaches a class on Foundations of Microsoft Expression Web: The Basics and Beyond.